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LSCR faculty support update: December 2008

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• Faculty computing support service level agreement

by Seth Novogrodsky, LSCR Faculty Team Project Manager

December 5, 2008—The Letters & Science Computing Resources (LSCR) Faculty Support Team provides support to the majority of College departments. This article is the sixth in a series that provides updates in our computing support programs and other topics of interest.

If you are not currently using LSCR's faculty support services and are interested in more information, please feel free to contact us, and we will be happy to answer any questions you might have.

LSCR's schedule for the holiday period

Because of the annual Holiday Energy Curtailment, heating and ventilation will again be shut off in most campus buildings during the period from Thursday, December 25, 2008, through Sunday, January 4, 2009. LSCR's desktop support services will not be available during this period, though the servers we run will be accessible.

For information about the 2008-2009 Holiday Energy Curtailment, please see UC Energy Curtailment Dec. 25, 2008 - Jan. 4, 2009.

Turning off computers and peripherals for the break

Before leaving for the holiday break, be sure to turn off your office computers and any peripherals, including monitors and printers. If you have a power strip with an on/off switch, we recommend turning the power strip off. Turning off your computer equipment will save energy. In addition, computers left on unattended for long periods of time are tempting targets for computer hackers.

Vacation messages

Because many faculty leave campus during the break between semesters and may be away from email for a number of weeks, it is often a good idea to set up an automated response to alert people sending messages not to expect a quick reply. Instructions for setting up a vacation message are available on the LSCR website. We are happy to answer any questions and assist faculty with setting up vacation messages.

Requesting service

The best way to reach us is to send email to fac_support@LS.Berkeley.EDU. When making a request, please include the following information:

• The name, office address, phone number, and department of the person needing assistance.
• Times and dates when the user will be available for a consultant to call or stop by.
• The type of computer it is (Mac or PC).
• Details regarding the problem or issue.

Because we use an automated ticket tracking system, the following is also helpful to us:

• Please use our message line at 642-1355 only when email is unavailable and always clearly state your full name, your department, and your phone number. Each call generates a separate ticket sent to the entire faculty support team, and we often have to listen to messages multiple times before we can respond.
• Please send multiple requests in separate messages. That way we can respond more quickly and easily assign different people to the different tasks.
• If you wish to provide additional information regarding a request that you sent in, please reply either to the automated response or to a message sent by an LSCR consultant regarding that request so that "[LSCR Request System #xxxx]" (with the appropriate tracking number) will appear in the subject line. New requests should be sent without a tracking number; the tracking number will be assigned automatically.