Zephyr blows information your way

You have probably noticed that, for several months now, problems you submit to the helpdesk@cern.ch carry the name of the IT supporter responsible for the proper follow-up of your case, called the Manager on Duty (MoD). You have also observed an increase in zephyr messages popping up on your screen, signed by the MoD,informing you of operational problems and changes.

We spent the last few months evaluating the userfullness of identifying and targeting the relevant people only, when disseminating information via zephyr messages.

The purpose of this project was to:
1.Improve user satisfaction by prompt and relevant announcements of IT service problems and planned short-term changes.
2.Establish a fast information channel between IT service managers, the team of MoDs in User Services group, the helpdesk members and the operations' team by mutual reporting on the status of various critical services.

The decisions taken as a result of the evaluation were that:

• There is no real expertise or support for zephyr. On the other hand, the tool is limited but light, stable and simple.
• There is no alternative to zephyr which can be used today and works across platforms.
• Communities, automatically targetable by IT services, without user action, are the users registered on individual:
  • Mailservers,
  • NICE servers and
  • Afs group servers (targeting the users of Afs home servers would not be feasible, due to the nomadic nature of these users). However,
• Targeting of these communities will not be pursued, as it is considered too difficult to identify the users who may be interested in knowing about a problem. For example:
  • If mailX users only receive zephyr about mailX's trouble, other people who have sent them email messages may wish to know why these haven't been received yet. Similarly,
  • Zephyr messages concerning web server problems should not be sent to a limited set of users as the non-availability of a web site concerns not only the site owner but also all possible browsing users.
  • An afs user group depends on more servers than the one(s) hosting its data
• A method will be included, instead, when possible, in future zephyr messages, so that users can determine if they are affected by the announcement, e.g. the afs vos command for afs-related problems or the mmm web page for mail-related ones.

Experience during the 5-month operation showed that:

• There is a user requirement for archiving zephyr messages, as a reference of information broadcasted (for users) and a source of useful statistics (for supporters). This is done so far via an automatically populated web-viewable archive, accessible via http://tvscreen.cern.ch but subject to move to the "service status board", a new web page under construction. User contacts have also been interested in copying/pasting the zephyr message text for further re-distribution. The way to do this is now explained in http://consult/qa/3106 .
• Using a checklist to carefully compose zephyr messages, rose our awareness on the importance of recording:
  • The nature and expected duration of a problem.
  • The text in both languages (English and French).
  • The coordination between services, operators, MoD, helpdesk, users.
  • The requesting authority.
• Users don't complain if they receive a message that doesn't concern them (i.e. when target was too large).
• Users who are not logged on or don't accept zephyr can't receive the messages. This is valid for all platforms and for all such tools.
• Users out of CERN (maybe half of the community) don't see the messages. The other information channels, as agreed at FOCUS (newsgroups, tvscreen, mailing lists) should be used in addition.
• It was agreed that, rather than using zephyr, when the information doesn't have to go out urgently, services would inform the targeted audience of planned changes and interruptions by email (e.g. development work on server mailX.cern.ch starting at 18:30 this evening). This is independent of zephyr but a useful new procedure.
• A number of new warnings (e.g. automatic email to the MoD when an afs server is in trouble of LSF jobs get killed) are now in place to inform the supporters of potential problems affecting users. This is independent of zephyr but a useful new procedure.

In conclusion:

• Zephyr is a good and simple tool to get information to the users fast. However, it is like the radio news: you have to be switched on to get them and they may contain data that don't concern you or that you already know.
• Feedback on your experience as zephyr recipients is welcome at user.relations@cern.ch .

References:

1. Instant messaging using zephyr. Document on our evaluation of targeting the relevant users only when sending zephyr on changes/problems in services. http://cern.ch/dimou/it-us/zephyr.shtml
2. The web-viewable zephyr messages' archive https://wwwlistbox.cern.ch/earchive/service-zephyr-messages/
3. Question&Answer on failing to receive Zephyr http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3090
4. Service change Announcements FOCUS October 2000 http://ref.cern.ch/CERN/IT/US/2000/040/
5. Zephyr-related documents on the CERN intranet.
6. The zephyr service writeup http://consult.cern.ch/writeup/zephyr/main.html
7. The zephyr document for the CERN NICE environment http://consult.cern.ch/cnls/229/art_zephyr.html