Copyright 2015 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this document may be reproduced by any means nor modified,

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2 Copyright 2015 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this document may be reproduced by any means nor modified, decompiled, disassembled, published or distributed, in whole or in part, or translated to any electronic medium or other means without the written consent of SolarWinds. All right, title, and interest in and to the software and documentation are and shall remain the exclusive property of SolarWinds and its respective licensors. SOLARWINDS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, CONDITIONS OR OTHER TERMS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, ON SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION FURNISHED HEREUNDER INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE WARRANTIES OF DESIGN, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL SOLARWINDS, ITS SUPPLIERS, NOR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, WHETHER ARISING IN TORT, CONTRACT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY EVEN IF SOLARWINDS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. The SOLARWINDS, the SOLARWINDS & Design, DAMEWARE, ORION, and other SolarWinds marks, identified on the SolarWinds website, as updated from SolarWinds from time to time and incorporated herein, are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other SolarWinds trademarks may be common law marks or registered or pending registration in the United States or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks contained and/or mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Microsoft, Windows, and SQL Server are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. 4/9/2015

3 Table of Contents Introduction 15 Key Features 15 Ticket Processing 16 For Evaluation Users 17 Before You Begin 19 Server Requirements 19 Hardware 19 Operating System 20 Web Browser 21 Server Sizing 21 SolarWinds Integration Requirements 22 Database Requirements 22 Embedded Database Migration Requirements 23 MySQL Requirements 23 SQL Server Requirements 24 Software 24 Hardware 25 Appliance Requirements 25 Installing the Application 26 Installing Web Help Desk on a Microsoft Windows System 26 Uninstalling the Application 30 Upgrading from Windows 32-bit to Windows 64-bit 31 Installing Web Help Desk on an Apple OSX System 31 Uninstalling Web Help Desk on an Apple OSX System 35 1

4 Installing Web Help Desk on a Linux System 37 Uninstalling Web Help Desk on a Linux System 40 Database Migration Options 41 External Database Options 41 Migrating External or Unsupported Databases to PostgreSQL 41 Migrating from MySQL to SQL Server 42 For More Information 43 Getting Started 44 Setting Up the Database 44 Using an Embedded Database 44 Using an External Database 44 Using an Embedded PostgreSQL Database 45 Creating a Custom SQL Database and Account 46 Creating an Integration Account 47 Creating the Default Admin Account 50 Accessing the Getting Started Wizard 51 Adding and Editing Custom Request Types 52 Adding Custom Request Types 52 Editing Custom Request Types 54 Setting Up the Application 56 Set Up Overview 57 Setup Menu Options 58 Defining Techs 60 Editing Your Administrator Account 61 Creating Techs 62 Defining Tech Groups 66 Creating a Tech Group 66 Assigning Tech Group Levels 67 2

5 Assign Supported Request Types 68 Setting Tech Permissions 69 Defining Ticket Routing Processes 70 Creating Action Rules for Ticket Processing 71 Adding Approver Roles 74 Creating Approver Roles for Locations 74 Adding Department Approver Roles 75 Assigning Clients To Location Approval Roles 75 Assigning Clients To Department Approval Roles 76 Creating a Change Advisory Board (CAB) 76 Adding CAB Status Types 77 Defining the Approval Processes 80 Adding Approval Steps 81 Adding Supported Request Types 83 Applying Approvals 83 Ticket Approvals 83 Approver Action 84 Approvals 84 Client Web Approvals 85 Setting Up Tickets 86 Configuring Ticket Options 87 Defining Request Types 92 Defining Status Types 95 Setting Priority Types and Alert Triggers 96 Creating Custom Ticket Fields 97 Creating Tasks 100 Access the Task Screen 100 Create a New Task 101 3

6 Add New Task Elements 102 Creating New Tickets From Task Elements 104 Entering Locations 105 Defining Location Custom Fields 106 Adding Clients 108 Defining Client Options 108 Setting Up Client Admin Roles 109 Defining Client Custom Fields 109 Importing Active Directory/LDAP Directory Connections 111 Importing Clients 114 Defining Assets 116 Configuring Asset Import and Permissions Options 117 Defining Asset Type, Status, Warranty, and Lease Information 117 Defining Custom Asset Fields 119 Configuring Additional Asset Features 120 Manufacturers & Models 120 Vendors 120 Discovery Connections 120 Adding Manufacturers 120 Adding Vendors 121 Defining PO Custom Fields 121 Importing Asset Data 122 Setting Up Parts & Billing 123 Applying Parts & Billing Options 125 Performing Invoicing 126 Defining Rates & Terms 127 Defining Part Custom Fields 128 Configuring General Settings 129 4

7 Configuring General Options 129 Setting Up Authentication 131 Setting Time & Place 133 Configuring Look & Feel 134 Customizing the Database Connection 138 Setting and Forwarding Log Settings 138 Setting Up 139 Simplifying Management Options 139 Setting Up Outgoing Accounts 140 Setting Up Incoming Accounts 141 Applying Templates 142 Built-in Templates 142 Outgoing Templates 142 Incoming Templates 144 Template Layout 144 Editing Built-in Templates 145 Creating New Templates 148 Applying Tags in Templates 153 Configuring and Managing Authentication 156 Deploying SSO with SAML Using AD FS 157 Before You Begin 158 Help Desk and SAML AD FS Settings 158 Adding AD FS Login URLs to Trusted Sites 159 Deploying SSO with CAS Deploying on Tomcat 161 Enabling SSL on the Help Desk 161 Deploying on the Help Desk Server 161 Configuring a GPO to Push Internet Explorer Settings 162 5

8 Enabling HTTPS 163 Configuring HTTPS Listening Port 164 Configuring URL Ports 164 Enabling Listening for HTTPS Requests 165 Entering SSL Connection Port 166 Restarting the Help Desk 166 Working with Keys and Certificates 166 Using Default Keypair Alias and Passwords 168 Adding Certificate Chains 168 Replacing Self-signed Certificates with CA Certificates 169 Generating a New Certificate in Porteclé 169 Creating a New Keypair 170 Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) 172 Importing CA Chain and Root Certificates 173 Importing a CA Reply Certificate 173 Creating a New Keypair 174 Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) 178 Adding a Certficate Authority to Embedded Java CA Cert Keystore 179 Importing Certificates on Windows or Mac OSX 179 Importing Certificates on Linux Virtual Appliance 180 Importing CA Root and Chain Certificates 180 Importing a CA Reply Certificate 181 Importing an Existing Certificate 182 Creating a PKCS#12 Keystore from a Private Key and a Certificate 183 Exporting a PKCS#12 Keystore from Microsoft Management Console 184 Importing a PKCS#12 File into the Keystore 184 Adding SSL Certificates to the Virtual Appliance 185 Adding a Self-signed SSL Certificate 186 6

9 Adding a Certificate from a Certificate Authority 187 Resolving Untrusted Site Errors After Adding Certificates 189 Certificate Troubleshooting Tips 191 Troubleshooting Scenarios 192 Managing Clients 194 Manually Adding a New Client 194 Configuring Client Notifications 194 Viewing Client Information 195 Enabling Client-initiated Account Setup 195 Assigning Assets 196 Managing Tickets 198 Ticket Flow 198 Manually Creating Tickets 200 Creating Quick Tickets 200 Customizing Ticket Views 201 Searching Tickets 203 Refining Search Results 205 Displaying Print Views 205 Performing Ticket Bulk Actions 205 Merging Tickets 207 Configuring Ticket Details 209 Selecting a Request Type 210 Improving Ticket Resolution with Ticket Types 210 Changing Ticket Relationships 211 Linking and Unlinking Incident and Problem Tickets 212 Adding Details to Tickets with Tech Notes 214 Tech Permissions and Tickets 215 Ticket Recipients 216 7

10 Managing Ticket Tasks 217 Escalating and De-escalating Tickets 218 Creating Tickets 219 Updating Tickets Using 220 Using Client Ticket s 220 Using Tech Ticket s 222 Managing Assets 227 Discovering Assets 228 Configuring Asset Discovery Tools 228 Configuring Absolute Manage (LANrev) Settings 229 Configuring Apple Remote Desktop 3.2 Settings 230 Configuring Apple Remote Desktop 3.3 Settings and Later 232 Configuring Casper 8 Settings and Earlier 234 Configuring Casper 9 Settings 235 Configuring Database Table or View Settings 237 Configuring Lansweeper Settings 238 Configuring Microsoft SMS/SCCM Settings 239 Configuring NCM, NPM, or SAM Settings 240 Configuring WHD Discovery Engine (WMI) Settings 241 Syncing and Discovering Assets 245 Adding Assets 245 Removing Assets 247 Editing Asset Properties 248 Working with Asset Properties 248 Creating Parent and Child Associations 251 Adding Purchase Orders 253 Defining Vendors 253 Adding a Purchase Order 254 8

11 Adding Purchase Order Line Items 255 Importing Purchase Orders 256 Searching Assets 256 Refining Search Results 256 Saved Queries 256 Reserving Assets 257 Making Assets Reservable 257 Reserving as a Tech 258 Reserving as a Client 258 Checking In and Out 259 Importing Asset Data 260 Managing FAQs 262 Creating New FAQs 262 Accessing FAQs 263 Searching FAQs 264 Working with Reports 265 Using Sample Reports 266 Creating and Editing Reports 267 Create Ticket Reports 269 Designing Billing Reports 273 Creating Report Groups 274 Building Report Schedules 275 Managing Parts and Billing 276 Manually Adding Parts 278 Configuring Inventory Alerts 279 Overriding Default Inventory Alert Recipients 279 Enabling Service Time Blocks 280 Customizing the Billing Statement Template 281 9

12 Getting Client Feedback 282 Creating Surveys 282 Creating Messages 284 Reviewing Survey Results 285 View Ticket Details 285 Viewing Survey Results Reports 285 Sending Ticket Surveys 286 Importing Data 287 Using Templates to Import Data 288 Exporting Data 290 Exporting Tickets 290 Exporting Clients 291 Exporting Assets 291 Exporting Parts 292 Exporting FAQs 292 Customizing Tickets, Notes, Instructions, and s with BBCode 293 Applying Basic Formatting 295 Creating Your Own Tags 296 Adding Clickable Links 297 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 299 Configuring Orion-to-Web Help Desk Ticketing 299 Enabling SolarWinds Orion to Share Alerts with Web Help Desk 299 Configuring Orion Alerts for Orion Platform Configuring Orion Alerts Prior to Orion Platform Testing Orion Server Access to the Help Desk Integration Account 306 Entering an SolarWinds Orion Alert Source into Web Help Desk 307 Assigning Request Types 309 Entering SolarWinds Account and Credentials Data

13 Configuring Alert Filtering Rules 309 Understanding Rule Configuration 310 Using the Rule Configuration Interface 311 Adding and Configuring Matching Rules 312 Adding and Configuring Complex Rules 315 Alert Filtering Configuration Example 315 Testing Alert Filtering Rules 317 Parsing Orion Alert-based Tickets Using Action Rules 319 Sample Orion Alert-based Web Help Desk Ticket 322 Embedding Web Help Desk into the Orion Web Console 323 Creating Web Help Desk Link in NPM Node Details 325 Putting Web Help Desk on the NPM Menu Bar 326 Integrating with DameWare MRC 329 Installing DameWare MRC 330 Using DameWare MRC 330 Configuring Integration 331 Launching and Closing DameWare MRC 332 Launching DameWare from a Client Ticket 332 Launching DameWare from an Asset 333 Closing a DameWare Session 333 Deploying as a Virtual Appliance 335 Using VMware vsphere 335 Using Microsoft Hyper-V 338 Upgrading the Virtual Appliance 341 Upgrading on vsphere 341 Upgrading on Hyper-V 342 Managing the Appliance 343 Logging in to the Appliance

14 Setting the Time Zone 344 Configuring Network Settings 345 Configuring Proxy Settings 346 Rebooting the Appliance 347 Changing the Appliance Administrator Password 348 Deployment Considerations 349 Memory Sizing and JVM Options 349 Supporting Less Than 20 Techs 349 Supporting More Than 20 Techs 349 Clearing JVM Heap Memory 350 Automatically Restarting Mac OS X 350 Automatically Restarting Windows 351 Automatically Restarting Linux 352 WebObjects on Mac OS X Server 352 High Availability Deployments 355 Monitoring Deployment on Mac OS X 355 Configuring Multiple Instance Tomcat Deployments 356 Configuring Multiple Instance Tomcat Daemons 360 Setting the Tomcat Daemon 361 Setting Daemon Memory 361 Setting WebObjects Daemon Mode 361 Deploying Multiple Virtual Machines 362 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL External Databases 363 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server 363 Configuring MySQL 367 Integrating Apache 371 Installing IIS 373 Customizing Server Settings

15 Help Desk Ports 377 WHD Interfaces 377 Databases 377 s 378 LDAP/AD 378 Asset Discovery 379 Unsecured and Secured Ports for Login 380 No Redirect to HTTPS 381 URL Ports (Optional) 382 Tomcat Server Port 383 Mail Notification Port 383 Java Home Location 383 IP Address 384 Privileged Networks 385 Keystore Settings (for SSL Connnections) 386 Memory Allocation 387 Database Connections 388 Java Command Line Options 389 Database Datatypes 390 Frequently Asked Questions

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17 Introduction SolarWinds Web Help Desk software (WHD) is a web-based automated ticketing solution that helps you manage your IT support requests for both internal and external clients. Web Help Desk includes a web console with an integrated dashboard for performance reporting. Using customizable widgets that you add to the dashboard, you can track metrics such as ticket activity, ticket status, and ticket resolution in real time to help you decide how well your help desk is performing. All help desk processes are managed through the web console. After you set up the application, you can configure Web Help Desk to perform specific tasks, such as routing tickets to a specific help desk technician or work group, billing customers for parts and labor costs, and creating new tickets from requests or alert messages from a supported monitoring application. You can run Web Help Desk on the following operating systems and platforms: Microsoft Windows Server Apple OSX Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Fedora CentOS VMware vsphere Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines Key Features Web Help Desk provides the following features for your enterprise or managed service provider (MSP) help desk operations: Automated Ticketing. You can generate tickets manually in the user interface or automatically by s from any third-party monitoring tool. If you are running DameWare Mini Remote Control (MRC) (included with Help Desk Essentials), you can establish a remote connection and 15

18 Introduction troubleshoot a client's system directly from a ticket or asset and save remote session details into a new or existing ticket. Asset Management. Using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or supported third-party discovery tools, you can search a specific IP address range in your corporate network and create a list of client assets (such as computer systems, installed software, and attached peripherals). When asset discovery is completed, you can use DameWare MRC to connect remotely to a client system, troubleshoot the issue, and append remote session information to a new or existing ticket. Knowledge Base. Includes an extensive library of FAQs, integrated tool tips, and help you can access from the web console. Communication. Automatically creates new tickets from alerts received from SolarWinds monitoring products, such as SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. If the ticket is not resolved within a pre-configured span of time, Web Help Desk can escalate the ticket and send an SMS alert to the assigned help desk technician. Additionally, when you create new tickets, you can send notes to the end user to provide status or request additional information. Ticket Processing WHD initiates and manages your help desk processes through the WHD web console, , SMS, and built-in procedures. After you configure WHD, it automatically routes tickets to the proper technician and updates your customer. If a repair requires spare parts, WHD orders the required parts and automatically bills the customer for parts and labor costs. WHD accepts ticket requests and opens a ticket based on the information in the . You can also update and close tickets using . Each customer can access a web console dedicated to their help desk needs. Customers have access to all of their help desk features through a web portal, and they cannot see any information about other customers help desks. The following illustrations describes the basic WHD processes at a high level. 16

19 For Evaluation Users For Evaluation Users For 30 days after you install your free version of Web Help Desk, you have unlimited Tech seats. If you have not entered a license after 30 days, Web Help 17

20 Introduction Desk automatically switches to a 1-Tech license, allowing updates up to 1 year. All Tech accounts other than the initial admin account become inactive. Purchasing and entering a license reactivates the deactivated accounts. Once you have purchased a license, enter it into Web Help Desk at Setup > General > License. Note: Converting your unlicensed version of Web Help Desk to a licensed version keeps all your existing Web Help Desk settings or files, so there is no need for reinstallation or reconfiguration. 18

21 Before You Begin SolarWinds recommends reviewing the following requirements before performing an installation, upgrade, or migration: Server Requirements Database Requirements Discovery Connector Requirements Hypervisor Requirements LDAP Requirements Mobile Admin Requirements Virtual Appliance Requirements Server Requirements The following tables list the minimum Web Help Desk requirements for: Hardware Web Server Operating System Web Browser Hardware Component CPU RAM Hard Drive Space Requirements Intel 64-bit Dual Core 2.0GHz or faster 3GB (up to 10 technicians) Add 1GB for every 10 additional technicians 20GB 19

22 Before You Begin Application Ports 8081 (or alternate browser port) 1433 (Microsoft SQL Server) Operating System Type Microsoft Windows (less than 20 technicians) Microsoft Windows (more than 20 technicians) Microsoft Windows (Trial evaluation only) Apple iphone (for WHD Mobile) Apple OSX Red Hat CentOS Fedora Supported Versions Windows Server bit Windows Server 2008 (32- and 64-bit) Windows Server 2008 Release 2 (R2) 64-bit Windows Server bit Windows Server 2012 R2 64-bit Windows Server bit Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit Windows Server bit Windows XP (32- and 64-bit) Windows Vista (32- and 64-bit) Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit) Windows 8.0 (32- and 64-bit) Windows 8.1 (32- and 64-bit) Apple ios 5 through (Mountain Lion) 10.9 (Mavericks) (Yosemite) Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) bit CentOS 6.5 (32- and 64-bit) Fedora 20 (32- and 64-bit) 20

