HPC EMEA Support Overview

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HPC EMEA Support Overview

• Jeanette Sharkey, HPC Quality and Customer
  Support
• April 2, 2008

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EMEA HPC Support OverviewAgenda

• Overview of HP Support model for HPC
• Structure, resources, call flow
• Roadmap to understand HP HPC support model and
  resources at your disposal
• Escalation of support issues
• What to do
• What to expect
• Support Entitlements
• Severity Levels
• Support response based on severity of reported
  problem
• Support Responsiveness Metrics
• HP measures
• Improvement Initiatives

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EMEA HPC Support OverviewTiered Model
Level 1

• Call Response Center
• Local Support
• Provide SAID Number
• Specify queue
• EUA_CC HPC

Level 2
HPC Regional Support Center
Level 3

• HPC Expertise

Engineering Product Support

• Primary interface to customers

• Response times determined by terms of support
  contract

• HP Engineering Product Support teams
• Partner/Vendor Support

• Ability to elevate to L3

When placing call, provide problem description
and assessment of Severity i.e. Critical Down,
High Impact Up, Non-Critical
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EMEA HPC Reactive Support DeliveryOverview

• Changes to EMEA HPC support team in 2007
• Support brought into to the standard HP support
  model
• Specialist HPC Competency Centre dedicated to
  remote, reactive cluster support
• HPC-aware hardware specialists in other
  Competency centres
• HPC L2 CC liase with other teams creating a
  virtual HPC Support team
• Storage
• ISS
• Network switches
• Access and ability to elevate to L3 Engineering
  Support teams
• XC, CMU, SFS, Interconnect , etc.

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Level 2 HPC support in EMEA

• Global Competency Centre

Storage Arrays CC Jim Brownlie Nelson Coehlo
EMEA CC Enterprise Unix Manager Clare Pilgrim
ISS CC Hjalmar Brand Bente Franzen Sachin
Sawant Edwin Scheurwater Colin Taylor
HPC CC Ellis Hopman Jan Linnenbank Jelle
Veldman
Networks CC Darren Birch Nicolas Hatton Fahad
Rahmani
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The EMEA HPC team
Jan Linnenbank
Ellis Hopman
Jelle Veldman
Clare Pilgrim
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Call Flow

• HPC calls move to standard GCC process
• Level 1 responsibilities
• Receive case
• Screen for basic h/w issues, otherwise elevate
  swiftly to the HPC CC
• Native language communication
• Own call in case engagement of local or OOHs
  resources needed
• Level 2 responsibilities
• English language customer communication
• Technical problem evaluation and solution
• Engage L3, as required
• Collaborate with and engage other hardware CCs,
  as required

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Call flow (cont.)

• L3 Engineering Support Responsibilities
• Product Engineering Level Support
• In-depth product and technology expertise
• Access to additional HPC resources
• Broad base of customer support experiences
• Interface to technology partners and vendors on
  support issues
• Engaged as appropriate by HPC Competency Centre
  Support Specialists
• L2 HPC Competency Centre specialist remains your
  primary interface for continued troubleshooting,
  diagnostic activities and status updates
• Direct communication with L3 Support engineers as
  warranted on case by case basis

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24x7 Support Call Handling

• EMEA team hours 0800-1700 CETMonday-Friday
• Non-EMEA team hours covered by US HPC support
  specialists
• FTS (Follow the Sun)
• Evening calls (1700-0000 CET) US business hours
• Early morning (0000-0800 CET) /
  weekendsAmericas HPC engineer is paged
• L3 OOH coverage provided by pager

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Support Tools and Process

• How to log a call
• ITRC web interface
• Phone Dial local Support Response Center
• Provide your SAID Specify that you are an HPC
  customer
• Specify product queue name EUA_CC HPC
• This indicates that your call should be routed to
  the EMEA HPC Competency Center
• Access to patches
• ITRC
• For SFS, pointer to patches will be provided by
  L2 Support Engineer
• HP web access to firmware updates, etc.

