NIKOLA Computing User Documentation
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Submitting a Request or Problem Report

If you encounter a technology-related problem, error, or have a special request during the course of your work you may submit a help desk ticket in order to notify the IT staff. In order to do this, you must send an email to:

Lab Email
Tial tial-bugs@nikola-rt.ee.washington.edu
Melodi melodi-bugs@nikola-rt.ee.washington.edu
MTML mtml-bugs@nikola-rt.ee.washington.edu

Never report/request anything by directly sending an email to a member of the IT staff. If the staff member in question is not availible at the time or out of office, your request will not be seen until they return. If the request is submitted to RT then it can be seen by all of the staff.

A certain amount of information will generally be helpful for the staff and will decrease the time it takes for the staff to resolve your ticket. Such information may include (if applicable):

For errors:

  • A detailed description of the issue at hand.
  • The name of the machine where the problem occured.
  • Any processes you may have been running at the time of the error.
  • If an error report is generated, then the name of the error and error code.

For requests

  • Any exact specifications of your request. For example..
    • directory path
    • file name
    • size increase
    • owner/group permissions
    • install location
    • name of Software
  • The name of the PI you are currently working for.

There are some general guidelines regarding the subject of help desk tickets. There are some general areas that the staff can resolve and help you with, and other areas that the staff cannot help with.

Things the staff CAN help with include (but are not limited to):

  • Machine-generated crashes/errors.
  • Reports of broken hardware or technology-related maintence issues.
  • Issues with file/directory permissions.
  • Transitory/project space requests.
  • Restore from backup requests.

Things the staff CANNOT help with include:

  • Anything that involves personal computers/hardware.
  • A request to install a research-related piece of software or module (this is your responsibility).
  • A problem involving software you installed (again, this is your responsibility to maintain).