Documentation (& User Support) Issues Stephen Burke RAL DB, Imperial, 12 th July 2007

12th July 2007Documentation Issues - Deployment Board2/10 Overview GridPP web site gLite User Guide EGEE/LCG documentation UIG GGUS Conclusions

12th July 2007Documentation Issues - Deployment Board3/10 GridPP web site User area at –Linked from GGUS doc page inter alia Has been updated from time to time –Regular maintenance is vital Will need a big update for gLite WMS/CE FAQs added as they occur –FAQs only for selected problems Very little feedback so far –Everyone happy? –No-one looking? (Do the users know it’s there?) Deployment web areas not always kept up to date?

12th July 2007Documentation Issues - Deployment Board4/10 gLite User Guide New gLite User Guide for gLite 3.0 release –SB as co-author (R-GMA + GLUE + general comments) –Long document, but still only a summary! – UserGuide.pdfhttps://edms.cern.ch/file/722398//gLite-3- UserGuide.pdf Name change (was LCG User Guide) –But still LCG-branded, no EGEE effort Last big update in January Will need another one when we switch to gLite WMS/CE –Authors all busy supporting experiments

12th July 2007Documentation Issues - Deployment Board5/10 EGEE documentation issues SA1/SA3 don’t provide user docs –Hence UG is LCG-branded JRA1 still don’t (won’t?) produce an architecture doc –Some info at –Maarten Litmaath’s WMS diagram: JRA1/gLite component docs are generally good, but don’t cover LCG components (BDII, data management, …) and don’t always relate to the deployed system NA4 (VO support) doesn’t write docs, and doesn’t really push others to do it

12th July 2007Documentation Issues - Deployment Board6/10 Sysadmin documentation Generally fairly good –Useful directory page: directory.html directory.html Active discussion about release notes etc No more manual installation/configuration docs –Everything done by YAIM – probably we don’t care? Some demand for a site “care and maintenance” guide –I started doing this (barely) but it’s now in the remit of Alessandra’s system management group

12th July 2007Documentation Issues - Deployment Board7/10 UIG EGEE User Information Group Should co-ordinate user documentation for EGEE –Started in EGEE I but ~no effort –Funded in EGEE II (fractions of ~ half a dozen people) Co-ordinated by NESC (NA3) –NESC should have provided effort for repository plus web page –NA3 focus is on training, UIG got little attention –Several meetings, some docs written but not much to show for > 1 year of effort: uig/production_pages/UIGindex.htmhttp://egee-uig.web.cern.ch/egee- uig/production_pages/UIGindex.htm Co-ordination + (subversion) repository now moved to LAL (Cal Loomis) Maybe better things ahead? But little time left in EGEE II, and still not much activity (holidays etc)

12th July 2007Documentation Issues - Deployment Board8/10 GGUS Main contact point for user support –Do all users know? Has improved a lot over the years, well-managed work plan CERN provides overall management (Maria Dimou now pushing hard!) What can the UK promise here (TPM + ROC SU)? –And what do we want? Manage user expectations? –Hard to get better than ~ few days response without dedicated staff?

12th July 2007Documentation Issues - Deployment Board9/10 VO documentation Some VOs now have reasonable documentation (atlas, CMS, minos, …) Grid is used via VO frameworks, not easy to integrate with generic grid docs –Could offer help with VO docs? What about smaller VOs? –Do we assume Ganga is the preferred interface? –What about portal? –How do we deal with transitions, e.g. use of VOMS, gLite WMS/CE, SRM 2, … ? –How honest are we about stability, reliability etc? Reputation may be worse than the truth!

12th July 2007Documentation Issues - Deployment Board10/10 Conclusions Recent summary documents: – Documentation.dochttp:// Documentation.doc – Documentation.dochttp:// Documentation.doc On GGUS see: – User Guide is still the best (~only?) documentation for users Have to work with UIG and hope for improvement –EGEE III funding? Maintenance is vital –High pace of change –A small volume of good documentation is better than a lot of poor, out of date documents! What do the users say?! –Is the UB the right forum? If not then where?