The operations activity of LCG makes use of the infrastructure funded through the EGEE project. There is a hierarchical structure in place to provide operations support. This consists of the following elements:

• Regional Operations Centres (ROC). There is one of these centres in each of the 9 regional federations within EGEE, and they act as the front line support for operations problems within the region, supporting all the grid sites in that region.
• Core Infrastructure Centres (CIC). At the moment there are four of these centres (CERN, CC-IN2P3 in Lyon, CNAF in Bologna, and RAL in the UK). These centres provide a grid "operator" on shift - with the responsibility rotating through the four centres one week at a time. The "CIC-on-duty" provides the oversight for the grid operations, using a variety of monitoring tools as well as direct problem reports to find and analyse operational problems. Problems are reported to the grid sites and their supervising ROC for follow up, the CIC will ensure that problems are followed up and will provide the escalation process if needed. In the near future (April 2005) a fifth CIC will come on-line in Russia. In addition, the ASCC in Taipei also works as a grid operations centre, and will join this effort.
• Teams of experts at CERN and throughout the project also contribute to the analysis and resolution of problems according to expertise.

The CICs follow problems in the full grid infrastructure, including those sites not part of the EGEE project. In that case the oversight and local support for problem follow up falls to the regional Tier 1 centres or falls back to CERN.

Access to the operations procedures, checklists and further details can be seen via the CIC portal maintained at Lyon.

Workshops:

• First workshop was held in November 2004. Several working groups were created to address various issues:
  • Operations
  • Operational security
  • User support
  • Fabric management
• A second workshop is planned for May 24-26 in Bologna.