23 Web Browser Web Browser Note: Due to frequent updates of Google Chrome v32 and Mozilla Firefox v32, check the SolarWinds Support Website for the latest information about compatibility issues between these web browsers and the latest version of Web Help Desk. Type Google Chrome Supported Versions Latest version Mozilla Firefox Firefox 30 Firefox 32 Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) IE8 IE9 IE10 IE11 Apple Safari Safari 5 Server Sizing Safari 6 Safari 7 SolarWinds Web Help Desk software manages help desk operations for networks of any size from small corporate LANs to large enterprise and service provider networks. Most Web Help Desk systems perform well on 3.0GHz systems with 3GB of RAM. However, when you create a large number of techs, consider the existing hardware and the system configuration. SolarWinds recommends adding 1GB of memory to your Web Help Desk server for every 10 technicians. If you plan to integrate Web Help Desk with existing SolarWinds products, ensure that your SolarWinds server is running SolarWinds Orion Platform or later. WHD requires this version to integrate SolarWinds alerts into trouble tickets. For information about SolarWinds upgrade paths and compatibility, see the SolarWinds Knowledge Base article Compatibility of SolarWinds Orion Products for Installation and Upgrade. For SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) software upgrade and licensing instructions, see Installing SolarWinds 21

24 Before You Begin Orion Network Performance Monitor, in the SolarWinds Orion Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide. SolarWinds Integration Requirements The following table lists the SolarWinds products that integrate with Web Help Desk. Supported Product SolarWinds Orion Platform SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor (SAM) SolarWinds Network Configuration Monitor (NCM) Version SolarWinds Orion Platform and later SolarWinds NPM 10.4 and later SolarWinds SAM 5.5 and later SolarWinds NCM and later Note: SolarWinds SAM and SolarWinds NCM must be running with SolarWinds NPM to integrate with Web Help Desk. Database Requirements Web Help Desk uses an embedded PostgreSQL database as its standard database. See Embedded Database Requirements for specific requirements information. The following table lists the supported databases. Database Supported Versions PostgreSQL PostgreSQL 9.2 PostgreSQL MySQL MySQL 5.6 MySQL

25 Embedded Database Migration Requirements Microsoft SQL Server SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2012 SQL Server 2014 Note: For optimal external database performance, run Web Help Desk and a supported external database on separate servers. See MySQL Requirements and SQL Server Requirements for more information about software and hardware requirements. Embedded Database Migration Requirements Web Help Desk does not support the pre- WHD v FrontBase database. To automatically upgrade an embedded FrontBase database to an embedded PostgreSQL database, upgrade to Web Help Desk v and then upgrade to the latest version. Note: External FrontBase databases must be manually migrated to the embedded PostgreSQL database. To ensure that the Web Help Desk database upgrade starts automatically after the Web Help Desk upgrade, ensure that: Both FrontBase and PostgreSQL are running. The embedded FrontBase uses the whd and user whd schemas. The new server has enough free space to support the database migration. Web Help Desk notifies the user about the space required before migration begins. The migration process creates a $WEB_HELPDESK_HOME/temp folder with associated files. As a result, the system administrator performing the installation must have write privileges on both the FrontBase and PostgreSQL databases. After you upgrade to version , you can upgrade to the latest version. The version upgrade converts your embedded FrontBase database to an embedded PostgreSQL database. No additional database conversions are required to upgrade to the latest version. MySQL Requirements The following table lists the minimum software and hardware requirements for the MySQL database server. 23

26 Before You Begin Software and Hardware MySQL Database CPU Speed Hard Drive Space Memory Requirement MySQL Community, Cluster, or Enterprise (version 5.5 or later) MySQL Workbench Tools Intel Dual core 2.0GHz or better 20GB 2GB plus 1GB for every additional 10 techs SQL Server Requirements The following tables list the minimum software and hardware requirements for the SQL database server. Software Software and Hardware Database Requirement Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, Express, or Standard Edition Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, Express, or Standard Edition with the following components and requirements: SQL Server Database Engine SQL Server Management Studio SQL Server Management Tools TCP/IP enabled SQL authentication support CPU Speed Intel Dual Core 2.0GHz or better 24

27 Hardware Hard Drive Space Memory 20GB 2GB (+1GB for every 10 Techs) Hardware Component CPU Hard Drive Space RAM Requirements Intel Dual Core 2.0GHz or better 20GB 2GB with 1GB additional RAM for every additional 10 techs Appliance Requirements Web Help Desk supports installations on VMware and Microsoft virtual appliances when the hosting servers meet the minimum configuration requirements. Virtual server requirements are the same as the Web Help Desk server requirements. 25

28 Installing the Application The following procedures describe how to install Web Help Desk on Windows, Apple, and Linux servers. Before you begin, ensure that the host system meets or exceeds the recommended requirements. See Software and Hardware Requirements for more information. During the installation, you are prompted to create a unique account to receive and process alerts from Orion Platform systems. See Creating an Integration Account for more information. Installing Web Help Desk on a Microsoft Windows System To install Web Help Desk on a server running a supported version of the Microsoft Windows Server operating system: 1. Using an account with local administrative privileges, log on to the server that will host the application. Before you begin, ensure that you: Do not use a domain account. Ensure that the account is not subject to any local or group policy restrictions. Use the Run as administrator option when launching the installer on a system running Windows Server Quit all other programs before running the installer. 2. If you are installing Web Help Desk from a downloaded.zip file, navigate to the file, extract the evaluation package to an appropriate location, and launch the executable. If you are installing Web Help Desk from a CD, locate and launch the executable from the CD. 26

29 Installing the Application If you are installing Web Help Desk on a system running Windows Server 2008, right-click the installer and select Run as administrator. When you launch the executable, the Introduction window appears. 3. Review the Introduction text, and then click Next. 27

30 Installing Web Help Desk on a Microsoft Windows System The License Agreement window appears. 4. Review and accept the terms of the license agreement, and then click Next. The Choose Install Folder window appears. 28

31 Installing the Application 5. Accept the default installation location or click Choose to select a new location. If you created a new installation folder but decide to accept the default location, click Restore Default Folder. 6. Click Next to continue. The Choose Shortcut Folder window appears. 7. Select a location for the product shortcut icons, then click Next. The installer creates icons in your selected location. If you select a location other than the Program group, the icons will not appear in Start > All Programs. Next, the Pre-Installation Summary window appears. 29

32 Uninstalling the Application 8. Review the information in the window, then click Install. The installation procedure begins, which requires several minutes to complete. When completed, the Install Complete window appears. 9. Click Done. The Install Complete window closes and the installation procedure is completed. Uninstalling the Application To uninstall the application on a Windows Server system: 1. Quit all running programs. 2. Using an account with local administrative privileges, log on to the server that will host the application. 2. Navigate to: C:\Program Files\ Web Help Desk The WebHelpDesk directory appears. 30

33 Installing the Application 3. In the directory, double-click UNINSTALL.bat. A command prompt window appears with a message prompting you to verify the uninstall. 4. Enter y to continue. WHD and its associated data are uninstalled from the system. 5. Close the command prompt window. Upgrading from Windows 32-bit to Windows 64-bit If you are upgrading from Web Help Desk 32-bit to Web Help Desk 64-bit, uninstall the 32-bit version before you continue. See Uninstalling on Windows for more information. When completed, install the 64-bit version. See Installing on Windows for more information. Installing Web Help Desk on an Apple OSX System To install Web Help Desk on a system running a supported version of the Apple OSX operating system: 31

34 Installing Web Help Desk on an Apple OSX System 1. Quit all running programs. 2. Using an account with local administrative privileges, log on to the Apple server that will host the application. 3. If you downloaded the application from the SolarWinds or Web Help Desk website, navigate to your downloaded.dmg file and double-click the file. If you are installing the application from a CD, locate and double-click the.dmg executable to mount the installation program. The Web Help Desk splash screen appears. 5. Double-click WebHelpDesk.pkg. The Welcome screen appears. 32

35 Installing the Application 6. Review the introduction text, and then click Continue. The Software License Agreement screen appears. 7. Review the terms of the license agreement, and then click Continue. A dialog screen appears, prompting you to accept the terms of the software license agreement. 33

36 Installing Web Help Desk on an Apple OSX System 8. Click Agree to accept the license terms. The Standard Install screen appears. 9. Review the installation information, and then click Install. The Installation Complete screen appears. 34

37 Installing the Application 10. Click Close to complete the installation. The application is installed on your Apple OSX system. Uninstalling Web Help Desk on an Apple OSX System To uninstall WHD on an Apple OSX system: 1. Quit all running programs. 2. Using an account with local administrative privileges, log on to the server that is hosting Web Help Desk. 3. Open your Applications directory. The Applications folder appears. 35

38 Uninstalling Web Help Desk on an Apple OSX System 4. In the directory, double-click Uninstall Web Help Desk. A command prompt appears, prompting you to verify the uninstall. 5. Enter Y or Yes to delete the application and associated data. Web Help Desk is uninstalled from your Apple OSX system. 6. Close the command prompt window. 36

39 Installing the Application Installing Web Help Desk on a Linux System Note: Installing Web Help Desk on a Linux system does not require appliance deployment. To install Web Help Desk on a system running a supported version of the Linux operating system: 1. Quit all running programs. 2. Using an account with local administrative privileges, log on to the server that will host Web Help Desk. 3. Navigate to your downloaded executable or the CD containing the executable. 4. Run the appropriate command based on your system configuration. For 32-bit systems, run: gunzip webhelpdesk- webhelpdesk xxx-1.i386.rpm For 64-bit systems, run: gunzip webhelpdesk- webhelpdesk-12.2.x.xxx-1.x86_ 64.rpm 5. Run the appropriate installer command based on your system configuration. For 32-bit systems, run: rpm -ivhwebhelpdesk-12.2.x.xxx-1.i386.rpm For 64-bit systems, run: sudo rpm - webhelpdesk-12.2.x.xxx-1.x86_64.rpm During the installation, the following message appears: [root@loalhost ~]# r[m -ivh webhelpdesk-12.2.x.xxx- 1.x86_64.rpm Preparing...webhelpdesk-12.2.X.XXX-1.x86_64.rpm ######################################### [100%] 1:webhelpdesk ######################################### [100%] 37

40 Installing Web Help Desk on a Linux System Setting up the webhelpdesk-to start automatically at boot...done. To start the webhelpdesk, use 'usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd: start' Note: To upgrade an existing Web Help Desk Linux installation, apply the command -Uvh, rather than -ivh. 6. Run the following command to start the application: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd start During start-up, the following message appears: [root@localhost ~]# /usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd start Web Help Desk 12.2.X.XXX Copyright (c) SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC Using XX:MaxPermSize=256Starting postgresql-9.2 service: [ OK ] Starting the Web Help Desk on port Using CATALINA_BASE: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/bin/tomcat Using CATALINA_HOME: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/bin/tomcat Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/bin/tomcat/temp Using JRE_HOME: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/bin/jre Using CLASSPATH: /usr/local/webhelpdesk /bin/tomcat/bin/bootstrap.jar:/usr/local/webhelpdesk/ bin/tomcat/bin/tomcat-juli.jar Using CATALINA_PID: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/log/.whd.pid[root@localhost ~] # 38

41 Installing the Application Note: You can stop the application by running the following command: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd stop When you stop WHD, the following message appears: ~]# /usr/local/webhelpdesk stop Web Help Desk 12.2.X.XXX Copyright (c) SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC Using XX:MaxPermSize=256Stopping the Web Help Desk... Stopping postgresql-9.2 service: [ OK ][root@localhost ~]# 7. Launch your browser and navigate to the following URL: The Introduction text appears. 8. Review the text, and then click Next. The License Agreement text appears. 9. Review the terms of the agreement, and then click Agree. The Installation Information screen appears. 10. Review the information, and then click Next. A prompt appears, stating that the installation is completed. 11. Click Close. A dialog screen appears. To use the embedded PostgreSQL database, click Continue and go to step 12. To use a MySQL database, click Cancel and perform the following steps to connect WHD to MySQL: 39

42 Uninstalling Web Help Desk on a Linux System a. Clear the Use Embedded Database check box. b. On the right side of the Vendor list, click the drop-down menu and select: Microsoft SQL Server c. In the Host field, enter the SQL server IP address. d. In the Port field, enter: 1433 e. In the Database and Username fields, enter: WHD f. Enter the SQL whd user s password, and click Save. g. Close the Web Help Desk console. h. In the Applications folder, double click Stop Web Help Desk. i. In the Applications folder, double click Web Help Desk. j. Click Continue to initialize the SQL database and start WHD. 12. In the WHD web console, enter admin for the user address and admin for the password, and then click Log In. You are logged in. Uninstalling Web Help Desk on a Linux System To uninstall Web Help Desk on a Linux system: 1. Quit all running programs. 2. Using an account with local administrative privileges, log on to the server that is hosting Web Help Desk. 3. Run the uninstaller using one of the following commands: # rpm -e webhelpdesk-12.2.x.xxx-1.i386.rpm or yum remove webhelpdesk-12.2.x.xxx-1.x86_64.rpm The uninstall is completed. 40

43 Installing the Application Database Migration Options SolarWinds does not provide support, tools, or assistance with database migration. For information about migrating your database using a third-party tool, contact the tool vendor for assistance. Web Help Desk uses an embedded PostgreSQL database as its standard database. If you are upgrading to Web Help Desk v and later with an embedded FrontBase database, the Web Help Desk installation wizard walks you through upgrading the existing database to an embedded PostgreSQL database. To avoid future update issues, SolarWinds strongly recommends migrating your data before you update Web Help Desk to the next version. External Database Options Web Help Desk supports Microsoft SQL Server versions 2008 and 2012 and MySQL version 5.5 as external databases. You can also use an external PostgreSQL 9.2 or 9.3 database with Web Help Desk v and later. See Configuring Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL External Databases for more information. Important: If you are using an Oracle or OpenBase database, use a migration tool that migrates your data to a supported database (such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQL Server). Use caution when choosing target data types to use in one of the supported databases. If Web Help Desk does not support the data type, you may experience unexpected results when upgrading to the latest version. See Database Datatypes for information about mapping information types across other databases types. Migrating External or Unsupported Databases to PostgreSQL SolarWinds does not provide support, tools, or assistance with database migration. For information about migrating your external or unsupported databases using a third-party tool (such as PGAdmin3 or PostgreSQL Data Wizard), contact the tool vendor for assistance. 41

44 Migrating from MySQL to SQL Server Web Help Desk v and later does not support migration to FrontBase, OpenBase, or Oracle databases. If you choose to migrate from an external or unsupported database to PostgreSQL on your own without SolarWinds support, stop Web Help Desk and convert the data types in your old database to the data types used in your new database. See Database Datatypes for database data types used in previously and currently supported Web Help Desk databases. Note: Convert the data types before you migrate your data. See Converting from other Databases to PostgreSQL on the PostgreSQL website for information about migrating from an external or unsupported database to PostgreSQL. This article covers database migration from many databases, including, but not limited, to: FileMaker Pro IBM DB2 Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Server (SQL Server) MySQL Oracle Migrating from MySQL to SQL Server SolarWinds does not provide support, tools, or assistance with database migration. For information about migrating your database using a third-party tool, contact the tool vendor for assistance. If you choose to migrate a MySQL database to Microsoft SQL Server using a thirdparty tool on your own without SolarWinds support, map the data types in your old MySQL database to the data types used in your new SQL Server database. For identical data types that span both databases (such as DATETIME), use the Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) 5.2 tool. You must manually convert inconsistent data types, such as DECIMAL (MySQL) and money(sql Server), because the SSMA conversion tool does not support these data types. 42

45 Installing the Application The following steps provide an overview for migrating a MySQL database to SQL Server: 1. Stop Web Help Desk. 2. Perform the database migration using the SSMA tool to migrate datatypes (such as DATETIME), which are the same in both MySQL and SQL Server. 3. In the SSMA tool, manually map MySQL data types to SQL Server data types using the data type in Database Datatypes. 4. Start Web Help Desk. 5. Change the database settings to connect to a new SQL Server database. 6. Continue the upgrade to the latest version. For More Information See Automating Database Migration to SQL Server 2012 to download SSMA 5.2. See MySQL to SQL Server Migration: How to Use SSMA for instructions about applying SSMA to convert MySQL schema to a SQL Server format. See Database Datatypes, for a complete list of current and previous WHD database data types that include MySQL and SQL Server. SolarWinds recommends converting data types before beginning the migration process. Note: The Automating Database Migration to SQL Server 2012 page also contains links for downloading SSMA versions for converting Oracle, Sybase, and Access databases to SQL Server. 43

46 Getting Started The first time you use Web Help Desk, the application walks you through the setup process using a Getting Started Wizard. This wizard walks you through the following processes: Setting up your database Creating an account for alerts Creating an admin account Adding and editing custom requests Setting Up the Database Before you install Web Help Desk, decide whether to use an embedded or external database. Web Help Desk v and later comes standard with an embedded PostgreSQL database. Using an Embedded Database The embedded database is easy to set up. It works well for small to medium installations, and is configured as part of the Web Help Desk application setup in the Web Help Desk Getting Started Wizard. See Using an Embedded PostgreSQL Database for more information. Using an External Database SolarWinds recommends using a Microsoft SQL Server database. Be sure to install and configure SQL Server before you install Web Help Desk. SQL Server and Web Help Desk can reside on the same server or on a separate server. Web Help Desk can also use a new SQL database instance on an existing SQL Server. See Creating a Custom SQL Database for information about setting up an external Web Help Desk database. 44

