RemoteShift2021

General information

Due to the limitations on the number of people present at the CERN/ALICE site, the shifts for Event Processing Node and Physics Data Processing (EPN/PDP) and Quality Control (QC) are to be done remotely. This page summarizes the necessary steps before you start your shifts and in order to start your shifts - this includes trainings shifts! The details of the shifts themselves should be explained in the mandatory classes/courses.

Currently, the setup and procedures are under development as is this page. The person coordinating this from the ALICE/Run Coordination site is Taku Gunji (taku.gunji@cern.ch), here at Nikhef Bernhard Hohlweger (B.Hohlweger@nikhef.nl). The shifter station is being setup in the new offices (Large Office, H.123) and is currently being tested. All programs that you are going to use (Zoom, CERNPhone, Firefox) are installed on the shifter station and a shortcut should exist on the desktop after you login, if not contact the person responsible at Nikhef.

Prerequisites

The following points should be taken care ahead of the (training) shifts, since some points might require approval/actions which can take several days (they are marked in bold italic). All of these steps can be done without accessing the shifter station.

What do you need from the Nikhef?

• A valid token ("Druppel")
  • In case of afternoon/night shifts: In general, when staying after 19:00 o'clock you need report to the security service that you are still in the building. You can register at the WCW security between 17:00 - 19:00
    • Phone Number: 020-5926060
    • Email: overtime@wcw.nl
• A key to office H.123: Currently one is in the hands of Bernhard Hohlweger, and it is to be decided if we store it centrally or if everyone asks for her/his own key
  • It will be important to communicate your shifts ahead to your colleagues in this office so you do not collide with the potential COVID measures and the maximum number of people
• A (valid) Nikhef account and your password for it
• A supply of Food + Coffee

What do you need from CERN?

• A (valid) CERN account and your password for it
• You need to book a the courses for your shifts, your trainings shift and your actual shift (some instructions below)
• You have to be able to use the CERN phone service. The app is already installed on the shifter station but you need to activate the CERN Phone service in your CERN account and create a personal phone number (the first point here)
  • The CERNphone app is already installed on the shifter station
  • Quick summary:
    1. Go to cern.ch and login
    2. Go to your account
    3. Home
    4. Resources and services
    5. List services
    6. CERNPhone -> Subscriptions (in the left menu)
    7. Create a personal number (This might take up to 24 hrs!)

• Be able to access CERN Mattermost (https://mattermost.web.cern.ch/)
  • Ask run coordination to join the shifter channel (Currently only for testing purposes: https://mattermost.web.cern.ch/alice-rc/channels/testrop)
• Access your CERN Zoom account
  • Zoom is installed already on the shifter station

Arriving for the shift

After following the steps above you are ready to start your shifts. In the best case you arrive a bit early in order to have a smooth transition from the previous shifter (even if its at another institute). When you arrive at the shifter station, get yourself comfortable, check that everything is there (4 Monitors, Webcam, Speakers, Mouse, Keyboard and the computer) and in good condition. You have to login with your Nikhef credentials to the computer and start Firefox, Zoom and CERNPhone. All three applications should have a shortcut located on your desktop at the shifter station!

For some webpages you use during your shifts you will need to open a proxy to CERN, instructions how to do this can be found here. Windows has everything you need to set this up.

Login to CERNPhone and Zoom using your CERN account. In zoom you need to make sure that you use the application (as opposed to the browser application) in order to connect to the RC Zoom room. Access your profile (e.g. you can click on the microphone and open microphone settings) and go in the left most menu to the "Share screen" section. Make sure that the option "Enable the remote control of all applications" is ticked. Check in the Video/Audio options that your camera and microphone work (the latter is integrated in the camera). Make sure your speakers are turned on. The CERNPhone application should display the number that you requested several days in advance before your (training) shift.

Start Firefox, and open the pages related to your shifts (this list is still to be completed, might never be complete cross check with what you are told in the class.). It might come in handy to first go to cern.ch in order to login to your CERN account. Distribute the webpages on the four displays so you can ideally see all of them and/or follow the instructions given by the shiftleader/in your class.

LHC opvistars	https://op-webtools.web.cern.ch/vistar/vistars.php
DCS page	https://alicedcs.web.cern.ch/monitoring/main.aspx
LHC_IF page	cannot be visible for the moment
Event Display	under preparation
ECS	under preparation
infoLogger	http://alihlt-gw-prod.cern.ch:8081/?q={%22severity%22:{%22in%22:%22I%20W%20E%20F%22}}
eLogbook	under preparation
oncalls	https://alice-glance.cern.ch/alice/sams/public/arc_display	currently not working
SRC lists	https://alice-glance.cern.ch/alice/sams/public/src-display
RC MM (temporary example)	https://mattermost.web.cern.ch/alice-rc/channels/testrop	you may need to be registered by RC
QC	https://qcg-test.cern.ch/?page=objectTree
EPN/PDP	https://filer-carbon.cern.ch/grafana/d/o0JhHGumk/traffic?viewPanel=40&orgId=1&from=now-6h&to=now&var-instance=alice&var-instance=alicedaq&var-instance=aliceo2&var-type=All	This is not the final one. This shows network trafic from EPN to EOS

After the shift

If you know you are the only one currently doing shifts you can just lock the computer and come back tomorrow. Once you are done log-out of your account so other people can access it. Also keep in mind, that the office might be in use from other people working during the day, so clean up after yourself, in particular once you are done with your shifts so the next person can use the station. Depending on how we handle the key situation, you might want to return it to someone/somewhere (tbd). The computer can be turned off, as can the speaker and the screens.

Shift booking

This might change, currently the procedure to book shifts is summarized here. This only concerns only EPN/PDP and QC shifts. For onsite shifts there are additional steps, e.g. safety trainings etc. The following dates were circulated for the Nikhef shifts for EPN/PDP in 2021:

• Gijs - Training: 31.07. - 02.08 (Morning) - Shift: 06.08. - 11.08. (Morning)
• Bernhard - Training: 22.07 - 24.07 (Morning) - Shift 18.08 - 23.08 (Afternoon)
• Shi 5-10 Oct (morning)
• Bas 23-28 Oct (morning)

The following steps summarize the process:

1. No matter the shift you need to be able to take over the SLIMOS duties. Therefore you need to do and pass the SLIMOS course with a 3 year expiration date. In order to get your course credited, you need to ask for permission to the "ALICE KEYS CABINET SLI" in ADAMS (Request: 2285K1-005). For this to work you need to be registered as USER (or STAFF etc.).
2. Go to the ALICE SAMS and check out the classes. Currently, you need to book an online class before your training shift for both EPN/PDP and QC.
3. Also on ALICE SAMS, go to shifts. Ideally only tick EPN/PDP and QC in the left menu, look for trainings ending at least 2 days before you shift and sign up for the 3 day training shifts for both QC and EPN/PDP.
4. Book the actual shift in a time slot of your choice (ideally communicate this with the group that no one else wants to have the shift at the same time)
5. Release the one training shift, which you won't do the actual shifts for (signing up for the training shift is necessary in order to book in SAMS! Classes for both EPN/PDP and QC shifts are still mandatory!)

Collection of available information concerning shifts

• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gKpotHLW-V9_MRa7l0NXLm0i7LqJAWSYYcXUG-DNpFA/edit#gid=0
• https://alice-collaboration.web.cern.ch/run_coordination/shifts/howtobook.html