Questions, bug reports, requests for documentation, and anything/everything else related to using the EaaSI platform
EaaSI provides timely and effective support to the members of the EaaSI Community. At this time, the EaaSI support team is small in size and capacity, but despite these limitations we strive to ensure users of all types and levels of expertise can put the system to use. The following outlines the scope of our support services as they continue to develop.
How to get help
Documentation
The EaaSI User Handbook is your first source for answers to most questions regarding installation and use of the EaaSI system.
Forum
The EaaSI Community Forum serves as a platform to post support requests, discuss topics related to EaaSI and emulation, and contribute to the growing body of knowledge regarding emulation, software preservation, and the EaaSI system. The Forum is a space for collaboration as we all become more familiar with the uses of EaaSI and as the system itself develops new capabilities.
The EaaSI Community Forum is open to the public and we ask and expect all users to behave with courtesy and in a professional manner according to the Forum’s social rules. Members of the EaaSI program staff will moderate discussions to ensure users adhere to these guidelines.
The Community Forum is broken down into categories and relevant information regarding the EaaSI program of work and workflows may be found in different locations depending on the flow of discussion. To ensure a prompt and guaranteed response from EaaSI support staff, users and community members should open a topic via the “Support Center” section of the Forum.
How to start a support request
1. Document your issue
If it helps, get out a piece of paper or open a text file and write down everything you can remember about what you were doing when your problem happened. Also try to write down the exact wording of any error messages you received (take a screenshot if possible!) and/or download the available error report.
2. Try to reproduce your problem
Return to EaaSI, try to do the same thing you attempted before, and see if you can do it again. If you can, attempt to reproduce it in other ways - can the same action be completed using a different button in the menu?
3. Search the forum
It is possible that your issue has been experienced by other users and is being discussed or was solved in an existing post. Always search the forum before posting to see if a previous conversation has answered your question! If your post is repetitive, EaaSI support staff will direct you to the relevant conversation in the forum.
4. Describe your issue
If you still haven’t found an answer to your question, tell us about your problem in a new topic in the Support Center. Please provide as many of the following details as you can in your post:
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Deployment: Are you using EaaSI’s managed hosted service (hosted.eaasi.cloud) or a self-hosted server?
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EaaSI Version (if self-hosted): This corresponds to the eaasi-installer/release branch used to deploy your server
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Browser: The name and version number of the browser used to access the EaaSI UI
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Description: Please describe your issue in detail (including the name/ID of any relevant environments, software, or content). You can also attach screenshots or relevant error report files.
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Expected vs Actual Outcome: What did you expect to occur as a result of the steps taken? What was the actual outcome?
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Reproducibility: Were you able to reproduce the issue in Step 2? If so, what steps did you take to do so?
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Urgency: Please indicate how urgently this issue needs to be addressed? Is there a timeline or deadline (e.g., upcoming demo, researcher request, etc.) that we should be aware of?
5. Attaching files
The error log files generated by the EaaSI UI are encrypted to allow them to be directly shared with the EaaSI team in the Support Center without worrying about inadvertently sharing machine details or credentials publicly. The EaaSI support team holds the necessary decryption keys.
Configuration files such as the eaasi.yaml or hosts.yaml files used during deployment are not encrypted. While these files contain relevant information for troubleshooting, they also hold administrative credentials and machine details that we cannot guarantee the safety of when shared in a public space like the Community Forum. Please exercise caution in sharing these files and either redact credentials and/or share such files only on request, privately with the EaaSI support team.
6. Staff or community response
EaaSI support staff strive to make a first response to any post in the Support Center within 48 hours of initial post. If no response has been made within 48 hours, please follow up by directly tagging the User Support Lead (currently: @ethan.gates)
After initial response, follow-up responses or time to resolution may be highly variable depending on staff capacity and the scope of the identified issue. Please be patient!
Other users and community members may also answer questions and provide input. We encourage all users to respond with relevant solutions to common problems experienced with the system.
Self-Hosted Support
Though EaaSI support staff will attempt to identify and triage issues on self-hosted EaaSI servers as best as able using reported details and log files, we have found that the quickest way to guarantee resolution to issues on self-hosted servers is by providing temporary, direct SSH access to the server to one of the EaaSI developers at OpenSLX.
If deemed necessary, the EaaSI team may respond to issues reported by self-hosted servers with a request and instructions to privately share login credentials or access to a member of OpenSLX staff. EaaSI support staff will work with the reporter to select a platform/venue for secure sharing to the reporter’s comfort level. Providing direct access is not a requirement for receiving support for self-hosted servers, but is encouraged.
Closing Issues and Support Requests
When EaaSI support staff believe that a user’s issue or support request has been satisfactorily resolved, they will mark an appropriate post in the Community Forum topic as “Solution”. The forum topic will remain open for approximately one (1) additional week from the time a Solution is marked, to give the user time to reply in case there are further issues and the issue must be re-opened or if they do not feel the request was adequately resolved.
For legibility’s sake, issues/topics in the Support Center will auto-close after 2 months of inactivity. If two months have passed since the last reply, the topic will be Closed to further replies, regardless of whether a Solution to the issue has been successfully marked and confirmed or not. Users who wish to re-open a ticket that has been Closed should open a new topic but refer/link back to the original thread in question, if possible.
Out of Scope
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We are unable to provide training or support on the use of the underlying technologies that EaaSI relies upon such as Docker and Ansible.
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Questions regarding use of preserved software within an EaaSI environment should be posted in Software Help, a sub-board for community assistance with older applications that are no longer in support from their makers (e.g. older Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk products, etc). EaaSI team members will respond to such questions as quickly as possible but will prioritize requests related to EaaSI functionality.