47 Getting Started If you have an existing database, consider using an external database with Web Help Desk. Enterprise or multiple client installations must use an external database. Using an Embedded PostgreSQL Database When the Web Help Desk Getting Started Wizard prompts you to select a database, select Use Embedded PostgreSQL database (recommended) and click Next. 45

48 Creating a Custom SQL Database and Account Creating a Custom SQL Database and Account To set up an external database in Web Help Desk: 1. Select Use Custom SQL database (advanced). 2. Click the Database Type drop-down menu and select the appropriate database. 2. Enter the appropriate information in the remaining fields. 3. Click Test to test the database connection. If Web Help Desk connects with the external database, click Next. If Web Help Desk cannot connect with the external database, check your settings and rerun the test. If you do not have an account on the selected database: 1. Select Create database and user account if necessary. 2. Enter the database admin account user name. 46

49 Getting Started 3. Enter the database admin account password. 4. Click Create. See Configuring Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL Databases for information about setting up your external database to work with Web Help Desk. Creating an Integration Account An alert source is a system or device that generates alerts. The source sends directly to Web Help Desk or to the Web Help Desk integration account. This source can be an Orion Platform system (direct) or another generating system. You can configure Web Help Desk to receive and process alerts from any alert source that transmits . The alert source transmits to the Web Help Desk integration account you create. The following illustration describes how Web Help Desk processes the alerts. The integration account provides additional systems an integration point with Web Help Desk. This account includes both incoming and outgoing to and from the application. By default, Web Help Desk polls this account each minute for from users and alert-generating systems. Web Help Desk processes and transforms these s into Web Help Desk tickets and deletes all other s from the account. For information about configuring Web Help Desk to recognize and process s from the Integration account, see Setting Up Incoming Accounts. 47

50 Creating an Integration Account To ensure the best possible system performance and results, set up a dedicated Web Help Desk integration account. WHD requires a dedicated business account for all integration . After you set up the dedicated account on a mail server, enter the configuration information in the Getting Started Wizard. Note: The incoming mail account requires an assigned request type by default. Web Help Desk uses your first configured request type as the default. When you complete the procedures in the Getting Started Wizard, you can update your account information by clicking Setup > and selecting either Outgoing Mail Accounts or Incoming Accounts. To configure your accounts in Web Help Desk in the Setup Wizard: 1. During the installation procedure In the Setup Wizard, navigate to Accounts. The Accounts window appears. 48

51 Getting Started 2. In the top field, enter the integration account address. 3. Complete the remaining fields as required. 4. Maximize Advanced. 5. In the Incoming Mail Port field, enter the port number for incoming mail. 6. Select the Require a Secure Connection check box (if required). 7. In the SMTP port field, enter the port number for outgoing mail. 8. In the Test Addresses field, enter your test addresses. Web Help Desk uses these addresses to test connectivity. 9. Click Test. 49

52 Creating the Default Admin Account If Web Help Desk contacts the account and is able to send the test , click Next. If Web Help Desk cannot contact the account and send the test , check your settings and rerun the test. 10. Click Next to continue. See Creating the Default Admin Account. Creating the Default Admin Account During setup, the Getting Started Wizard prompts you to create a single default admin account. This local "super user" account is used to: Log in to Web Help Desk for the first time and configure the application. Access all Web Help Desk settings and accounts. Administrators with a default admin account can create all user accounts, including additional admin accounts. The default admin account includes tech account privileges, allowing you to create and process tickets with tech privileges. Techs can have either Tech or Tech Admin account privileges. For information about adding tech accounts, see Defining Techs. Additionally, you can create client accounts and clients with privileges to create their own accounts. For information about creating client accounts, see Adding Clients. To create the default admin account: 1. In the Setup Wizard, navigate to the Admin Account section. The Create an Admin Account screen appears. 50

53 Getting Started 2. Enter your name, user name, password, and address in the appropriate fields. 3. Click Next to continue. The Request Types section appears. Accessing the Getting Started Wizard After you complete the Getting Started Wizard and create your Admin account, the Getting Started Wizard is no longer accessible. To access the Web Help Desk application, log in through the Web Help Desk login page. If you try to access the Getting Started Wizard, an error message appears with a link to the login page, as shown below. 51

54 Adding and Editing Custom Request Types To change your Web Help Desk settings after you initialize the application, use the Web Help Desk Setup area. The Default Admin account is the only Web Help Desk account that can view and use the Switch to Demo Client account toolbar button. When you create the Default Admin account, the Getting Started Wizard automatically links the Demo Client account. Additional Admin and Tech accounts must be specifically configured to link to a client account. Adding and Editing Custom Request Types When a client creates a ticket, they can select a request type in the Ticket Details tab to specify a category that categorizes their issue (for example, /Outlook, Facilities, or HR). During setup, you can configure request types that route tickets to specific Techs for problem resolution, automating your help desk processes. Web Help Desk includes standard request types, such as Hardware, Network, and /Outlook. If your organization requires custom request types to address additional requests, the WHD administrator can add and define these request types and edit the properties of existing request types to suit your needs. Note: For seamless integration with DameWare Remote Support, ensure that all Web Help Desk request types do not include required custom fields. Adding Custom Request Types To add a custom request type: 1. In the Getting Started Wizard, navigate to Account Types. The Add custom Request Types screen appears. 52

55 Getting Started 2. Maximize Add Request Type. The Create New Request Type window appears. 3. In the Request Type Name field, enter Security. 53

56 Editing Custom Request Types 4. In the Default Priority field, click the drop-down menu and select Urgent. 5. Maximize Advanced. 6. Click Add New Group. 7. Enter the name of the group handling security. In this example, the group is called Web Security. 8. Click Add. 9. Select any of the following options to enable clients to provide as much detail as possible: Require clients to add details Allow clients to add attachments Allow clients to review these requests after they are created 10. Click Save. Editing Custom Request Types To edit a request type: 1. Select a request type and click Edit. 2. Edit the request type as needed. For example, when editing the request type in the previous section, you can change the request name from Security to Web Security. 3. Click Save to save your edits. 4. Click Finish to complete the Web Help Desk setup. The Getting Started Wizard configures the embedded PostgreSQL database and the Web Help Desk application with your edits. 54

57 Getting Started 5. Click Login as Admin to continue setup. 6. Review and accept the End User License Agreement (EULA) and then click Continue. Web Help Desk starts and opens the My Tickets window. 55

58 Setting Up the Application SolarWinds recommends planning and implement a configuration strategy that supports your help desk operations and corporate structure. The order you create WHD settings and how you weight each setting (for ticket assignment) can impact your deployment. For example, you can assign tickets to technicians based on where service is needed, by the type of location requiring service, by the department needing support, or by another option. Additional considerations include: Number of worldwide locations in our organization Types of support your techs provide Number of supported clients Types of support your clients require Number of help desk techs Number of techs with specific areas of expertise Number of multi-skilled techs who can troubleshoot and resolve multiple types of customer issues These considerations can help you determine how and in which order to configure your WHD settings. See General Configuration Approach Example for an example setup deployment. The following sections describe how to configure WHD for your help desk operations. Setup Overview Defining Techs Defining Ticket Routing Processes Setting Up Tickets Entering Locations 56

59 Setting Up the Application Adding Clients Adding Assets Setting Up Parts & Billing Configuring General Settings Setting Up Set Up Overview The following steps provide a basic overview of how to set up Web Help Desk in a typical help desk deployment. 1. Configure the techs in your help desk deployment. This procedure describes how to add each tech, define your tech groups, and set up their permissions. See Defining Techs. 2. Define the ticket routing processes for all requests. This procedure describes how to set up action rules for ticket processing, add approver roles, define your approval processes, and apply approvals to tickets. See Defining Ticket Routing Processes. 3. Configure your ticket functions. This procedure describes how to define request types, status types, priority types and alert triggers, custom ticket fields, and tasks. See Setting Up Tickets. 4. Configure your customer locations. This procedure describes how to define companies; locations and rooms; location groups and assigned locations, techs, and group managers; location custom fields; departments and department groups; and department custom fields. See Entering Locations. 5. Configure your clients. This procedure describes how to set up client administration roles, define client custom fields, import Active Directory / LDAP directory connections, and import clients. See Adding Clients. 57

60 Setup Menu Options 6. Define your assets. This procedure describes how to configure your asset import and permission options; define asset type, status, warranty, and lease information; define asset custom fields; add manufacturer and model information; add vendors; define purchase order custom fields; and import asset data. See Defining Assets. 7. Set up your parts and billing processes. This procedure describes how to apply parts and billing options, create invoicing options, define rates and terms, and define custom fields for your parts. See Set Up Parts and Billing. 8. Configure your general settings. This procedure describes how to activate your WHD license, configure general user interface options, setting up your authentication method in the web browser interface, setting up the time zone and local work hours for your employees, configuring the look and feel of the WHD console (such as adding your company logo), customize your database connection, and configure your log settings. See Configuring General Settings. 9. Set up your incoming and outgoing settings. This procedure includes setting up your inbound and outbound accounts, applying templates, and applying tags in templates. See Setting Up . Setup Menu Options When you click Setup, the Setup screen appears with a left column menu. The following table describes the left column menu options. Menu Option General Description Defines licensing information, authentication methods, interface look and feel, time and location, logging, and information about the WHD software installed. Defines options, incoming and outgoing accounts, and templates. filter creation and 58

61 Setting Up the Application application, templates, graphics handling, user interface, and incoming and outgoing accounts. Companies & Locations Customers Tickets Clients Techs Assets SolarWinds Integration Processes Defines companies; locations and rooms; location groups and assigned locations, techs, and group managers; location custom fields; departments and department groups; and department custom fields. Defines options for defining customers, rooms, departments, and groups, as well as the fields used to describe these resources. Defines the WHD user interface and the fields and information they contain, request types (such as facilities and hardware), status types (such as Open and Pending), priority types and alerts (such as Urgent, High, and Low), custom ticket fields, and tasks. Defines the client options (such as ticket approval methods, display name template, and default client view), client administration roles, client custom fields, and Active Directory / LDAP connections. Defines your account information (My Account), all techs configured to use WHD and their assigned tech groups, and tech permissions. Defines asset types, manufacturers and models, vendors, asset and purchase order custom fields. From the Assets settings, you can run and pre-schedule asset discoveries to scan connected networks for the assets in your corporate network. Links WHD to SolarWinds NPM, SAM, and NCM systems to automatically create new tickets and dispatch techs from Orion Platform alerts. You must be connected to Orion Platform or later. Defines how WHD defines, stores, and applies action rules and the roles that approve action rules. Action 59

62 Defining Techs rules apply custom actions triggered by events you define, such as ticket routing. Surveys Parts and Billing Data Import Defines your survey options and associated text to set up surveys and gather feedback from your client users. Defines your parts and billing options; custom fields; inventory alerts; invoicing options; and billing rates, terms, and tax rates. Defines how WHD imports data for locations, clients, assets, purchase orders, tickets, and more. Defining Techs Use the Techs tab in Setup to assign your help desk technicians to specific support areas, such as Locations & Departments and Clients. When completed, WHD will automatically assign tickets to the appropriate technician based on your selections, such as Tech Group, Locations & Departments, and Assets. To access the Techs tab, click Settings in the toolbar and select Techs. The Techs tab includes the following options: My Account Techs Tech Groups Tech Permissions Below is an example of the Techs tab options. 60

63 Setting Up the Application Editing Your Administrator Account Use the My Account page to update your administrator account contact information, notifications, and other personal account settings. This account is the administrator account you use to log in to WHD. To add or edit your administrator account information: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select Techs > My Account. The My Account page appears. 61

64 Creating Techs 2. Click the Edit button to enter edit mode. The page is now in edit mode. 3. Add or update your admin account information as needed. Click the tool tips next to each selection for more information. 4. Click Save. Your admin account information is saved in the application. Creating Techs Use the Techs page to define the work schedules for your help desk technician work schedules, locations, tech groups, and business zones. 62

65 Setting Up the Application SolarWinds recommends creating your non-supervisory techs before you create your supervisors. This method allows you to assign techs to supervisors as you create the supervisors. To create a new tech: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select Techs > Techs. The Techs page appears. 2. Click New. The New Tech page appears. 3. Configure the Identity section. a. Enter the tech's First Name, Last Name, User Name, Passwords, and in the corresponding fields. These bold fields are required. b. Enter the tech's Secondary , Phone, Mobile phone, and Pager information in the corresponding fields c. In the Account Type drop-down menu, select one of the following: Administrator. Provides full access to all WHD features and settings 63

66 Creating Techs Tech. Provides limited access to WHD features specified in the Tech Permissions drop-down menu (visible only when the account type is set to Tech). d. In the Supervisor drop-down menu, select the supervisor for this account. When WHD escalates a ticket for this tech, the tech's supervisor receives a notification (as do the new and previous techs). Supervisors can also be configured to receive notifications in Setup > Tickets > Priority Types & Alerts when tickets trigger an alert. If this tech account needs to view a particular client's account, you can link the client account to the tech account. After you specify a linked client, the Switch to Client Account button appears next to the Logout button in the menu bar, enabling the tech to switch to the client user interface as the client. Note: Only admins and techs with Edit Clients permissions can edit a linked client. WHD discards any unsaved changes when switching between client and tech accounts. e. In the Color field, select a color to use for the label background. For no label color, select White. f. In the Linked Client field, enter the last and first name of the client associated with this tech. When linked, a Switch to Client Account button appears, enabling the tech to switch to the client user interface as the given client. g. Select the Enable UI Enhancement check box to enable certain user interface enhancements that require the speed and standards support of modern browsers. Otherwise, leave this box unchecked. 4. Configure Ticket Setup section. a. Click the Note Collapsing Threshold drop-down menu and select the number of recent notes to display in the Ticket Detail page before collapsing additional notes. 64

67 Setting Up the Application b. Click the History Collapsing Threshold drop-down menu and select the number of recent history entries to display in the Ticket Detail page before collapsing additional entries. c. Select the Secure-delete Tickets check box to remove a ticket and associated attachments and data when the tech deletes a ticket. Otherwise, leave this box unchecked to save all attachments and data. 5. Configure the Setup section. a. Select the Use HTML check box to transmit in HTML format. If unchecked, all is sent in text format. b. In the Include Graphics in HTML row, select Yes to allow the tech to include images in client . Otherwise, select No. c. In the Signature box, enter an signature format for the tech's or accept the default format. d. In the Notifications row, select the events that generate an to the tech. e. Select the SMS Enabled check box to indicate if tech mails can be sent to a mobile device using the Short Message Service (SMS). 6. Configure the Scheduling Setup section. a. Click the Business Zone drop-down menu and select the appropriate business zone to use when formatting dates and times. b. Select the Specify Work Schedule check box if this tech works a schedule other than the schedule defined in the assigned business zone. c. Select the On Vacation check box when the tech is on vacation so new tickets are not automatically assigned during the ticket creation process. Deselect this box when the tech returns from vacation. d. Click the Backup Tech drop-down menu and select a backup tech who receives escalated tickets when the tech is not scheduled to work or is on vacation. 65

68 Defining Tech Groups e. Select the Active Account check box to activate this tech account. When deselected, the tech cannot log in to Web Help Desk and does not impact your licensed seat count. 7. Click Save to save your selections. The tech account information is saved to the Web Help Desk database. Next, the Techs page appears with the new tech listed in the page. 8. Repeat step 2 through step 7 to configure additional techs in your help desk operation. Defining Tech Groups You can group techs together with similar skills, technical expertise, and the types of requests they can service. Typical tech groups could include phone, systems, or software techs. All current tech groups appear in the Tech Groups page located at Setup > Techs > Tech Groups. In this page, you can: Create a tech group Assign tech group levels Assign supported request types Creating a Tech Group To create a new tech group: 1. In the left menu, click Tech Groups. The Tech Groups page appears. 2. Click New. The Tech Group Info page appears. 66

69 Setting Up the Application 3. In the Group Name field, enter a name for the tech group. 4. Click the Group Manager drop-down menu and select a manager for this tech group. 5. Select the check box to assign all tickets to the group manager for disposition. Otherwise, leave this check box deselected. 6. In the Color field, select a color for the tech group label background. Otherwise, select White. 7. Click Save. A message appears, stating that the tech group was saved successfully. 8. Click Back. The Tech Groups page appears. 9. Repeat step 2 through step 8 to add additional tech groups. Assigning Tech Group Levels To assign a tech group level: 1. In the Tech Groups page, click a tech group name. 67

