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# How to write good support requests

Writing good support requests is not only good for the support team, it
is also better for you! Due to us having lots of help requests, the time
to understand each problem is at a premium. The easier it is to
understand yours, the faster we will get to it. Below is a list of good
practices.

## Never send support requests to staff members directly

Always send them to <support@starhpc.hofstra.io> and staff members will pick
them up there. On <support@starhpc.hofstra.io> they get tracked and have
higher visibility. Some staff members work on the support line only part
time. Sending the request to <support@starhpc.hofstra.io> makes sure that
somebody will pick it up. Please note in the request that it is about
Star, as there are more clusters that are handled with this email
address.

## Do not manhandle us as simple "Let me Google that for you" assistants

Seriously: have you searched the internet with the exact error message
and the name of your application...? Other scientists may have had the
very same problem and might have been successful in solving it. By the
way: that's almost always how we start to research, too...

## Give descriptive subject

Your subject line should be descriptive. "Problem on Star" is not a
good subject line since it could be valid for basically every support
email we get. The support staff is a team. The subjects are the first
thing that we see. We would like to be able to classify emails according
to subjects before even opening the email.

## Include actual commands and error messages

We cover this below, but it's so important it needs to be mentioned at
the top, too: include the actual command you run and actual error
messages. Copy and paste. If you don't include this, we will be slightly
annoyed and immediately ask this.

Please, do not screen shoot your ssh terminal and send us pictures (jpg,
png, tiff...) of what you saw on your monitor! From these, we would be
unable to cut & paste commands or error messages, unnecessarily slowing
down our research on your problem. Your sample output does not need at
all to "look good", and we don't need to know what fancy ssh- or
terminal software you have: a simple text-based cut & paste directly
into the mail or ticket is the best we can work on with.

## New problem--new email

Do not send support requests by replying to unrelated issues. Every
issue gets a number and this is the number that you see in the subject
line. Replying to unrelated issues means that your email gets filed
under the wrong thread and risks being overlooked.

## The XY problem

This is a classic problem. Please read <http://xyproblem.info>. Often we
know the solution but sometimes we don't know the problem.

In short (quoting from <http://xyproblem.info>):

-   User wants to do X.
-   User doesn't know how to do X, but thinks they can fumble their way
    to a solution if they can just manage to do Y.
-   User doesn't know how to do Y either.
-   User asks for help with Y.
-   Others try to help user with Y, but are confused because Y seems
    like a strange problem to want to solve.
-   After much interaction and wasted time, it finally becomes clear
    that the user really wants help with X, and that Y wasn't even a
    suitable solution for X.

To avoid the XY problem, if you struggle with Y but really what you are
after is X, please also tell us about X. Tell us what you really want to
achieve. Solving Y can take a long time. We have had cases where after
enormous effort on Y we realized that the user wanted X and that Y was
not the best way to achieve X.

## Tell us also what worked

Rather often we get requests of the type "I cannot get X to run on two
nodes". The request then does not mention whether it worked on one node
or on one core or whether it never worked and that this was the first
attempt. Perhaps the problem has even nothing to do with one or two
nodes. In order to better isolate the problem and avoid wasting time
with many back and forth emails, please tell us what actually worked so
far. Tell us what you have tried to isolate the problem. This requires
some effort from you but this is what we expect from you.

## Specify your environment

Have you or your colleague compiled the code? Which modules were loaded?
If you use non-default modules and you do not tell us about it, we will
waste time when debugging with in a different environment.

## Simple cases: Be specific, include commands and errors

Whatever you do, don't say that "X didn't work". Exactly give the
commands you ran, environment (see above), and output error messages.
The actual error messages mean a lot - include all the output, it is
easy to copy and paste it.

The better you describe the problem the less we have to guess and ask.

Sometimes, just seeing the actual error message is enough to give an
useful answer. For all but the simplest cases, you will need to make the
problem reproducible, which you should *always* try anyway. See the
following points.

## Complex cases: Create an example which reproduces the problem

Create an example that we can ideally just copy paste and run and which
demonstrates the problem. It is otherwise very time consuming if the
support team needs to write input files and run scripts based on your
possibly incomplete description. See also next point. Make this example
available to us. We do not search and read read-protected files without
your permission.

## Make the example as small and fast as possible

You run a calculation which crashes after running for one week. You are
tempted to write to support right away with this example but this is not
a good idea. Before you send a support request with this example, first
try to reduce it. Possibly and probably the crash can be reproduced with
a much smaller example (smaller system size or grid or basis set). It is
so much easier to schedule and debug a problem which crashes after few
seconds compared to a run which crashes after hours. Of course this
requires some effort from you but this is what we expect from you in
order to create a useful support request. Often when isolating the
problem, the problem and solution crystallize before even writing the
support request.
