ScotGrid's Virtual control room
Tue 26 May 2009
Grid not only means distributed computing resources but also distributed manpower. Managing something like the Tier2 where people and computers are in multiple locations can be a real juggling act especially when it comes to keeping people up to date and informed. For ScotGrid communication became an even bigger issue when Graeme Stewart, their Technical Co-ordinator, moved to CERN on a long term attachment. However they have found an answer.
Utilising the Skype platform ScotGrid have created a virtual control room. Members of the team connect to a chat room which allows them to discuss in real time any problems they are having. The real advantage of the systems is the large historical archive of messages. With all conversations stored by date giving offline users an archive to catch up when they do get back online. This also provides a handy knowledge base which the users can consult at a later date. Added to this is the ability to quickly and simply set up an audio or video conference when anything needs to be clarified or discussed more in depth than text allows.
The team have been using it since March and it has proved its worth on a few occasions especially when Glasgow had a power cut and lost some of the services it was providing. They were able to give live instructions to Edinburgh as to how to reconfigure themselves to use similar resources running at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
Graeme has found it really useful, with being in not only a different country also a different timezone has meant it can be difficult keeping on top of all the activity on the Tier 2 "Having all the members of the team instantly able to chat is a huge boon in a distributed Tier-2. You can almost immediately find the person you need to answer the question and give advice in a way which no longer works with email. Team members who have been offline can catch up in a few minutes with all the live issues in the Tier-2."
© Copyright GridPP
If you wish to reproduce this piece please credit GridPP and contact Neasan O'Neill to say you are using it