BigW Consortium Gitlab

README.md 12.1 KB
Newer Older
1 2 3
---
comments: false
---
4

5 6

# Support Boot Camp
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

**Goal:** Prepare new Service Engineers at GitLab

For each stage there are learning goals and content to support the learning of the engineer.
The goal of this boot camp is to have every Service Engineer prepared to help our customers
with whatever needs they might have and to also assist our awesome community with their
questions.

Sean Packham committed
15
Always start with the [University Overview](../README.md) and then work
16 17 18 19 20
your way here for more advanced and specific training. Once you feel comfortable
with the topics of the current stage, move to the next.

### Stage 1

Sean Packham committed
21
Follow the topics on the [University Overview](../README.md), concentrate on it
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
during your first Stage, but also:

- Perform the [first steps](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/onboarding/#first-steps) of
   the on-boarding process for new Service Engineers

#### Goals

Aim to have a good overview of the Product and main features, Git and the Company

### Stage 2

Sean Packham committed
33
Continue to look over remaining portions of the [University Overview](../README.md) and continue on to these topics:
34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

#### Set up your development machine

Get your development machine ready to familiarize yourself with the codebase, the components, and to be prepared to reproduce issues that our users encounter

- Install the [GDK](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit)
  - [Setup OpenLDAP as part of this](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit#openldap)

#### Become comfortable with the Installation processes that we support

It's important to understand how to install GitLab in the same way that our users do. Try installing different versions and upgrading and downgrading between them. Installation from source will give you a greater understanding of the components that we employ and how everything fits together.

Sometimes we need to upgrade customers from old versions of GitLab to latest, so it's good to get some experience of doing that now.

- [Installation Methods](https://about.gitlab.com/installation/):
  - [Omnibus](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/)
  - [Docker](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/tree/master/docker)
  - [Source](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/doc/install/installation.md)
- Get yourself a Digital Ocean droplet, where you can install and maintain your own instance of GitLab
  - Ask in #infrastructure about this
  - Populate with some test data
  - Keep this up-to-date as patch and version releases become available, just like our customers would
- Try out the following installation path
  - [Install GitLab 4.2 from source](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/d67117b5a185cfb15a1d7e749588ff981ffbf779/doc/install/installation.md)
    - External MySQL database
    - External NGINX
  - Create some test data
    - Populated Repos
    - Users
    - Groups
    - Projects
65
  - [Backup using our Backup rake task](https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/raketasks/backup_restore.html#create-a-backup-of-the-gitlab-system)
66 67 68 69
  - [Upgrade to 5.0 source using our Upgrade documentation](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/blob/master/doc/update/4.2-to-5.0.md)
  - [Upgrade to 5.1 source](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/blob/master/doc/update/5.0-to-5.1.md)
  - [Upgrade to 6.0 source](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/blob/master/doc/update/5.1-to-6.0.md)
  - [Upgrade to 7.14 source](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/blob/master/doc/update/6.x-or-7.x-to-7.14.md)
70 71 72 73
  - [Backup using our Backup rake task](https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/raketasks/backup_restore.html#create-a-backup-of-the-gitlab-system)
  - [Perform the MySQL to PostgreSQL migration to convert your backup](https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/update/mysql_to_postgresql.html#converting-a-gitlab-backup-file-from-mysql-to-postgres)
  - [Upgrade to Omnibus 7.14](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/update/README.html#upgrading-from-a-non-omnibus-installation-to-an-omnibus-installation)
  - [Restore backup using our Restore rake task](https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/raketasks/backup_restore.html#restore-a-previously-created-backup)
74 75
  - [Upgrade to latest EE](https://about.gitlab.com/downloads-ee)
    - (GitLab inc. only) Acquire and apply a license for the Enterprise Edition product, ask in #support
76
- Perform a downgrade from [EE to CE](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/downgrade_ee_to_ce/README.html)
77 78 79 80 81 82

#### Start to learn about some of the integrations that we support

Our integrations add great value to GitLab. User questions often relate to integrating GitLab with existing external services and the configuration involved

- Learn about our Integrations (specially, not only):
83 84 85 86
  - [LDAP](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/integration/ldap.html)
  - [JIRA](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/project_services/jira.html)
  - [Jenkins](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/integration/jenkins.html)
  - [SAML](https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/integration/saml.html)
87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97

#### Goals

- Aim to be comfortable with installation of the GitLab product and configuration of some of the major integrations
- Aim to have an installation available for reproducing customer reports

### Stage 3

#### Understand the gathering of diagnostics for GitLab instances

- Learn about the GitLab checks that are available
98 99
  - [Environment Information and maintenance checks](https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/raketasks/maintenance.html)
  - [GitLab check](https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/raketasks/check.html)
100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173
  - Omnibus commands
    - [Status](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/maintenance/README.md#get-service-status)
    - [Starting and stopping services](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/maintenance/README.md#starting-and-stopping)
    - [Starting a rails console](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/maintenance/README.md#invoking-rake-tasks)