70 Assign Supported Request Types 2. Click the Tech Group Levels tab. 3. Click Add Level to add a level or click an existing level. The Level Options page appears. 4. In the Auto-Assign Tickets To row, select the type of tech you want to receive the ticket. This process provides an automatic ticket assignment to this tech level. 5. Leave the Ignore Location and Department check box deselected. 6. In the Force Notification To row, select who receives an notification when: A client updates a ticket. A new ticket is created using the REST API. A ticket is updated using the REST API. A new ticket is created from a SolarWinds Orion Platform alert. A ticket is updated from a SolarWinds Orion Platform alert. 7. In the Default Selected Recipients row, select the appropriate users who will receive an when a tech clicks Save and in a customer ticket. 8. In the Level Techs row, select the appropriate techs assigned to this level. 9. Click Save. Your changes are saved to the Web Help Desk database. Next, the Tech Group Level tab window appears. 10. Repeat step 3 through step 9 to add additional levels or update an existing level. Assign Supported Request Types To assign a supported request type: 1. Select the Request Types Supported page tab. 2. Click Edit. 3. Select one or more Request Types for this group to receive. 68

71 Setting Up the Application 4. Click Done. Note: You must repeat the above two procedures to assign Tech Group Levels and Support Types to each Tech Group. To assign tech group levels and supported request to the remaining groups, repeat the steps in Assigning Tech Group Levels. Setting Tech Permissions Create Tech detailed permissions defining what Techs can do in Web Help Desk, based on how they interact with: Locations & Departments Tickets Clients Assets Other permissions such as working with FAQs and viewing and editing reports To set Tech Permissions: 1. Click Setup and select Techs > Tech Permissions. The Permissions tab appears. 2. Click New. The Permissions tab window appears. 3. Define the permissions for each section. See the tool tip for each option for additional information. a. Location Permissions. Select the appropriate options to limit tech access by company, location group, or department group. b. Ticket Permissions:. Define what techs can access and change with tickets, such as overriding new ticket assignments, view and create hidden notes, import tickets, and edit action rules. c. Client Permissions:. Define what techs can edit, delete, import, and download. 69

72 Defining Ticket Routing Processes d. AssetPermissions:. Select what techs can do with assets in WHD. You can enable techs to view, edit, and delete assets, as well as edit purchase orders. e. Other Permissions:. Define the options that enable techs to edit locations, manage parts, edit and import FAQs, work with reports and surveys, and view hourly billing rates. 4. Click Save. The Tech Permissions screen appears with the permission name and assigned techs. After you define your tech permissions, use the Assigned Tech tab to link your techs to permissions. The tool tips provide more information about each permission. Additionally, a tech can only be linked to one permission at a time. Defining Ticket Routing Processes Ticket routing processes select when and how to route tickets for certain types of requests, providing a controlled environment for managing time and costsensitive events. This feature enforces your defined settings, ensuring the right person or team receives the trouble ticket in a timely manner for problem troubleshooting and resolution. You can add the client personnel responsible for approving or denying changes, as well as define the process workflow and requirements. When you create your WHD ticket routing processes, you define your action rules. approver roles, and approval processes. WHD supports approval processes to authorize work to proceed for certain request types. Approval processes consist of multiple approval steps, each of which specify a set of clients, change advisory board, or a location/department approver who authorizes a ticket so a tech can work on it. Change Advisory Boards (CABs) comprise a set of clients who authorize approval steps assigned to them. 70

73 Setting Up the Application Clients with approver roles approve ticket assignments based on the location or department associated with a given ticket. For example, each location could have a facilities representative and faculty representative location approver role who must approve requests to get a new printer. You can configure these roles for each location in the Location Approvers screen located at Setup > Processes > Location Approvers. If these roles are assigned to an approval process for a Procure Printer request type, WHD automatically sends approval requests for this request type to the clientsassigned approver roles for the ticket location. Creating Action Rules for Ticket Processing Action rules create customized processes for unique situations. Create action rules that define when, what, who, and how issues are approved, tracked, assigned, and handled. Action rules create a customized process for unique use cases. To add a new action rule: 1. In the toolbar, click Setup and select Processes > Action Rules. The Action Rules tab screen appears. 2. Click New. The Action Rule Info tab screen appears. 71

74 Creating Action Rules for Ticket Processing 3. In the Priority drop-down menu, select a priority for this rule. Note: Only one action rule can be executed at a time. The action rule priority determines the trigger order of all action rules. 4. In the Rule Name field, assign a unique rule name. 5. In the Description field, add a description for this rule. 6. Select the Cascade check box to trigger all defined actions for a ticket. Do not select Cascade to trigger only the highest priority action. 7. In the Rule Triggering field, select the rule triggering options to define when and how often WHD applies the action rule. 8. Click the Criteria tab. The Criteria tab window appears. 72

75 Setting Up the Application 9. Configure the ALL conditions that tickets must match and/or ANY of the conditions tickets can match for the action rule to be applied. The following conventions apply: The conditions specified in the ALL grouping must have all condition true to trigger an action. WHD qualifies these conditions using the Boolean AND operator. The conditions specified in the ANY grouping must have at least one condition true to meet the triggering condition. WHD qualifies these conditions using the Boolean OR operator. The ANY condition group begins with and. As a result, WHD evaluates the ANY group, along with the conditions in the ALL condition group when the ALL group is used. If no conditions exist in the ALL group, the ANY group evaluates the conditions using only the Boolean OR operator. 10. Click the Actions tab. The Actions tab window appears. 11. Specify the action to be taken when the criteria is met. 12. Click Save. Your changes are saved. 73

76 Adding Approver Roles Adding Approver Roles Approver roles provide dynamic approver assignments based on the location or department associated with a given ticket. For example, each location can have location approver roles titled Facilities Representative and Faculty Representative that approve all requests to procure a new printer. For each location, you can configure clients for these roles in the Location Approvers screen located at Setup > Processes > Location Approvers. If you assign these roles to an approval process for a request type such as Procure Printer, WHD automatically sends ticket approvals for this request type to the clients assigned to these roles at the appropriate ticket location. Approver roles specify the level of authority for a given approver. These roles include: Location Approver. Approves the assignment for specific locations. Department Approver. Approves specific departments. Change Advisory Board Member. Participates in a Change Advisory Board (CAB). Creating Approver Roles for Locations To add a position that will be responsible for approvals for one or more locations: 1. Click Setup > Processes > Approver Roles. The Approver Role Name screen appears. 2. Click New. The Location Approver Roles tab window appears. 3. In the Approver Role Name field, enter a name that describes the role. For example: Austin Approver 4. Click Save. Your selected name is added as an approver role name. 74

77 Setting Up the Application Adding Department Approver Roles To add a position responsible for approvals for one or more departments: 1. Click Setup > Processes > Approver Roles. The Approver Role Name field screen appears. 2. Click the Department Approver Roles tab. 3. Click New. The Approval Role Name field appears in the screen. 4. In the Approval Role Name field, enter a name that describes the role. For example: Legal Dept Approver 5. Click Save. Your selected name is added as a department approver role. Assigning Clients To Location Approval Roles 1. Select Setup > Processes > Location Approvers. The Location Approvers screen appears. 2. Click Add Role. The Add Role screen appears. 3. Click the Approver Role drop-down menu and select the appropriate role. 4. In the Approver Name row, enter a client first and last name in the appropriate field and click Search to locate a client. 5. Click the name of the person you want to assign as a location approver. Note: Repeat steps 4 and 5 above to add additional approvers. 6. When you are finished assigning approvers, click Save. Your selections are saved. 75

78 Assigning Clients To Department Approval Roles Assigning Clients To Department Approval Roles 1. Select Setup > Processes > Department Approvers. The Department Approvers screen appears. 2. Select the department and corresponding approval role from the list. To search for a specific role, enter a department name in the Department field and click Search. 3. Click the name of the person you want to assign as a department approver. 4. Repeat step 1 through step 3 to add additional approvers. 5. When you are finished assigning approvers, click Save. Your selections are saved. Creating a Change Advisory Board (CAB) Change Advisory Boards (CABs) consist of a set of clients and the minimum number of these clients who must authorize any approval steps assigned to them. To create a new CAB: 1. Click Setup and select Processes > Change Advisory Boards. The Change Advisory Boards screen appears. 2. Click New. The Change Advisory Board Details screen appears. 2. In the CAB Name field, enter a CAB name. To locate a CAB name, enter first and last name in the Client Lookup box and click Search. 4. Click additional names (if needed) to add additional members. 5. Select the minimum number of members required to approve a change ticket. The minimum can be any number between one and the number of CAB members. 76

79 Setting Up the Application 6. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Adding CAB Status Types The tech assigns a status type when they create a ticket. Before you configure the Processes section, check the ticket status types to ensure that the CAB status types are configured correctly. To add Approved, Approval Pending, and Denied status types: 1. Click Setup and select Tickets > Status Types. The Status Types screen appears. 2. Click New. The Status Types tab window appears. 77

80 Adding CAB Status Types 3. In the Name field, enter Denied. 4. In the Description field enter CAB Status Type. 5. Click the Display Order drop-down menu and select the order that the items will be listed. 6. In the Color row, select a color to use for the label background. Otherwise, leave this color set to White. 7. Select the Include in My/Group Ticket Filter check box if the status type is used in the default filter for the group tickets list. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 8. Select the Use for Load Balance check box if the status type is used when determining the load balance ticket total for a tech. Use Load Balancing when auto-assigning tickets in a tech group level. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 9. Select the Alerts Enabled check box to enable alerts for this status type. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 10. Select the Count Time check box if the time during which a ticket includes this status type should be included in the ticket's total open time. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 11. Select the Client Reminders check box to indicate whether s are sent to clients for tickets currently set to this status type. Reminders are sent only if the ticket status type has reminders enabled and the ticket priority type includes a client reminder interval. 12. Select the Show in Calendar check box if tickets for this status type are displayed in calendar views. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 13. Click the Automatically Close Ticket After drop-down menus and select the amount of time until tickets for this status type should automatically change to Closed status. If no value is selected, the status type will not change automatically. 78

81 Setting Up the Application 14. Select the Prompt Client to Confirm Ticket Resolution check box to enable a confirmation message and the Yes/No buttons to the client in e- mails and the Ticket Detail view in the user interface for tickets with this status type. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 15. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Repeat steps 1 through 15 above to add the Approved and Approval Pending status types. After adding the above status types, you can set the status types options to enable the CAB features. To set the status type options for the CAB feature: 1. Click Setup and select Tickets > Status Types. The Status Types tab window appears. 2. Click the Options tab. The Options tab window appears. 3. Select the Clients Can Reopen Closed Tickets check box to allow clients to add notes to closed tickets. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 79

82 Defining the Approval Processes 4. Click the Reopened Status Type drop-down menu and select a status type that should be reopened to a ticket when reopened by a client. Otherwise, accept the default selection. 5. Click the Needs Approval Status Type drop-down menu and select a status type for a request type that requires an approval. 6. Click the Approved Status Type drop-down menu and select the status type that enables when a ticket for the request type is approved. 7. Click the Client Update Sets Status To drop-down menu and select the status type assigned to a ticket when updated by the client. 8. Click the Tech Note Default Status drop-down menu and select the status type used in the Tech Note editor when you create a new note. 9. In the When Tickets Are Merged row, select the status type assigned to a ticket after it is merged into a parent ticket. 10. In the Recipients After Auto Close row, select the option that describes how mail is sent when a ticket closes automatically. 11. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Defining the Approval Processes After you create the approver roles, define your approval process. These include: Approval basics Approval steps Supported request types To define the approval process: 1. Click Setup and select Processes > Approval Processes. The Approval Processes screen appears. 2. Click an approval process or click New. The Approval Basics window appears. 80

83 Setting Up the Application 3. In the Process Name and Description fields, enter the appropriate information. 4. In the Client On row, specify when to send an to the client when a ticket is approved or denied. 5. In the Tech On row, specify when to send an to a tech when a ticket is approved or denied. 6. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Adding Approval Steps To add approval steps: 1. Select the Approval Steps tab. The Approval Steps and Request Types Supported tab windows appear. 81

84 Adding Approval Steps 2. Click the Step No. drop-down menu and select the step number of this approval step. 3. In the Step Name field, add a descriptive name. 4. In the Approver Type row, select which type of approver will handle the step. If you select Client, enter a first and last name in the Client Lookup box and click Search to locate a specific client to assign to this step. If you select CAB, click the CAB Approver drop-down menu and select an approver. If you select Location Approver, click the Location Approver drop-down menu and select an approver. If you select Department Approver, click the Department Approver dropdown menu and select an approver. 5. In the Greeting box, enter a greeting that appears at the top of messages requesting approval for a ticket. This selection overrides the default greeting located at Setup > > Templates > Approval Request Greeting. 82

85 Setting Up the Application 6. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Adding Supported Request Types 1. Click the Request Types Supported tab. The Request Types Supported window appears. 2. Click Edit. The Request Types Supported tab window appears. 3. Select the appropriate request type. 4. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Applying Approvals This section describes the following information about approvals: Ticket Approvals Approver Action Approvals Client Web Approvals Ticket Approvals When a client logs in, creates a new ticket, and selects a request type assigned to an approval process, a notification in a large blue field appears: This Request Type requires approval. To complete the approval process: 83

86 Approver Action 1. WHD sends an to the approver assigned to the first step of the approval process. 2. The first approver approves the change, and then an is sent to the next approver. 3. The process continues until the ticket is approved or declined as specified in the approval process criteria. Approver Action An approver views or responds to the approval request in or the web interface. Approvals To complete the approval process: 1. Approvers receive an when a ticket is created with an approval process assigned to it. 2. The approver responds by clicking Yes or No. 3. WHD opens a web page asking the approver to confirm their decision. a. If the required number of required approvers choose Yes, the ticket status changes to Approved. b. If the required number of required approvers do not choose Yes, the ticket status changes to Denied. 4. If an approver clicks No, the approver is given an Explanation text box where they provide reasons for declining the request. The approver can also use a Visible to Requestor check box that allows the explanation to 84

87 Setting Up the Application appear to the requestor. Client Web Approvals To view and approve through the web interface: 1. Click Approvals to view New Approvals and vote on each new request and to view Old Approvals. 2. Add an explanation (if desired). 3. Select Visible to Requester to share the denial explanation as a note in the ticket. 4. Click Save. 85

88 Setting Up Tickets Setting Up Tickets Clients and techs create tickets, either through the WHD application or through , and use tickets to correspond to each other. The Tickets tab defines ticketing functions, such as how tickets are generated, routed, updated, and closed. These functions include the following: Setting ticket options Defining request types Defining status types Setting priority types and alerts Creating custom fields for tickets Creating tasks When a client or tech creates a ticket, they select a request type that determines which custom fields appear on the ticket and which techs can be assigned to it. The request type also determines how the ticket is routed to a tech. Each ticket is assigned a status and a priority. The status indicates the ticket's stage of completion (for example, Open, Acknowledged, Resolved, or Closed) and determines whether time should be counted against the ticket while in that stage. The priority determines the ticket due date. Each priority can be configured with three alert levels to warn techs when a ticket needs attention. Tasks facilitate how tickets are automatically created. A task contains one or more task elements, each of which provides settings for a new ticket. When the task runs, a ticket is created for each task element, either sequentially or all at once, 86

89 Setting Up the Application depending on how the task has been configured. Tasks can be run manually or automatically at given intervals. Configuring Ticket Options You can configure your ticket contents, generation, and ticket access options on the Options page located at Setup > Tickets > Options. WHD categorizes all ticket options into three areas: General Options Client Options Tech Options To set up tickets starting from the Ticket Options page: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select Tickets > Options. The Ticket Options page appears. 2. Configure the General Options section, as shown below. a. Select the Use Subject Field check box to indicate if clients and techs will see a Subject field above the Request Detail field. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. b. Click the Default Priority drop-down menu and select the default priority type for new tickets. c. In the Lookup Clients By row, select the attribute used for looking up clients when assigning them to tasks and parts. 87

90 Configuring Ticket Options d. Select the Attachments Enabled check box to allow clients and techs to attach files to tickets using the user interface or by attaching files to an . Otherwise, leave this check box blank. e. Select the Room Required check box to prevent a ticket from being accepted until a client or tech selects a room to associate with the ticket. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. f. In the Room Field Style row, select how rooms are selected in the ticket. g. In the Enter Work Time As row, select whether work time is entered into a ticket as minutes or points. h. Select the Non-User CC Updates check box to allow ticket updates by from people who are not authorized Web Help Desk users but were CC or BCC recipients on the ticket update . Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 3. Configure the Client Options section, as shown below. 88

91 Setting Up the Application a. Select the Client Required check box if a ticket must have an assigned client. b. In the Clients Can Create Tickets Using row, select the method clients can use to create new tickets. c. In the Client Priority Option row, select the personnel who are permitted to set the priority level of their tickets. Otherwise, new tickets will be assigned the Default Priority setting. d. Select the Clients Can Cc: check box to allow clients to carbon copy tickets to additional addresses. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. e. Select the Show Scheduled Date to Clients check box if the time scheduled for ticket processing is provided to the client through or the web user interface. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. f. Select the Show Estimated Due Date to Clients check box if time scheduled for ticket processing is provided to the client through or the web user interface. 89

92 Configuring Ticket Options Otherwise, leave this check box blank. g. Select the Show Estimated Due Date to Clients check box if the estimated ticket processing due date and time are provided to the client through or the web user interface. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. h. Select the Lock Ticket to Client Location check box if tickets will be assigned to the location of the client who submitted the ticket. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. i. Select the Update Ticket Location/Room/Department when Client Changes check box to assign the location, room, and department based on the values assigned to the new client. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. j. Select the Include Room Assets in Client Asset List check box to present a list of all assets to clients in their assigned room. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. k. Select the Tickets Must Use Assigned Asset check box to allow clients to select only from their assigned assets when creating tickets. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. l. Select the Asset Number Lookup for Client check box to allow clients to search for an asset by asset number to associate with their ticket. m. Click the Note Collapsing Threshold For Clients drop-down menu and select the number of ticket notes displayed to the client before adding a More link. n. In the Auto-Reply to Client row, select which client action invokes an automatic confirmation. o. In the Enable Cancellation By Client row, select the condition when a Cancel option is available to the client in the web interface and e- mail ticket display. 4. Configure the Tech Options section, as shown below. 90

