[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation's support of OTRS

[Sumana Harihareswara]

On 02/21/2013 07:07 AM, Sumana Harihareswara wrote:

> I'm looking at <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/22622> -- "Upgrade
> Wikimedia OTRS installation from 2.4.x CVS to the latest version
> (3.2.1)" -- and I see that Wikimedia Foundation's Rob Halsell has been
> trying to get in touch with Martin Edenhofer, the OTRS inventor, to get
> him onto the next step of helping out.  If anyone knows Edenhofer and
> can ask him to reply, that would be great, even if it's just to say
> "sorry but this isn't something I can take on".  Resolving that will
> reduce the "cookie-licking"
> <http://communitymgt.wikia.com/wiki/Cookie_Licking> and make it easier
> for others to coordinate.

Thank you, Nicole Ebber and others, for helping with this!  Martin's
back and he's continuing to help us out, and has OTRS access and has a
sandbox that WMF's Rob Halsell has set up for him to work in.

> I believe one thing that's needed is a clear commitment or confirmation
> from the Foundation -- do we plan to upgrade or replace OTRS, or not?
> If so, what is our timeframe? I've asked CT Woo, head of WMF Operations,
> to please comment on the bug or on the list.  Since there are security
> implications, I've also notified our Security Engineer, Chris Steipp, to
> remind him of the current situation.

Good news regarding security: we've already deployed patches such that
we are not vulnerable.  See
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22622#c57> for more.

We have WMF Operations engineer Jeff Green assigned to help Martin
Edenhofer in his work upgrading OTRS.  There is currently no set
timeline for delivery.  Martin now has (I believe) all the access he
needs.  Philippe Beaudette is the product owner for OTRS at Wikimedia
Foundation and he is the point of contact on all of this, including the
upgrade.

> And another thing that's needed is clarity from WMF Legal on whether it
> would be okay for a chapter or other affiliated group to work on
> upgrading/moving/hosting/switching from OTRS, and whether there are EU
> data privacy restrictions.  So I've asked Legal for comment.  Once we
> understand that better, I can help Peter Gervai and Madman get going,
> whether to help with an in-place upgrade, a move, or something else;
> thank you so much for your offer!

Legal is talking with Philippe about this.  Peter and Madman, you can
coordinate with Philippe on how to help.

> Rjd0060, thanks for the link to open bugs in WMF's Bugzilla about OTRS
> problems
> <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&component=OTRS&product=Wikimedia>.
>  I've asked our Bug Wrangler, Andre Klapper, and our bug wrangling
> intern Valerie Juarez, to take a look at those tickets just to
> double-check their priority so it's clear what problems the out-of-date
> OTRS system is causing.

We've triaged all the bug reports we have; if you know of a problem with
our OTRS installation, *please* file a bug so we have a systematic way
of knowing what's wrong and following up.
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/How_to_report_a_bug>

> I've also emailed labs-l to follow up on Madman's question regarding the
> status of <https://labsconsole.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nova_Resource:Otrs>
> (the OTRS Labs project).
> 
> Thomas Morton, if you can forward me the note where the WMF promised an
> update to OTRS early this year, that would be great to help me chase
> this down. :-)

No response yet.

I'm bowing out a bit here; Philippe is handling this, and you can check
for updates at <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/22622>.  If you add
yourself to the "cc" list then you'll automatically get an email
whenever someone updates that issue.

-- 
Sumana Harihareswara
Engineering Community Manager
Wikimedia Foundation