#### Learn about the Support process

Zendesk is our Support Centre and our main communication line with our Customers. We communicate with customers through several other channels too

- Familiarize yourself with ZenDesk
  - [UI Overview](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203661806-Introduction-to-the-Zendesk-agent-interface)
  - [Updating Tickets](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/212530318-Updating-and-solving-tickets)
  - [Working w/ Tickets](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203690856-Working-with-tickets) *Read: avoiding agent collision.*
- Dive into our ZenDesk support process by reading how to [handle tickets](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/onboarding/#handling-tickets)
- Start getting real world experience by handling real tickets, all the while gaining further experience with the Product.
  - First, learn about our [Support Channels](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/#support-channels)
  - Ask other Service Engineers for help, when necessary, and to review your responses
  - Start with [StackOverflow](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/#stack-overflowa-namestack-overflowa) and the [GitLab forum](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/#foruma-namegitlab-foruma)
  - Here you will find a large variety of queries mainly from our Users who are self hosting GitLab CE
  - Understand the questions that are asked and dig in to try to find a solution
  - [Proceed on to the GitLab.com Support Forum](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/#gitlabcom-support-trackera-namesupp-foruma)
    - Here you will find queries regarding our own GitLab.com
    - Helping Users here will give you an understanding of our Admin interface and other tools
  - [Proceed on to the Twitter tickets in Zendesk](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/#twitter)
    - Here you will gain a great insight into our userbase
    - Learn from any complaints and problems and feed them back to the team
    - Tweets can range from help needed with GitLab installations, the API and just general queries
  - [Proceed on to Regular email Support tickets](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/#regular-zendesk-tickets-a-nameregulara)
    - Here you will find tickets from our GitLab EE Customers and GitLab CE Users
    - Tickets here are extremely varied and often very technical
    - You should be prepared for these tickets, given the knowledge gained from previous tiers and your training
- Check out your colleagues' responses
  - Hop on to the #support-live-feed channel in Slack and see the tickets as they come in and are updated
  - Read through old tickets that your colleagues have worked on
- Start arranging to pair on calls with other Service Engineers. Aim to cover a few of each type of call
  - [Learn about Cisco WebEx](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/onboarding/#webexa-namewebexa)
  - Training calls
  - Information gathering calls
    - It's good to find out how new and prospective customers are going to be using the product and how they will set up their infrastructure
  - Diagnosis calls
    - When email isn't enough we may need to hop on a call and do some debugging along side the customer
    - These paired calls are a great learning experience
  - Upgrade calls
  - Emergency calls

#### Learn about the Escalation process for tickets

Some tickets need specific knowledge or a deep understanding of a particular component and will need to be escalated to a Senior Service Engineer or Developer

- Read about [Escalation](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/onboarding/#create-issuesa-namecreate-issuea)
- Find the macros in Zendesk for ticket escalations
- Take a look at the [GitLab.com Team page](https://about.gitlab.com/team/) to find the resident experts in their fields

#### Learn about raising issues and fielding feature proposals

- Understand what's in the pipeline and proposed features at GitLab: [Direction Page](https://about.gitlab.com/direction/)
- Practice searching issues and filtering using [labels](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/labels) to find existing feature proposals and bugs
- If raising a new issue always provide a relevant label and a link to the relevant ticket in Zendesk
- Add [customer labels](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues?label_name%5B%5D=customer) for those issues relevant to our subscribers
- Take a look at the [existing issue templates](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#issue-tracker) to see what is expected
- Raise issues for bugs in a manner that would make the issue easily reproducible. A Developer or a contributor may work on your issue

#### Goals

- Aim to have a good understanding of the problems that customers are facing
- Aim to have gained experience in scheduling and participating in calls with customers
- Aim to have a good understanding of ticket flow through Zendesk and how to interat with our various channels

### Stage 4

#### Advanced GitLab topics

Move on to understanding some of GitLab's more advanced features. You can make use of GitLab.com to understand the features from an end-user perspective and then use your own instance to understand setup and configuration of the feature from an Administrative perspective

174 175 176 177
- Set up and try [Git LFS](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/workflow/lfs/manage_large_binaries_with_git_lfs.html)
- Get to know the [GitLab API](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/api/README.html), its capabilities and shortcomings
- Learn how to [migrate from SVN to Git](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/workflow/importing/migrating_from_svn.html)
- Set up [GitLab CI](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/quick_start/README.html)
178
- Create your first [GitLab Page](https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/administration/pages/)
179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191
- Get to know the GitLab Codebase by reading through the source code:
  - Find the differences between the [EE codebase](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce)
     and the [CE codebase](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce)
- Ask as many questions as you can think of on the `#support` chat channel

#### Get initiated for on-call duty

- Read over the [public run-books to understand common tasks](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/runbooks)
- Create an issue on the internal Organization tracker to schedule time with the DevOps / Production team, so that you learn how to handle GitLab.com going down. Once you are trained for this, you are ready to be added to the on-call rotation.

#### Goals

- Aim to become a fully-fledged Service Engineer!