93 Setting Up the Application a. In the Default Tech Note Visibility row, indicate whether tech notes are visible by default to clients. b. In the Print View Note Visibility row, indicate which note types are displayed in the Print View and Tickets PDF sections of the Ticket Detail page. c. In the Note and History Visibility row, select the order that notes are displayed in the Ticket Details page. d. In the Default Setting for Recipients row, select the check box that determines which users associated with a ticket will receive an when a tech updates a ticket. e. In the Default Ticket Editor Button row, select the default button that appears in the Ticket Details page. f. Select the Delete Confirmation check box to send a confirmation to an assigned tech or tech group when a ticket is deleted. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. g. Select the Limit Assigned Tech to Current Level check box to only include techs in the current ticket tech group level to appear in the Assigned Tech drop-down menu on the Ticket Details page. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 91

94 Defining Request Types h. In the When an attempt is made to edit a Ticket already being edited in another session row, select the appropriate response. i. Select the Enable Ticket Overrides check box to enable options for overriding settings elsewhere in the Web Help Desk application. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. j. Select the Automatically Delete Obsolete Custom Fields check box remove custom fields from a ticket regardless of whether they include a value. 5. Click Save. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. Your selections are saved. Defining Request Types Define the types of tickets your help desk services support in the Request Types page. Request types define what type of issue the customer is experiencing and what action needs to be taken. When a user opens a ticket, they choose a request type. Request types can be defined as parent and child types. An example is a request to have a password reset. The parent type may be IT Software Assistance and the child type may be Password Reset. To begin, build your parent types first, and then add your corresponding child types. If you build a child type before you build the parent type, you cannot set the child type as a child. To add a new request type: 1. Navigate to Settings > Tickets > Request Types. The Request Types window appears, displaying your current request types. 2. Click New. The New Request Type screen appears. 3. In the Request Type field, enter a name for your request type. 92

95 Setting Up the Application 4. If this request type is a child request, click the Parent Type drop-down menu and select the appropriate parent type. Otherwise, go to the next step. 5. In the Tech Group drop-down menu, leave this tech group blank because the tech groups have not been defined at this point. 6. In the Default Priority drop-down menu, select a priority level to assign tickets for this request type. 7. Select the Hide Subject check box to hide the subject field for tickets that include this request type. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 8. Select the Hide Request Detail check box to hide the Request Detail field for this request type. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 9. Select the Request Detail Required check box indicate whether tickets with this request type require a detail entry. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 10. In the Detailed Instructions field, enter the appropriate text that displays as a blue "Instructions" sticky note about the Request Detail field. The description should explain the request type's purpose so the client can easily decide whether or not to choose the request type. Note: Apply BBCode formatting to make a request type's detailed instructions stand out and to include links to other information. See Customizing Tickets, Notes, Instructions, and s with BBCode for information about using BBCode to format text in the Detailed Instructions field or any other WHD field using custom text. Otherwise, leave this field blank. 11. Select the Visible to Clients check box if this request type will be included in the pop-up menu presented to clients. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 93

96 Defining Request Types 12. Select the Use Models check box to indicate whether clients will be prompted to select an asset or model when creating tickets for this request type. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 13. In the Companies row, select the companies for which the request type is visible to clients. This selection determines if the request type is available for a tech when a client with a company is assigned to the ticket. 14. In the Locations row, select the locations for which the request type is visible to clients. This selection determines if the request type is available for a tech when a client with a location is assigned to the ticket. 15. In the Departments row, select the departments for which the request type is visible to clients. This selection determines if the request type is available for a tech when a client with a department is assigned to the ticket. 16. Click the Approval Process drop-down menu and select the approval process that is automatically created when a ticket is saved with this request type. 17. In the Custom Fields row, indicate if the request type supports custom fields. Selecting All displays all visible and editable custom fields. Selecting Specific allows the selection of one or more custom fields. The default selection is None. 18. Select the Attachments Enabled check box if the request type allows clients to attach files. Note: This setting does not affect a tech's ability to add file attachments. 19. Select the Use as FAQ Category check box if the request type is available as a category for defining FAQs. 94

97 Setting Up the Application 20. Click the Lead Technician drop-down menu and select the tech who receives the highest level escalation (after Group Manager). 21. Click the Survey drop-down menu and select the survey that is sent to clients when tickets of this request type are closed. 22. Click Save to save your selections. Your selections are saved to the WHD database. Defining Status Types Each ticket is assigned a status from the available Status Types. The following status types are predefined: Open Closed Cancelled Resolved To enable Change Access Board (CAB) features, you add Pending Approval, Approved and Denied status types. Note: Adding these status types is not necessary if you do not implement CAB Process. It is recommended that you add these status types in case you need to enable the CAB feature in the future. To add approved, approval pending, and denied status types: 1. Navigate to Setup > Tickets > Status Types and click New. The Status Types tab window appears. 2. In the Name field enter: Denied 3. In the Description field enter: CAB Status Type 4. Click Alerts Enabled. 5. Click Client Reminders, and then click Save. 95

98 Setting Priority Types and Alert Triggers Repeat steps 1 through 5 above to add the Approved and Approval Pending Status types. After adding the above status types, you set the Status Types Options to allow the CAB features. To set the status type options for the CAB feature: 1. Navigate to Setup > Tickets > Status Types > Options. The Options tab window appears. 2. Click the Needs Approval Status Type drop-down menu and select Pending. 3. Click the Approved Status Type drop-down menu and select Approved. 4. Click the Approval Denied Status Type drop-down menu and select Denied. 5. Review the remaining selections and verify they are correct. 6. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Setting Priority Types and Alert Triggers WHD prioritizes tickets and sends automated alerts to techs based on how you configure those parameters. A ticket has one of the following predefined priority types: Urgent High Medium Low Each priority type includes adjustable alert levels for automatic escalation. Alert levels are set at three levels, with alert level 3 as the highest severity. The Not Completed condition is considered more important than Not Updated, which is more important than Not Assigned. If alert levels include matching criteria, WHD uses the highest severity level. To set the alert triggers for a priority type: 96

99 Setting Up the Application 1. Click Setup and select Tickets > Priority Types and Alerts. The Priority Types and Alerts screen appears. 2. Click the Priority Type name. The Priority Type Details screen appears. 3. Leave the Name and Display Order fields unchanged. 4. (Optional) In the Color row, select a color. 5. Click the Due Time drop-down menus and select the proper time to close a ticket with this priority. 6. Click the Client Reminder Interval drop-down menus and select the amount of time to elapse before sending (or resending) a reminder to clients. 7. In the Alert Level rows, set the proper conditions (such as time interval, criteria, and To:) for each Alert Level, beginning with Alert Level 1 and ending with Alert Level Click the Alert Repeat Interval drop-down menus and select the amount of time between reminders when an alert is triggered. 9. Click Save. Your changes are saved. 10. Repeat step 2 through step 9 for each priority type. Creating Custom Ticket Fields Use the Ticket Custom Fields screen to create custom tickets fields. Using this screen, you can define field features such as: Field name Display order Type of input, such as text or numbers Field size Client and Tech permissions Searchability Data-encrypted field text 97

100 Creating Custom Ticket Fields Below is an example of the Ticket Custom Fields screen. To create ticket custom fields: 1. Click Setup and select Tickets > Ticket Custom Fields. The Ticket Custom Fields screen appears. 2. In the Label field, enter a name for the custom field. 3. Click the Type drop-down menu and select the appropriate text format type. 4. Click the Width drop-down menu and select the number of columns in the custom field text area. 5. Click the Height drop-down menu and select the number of rows in the custom field text area. 6. In the Info field, enter a description that appears in a tool tip for this field. When a tool tip is created, an Info icon appears next to the custom field. When the user mouses over the icon, the tool tip appears. 7. Select the appropriate options for this custom field. a. Select the Limit Input to Text Box Width check box ensure the maximum number of characters allowed does not exceed the number 98

101 Setting Up the Application of characters selected in the Width drop-down menu. b. Select the Encrypt in database check box to DES-encrypt the data entered in the custom field before it is stored in the database. If you select this option after your data is entered, the existing values are not encrypted until they are updated. c. Select the Searchable check box to enable the custom field to appear as a search option on the Advanced Search page. d. Select the Allow full-text search (slower) check box when the custom field value may exceed 255 characters. For performance reasons, only the first 255 characters are indexed. Selecting this option reduces the search performance. e. Select the Exclude From check box to ensure the custom field does not appear in s to clients or techs. 8. Click the Display Order drop-down menu and select the order the custom field appears with the current custom fields. 9. In the Clients section, select the appropriate client permissions, defining whether the field is hidden, visible, editable, or required for the client. These fields are disabled when the custom field is not visible in the client interface. 10. In the Techs section, select the appropriate client permissions, defining whether the field is hidden, visible, editable, or required or the tech. Administrators have at least Editable access to all custom fields. Required fields are required for all administrators. 11. In the Request Types section, click Edit and select the request type(s) where this custom field appears. When completed, click Done. 12. Click Save. Your custom field changes are saved. 99

102 Creating Tasks Creating Tasks WHD uses tasks to create tickets. A task contains one or more task elements, each of which provides settings for a new ticket. When the task runs, WHD creates a ticket for each task element, either sequentially or all at once, depending on the task s configuration. Tasks can run manually or automatically, at given intervals or based on specific criteria, depending on how you configure them. WHD tasks are especially useful for handling repetitive processes. For example, if your HR department has a set of routine on-boarding tasks to complete for a new employee, you can create a task called New Employee and define each task element required to help a new employee get started in their new position. Related tasks can include: Completing tax and insurance forms Accessing network resources Configuring a new computer system Installing and configuring corporate and department-specific software You can trigger a new task when required for example, when you on-board a new employee. When you run the task, WHD generates a ticket for each element. These tickets can be assigned to techs, who ensure each task element is completed. To create a new task: 1. Access the Task screen. 2. Create a new task. 3. Add new task elements. 4. Create new tickets from task elements. Access the Task Screen You can access the task screen by clicking the Setup icon in the toolbar. In the Setup left column, click Tickets > Tasks. The following screen appears. 100

103 Setting Up the Application When you create a new task, they appear in this screen. Create a New Task To create a new task, click New. The Task Info screen appears. To create a new task: 1. In the Task Name field, enter a name for the task. For example, New Employee. 2. (Optional) If this task pertains to a specific employee, search for the appropriate client in the Client Lookup box fields and assign a client to the task. Otherwise, leave this box blank. 3. Select the Scheduled check box to schedule this task to run at a specific time interval. Otherwise, leave this check box unchecked. 4. Select the Shared check box to share this task with other users. 101

104 Add New Task Elements Selecting this check box will also make the task available as an Action Rule so you can assign the task to other techs or personnel. 5. Click Save. A message appears stating that the task was created successfully. The Task Elements and History tabs appear in the screen. When completed, a message appears stating that the task was created successfully. The Task Elements and History tabs also appear in the screen. Add New Task Elements To add new task elements, click Task Elements. In the initial screen, click New. The Task Elements tab screen appears, as shown below. 102

105 Setting Up the Application To create new task elements: 1. Click the Element Order drop-down menu and select 1 so this element runs first. 2. Select the appropriate selections for Location, Room, and Department. 3. Click the Request Type drop-down menus and select the appropriate request type. For example, for new hire tasks, select HR and New Hire. 4. In the Subject field, enter a name for this element. For example, to configure a new computer system for a new hire, you can enter Configure a new computer system. 5. In the Request Detail field, enter a description for the element. For example: Configure a new computer system with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook) and all required corporate-related software. 6. In the Tech drop-down menu, select a specific tech for this element (if required). 7. In the Priority drop-down menu, select the appropriate priority for this element. 103

106 Creating New Tickets From Task Elements 8. In the Asset No. field, enter an asset number (if required). 9. In the Generate Next Element field, select On Creation to trigger the next element immediately after the ticket for this element is created. Otherwise, you can select When Status Equals and select the appropriate selection to trigger the next element. 10. Click Save. When completed the Task Elements tab lists a summary of your task. After you create your first task elements, add additional elements to create new task elements for your task. For example, for the New Employee task, you can create new elements to create an account, assign a specific desk in a building, and enroll the employee in on-site new hire classes. Creating New Tickets From Task Elements To create tickets from task elements, click the Task Info tab, select a task, and click the Green arrow next to the Task Name field. To select another task, click the left and right arrows at the top right to scroll through all available tasks. 104

107 Setting Up the Application After you execute a task, click Tickets and verify that the task created the appropriate tickets. For example, when you click the Green arrow in the example above, WHD creates a new ticket for the task, as shown below. Entering Locations The Locations Setup tab provides the ability to store information about customer locations, and map those locations to technicians in the same geographical area. Populating the location pages is another step towards automated ticket processing and technician dispatch. 105

108 Defining Location Custom Fields Note: When you first use the Locations tab, only the four Location pages (Options, Locations & Rooms, Location Groups, and Location Custom Fields) are listed, as seen above. Depending on the features you choose, the tab name and pages will change. Defining Location Custom Fields Use the Location Custom Fields screen to create location custom fields. Using this screen, you can define field features such as: Field name Display order Type of input, such as text or numbers Field size Client and Tech permissions Searchability Data-encrypted field text Below is an example of the Location Custom Fields screen. To create location custom fields: 1. Click Setup and select Companies and Location > Location Custom Fields. The Location Custom Fields screen appears. 106

109 Setting Up the Application 2. In the Label field, enter a name for the custom field. 3. Click the Type drop-down menu and select the appropriate text format type. 4. Click the Width drop-down menu and select the number of columns in the custom field text area. 5. Click the Height drop-down menu and select the number of rows in the custom field text area. 6. In the Info field, enter a description that appears in a tool tip for this field. When a tool tip is created, an Info icon appears next to the custom field. When the user mouses over the icon, the tool tip appears. 7. Select the appropriate options for this custom field. a. Select the Limit Input to Text Box Width check box ensure the maximum number of characters allowed does not exceed the number of characters selected in the Width drop-down menu. b. Select the Encrypt in database check box to DES-encrypt the data entered in the custom field before it is stored in the database. If you select this option after your data is entered, the existing values are not encrypted until they are updated. c. Select the Searchable check box to enable the custom field to appear as a search option on the Advanced Search page. d. Select the Allow full-text search (slower) check box when the custom field value may exceed 255 characters. For performance reasons, only the first 255 characters are indexed. Selecting this option reduces the search performance. 8. Click the Display Order drop-down menu and select the order the custom field appears with the current custom fields. 9. In the Techs section, select the appropriate client permissions, defining whether the field is hidden, visible, editable, or required or the tech. Administrators have at least Editable access to all custom fields. Required fields are required for all administrators. 10. In the Request Types section, click Edit and select the request type(s) where this custom field appears. When completed, click Done. 107

110 Adding Clients 11. Click Save. Your custom field changes are saved. Adding Clients The Clients tab pages define WHD Client users and how they enter information into WHD. When a new client accesses WHD and is accepted by the system, they are automatically given the access and interaction you have defined for that client. Data import and synchronizing Active Directory (AD)/LDAP Directory copy and add client data from Microsoft Exchange and other mail servers and add the data to WHD. Using this feature helps you avoid adding clients manually. For more information on adding Clients and defining their permissions in WHD, see the following: Define Client Options Identify Client Admin Roles Defining Client Custom Fields Discovering and Adding Active Directory/LDAP Directory Connections Defining Client Options Most of the Client Options page settings can be accepted by default. SolarWinds recommends that Clients only be able to create accounts if their s match Accepted Domains. Use the tool tip help to assist on other settings. Click Save when you have completed any changes on this page. 108

111 Setting Up the Application Setting Up Client Admin Roles A client can be assigned limited administrative roles, usually for simple tasks such as resetting their password. To Create a Client Admin role: 1. Click Setup and select Clients > Client Admin Roles. The Client Admin Role screen appears. 2. Click New. The Roles screen appears. 3. In the Role Name field, enter a name for this role. 4. In the Request Type Supported row, select the appropriate role check boxes. Note: These request types populate with the Request Types you defined in the Tickets > Request Types section. 5. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Defining Client Custom Fields Use the Defining Client Custom Fields screen to create custom client fields. Using this screen, you can define field features such as: Field name Display order Type of input, such as text or numbers Field size Client and Tech permissions Searchability Data-encrypted field text 109

112 Defining Client Custom Fields To create client custom fields: 1. Click Setup and select Clients > Client Custom Fields. The Client Custom Fields screen appears. 2. In the Label field, enter a name for the custom field. 3. Click the Type drop-down menu and select the appropriate text format type. 4. Click the Width drop-down menu and select the number of columns in the custom field text area. 5. Click the Height drop-down menu and select the number of rows in the custom field text area. 6. In the Info field, enter a description that appears in a tool tip for this field. When a tool tip is created, an Info icon appears next to the custom field. When the user mouses over the icon, the tool tip appears. 7. Select the appropriate options for this custom field. a. Select the Limit Input to Text Box Width check box ensure the maximum number of characters allowed does not exceed the number of characters selected in the Width drop-down menu. b. Select the Encrypt in database check box to DES-encrypt the data entered in the custom field before it is stored in the database. 110

