Performance Enhancement and Response Team (PERT)
GÉANT2 is committed to helping end users get the best performance from their systems, regardless of whether or not they meet the technological requirements of the end-to-end service (E2E) initiative. The Performance Enhancement and Response Team (PERT) has been created to assist users in troubleshooting network performance issues, and to produce user guidance on QoS matters (see link alongside to PERT Knowledgebase).
In pursuit of end-to-end performance optimisation, it will deal with a range of user types and network elements:
- National research and education networks (NRENs) and the GÉANT2 wide-area network (WAN)
- End users' campus networks
- End systems hardware and operating systems
- Software used in networked applications.
The PERT includes both people with cross-disciplinary expertise, who can localise the performance bottleneck, and networking, programming and engineering specialists, who are capable of exploring the identified trouble spot in greater depth. These specialists, called Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), are part-time volunteers who come from a wide range of organisations, not just the European NRENs. The PERT is currently seeking more SMEs - anyone interested in becoming an SME can contact the PERT to express interest.
The PERT is staffed by at least one person (the duty Case Manager) duing core working hours, Monday to Friday, except Bank Holidays. Direct access to the PERT is limited to the PERT Primary Customers, comprised of the NRENs and certain, specified pan-European projects. An end-user who needs the PERT's help should log a problem using their normal IT support channels, where (if appropriate) it will be escalated to the PERT via one of the primary customers.
The PERT duty Case Manager will contact the end-user by the next business day, and will continue to work with them until the issue is resolved. During the investigation end-users will have access to the PERT Ticket System (PTS) so that they can track the progress of their case.
As well as diagnosing network performance issues, the PERT is also available to provide its primary customers with general advice as part of its consultancy service. Primary customers wanting advice on matters such as network performance tuning should contact the PERT in the usual way.
