CLASSE-IT Service Requests

Every year, CLASSE-IT receives around 3000 new requests generated by hundreds of local users housed in three different buildings on campus, as well as remote users from around the world. Because of the large volume of requests from multiple sources, we ask that, whenever possible, all requests be submitted through our ticketing system (and not by contacting individual IT group members). You may submit a ticket for any issue, large or small, whether it's a general inquiry or a specific problem.

Tickets may be submitted in one of two ways

• Email service-classe@cornell.edu
• Fill out the ServiceRequest web form

Help us help you

If you are unsure how to describe your problem, please open a ticket anyway. We will ask you for the information we need. However, here are some tips to help speed up the process for everyone:

• Be as specific as possible -- details matter. For example:
  • If you are using a CLASSE-managed computer, tell us the name of your computer. We need this information because many users use multiple computers.
    • The computer name usually appears on a white sticker on the computer, or in your Linux terminal prompt.
    • The computer name is much more useful to us than the computer's location or function.
    • If you are logged into a remote computer, we need the name of the remote computer, not the computer you are actually sitting at.
  • Give us the exact steps for reproducing your problem.
  • Copy-and-paste any error messages or web URLs, or include a screenshot.
  • Copying-and-pasting exact text is better than writing a description, and text is better than images (reduces transcription errors).
  • If an error occurs in a batch job, send us the location of the full log file for your job.
• Submit a separate ticket for each individual problem. If you combine multiple issues in a single ticket, then one of those issues can easily get lost.
• Similarly, keep all correspondence about any given problem on the same ticket. Simply reply to a ticket email and keep the ticket number in the subject line.
• Don't submit tickets for others (unless you CC them as well) because we need to communicate with the person having the problem.
• To include other people on a ticket, add their email addresses in the CC field when submitting a ticket.
  • Unfortunately, adding people to a ticket after it has been submitted must be done manually by an IT group member. It is not enough to CC them on an email response, so please mention it to us explicitly.
• If your request is likely to incur a cost (in time or money), please do the following in your initial request:
  • Include the WBS to be charged. We need this information to satisfy the lab's accounting and audit requirements.
  • CC the appropriate cost account manager (CAM).
  • If you are unsure of this information, ask your project manager or see these documents.
• If you have an urgent request, please follow up your ticket submission with a page or a phone call.

General info:

Tickets are basically group emails that go to the entire IT group. For the list of people who receive these emails, see our call list. Our ticketing system is very effective at:

• Ensuring that no requests get lost.
  • We hold a daily morning meeting to review our list of outstanding tickets.
  • Emails to individual IT group members do not get included in this list.
• Coordinating our work.
  • It often takes multiple IT group members to complete a task.
  • Work can continue even when some staff members are absent.
• Documenting our solutions for future reference.
• Keeping everyone in the loop.

Caveats:

• Our ticketing system relies on Cornell email, and email outages have been known to occur. Also, sometimes emails are caught by Cornell's spam filter. After submitting a ticket, you should receive an automated confirmation email. If you do not receive a confirmation, please try resubmitting or paging CLASSE-IT.