Support policy¶

CERN Linux Support policy

Mandate

To provide a secure version of the Linux operating environment that allows CERN staff and users to perform their (physics-related) work on Linux, according to the goals of the organization.

Tasks:

Assemble and certify a CERN Linux distribution together with the
CERN Linux user community (represented by Linux Certification Committee)
Run central Linux installation servers to make this distribution available on the CERN site.
Provide security updates and a deployment mechanism for the CERN Linux distribution, suitable for servers and managed desktops.
Provide general Linux support as detailed below.

Support for CERN Linux distributions

Support calls will enter the Problem Tracking system via helpdesk.
Urgent production issues inside IT department may be reported directly to the Linux Support 3^rd level team.
Shortcutting the support structure (e.g. direct phone calls to 3^rd level team members) is discouraged.

Linux system installations (including documented workarounds) and recurring documented issues will be handled by the (outsourced) 2^nd level support, who will forward other completed calls to Linux Support 3rd level team.

Support calls will be assigned a priority that takes into account the impact of the problem for CERN (the reporter's opinion on the priority will be considered, but may be overridden). Priorities affect the order in which calls are handled, low-priority calls may be closed without a satisfactory resolution if resources to answer them properly are not available.

The following will increase the priority:

Issues directly affecting operation of accelerators and data-taking.
Issues (potentially) affecting a large number of users.
Problems related to Servers and Managed Non-personal Desktops.
Recurring and reproducible issues.

Each of the following will lower the priority:

Non-standard PC hardware purchased outside CERN stores. Please note that even machines bought in the CERN Stores have not been tested for Linux compatibility by the Linux Support Team.
Problems with add-on hardware or gadgets (local printers, Webcams, PDAs, USB storage, CD/DVD burners, ...)
Problems with add-on software or different versions than deployed in the CERN distribution
Per-user configuration issues
Languages or fonts beyond official CERN languages (English and French).
Requests from outside of CERN (CERN does not support outside institutes, even if they are running our Linux distribution. In case this isn't clearly stated otherwise in the call, a non-CERN mail address will be taken as a request from outside of CERN.

Escalation: In case of problems with the support service, please contact the IT Manager On Duty.

Support for other Linux distributions

IT-CM does only support CentOS and RHEL Linux distributions on servers and managed desktops. No support at all will be provided for support calls for other Linux distributions opened via Helpdesk or direct mail to Linux.Support@cern.ch. Users of CERN unsupported Linux distributions, as well as users of Laptops and non-managed Desktops, will be encouraged to report their issues in the CERN Linux Community forum. If resources permit, calls for recent Linux distributions may be answered, but substantial effort to diagnose the problem by the user is assumed to occur before, and such calls may be closed anytime without a satisfactory resolution.

Users are instead invited to ask their questions on cern.linux, in the hope that other CERN users may be able to help, or use the mailing lists more appropriate to the distribution they are running.

Security

As a reminder, the CERN computing rules requires a user to

[...] take the necessary precautions to protect his personal computer
or work station against unauthorized access.

System administrators of "file servers" (FTP, HTTP, NFS, AFS, etc)

 [...] must take proactive and adequate measures to protect the operating system and
applications from known security weaknesses.

This responsibility stays with the owner/user/persons defined in LanDB. Running a CERN-supported Linux version with automatic updates enabled will be considered to be sufficient to protect a machine, as long as requests for special actions (e.g. manual kernel upgrades) are followed timely. Such requests will be sent to root on the machine concerned (please configure your machine so that some human will read these mails), as well as published in the linux-announce@cern.ch mailing list and on the CERN Linux homepage.