113 Setting Up the Application If you select this option after your data is entered, the existing values are not encrypted until they are updated. c. Select the Searchable check box to enable the custom field to appear as a search option on the Advanced Search page. d. Select the Allow full-text search (slower) check box when the custom field value may exceed 255 characters. For performance reasons, only the first 255 characters are indexed. Selecting this option reduces the search performance e. Select the Exclude From check box to ensure the custom field does not appear in s to clients and techs. 8. Click the Display Order drop-down menu and select the order the custom field appears with the current custom fields. 9. In the Clients section, select the appropriate client permissions, defining whether the field is hidden, visible, editable, or required or the client. 10. In the Techs section, select the appropriate client permissions, defining whether the field is hidden, visible, editable, or required or the tech. Administrators have at least Editable access to all custom fields. Required fields are required for all administrators. 11. Click Save. Your custom field changes are saved. Importing Active Directory/LDAP Directory Connections Use the Active Directory / Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (AD / LDAP) Connections settings to discover and import client AD / LDAP information from the client s Microsoft Exchange or LDAP server. AD / LDAP Connections can perform bulk data imports of AD and LDAP directories that speeds up the client setup process and greatly reduces manual input errors. You can use the AD/LDAP Connections settings to synchronize WHD user information with the latest information on your Exchange or LDAP server. To simplify the configuration, WHD assumes it operates in a trusted network. As a result, WHD automatically trusts all LDAP connection certificates. When you import your AD/LDAP connections, use the following conventions: 111

114 Importing Active Directory/LDAP Directory Connections Ensure that the person configuring and using this import is experienced with AD and LDAP administration. Work with a client representative familiar with AD/LDAP and the existing structure. The client representative must have administrative access to the customer AD/LDAP server. If your AD/LDAP directory contains mostly users not using WHD, SolarWinds does not recommend performing a bulk AD/LDAP import. To connect to a client LDAP server and import and/or synchronize users: 1. Navigate to Setup > Clients > AD/LDAP Connections. 2. In the LDAP Connections pane, click New. The Connection Basics tab window appears. 3. In the window, click Enabled to enable the LDAP connection. 4. In the Host/Domain Controller and Port fields, enter the host address and port number. You can also select SSL for secure connections. Note: The default port for non-secure LDAP is 389. The default port for LDAP through SSL is Click the Directory Type drop-down arrow and select the appropriate type. 112

115 Setting Up the Application If you select Active Directory (default): a. Enter a Connection Account name. This name can be one of the following: Distinguished Name, such as cn=joe Admin, cn=users, dc=mycompany, dc=com User Principal Name, such as jadmin@thecompany.com Down-level Logon Name, such as DOMAIN\jadmin Default Domain, where the Connection Account name is admin b. Enter the Connection Password for the account. c. Enter a Connection Name that describes the connection. d. To define import filters for specific records, click Advanced. e. Enter or browse for the Users Distinguished Name. f. Note: If you select Browse and want to check records in subcontainers too, select Include Subtrees. g. Use the following fdefault search filter: (&(objectcategory=person)(objectclass=user)) h. Select Ignore Blank LDAP Values to ensure that blank LDAP values do not replace existing values in Client fields. If this is a new sync and not an update, leave Sync With Existing WHD Clients Only not selected. i. Choose an action to perform when LDAP records are removed. Note: If you are unsure of which option to choose, select No Action. j. Set the Cache Time Period to the length of time required for an LDAP resynchronization k. Test your settings and adjust if needed. l. Save your settings. 6. Click the Attribute Mappings tab. 7. Click the Edit icon to edit the page. 113

116 Importing Clients 8. Enter Attribute Mappings as specified by the customer s LDAP representative. 9. Click Done. To manually add clients: 1. Click Clients on the top menu bar. Note: If you arrive at an existing client form, click the Back icon to go to the Clients page. 2. Click New. 3. Fill in the pertinent information for this client. 4. In the Location field, assign a company, and a primary location. 5. Click Save. Importing Clients Use the Import Clients function to import client data into WHD. See Importing Data Using Templates for information on applying templates. To import client data: 1. In the toolbar click Setup and select Data Import > Import Clients. The Import Clients screen appears. 114

117 Setting Up the Application 2. Click the Sync Based On drop-down menu and select the column in the import file used to synchronize the import data with existing records. 3. Select the Ignore Blank Fields check box to ignore blank fields in the imported file. If not selected, the blank fields in the import file will clear the corresponding values in the existing records. 4. Select the Add New Entities check box to add new entities referred by the import records if they do not exist in the database. 5. Select the Abort Import on First Error check box to stop the import procedure when WHD encounters an error. If not selected, WHD will continue the import if errors appear. 6. In the File Type row, select the appropriate import file format. 7. Click the File Encoding drop-down menu and select the method used to encode the import file. If your import file contains any Unicode characters, select Microsoft Excel, as this file format encodes in UTF-16 format. 8. In the Import Data File row, click Choose File and select the file to use for the import procedure. 115

118 Defining Assets Note: The first line of the import file must match the import template. SolarWinds recommends copying and pasting the template into your data file to ensure that it is identical. The import procedure will generate an error if the first row of the import file does not match the template. 9. Click Import. The file contents is imported into the WHD database. Defining Assets Assets are the Client-owned software and hardware that Techs work with. WHD tracks Assets by properties such as: Location Type Status Owner Serial Number Model and Manufacturer Warranty Dates Lease Types Relationship to Other Assets Ticket History Purchase Orders Because Clients usually have large numbers of Assets, and Assets have a large number of properties associated with each one, assets are not typically entered manually. WHD has an extensive selection of asset import and discovery options. These options include interfaces to: LANrev Absolute Manager Apple Remote Desktop JAMF Casper Lansweeper Microsoft SMS/SCCM 116

119 Setting Up the Application Spreadsheet import CSV or TSV imports See Importing Data for details on how to import Asset Data. For information on configuring connections to import asset data, see Discovering Assets. For information on adding individual Assets, see Manually Adding Assets. Configuring Asset Import and Permissions Options Set options for Asset and Asset permissions for Techs. Fill in the pertinent information on the Options page. Note: Popup tooltips are available in the application to describe each item and its function. Hover the cursor over an item to see the tooltip. Defining Asset Type, Status, Warranty, and Lease Information Asset type, status, warranty, and lease information are usually included data imports, but if you find undefined Asset types, you can manually define them on 117

120 Defining Asset Type, Status, Warranty, and Lease Information the Types page. Assets can be associated with Clients so that Techs can easily identify the items for which support is requested. The Types page includes tabs for defining: Asset Classes Use Asset Classes to represent any type of classification you choose, such as Software, Hardware, Owned, Leased, and so on. Sample Class is the default Asset > Classes. Asset Status Classes Add Status Types to define Asset status. A status can be anything you create, such as Deployed, for equipment in use, or In Storage, for equipment in storage and not in use. WHD comes with the Deployed status type defined. Warranty Classes Create and apply Warranty Types, such as 1 Year and 2 Year, to reflect the appropriate warranty length or type for a particular Asset Class. Lease Classes Create and apply Lease Types, such as 1 Year and 2 Year, to reflect the appropriate warranty length or type for a particular Asset Class. To manually add Asset Classes: 1. Navigate to Setup > Asset > Classes. 2. Click New. 3. Enter The Name for the new type, and then click Save. To manually add more Status Types: 1. Navigate to Setup > Assets > Asset Status Types. 2. Click the Asset Status Types tab. 3. Click New. 4. Enter The Name for the new type, and then click Save. To manually add one or more Warranty Types: 1. Navigate to Setup > Assets > Warranty Types. 2. Click the Asset Warranty Types tab. 118

121 Setting Up the Application 3. Click New. 4. Enter The Name for the new type, and then click Save. To manually one or more Lease Types: 1. Navigate to Setup > Assets > Lease Types. 2. Click the Asset Lease Types tab. 3. Click New. 4. Enter The Name for the new type, and then click Save. Defining Custom Asset Fields Use Custom Fields to extend the types properties associated with Assets. Define field features such as: Field name Display order Type of input, such as text or numbers Field size Client and Tech permissions Searchability Whether or not field data is encrypted when stored 119

122 Configuring Additional Asset Features Configuring Additional Asset Features Manufacturers & Models The Manufacturers & Models page populates from the Asset imports. You can manually add manufacturers and models and edit existing Assets on this page, as well. Vendors The Vendors field defines the contacts for ordering parts or software. Fill in the pertinent information for each vendor contact and click Save when finished. Discovery Connections Discovery Connections sets up the basic information for the asset import tool chosen. It also defines the mappings of the imported data fields to WHD database fields. This can also be managed using the Asset Data Import feature. Adding Manufacturers Use the Manufacturers Info page to add hardware and software and other asset manufacturers' contact information. Click the Edit button to enter information. Click Save when you finish entering the manufacturer information. 120

123 Setting Up the Application Adding Vendors The Vendors page defines contacts for ordering parts or software. Fill in the pertinent information for each vendor contact and click Save when finished. Defining PO Custom Fields PO Custom Fields define custom fields and specify view/editing permissions for techs. Use Custom Fields to extend the types properties associated with purchase orders. Define field features such as: 121

124 Importing Asset Data Field name Display order Type of input, such as text or numbers Field size View and edit permissions Searchability Whether or not field data is encrypted when stored Note: No client permissions are available in PO custom fields, because clients never view purchase orders. See Managing Assets for details on working with purchase orders. Importing Asset Data Using the data import function from Settings > Data Import>Import Asset is the easiest way to get Asset data into WHD. To ensure a successful import, use the Assets Import template. See Importing Data Using Templates for information on applying templates. To import Assets into WHD: 1. Navigate to Setup > Data Import. 2. Select Import Assets from the Data Import tab. 122

125 Setting Up the Application 3. Select a Sync Based On type. This field synchronizes the data import with any existing Asset data. 4. Choose a Client Key to define the key field for database column reference. 5. Select the Ignore Blank Fields check box ff you expect some of the table fields not to populate. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 6. Select the Add New Entries check box to add fields that are not defined on the downloaded template. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 7. Select the Abort Import on First Error check box if you get poor results after importing your data. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 8. In the File Type and File Encoding fields, select the proper file type and file encoding, respectively. Select MS Excel for.xls imports. 9. In the Import Data File row, click Browse and select a saved template. 10. Click Import to import the file. The file is imported into WHD. Setting Up Parts & Billing Parts & Billing is where you configure how WHD tracks parts, inventory, and billing on tickets, as well as when the functionality is available. To access Parts & Billing setup, navigate to Setup and select Parts & Billing. 123

126 Setting Up Parts & Billing Functions available on this page include the following: Applying Parts & Billing Options Defining Part Custom Fields Configuring Inventory Alerts Creating Invoicing Options Managing Parts Defining Rates & Terms 124

127 Applying Parts & Billing Options Applying Parts & Billing Options Parts & Billing Options enable or disable the Parts & Billing functionality, define the ticket PDF format, and enable or disable service time blocks by location. All of this functionality is enabled by default. Always make sure this functionality is active when you configure how WHD handles parts and billing. To access Parts & Billing Options, select Options from the Parts & Billing menu. To disable this feature, clear the Parts & Billing Enabled check box. Disabling Parts & Billing hides the main Parts icon, the ticket detail Parts & Billing tab, billing preferences and the billing reporting options. 125

128 Performing Invoicing Performing Invoicing To specify a company contact for invoices: 1. Click Setup and select Navigate to Setup > Parts & Billing > Invoicing Options. The Invoicing Options screen appears. 2. In the Invoicing tab window, add the appropriate contact information 3. (Optional) Click the Log tab and upload a.gif or.png file containing your company logo. 4. In the Invoicing tab window, click Save. Your changes are saved. To generate a PDF invoice or quote directly from a ticket: 1. In the toolbar, click Tickets and select Search Tickets. The Search Tickets screen appears. 2. In the Basic Search or Advanced Search tab windows, enter the appropriate search criteria for your ticket, and then click Search. Your search results appear in the bottom menu. 3. In the search results, click the appropriate ticket number. 4. Click the Parts and Billing tab. The Parts and Billing tab window appears. 5. Select the type of PDF you want to generate. 6. Click the PDF icon. 126

129 Defining Rates & Terms Defining Rates & Terms The Billing Rates, Terms, and Taxes feature allows you to define billing rates to use in your tickets. You can configure specific billing rates to be consistent with the level of delivered service (Level tech) and the applicable local tax codes. To define the billing rates: 1. Navigate to Setup > Parts & Billing > Rates & Terms. 2. The Rate and Terms screen appears. 3. Click the Billing Rates tab. The Billing Rates tab window appears. 4. Click New. 5. In the Rate Name field, enter the billing rate name. Billing rates appear in a pop-up menu when entering work time in a ticket tech note. 6. In the Hourly Rate field, enter the amount per hour to be billed. 7. Click the Display Order drop-down menu and select the order that the items will be listed. 8. Select the Subtracts From Time Blocks if you use time block billing. 9. Select the Travel Rate check box if this rate is for travel time only. 10. Click Save. Your changes are saved. 11. Click the Billing Terms tab. The Billing Terms tab window appears. 12. Click New. 13. The Billing Term tab windows appears with new selections. 14. In the Term Name field, enter a name that reflects the negotiated term. For example: Net

130 15. Click the Display Order drop-down menu and select the order that the items will be listed. 16. Click Save. Your changes are saved. 17. Click the Tax Rates tab. The Tax Rates tab window appears 18. Click New. The Tax Rates tab window appears with editable fields. 19. In the Tax Name field, enter a name for the custom tax rate. 20. In the Rate field, enter the tax rate to apply to invoices. 21. Select the Default Rate check box if this tax rate will be used in all tickets where location-specific tax rates do not override. 22. In the Apply to Labor row, select the option that describes how the tax is applied to labor. 23. Click the Display Order drop-down menu and select the order that the items will be listed. 24. Select the Apply to Parts check box to apply the tax to the parts. 25. Select the Apply to Shipping check box to apply the tax to shipping. 26. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Defining Part Custom Fields Use this page to create custom Part fields. Define field features such as: Field name Display order Type of input, such as text or numbers Field size Client and Tech permissions 128

131 Configuring General Settings Searchability Whether or not field data is encrypted when stored Configuring General Settings Each of the following Setup sections begins with the left Setup navigation bar. To access the left setup bar, click the Setup icon on the top navigation bar, click General, and then select one of the following: General settings enable you to set up how the application works. License Options Authentication Time & Place Database Logs Configuring General Options WHD General Options define how WHD presents information to Clients and Techs. This page defines features such as: 129

132 URLs users see when they use WHD Maximum search results and items per page How the dashboard appears to different users A basic WHD deployment does not require any changes to the default General Options settings. You may, however, want to customize the options for your environment. If, for example, your deployment uses a secure port, or you want to include WHD direct contact information in s to Clients, you must configure the WHD General Options. The General Options page is also where you can define how much information a Client or Tech sees. Limiting the amount of data displayed in search results or the WHD dashboard can significantly increase performance. Note: WHD never filters dashboard data for Administrators. To customize these options for your environment: 1. Navigate to Setup > General Options. 2. Delete the current name in the Server DNS Name field. 3. Enter the server name you would like to appear in URLs generated for the help desk. If WHD is running on a port other than 80, specify the port. The DNS name with a specified port looks like this: company.com:8081. Note: This setting does not actually set the port WHD listens to; it simply sets the port WHD URLs use. To change the port WHD listens to, modify the DEFAULT_PORT setting in <WebHelpDesk>/conf/whd.conf and restart the application. 4. If needed, enter the Web Help Desk Name. The default is Web Help Desk, but you can change this to the name you want your users to see. 5. Enter the maximum number of rows a Ticket, Client, or Asset search can return in the Max Search Results field. A typical "safe" value for this option is from Do not leave the Max Search Results field empty if WHD contains more than 5000 records. If the field is left empty, WHD enforces no search limit, which can affect search performance. 6. Select the maximum number of items returned per page for Ticket, Client, Asset and FAQ searches. 7. Enter how large attachments uploaded to WHD can be. 130

133 Setting Up Authentication 8. Select the maximum number of weeks data remains in the WHD dashboard. 9. Select Filter Dashboard Data to User to only include Tickets visible to a Tech, based on the, Request Types, and Tech Group Levels that the Tech has access to. 10. Select Show Icons for Referenceable URLs to have icons appear in list and detail pages, providing referenceable URLs for accessing a given Ticket, FAQ, or other item. 11. If desired, add Web Help Desk contact information. Clients can use this information to contact Techs directly for help. Setting Up Authentication Select your authentication method in the WHD browser interface, by navigating to Setup > General > Authentication > Authentication Method. 131

134 Choose one of the following authentication methods: Web Help Desk This method authenticates the user by username and password. Usernames and passwords come from those configured in WHD or are imported from Active Directory or LDAP connections. SAML 2.0 Security Assertion Markup 2.0 Language. This XML protocol provides authentication from an Identity Provider (IdP) to a Service Provider (SP). In WHD, SAML 2.0 allows SSO authentication using Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) to authenticate a user over multiple Web applications over the life of a single online session. When you configure SSO in WHD using AD FS, you can enable users, for example, who log in to the Exchange server to be automatically logged in to WHD as well. See Deploying SSO with SAML Using AD FS for details on configuring SAML 132

