The Works of DANTE - Issue 3
GÉANT2’s PERT People Tackle Network Troubles
The Performance Enhancement and Response Team (PERT) is a new service established as part of the GÉANT2 project. Here, Simon Leinen from the Swiss NREN SWITCH explains more about the initiative.
1) What is PERT?
PERT is the Performance Enhancement and Response Team, which is developing as part of the GÉANT2 project. Its purpose is to help investigate and resolve any system performance problems a user is experiencing, which might be caused by the equipment used, the applications being run, or a networking issue. The PERT will identify if the problem is caused by the network and aim to resolve it.
2) Why is it needed?
Many end-systems are not optimised to make proper use of Europe’s high-capacity, long-distance networks. Fitting a Gigabit Ethernet card to your computer does not mean you will automatically be able to download data at 1000Mbps - but the reasons why this is so are quite subtle. Without expert help end-users - even technically competent ones - will not be able to achieve the full potential offered by their networked systems.
3) What is your role?
I actually have two main roles – PERT Manager and PERT Case Manager. They might sound the same, but in fact they’re quite different jobs. The PERT Case Managers take it in turns to be the Duty Case Manager, who is the main point of contact for the PERT for that particular week. The Duty Case Manager answers any new queries and works to progress any unresolved issues.
As a PERT Manager I am jointly responsible to the senior management of GÉANT2 for the proper conduct of the PERT. I also have special responsibility for the PERT Wiki2. The Wiki is mainly used to store network performance-related information and ‘lessons learned’, and as such is both a useful reference for Case Managers and a good self-help facility for end-users.
2 A Wiki is a website that can be edited by the user.
4) How is the team structured?
Apart from the Case Managers and the PERT Managers, the only other role in the PERT is that of Subject Matter Expert (SME). SMEs are people with expert knowledge in one or more specific areas who provide their help in answering questions and solving cases on a purely best-efforts basis (which is to say, only when they have time). This is in contrast to the Duty Case Manager, who for the duration of their week-long duty is dedicated to working on PERT issues.
5) How do you report a problem to the PERT?
Only the PERT’s “primary customers” may open a new case with the PERT. The primary customers are the European national research and education networks (NRENs) which GÉANT2 directly interconnects, the GÉANT2 peers (for example, Abilene in the USA) and certain large pan-European projects, such as EGEE (Electronic Grids for E-sciencE). Therefore any end user experiencing problems should first refer the issue to their NREN, using their normal reporting procedure. The NREN will then decide if the issue should be escalated to the PERT.
NREN staff and other primary customers can raise issues with the PERT by emailing pert-report@geant2.net, or better still by logging into the new PERT Ticket System at www.pert.geant2.net and creating the ticket themselves.
6) How soon would the problem be investigated?
The PERT will respond to all new queries by next business day, and all help provided is on a best-efforts basis. The more relevant the information that is provided to the PERT, the greater the chance of a quick and successful resolution to the problem.
7) What tools has the PERT developed?
Our Polish NREN partner, PSNC, is developing two main tools for the PERT: the PERT Ticket System (PTS) and the PERT Knowledgebase (KB). The PTS is quite simply the ticket system we use to track and manage the PERT cases, whilst the PERT Knowledgebase will be the successor to the current PERT Wiki, which I described earlier. The PERT KB will offer a more structured source of information than the Wiki. When the PERT KB is ready the Wiki’s data will be migrated to the PERT KB, where I will continue to oversee its development and growth.
PSNC is also putting in place a publicly accessible forum, the PERT forum, where anyone can post a question. The Duty Case Managers will monitor the forum and offer advice and suggestions when they can, but the hope is that the forum will become self-sustaining, with forum members providing the answers themselves. Once this stage is reached then some of the more active contributors to the forum will be invited to become PERT Associate Members, which means they will be forum moderators.
8) How will the PERT progress in the future?
As the PERT learns from experience, it will become increasingly efficient and successful in solving performance problems, and so will attract more customers wanting to use it. As the PERT KB grows in parallel with the PERT, more and more people will be able to find the answers they need without the help of the PERT staff, and ultimately we hope to put ourselves out of a job! But for that to happen there is a lot to be understood and a lot to be done, and so what we really need is a large number of capable SMEs who can give just a little of their time to help us solve cases and grow our shared knowledge.
The PERT is just one of the new initiatives being developed as part of the GÉANT2 project. To find out about the others, please visit the Research section of the GÉANT2 website at www.geant2.net.
