Communications Trouble Reporting

The following describes how to report telephone and network problems and, in general terms, how CNS Network Operations personnel respond to network trouble tickets.

Filing Network Trouble Reports

To report a problem:

Data Network: contact the IST Trouble Desk, which can be reached at 642-4920 or via email at trouble@berkeley.edu.

Telephones: contact the CNS Trouble Desk, which can be reached at 642-9053 or via email at ucb-voice-oir@uclink.berkeley.edu.

Within 4 business hours, you should receive notification that the problem is being looked into. It is our goal to have problems resolved within 1 business day of the time of the submittal of the Trouble Report.

You will be asked to provide the following information:

• First and Last Name
• Phone number at which you can be reached or retrieve a message
• Department
• Location of problem (building and room number)
• Email address
• Time problem first occurred
• Brief description of the problem

You may also need to provide some additional information, depending on the particular problem:

Data Network:

• Type and model of your computer
• Circuit number (cable number) of connection
• IP address or hostname
• Dial-in phone number
• Alternate contact/System administrator

Telephones:

• Telephone number or circuit ID of the circuit not working
• Alternate contact telephone number
• Make and model of telephone set
• Key system number and station/Intercom ID (where applicable)

Checking the status of Telephone or Network Trouble Tickets

When your phone call/email is received, you will receive a confirmation email message that a Trouble Report has been opened. A Trouble Report Number will be assigned. Make a note of the number, and use it in any future correspondence regarding your problem. To check on the status of your Trouble Report, you can use this ticket number on the Trouble Report Query Form at https://remedy.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/HCcustomerquery.pl.

Determining Scope and Response Times

Once the problem is entered into our trouble ticket system, it is evaluated for scope -- e.g. does it affect a single connection, or an entire subnet -- and assigned to a network engineer/technician.

For problems affecting a single connection during normal business hours, (Monday through Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm), you will be contacted by the assigned network engineer within four business hours. During non-business hours, problem response will wait until the next business day.

08:00 - 17:00	Monday - Friday		Normal Business Hours
17:00 - 20:00	Monday - Thursday		Evening Hours
20:00 - 08:00	Monday - Thursday		Night Hours
17:00 Friday - 08:00 Monday			Weekend Hours

Data Network:

For problems affecting an entire subnet or building during normal business hours, you can expect a response within 1 hour. Evenings and weekends, you can expect a response within 4 hours. After 10:00 pm problem response will wait until after 8:00 am the next business day.

For problems affecting major campus hubsites or campus backbone connectivity during normal business hours, problem response will begin immediately. During non-business hours, problem response will begin within 2 hours.

Telephones:

For problems affecting an entire workgroup/building during normal business hours, you can expect a response within 1 hour. Evenings and weekends, you can expect a response before 9:00 am the business next day.

For problems affecting major campus hub-sites or campus backbone connectivity during normal business hours, problem response will begin immediately. During non-business hours, problem response will begin within 2 hours.

Escalation

If the problem is urgent and requires a faster response and resolution, you can call the IST Trouble Desk for Network problems (642-4920) or CNS Trouble Desk for Telephone problems (642-9053) and request that the trouble ticket be escalated. Please provide the trouble ticket number to the Trouble Desk operator.

Diagnosis and Investigation

The network engineer or telephone technician may call the user to verify that the problem is still occurring and obtain additional information. In many cases the problem can be resolved over the phone.

Data Network:

Please be able to provide information about your IP configuration (IP address, network mask, IP default gateway, whether configuration changes have been made recently, name or address of server or service that cannot be accessed, etc.)

If the problem cannot be resolved over the phone, the network engineer will use network management and reporting tools to look for sources of problems on the user's subnet or with the user's connection. If necessary the network engineer will go to the user's location to diagnose network equipment and/or test the user's connection.

In order to diagnose the problem, it may be necessary to ask the user to reconfigure, restart or remove the host connected to the CNS supported network. This includes user-installed network equipment that is allowed under CNS's "User-installed Network Equipment Policy". While the network engineer may detect problems caused by faulty Ethernet NIC cards or other problems with the user's computer, the network engineer is generally not available for a full diagnosis of these kinds of problems. CNS is responsible only for trouble-shooting the network connection to the wall jack.

Telephones:

Please be able to provide information about your telephone type and options with which you are experiencing problems.

If the problem cannot be resolved over the phone, the network technician will, if possible, use network management and reporting tools to look for sources of problems with the user's connection. If necessary the network engineer will go to the user's location to diagnose network equipment and/or test the user's connection.

Design and Implement Solution

Based on information obtained by these methods the network engineer/technician will implement a solution, including such actions as:

• Have the user's cable re-terminated
• Replace faulty network equipment
• Make configuration changes to network equipment
• Alter current network topology
• Call in outside service providers for repair (where appropriate)

The network engineer/technician will close out the ticket after confirming with the user that the problem has been corrected. You should receive a brief email from our trouble tracking system informing you of the trouble report resolution and closure.

Trouble-shooting Non-Compliant Networks

Occasionally, user-installed network equipment or cabling is the cause of the problem. If this is the case, and the equipment is not permitted by campus policy, the department or users responsible will be asked to remove the offending network equipment or cabling within two business days. If the department or user does not comply, they will be asked a second time and CNS Director Cliff Frost will contact the Chairs for all departments on the affected network. Failure to remove the network equipment or cabling within an additional two business days, will result in a third and final notice, at which time the network will become unsupported until brought into compliance with Campus Network Standards. In addition, the department responsible will be billed time and materials for the trouble ticket response.

For more information about campus policies regarding user-installed network equipment, please see User Installed Network Equipment Policy.

Trouble-shooting Private Networks

In a few locations on campus departments have installed and maintain the local area network within a building. In each of these cases the department and CNS have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (aka Private Network Agreement). The Memorandum of Understanding describes the physical and logical topology of the Private Network, and assigns responsibility to the department (the Private Network Owner) for diagnosing, isolating, and resolving issues within the Private Network. CNS is responsible for diagnosing, isolating, and resolving issues on the campus network up to the mutually agreed upon demarcation point between the campus network and the Private Network.

Each Private Network has a designated Technical Contact who is the sole contact with CNS for problem resolution. Other users of the Private Network who call CNS with trouble reports will be referred to the designated Technical Contact. The Technical Contact may request CNS assistance to resolve an issue that the Technical Contact has determined is within the Private Network. In order for CNS to provide this service the Private Network Owner agrees to reimburse CNS for time and materials necessary to diagnose, isolate, and resolve the issue. To request this service the Private Network Owner may either submit a "Request for Network Maintenance" form or send the same information, (the names of technical contacts, description of the problem, and a Chart of Accounts string to which CNS may charge for the work), in an email to pna-maint@berkeley.edu. Requests for repair of problems on Private Networks will not take precedence over other trouble reports. CNS will handle them when time and workload permit.