135 Setting Time & Place with AD FS for WHD. Note: AD FS must be configured separately to work with WHD. For details on configuring AD FS to work with WHD, see the AD FS 2.0 Step-by-Step and How To Guides at CAS 2.0 Central Authentication Service 2.0. CAS 2.0 uses an SSO service URL to authenticate the user WHD sends it. The CAS server then sends the user back to WHD and attaches a "ticket" to the WHD URL. WHD submits the ticket to CAS so it can validate the URL to get the username of the authenticated user. Deploy the CAS server in Tomcat and set the endpoints to this service WHD. See Deploying SSO with CAS 2.0 for information on how to set up CAS 2.0 on your WHD Tomcat server. Servlet Authentication Servlet Authentication sends the authenticated username to web applications through the HttpServletRequest.getRemoteUser() method. Use this type of authentication for Tomcat installations only. Note: You may, at your own risk, be able to use WAFFLE for WHD Servlet Authentication. Be aware that SolarWinds does not support this method of SSO. For information on configuring WAFFLE, see the article, "Servlet Single-Sign On Security Filter" at For additional information, refer to and the SolarWinds knowledgebase article, WAFFLE servlet authentication configuration steps. HTTP Header This method uses web servers like Apache to forward externally authenticated user information through HTTP headers. HTTP Form Value HTTP Form Value forwards the authenticated username through an HTTP name/value pair, rather than an HTTP header. For details on these procedures, see Configuring and Managing Authentication. Setting Time & Place The Time & Place page shows the time zone and local work hours for the locations your help desk manages. In the Business Zones tab, you can add new location, time zones, countries, date and time formats, business hours, and work days. 133

136 To add a new location and set the business hours: 1. Click New. 2. Enter a name for the location. 3. Select the Time Zone for the location. 4. Select the Country for the location. 5. Use a Currency Precision to for the country's monetary system. The default setting usually works. 6. Select the proper time and date formats for the location. 7. Select the Business Hours and Work Days for the location. 8. Click Save. To add calendar events for up to a year in the future or past: 1. Select the Calendar tab. 2. Select the calendar events to include. 3. Define how far into the future and past to include events. 4. If inapplicable, deselect icalendar-integration Enabled. 5. Define formats for Due-Date Calendar Events and Work-Time Calendar events, using the formats described in the detailed tooltips available by mousing over the Information button. 6. Click Save. Configuring Look & Feel The Look & Feel page allows you to place your company logo on the web console. Follow the instructions and guidelines on the page to make this change. If you make changes on this page, click Save to save the changes. 134

137 Configuring Look & Feel Click Style Sheet Gallery to access templates such as the following: Or, you can access these style sheet templates at the Web Help Desk CSS Gallery. 135

138 To install and apply a new style sheet template: 1. Download desired template. 2. Copy content of the zipped.css file into clipboard. 3. To modify the Client Style Sheet setting, select Custom and click Edit CSS to expose the CSS editor. 4. Remove any existing content in the editor. 136

139 Configuring Look & Feel 5. Paste the template from the clipboard. 6. Select Replace Default CSS and Compress. 7. Click Update to refresh the panel with parameters from the new template. 8. Review the new style sheet implementation at the bottom of the page. 9. If the implementation does not look the way you want, adjust the template Header, Help Desk Name, and Button Bar color, size, and spacing 137

140 parameters. For complete information on color code names and what the colors look like, refer to HTML tutorial websites such as w3schools.com's HTML Color Names. 10. Click Save to activate the new style sheet. Customizing the Database Connection Select your database, update the host name and login credentials, configure a database backup schedule, and, if needed, add a custom backup folder. If you make changes on this page, click Save to save the changes. Setting and Forwarding Log Settings The Logs page allows you to set a criticality level for logging. This is not necessary for your initial configuration and is typically used for troubleshooting. If you make changes on this page, click Save to save the changes. 138

141 Setting Up Setting Up WHD uses to automate its communications. Each item in the pages has a popup tooltip that explains how to set the option and the effect of that setting on your installation. Web Help Desk supports multiple accounts for receiving and sending . Each Incoming Mail Account is associated with a specific Request Type and, optionally, a Tech Group. Incoming mail accounts are checked each minute for new messages, which are processed and turned into tickets. After they are processed, messages are deleted from the incoming mail server. Each Incoming Mail Account is associated with an Outgoing Mail Account (SMTP server) used for delivery of outgoing mail. Custom greetings can be defined in Templates associated with a specific Status Type and, optionally, a Request Type. These templates can be personalized by the use of tags that serve as placeholders for parameters like first name, last name, ticket number, login URL, etc. Simplifying Management Options Simplify incoming mail processing by configuring WHD to accept from unknown persons in your client domains. Otherwise, you will need to define and maintain lists of each sender for each client. Configure these settings in the > Options page, which contains advanced settings for restricting formats, senders, and contents. Most of the options can accepted at the default settings. Complete the followings steps to simplify management options: 1. Click Only if matches an Accepted Domain in the Create Accounts for Unrecognized Senders section. 2. Enter the domain names for your clients, separating each domain name by a comma and then a space. For example, [[[Undefined variable 139

142 WHD.solarwinds]]].com, example.com. 3. Click Save. The Ignored Senders box allows you to deny from senders who may be sending SPAM or other unwanted . The Regular Expression Filters allow you to filter out , based on specific criteria for the Subject, Body, Content, or Attachments. The tooltip provides detailed information on using each of these filters. Review the remaining options settings and make any changes required for your environment. If you make any other changes on the page, click Save to submit the changes. Setting Up Outgoing Accounts You define your SMTP server(s) and help desk address in the Outgoing Mail Options page. To configure your outgoing WHD 1. Click New. 2. In the SMTP Server field, enter the IP address of your SMTP server. Use port 25 unless your server uses something other than the default port. 3. If your SMTP server requires SSL authentication, click the SSL check box. 4. Enter the SMTP Username and SMTP Password. 5. Enter the administrator s address in the field. 6. Enter the domain names for each of your help desk customer domains. Separate each name with a comma and then a space. The Accepted Domains field defines the domains to which your SMTP server sends Enter the administrator s address in the field. Note: If you have specific mail.smtp or mail.from requirements for your SMTP server, enter those requirements in the Advanced Properties field. Hover your mouse over the field title to see details on these properties. 8. When you have completed entering information on this page, click Save. 140

143 Setting Up Incoming Accounts A green dot to the right indicates a connection has been made to your SMTP server. A red dot indicates a failure to connect to the SMTP server. The error message at the top of the page indicates the nature of the failure. Note: Be certain to delete the sample outgoing server that was installed by default. The sample server may interfere with your actual SMTP server. Setting Up Incoming Accounts The Incoming Accounts page defines the requirements for accepting and initiating some of the automated processes. To setup incoming 1. Click New on the Incoming Mail Accounts page. 2. If you want to be able to open tickets automatically from incoming , select the Enable Tickets check box. 3. If this server is your default incoming mail server, click Make Default. 4. Enter the Address for incoming . Note: This should be a new inbox for WHD. Do not use a personal inbox. in this inbox is processed and deleted. 5. Select the Account Type (IMAP, POP3, or Exchange 2007/2010). 6. Leave Compatibility Mode cleared. 7. Enter the Incoming Mail server IP Address, port, and then select SSL if your server requires SSL. 8. Enter the User Name and Password for the account 9. Leave Inbox Folder as INBOX. 10. For the Outgoing Mail Account, select the server defined on the Outgoing Mail Accounts page. 11. Click the Allow Auto-Submitted check box. Note: Special settings may be required for your server to properly process incoming mail. Leave the Advanced Properties blank at this point. If your server fails incoming tests, you may have to troubleshoot this area. Hover your mouse over Advanced Properties for more information. 12. Click Save. 141

144 For information on using mail templates to create professional-looking messages from WHD to clients, see Applying Templates. Applying Templates templates make it possible for outgoing and incoming to use information already in WHD Tickets. templates use tags to pull information from tickets into s, such as first name, last name, ticket number, and login URL. Note: See Applying Tags in Templates for a complete list of tags for WHD Ticket information. Apply templates and tags to create s such as: Ticket update s Ticket approval and disapproval s Action rule s Other general s that require information from Tickets You can use WHD's built in templates or you can create custom templates. Built-in Templates WHD includes ready-to-use, built-in templates for ticket-related outgoing and incoming s. You can use these templates or customize them to fulfill your needs. For information on using built-in templates, see Editing Built-in Templates. Outgoing Templates The following table lists the outgoing templates included with WHD. Template SMS Message New Account Message Validate Message - Description Template that used to create the body portion of all SMS messages. Message sent when a new Web Help Desk account has been created. Message sent when a Client creates the new 142

145 Outgoing Templates New Account Validate Message Reset/Forgot Password Message Unrecognized Reply Unauthorized Update Reply Unauthorized Status Change Reply Reply for Status Change Request on Tickets Pending Approval Disabled Account Reply Approved Ticket Greeting Denied Ticket Greeting Default Ticket Greeting account and the Setup > Clients > Client Options > Require Validation setting is enabled. Existing Account: Message sent when a Client edits an existing account and the Setup > Clients > Client Options > Require Validation setting is enabled. Existing Account: Message sent when a Client edits an existing account and the Setup > Clients > Client Options > Require Validation setting is enabled. Plain-text reply to Web Help Desk that does not match a Client or Tech account. Plain-text reply to from a Tech not authorized to change the status of the Ticket. Plain-text reply to from a Tech or Client not authorized to update the Ticket. Plain-text reply to an from a Tech for a Ticket that is pending Approval. Plain text reply to an from a Client with a disabled Location. Greeting at the top of messages sent for Tickets that have completed the Approval process. Greeting for messages based on Tickets having status and request types that do not match any configured templates. Greeting for messages based on Tickets having status and request types that do not match any configured templates. 143

146 Overdue Message Approval Request Greeting Message sent to a Client for an overdue asset. Default greeting that appears at the top of messages requesting approval for a Ticket. Incoming Templates The following table lists the incoming templates included with WHD. Template Message Body When Adding a Client Note Message Body When Canceling a Ticket Message Body When Confirming a Resolved Ticket Message Body When Rejecting a Resolved Ticket Message Body When Voting to Approve a Ticket Message Body When Voting Not to Approve a Ticket Description Default message for the opened by clicking the Add Note action link in an from WHD. Default message for the opened by clicking the Add Note action link in an from WHD. Default message for the opened by clicking the Yes action link in awhd sent when a Ticket status is changed to Resolved. Default message for the opened by clicking the No action link in awhd sent when a Ticket status is changed to Resolved. Default message for the opened by clicking the Yes action link in an from WHD. Default message for the opened by clicking the Add Note action link in an from awhd. Note: Built-in templates can be edited, but cannot be deleted. You can also define custom templates associated with a specific status type and a request type. Template Layout Each built-in template includes a detailed description of its purpose, the tags it uses, and the text and tags that make up the template. 144

147 Editing Built-in Templates A typical template configuration page resembles the SMS Message template page shown below. Editing Built-in Templates Built-in templates are pre-configured and ready to use for your WHD deployment. If required, you can modify the tags and text in the built-in templates so your WHD installation is able to send custom s. If you need to modify a built-in template, you can: Modify the information that appears in the resulting by moving, adding, or removing the text and tags available for that template. See Applying Tags for a complete list of tags available for all templates. Add a language other than standard English. Apply an footer you have already defined in Setup > > Options. The following example customizes an outgoing built-in template called Unrecognized Reply. WHD uses this template to send replies to an unrecognized address that submitted a request. The goal for this example is to have the resulting s reflect the actual name of the help desk. 145

148 To edit this built-in message template: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select > Templates. The Templates screen appears. 2. Select the Outgoing Mail tab is active. 3. In the Template column select Unrecognized Reply. The Unrecognized Reply template properties appears. 146

149 Editing Built-in Templates 4. In the Subject field, change: ERROR: Your support request could not be processed to <helpdesk_name> cannot process your request. The helpdesk name now appears in the Subject field for s using this template. 5. In the Template field, change the existing default message: We're sorry, your address was not recognized by the help desk, so your request for support could not be submitted. to We're sorry, but <helpdesk_name> does not recognize your address and cannot process your request. The helpdesk name now appears in the body text of any s using this template. Below is an example of your edited template. 147

150 6. Click Save. Your changes are saved to the template. Creating New Templates The following example describes how to create a new outgoing template for s WHD sends to Clients who opened trouble tickets accepted in WHD. To create this new template: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select > Templates. The Templates screen appears. 148

151 Creating New Templates 2. Select the Outgoing Tab. 3. Click New. A blank template design appears. 149

152 4. In the Name field, enter a name for the template. In this example, name the template: Open Ticket Acknowledgment 5. In the optional Description field, enter a description that helps your help desk personnel when to apply this template. Explain the purpose and reason for using this template. For example, Use this template for s sent to clients who opened tickets requiring IT support only - no HR or Facilities requests. 6. In the Template field, enter the customer correspondence to include in the . Since the purpose of this template is to acknowledge that the client's new ticket is being addressed in your help desk system, include information such as: Client name or login ID Ticket number Help Desk name Help Desk contact person (such as a Tech or Admin) How the client can obtain their ticket status You can automate most of this information using tags, which act as placeholders for information available in your tickets. The blue box at the bottom of the Template field labeled Tags offers a partial list of tags you can use. See Applying Tags in Templates for a complete list of available tags. 7. In the Template field, enter the text for your template and the tags needed to represent the ticket information to include in the . For example, if you chose to include the following information in your Client first name Client last name ID number of the ticket the Client submitted 150

153 Creating New Templates URL where Client can login to find out about the Ticket's status Name of the help desk system Help desk contact person name then create the text for the template and enter these tags (listed in Applying Tags in Templates) where appropriate: <first_name> <last_name> <ticket_id> <helpdesk_name> <login_url> <helpdesk_contact_info> Below is an example of your completed template. 5. In the Status Type field, select Open Note: Selecting Open addresses an that is sent when a ticket is opened. 6. In the Request Types field, select Specific. 7. Select the appropriate request types. Request types included with WHD are: /Outlook Facilities 151

154 Hardware HR IT General/Other Network Phone/Voic Printer/Toner/User Administration Note: To enable the template to apply to all open ticket greeting s, select All. The template is applied to all default and custom-created request types. For more information on request types, see Adding and Editing Custom Request Types. 8. Skip the Other Languages field if you are creating a template in United States English. If your Client requires s in another language, click All to select the Client's language. Then design your template and click Save. Note: The option lists more than 100 languages, including variants of English and other languages. Review them carefully before choosing one. 9. (Optional) In the Use Footer field, click the check box to include the footer already defined in Setup > > Options > Footer, with this template. When completed, your template is configured with your new selections. 152

155 Applying Tags in Templates 10. Click Save. The template is saved. Applying Tags in Templates Tags are placeholders used in templates used to autopopulate s with ticket information. The tickets contain information types defined in the WHD Setup pages for areas such as Tickets, Clients, Techs, and Processes. These tags are used in templates for general, approval and disapproval, and action rule s. WHD replaces these placeholders with their proper values (based on values in client tickets) once the is generated. You can use the following list of working tags in any type of WHD template for s about tickets or information in tickets. Note: When you add tags to an template, use the tag exactly as it appears in the table below. The content (such as tech, , and client) must appear between right and left facing angle brackets (such as <client>). 153

156 Tag <ticket_url> <login_url> <ticket_id> <request_type> <status_type> <priority_type> <client> <client_short> <client_phone> <client_ > <assigned _to> <assigned_to_short> <tech> <tech_short> <tech_phone> <tech_ > <room> <company> Information Pulled From Ticket URL where Ticket resides. URL for logging in to access Ticket. WHD ID number of the Ticket. Ticket's Request Type. A Request Type defines what the ticket is about. It can be, for example, /Outlook, Network, Printer/Toner, or User Administration. Ticket Status. Indicates the Ticket's state of completion, which can be Open, Closed, Pending, Canceled, or Resolved. Ticket Priority Type. Default priorities are Urgent, High, Medium, and Low. Ticket Priority Type determines the Ticket due date. Client first and last name. Shortened version of Client name. Used when little space is available, such as in lists. Phone number of the Client who submitted the Ticket. of the Client who submitted the Ticket. Name of tech to whom Ticket is assigned. Short name of Tech to whom Ticket is assigned Tech first and last name. Shortened version of Tech's name. Used when little splace is available, such as in lists. Tech phone number. Tech address. Room, according to value in Ticket. Company, according to value in Ticket. 154

157 Applying Tags in Templates <location> <subject> <report> <due_datetime> <scheduled_worktime> <worktime> <first_initial> <last_name> <last_initial> < > <last_name> <helpdesk_contact_ info> <helpdesk_name> <custom_x> Location, according to value in Ticket. Ticket subject. Request detail information. Estimated Ticket completion date and time. Scheduled date and time for work on Ticket. Time spent working on Ticket. First letter of Client first name. Client last name. First letter of Client last name. Client address. Client last name. WHD contact information. Name of Help Desk installation. Ticket custom field, where x represents a custom field ID. For more information on Ticket Custom fields, see Creating Custom Fields for Tickets. Because these tags are hard coded into WHD, they cannot be edited. However, you can edit the templates where they appear. For information about using tags in templates, see Applying Templates. 155