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Problem Escalation

• Does the model always work?
• What recourse do you have if you are not
  satisfied with HPs Support response?
• Communicate your specific concerns and issues to
  local and/or L2 HPC GCC support contacts
• Work with you to resolve issues Get answers to
  technical questions, use HP escalation processes
  to engage an Escalation or Complex Problem
  Manager, alert HPC an BU management as
  appropriate
• Request that the issue be escalated within HP
• Quantify in terms of impact, i.e. to production
  environment, your ability to provide services,
  running jobs, etc.
• Describe specifically what is failing with HPs
  Support response from your perspective
• Contact HP HPCD Jeanette Sharkey
  jeanette.sharkey_at_hp.com 856-638-6231,
  609-351-2830

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Problem Escalation (Cont.)

• When to escalate High complexity and/or high
  impact problem, unsatisfactory progress, no
  acceptable fix or workaround provided
• Bring additional resources to bear
• Elevate priority
• Focused Management
• Key Elements
• Formation of Escalation team
• Development, Implementation and Tracking of
  Action Plan with customer
• Post Solution Monitoring and Review
• How to Engage
• Raise concern to local support and account
  contacts
• Contact L2 HPC EMEA CC
• Contact HPC Division Jeanette Sharkey

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Support Entitlements

• Be aware of your support entitlements
• 9x5
• 24x7
• Hardware / Software
• Support Entitlements are validated when support
  calls are placed
• Support response will be determined based on
  terms of support contract
• If you have a 9x5 support contract, and a
  critical/production down issue occurs after
  hours, it will not be addressed until the next
  business day
• Evaluate your support requirements, i.e. do you
  consider your solution mission critical, do your
  users expect the system to be available 24x7, how
  much down time can be tolerated
• Discuss support options with your HPC account
  team
• Invest in support offerings that will truly meet
  your business and environment needs

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Severity Levels

• Another factor in determining Support response
  is the severity of reported problem
• Severity 1 Critical indicates that the
  customers production system is down or at
  impending risk of going down again there may be
  data corruption or loss, or high risk that there
  will be and/or the business is severely affected
  or is at a high risk of being severely affected.
  
• Severity 2 Major indicates that a customers
  system or production application has been caused
  operational interruption or serious compromise,
  there is a risk of reoccurrence, and there could
  be significant impact to the customers business.
  
• Severity 3 Minor a medium to low impact
  problem that involves partial, non-critical
  functionality loss. The problem may impair some
  operations, but the customer can continue to
  function. There may be limited or no loss of
  functionality or impact to the customers
  operation.
• Severity 4 No Impact used to cover customer
  requests and suggestions for software or
  documentation enhancements. The customer has no
  loss of functionality and the issue has no
  significant impact on quality, performance, or
  functionality in the current release.

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HP Support Responsiveness Metrics

• Support responsiveness metrics are tracked at all
  levels within the HP support structure
• A few examples, by Severity level
• Initial Response Time
• Time to Solve
• Open Backlog
• Age of Open Backlog
• Incoming cases to L3
• of cases resolved at L2 /L3
• Metrics help identify trends
• Help identify product quality issues
• Help identify issues in support delivery
• Help determine if in synch with standard product
  lifecycle trends
• Also rely on customer feedback

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Summary Improvement Initiatives HP CAST LS-SIG
Feedback

• Concerns expressed with respect to time lapses
  and the frequent need to engage Engineering
  resources in the US
• Ramp up of the EMEA HPC CC
• FTS Process
• Inefficiencies with HPs internal call routing
  and escalation of support issues
• Improvement initiatives such as training,
  internal communications, and augmentation of
  support tools and processes
• More efficient engagement of HPC-knowledgeable
  resources and timely elevation of HPC customer
  issues are ongoing

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• Questions?

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