158 Configuring and Managing Authentication Configuring and Managing Authentication After choosing an authentication method in the WHD browser interface's Settings > General > Authentication page, configure and maintain Single Sign On (SSO) and security authentication outside the WHD browser interface. These authentication methods comprise: SSO SSO is a single point of access linking applications to one signon point. You log in one time at that one login window to access all linked systems, without having to individually log in to each system. For example, your Windows login provides SSO functionality when logging onto your desktop also gives you network and access. WHD supports SAML 2.0, CAS 2.0, and Application Servlet SSO authentication. For information on applying SSO in WHD, see Deploying SSO with SAML Using AD FS and Deploying SSO with CAS 2.0. HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. Also known as secure HTTP, HTTPS is widely used for communications across the Internet. HTTPS is a secure, encrypted communication channel between browsers and servers. HTTPS is not an actual protocol. See Enabling HTTPS for information on setting up HTTPS. SSL Secure Socket Layer. SSL is a cryptographic protocol that secures Internet communications. SSL encrypts segments of network connections using a system requiring two separate keys: symmetric encryption for privacy and message authentication codes for message integrity. The HTTPS channel results from layering SSL security on top of HTTP. When a browser submits an HTTPS request to WHD, the SSL protocol requires WHD to respond with a certificate to prove the authenticity of the server. The certificate contains a public key used for encryption and a digital signature from a Certification Authority (CA). The digital signature indicates which CA verified the authenticity of the server. Certificates An SSL certificate verifies who the certificate owner is, containing information such as owner name, website address, address, how long the certificate is valid, and the digital signature of the person or entity owning the certificate. For more information on using certificates in WHD, see Working with Keys and Certificates. 156

159 Configuring and Managing Authentication Keys An SSL certificate contains a public and private key pair. The private key contains the code and the public key decodes the public key. The private key is installed on the server and never shared with anyone. The public key is incorporated into the SSL certificate and shared with web browsers. The certificates that came with your browser and application, for example, contain the keys that can decrypt those applications' root certificates. For more information on using keys in WHD, see Working with Keys and Certificates. Note: WHD does not support Windows Authentication for connections to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). For details on configuring and managing single sign on and security authentication for WHD, see the following: Deploying SSO with SAML Using AD FS Deploying SSO with CAS 2.0 Enabling HTTPS Working with Keys and Certificates Certificate Troubleshooting Tips. Deploying SSO with SAML Using AD FS WHD and later supports SAML 2.0, which allows Single Sign On (SSO) authentication. SSO in WHD uses SAML with Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) to authenticate a user over multiple Web applications over the life of a single online session. When you configure SSO in WHD using AD FS, you can enable users, for example, who log in to the Exchange server to be automatically logged in to WHD as well. Note: If you are using Windows Server 2008 R2, you must upgrade to AD FS 2.0. AD FS 1.0 is the default on Windows Server 2008 R2 and does not support SAML 2.0. WHD and AD FS settings must be configured separately from each other. These instructions describe how to configure SSO in WHD only. For details on configuring SSO with SAML using AD FS, see the AD FS 2.0 Step-by-Step and How To Guides at 157

160 Before You Begin Before You Begin Enable automatic Active Directory (AD) logon through Windows by adding the AD FS logon URL to the Local Intranet sites in Internet Explorer through Tools > Internet options. This can also be done through a group policy for the whole organization. Set up your SAML server with an identity repository such as AD FS or Light Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) in the remote login URL for your SAML server. Enable SSL in your WHD installation using a trusted certificate (like GoDaddy or Verisign) or create your own certificate. For additional information, see Working with Keys and Certificates. Help Desk and SAML AD FS Settings In the following settings, replace mydomain.com with your actual domain name. To configure Web Help Desk to use SAML AD FS for authentication: 1. Navigate to Setup > General > Authentication. 2. Select SAML 2.0 as the Authentication Method. The Authentication Settings window changes to accept SAML configuration input. 3. Enter as the login page URL. To bypass external authentication, add the following to your login URL:?username=<username>&password=<password>. 4. Click Upload to apply a Verification certificate and enable SSL. Apply the same certificate used to sign the assertion in the of AD FS 2.0 Relying Party (RP) setting. For example, an uploaded GoDaddy verification certificate might look like the following after being uploaded. 5. Enter for the Logout URL or leave this field blank to use the WHD default logout page. WHD redirects the users to this page for logout. To configure SAML 2.0 on the AD FS Server to work with WHD: 158

161 Configuring and Managing Authentication 1. Enter the following AD FS 2.0 RP settings: Identifier: <mydomain.com>/helpdesk/webobjects/helpdesk.woa Signature: Enter the name of the certificate uploaded to WHD in step 4 of the WHD SAML configuration instructions. Endpoint: Binding: POST, URL: < server IP address>/helpdesk/webobjects/helpdesk.woa Detail: Secure hash algorithm SHA-1 2. Enter the following AD FS 2.0 Log Out settings: Identifier: us>/helpdesk/webobjects/helpdesk.woa Signature: Use the same certificate as above. Endpoint: SAML Logout, Binding: POST, URL: Server_fqdn>/<domain name>/adfs/ls/?wa=wsignout1.0 Detail: Secure hash algorithm SHA-1 3. Enter the following AD FS 2.0 Claim Mapping settings: Attribute store: Active Directory LDAP attribute: Usually an address. If your WHD client login attribute is a user name rather than an address, use the user ID or account name instead of the address. Outgoing claim type: NameID Adding AD FS Login URLs to Trusted Sites Adding the AD FS login URL to Internet Explorer's Trusted Sites eliminates the WHD login script popup and automatically authenticates your login and logs you in to WHD. To add a Trusted Site to Internet Explorer: 1. In Internet Explorer, navigate to Tools > Internet options > Security > Trusted Sites. 2. Click Sites. 3. Enter the AD FS login URL to this zone and click Add. Make sure you have entered the URL with the prefix 159

162 Deploying SSO with CAS Select Require server verification ( for all sites in this zone. 5. Click Close to apply these settings and close the Trusted site dialog. 6. Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog. To add a trusted site to Internet Explorer and enable automatic WHD logon: 1. In Internet Explorer, navigate to Tools > Internet options. 2. Select the Security tab and click Local Internet. 3. Click Sites. 4. Click Advanced. 5. Enter the appropriate AD FS URL in the Add field and click Add. 6. Click Close and return to the Internet Options dialog. 7. In the Internet Options dialog, select the Security tab and click Trusted Sites. 8. Click Sites. 9. Enter the WHD URL in the Add field and click Add. 10. Click Close return to the Internet Options dialog. 11. In the Internet Options dialog with Trusted Sites still selected, click Custom level Scroll to User Authentication and select Automatic logon with current user name and password. 13. Click OK to close the Security tab and exit the Internet Options dialog. 14. Start WHD. Deploying SSO with CAS 2.0 CAS 2.0 is a web-based SSO protocol. CAS server is deployed into Tomcat and endpoints to this service are set in WHD. WHD uses these endpoints to authenticate the client according to the user s Windows login credentials. You can deploy your CAS server into WHD s Tomcat or your own WHD server. 160

163 Configuring and Managing Authentication Deploying on Tomcat To deploy CAS 2.0 Server on the Help Desk Tomcat Server 1. Download the CAS 2.0 ZIP file: 2. Extract the files. 3. Turn off the WHD server. 4. From the /module directory, copy cas-server-webapp war into your Tomcat deployment /bin/webapps. 5. Rename cas-server-webapp war to cas.war. 6. Turn on the WHD server. From now on, CAS 2.0 is accessible from You should have the HTTPS port on Tomcat enabled. If you have SSL already enabled, skip Enabling SSL on the Help Desk and go on to Deploying on the Help Desk Server. Enabling SSL on the Help Desk To enable SSL on WHD: 1. Uncomment HTTPS_PORT= Using Porteclé, create new certificate (as described in Generating a New Certificate in Porteclé) and insert it into /conf/keystore.jks. Note: Make sure that the certificate s Common Name (CN) is set to the WHD server's Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). The CN should comprise the host server and domain name. For example, if your FDQN is the CN name must also be 3. Restart WHD. Deploying on the Help Desk Server To deploy CAS 2.0 on your own WHD server: 1. In WHD, navigate to Setup > General > Authentication. 2. Select CAS 2.0 as the Authentication Method. 161

164 Configuring a GPO to Push Internet Explorer Settings 3. Set the following endpoints and certificate (ask your local administrator for details). CAS login URL: CAS validate URL: Verification certificate: Select a certificate that uses CAS for signing the responses. WHD's Tomcat certificate is from keystore.jks. Logout URL: 4. Save changes. Now you are able to log in using CAS 2.0. Configuring a GPO to Push Internet Explorer Settings Group Policy Objects (GPOs) define settings for Windows server configurations. Group Policies apply these settings. To set up a GPO to push Internet Explorer settings for WHD: 1. Log on to the WHD domain using the Domain Administrator account. 2. Click Start, click Run, type mmc, and then click OK. 3. On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-In, and then click Add. The Add or Remove Snap-Ins dialog box opens. 4. In Available snap-ins, scroll down to and double-click Group Policy Management Editor, and then click OK. The Group Policy Wizard opens. 5. In Select Group Policy Object, click Browse. The Browse for a Group Policy Object dialog box opens. 6. In Domains, OUs, and linked Group Policy Objects, click Default Domain Policy, and then click OK. 7. Click Finish, and then click OK. 8. In the Default Domain [yourdomain.com] Policy console tree, expand the following path: User Configuration, Policies, Windows Settings, Internet Explorer Maintenance, Connection. 9. Double-click Automatic Browser Configuration, clear the Automatically Detect Configuration Settings check box, and then click OK. 162

165 Configuring and Managing Authentication 10. In the Default Domain [yourdomain.com] Policy console tree, expand the following path: User Configuration, Policies, Windows Settings, Internet Explorer Maintenance, Security. 11. Double-click Security Zones and Content Ratings, click Import the current security zones and privacy settings, click Continue when prompted, and then click Modify Settings. 12. In the Internet Properties dialog box, click the Security tab, click Local Intranet icon, and then click Sites. 13. In the Local Internet dialog box, in Add this website to the zone type*.yourdomain.com, click Add, select the Require server verification (https) for all sites in this zone, click Close, and then click OK. Enabling HTTPS When a browser submits an HTTPS request to WHD, the SSL protocol requires WHD to respond with a certificate to prove the authenticity of the server. Begin your security configuration by enabling HTTPS. To activate HTTPS in WHD: 1. Configure the port WHD uses to listen for HTTPS requests. 2. Configure the port WHD uses to listen for the URLs it generates that point back to itself, if needed. 3. Configure WHD to listen for HTTPS requests. 4. Enter an SSL connection port, if needed. 5. Restart WHD. For best practice, SolarWinds recommends reviewing the following steps before you begin the configuration. 163

166 Configuring HTTPS Listening Port Configuring HTTPS Listening Port To configure the HTTPS listening port: 1. Navigate to WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf. 2. In the whd.conf file, locate the Ports section and enter the port number WHD monitors for HTTPS requests, which appears after HTTPS_PORTS=. 3. Save your changes. 4. If you have no other configuration changes, exit the whd.conf file. Configuring URL Ports In some rare cases, you may require WHD to use a different port in URLs it generates to itself than the port the app server itself is actually running on. For example, a web server might be configured to route requests for the default port (80) to go to the default WHD port (8081). In this case, you can have URLs to the help desk use port 80 rather than Port 8081 might even be kept behind 164

167 Configuring and Managing Authentication a firewall and thus be unreachable from other machines. If you do not configure the URL ports, WHD uses the default ports. If needed, configure the port WHD uses for the URLs it generates that point back to itself. To configure an URL port: 1. Remaining in the whd.conf file, find the URL Ports (optional) section. 2. At the bottom of the section, enter the desired URL port number after URL_ HTTPS_PORT=. 3. Save your changes. If you have no other configuration changes, exit the whd.conf file. Enabling Listening for HTTPS Requests To enable WHD to listen to HTTPS requests, uncomment the HTTPS_PORT setting in WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf: 165

168 Entering SSL Connection Port 1. Remove the pound sign # at the beginning of the line. 2. Save your changes. 3. If you have no other configuration changes, exit the whd.conf file. Entering SSL Connection Port By default, browsers use port 443 for SSL connections. If you use a different port, include the port number in URLs referring to WHD. For example, if your whd.conf file contains the line HTTPS_PORT=8443, connect to WHD using the following URL: Restarting the Help Desk After you cofigure the HTTPS_PORT setting, restart WHD. WHD creates a new Java keystore at WebHelpDesk/conf/keystore.jks. The new keystore contains a self-signed certificate. Working with Keys and Certificates When a browser submits an HTTPS request to WHD, the SSL protocol requires WHD to respond with a certificate to prove the authenticity of the server. The certificate contains a public key used for encryption and a digital signature from a Certification Authority (CA). The digital signature indicates which CA verified the authenticity of the server. 166

169 Configuring and Managing Authentication Web browsers already trust most certificates signed by large CAs such as Verisign. That does not mean, however, you cannot use certificates signed by smaller CAs. When a browser does not recognize the certificate s CA, the browser asks you to confirm trust in the certificate. After you confirm trust in a certificate, the browser uses the certificate's public key to encrypt information it sends to WHD. WHD decrypts the information using its private key. Similarly, WHD uses its private key to encrypt information sent to the browser, and the browser uses the public key received in the certificate to decrypt it. WHD keeps its keys and certificates in a Java keystore at WebHelpDesk/conf/keystore.jks. The open-source utility Porteclé ( POR-tuh- CLAY, French for keychain), which comes bundled with WHD, provides a graphical user interface for administering the keystore on the Windows or Mac OSX platform. If you do not have a certificate for your server and are using the Windows or Mac OSX platform, use Porteclé to generate both a keypair and a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) to send to the CA. Then import the CA Reply certificate. If you already have a certificate, import both the certificate and the primary key into the keystore. Porteclé does not allow you to import a primary key by itself, so you must combine it with its certificate in a PKCS#12 file (*.p12 or *.pfx). In each case, the keypair must be aliased as tomcat, and both the keypair and the keystore must be protected by the password specified in the KEYSTORE_ PASSWORD setting in whd.conf. For instructions on working with keys and certificates, see: Replacing Self-signed Certificates with CA Certificates Adding Certificate Chains Generating a New Certificate Using Porteclé o o Creating a New Keypair Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) Importing a CA Chain and Root Certificates Importing a CA Reply Certificate Creating a PKCS#12 Keystore from a Private Key and a Certificate Exporting a PKCS#12 Keystore from Microsoft Management Console 167

170 Using Default Keypair Alias and Passwords Importing a PKCS#12 File into the Keystore Adding an SSL Certificate to the Virtual Appliance Certificate Troubleshooting Tips When working in the WHD Virtual Appliance, use the command line interface to generate new certificates and an FTP interface tool like WinSCP or FileZilla to transfer any new or existing certificates. Using Default Keypair Alias and Passwords WHD uses the Tomcat web server. The Tomcat web server requires its keypair to have the alias tomcat. The default password to both the keypair and keystore is changeit; Tomcat requires the keystore and keypair password be identical. To use your own password, change the KEYSTORE_PASSWORD setting in whd.conf located at \Program Files\WebHelpDesk\whd.conf. Adding Certificate Chains It is possible for a trusted CA to delegate to another CA. In this case, the certificate returned by the delegated CA will itself be signed by the trusted CA, resulting in a certificate chain. Certificate chains may be of any length. The highest certificate in the chain, the root certificate, should be a self-signed certificate, signed by the trusted CA. Each certificate in the chain must be imported into the keystore so that the complete chain can be sent to the browser. If the CA Reply does not include the chain certificates, they must be added to the keystore manually before the CA reply. 168

171 Configuring and Managing Authentication The certificates must be imported in order of dependency. This means that the root certificate must be added first, then the next chained certificate that was signed by the root certificate, and so on, down to the CA reply. Replacing Self-signed Certificates with CA Certificates A keypair created using Porteclé has a self-signed certificate. To replace the selfsigned certificate with a certificate signed by a CA, you must generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for the keypair and submit it to the CA. The CSR contains the public key and the name of the server, in a format defined by the PKCS#10 standard (typically given the filename extension.p10 or.csr). After verifying the applicant s identity, the CA sends you a certificate you can use to replace the self-signed certificate in the keypair. This CA Reply (or CSR Reply) is typically an X.509 Certificate file (.cer,.crt,.pem, or.der) or an PKCS#7 file (.p7b). Generating a New Certificate in Porteclé Generating a new certificate using Porteclé comprises the following processes: Creating a new keypair Generating a certificate signing request (CSR). Importing the CA reply certificate. If you already have a certificate, see Importing an Existing Certificate. 169

172 Creating a New Keypair Creating a New Keypair To create a new keypair: 1. Launch the Porteclé batch file from the \Program Files\WebHelpDesk folder. 2. Select the JKS file type. 3. Enter changeit in the Enter Password field. After opening the keystore, you should see a keypair entry with the alias tomcat. WHD automatically created this keypair. Replace the keypair with a new keypair configured for your domain. 4. Delete the existing tomcat keypair by right-clicking the alias and then clicking Delete. 5. Click Tools > Generate Key Pair. 7. Choose an algorithm and key size. Enter either 1024 or 2048, and select RSA. 170

173 Configuring and Managing Authentication 8. Click OK. Porteclé prompts you to provide the x509 attributes for your certificate. 9. Select a Validity that matches the number of days you CA certificate will be valid. Typical validation periods are 6, 12, or 24 months. Note: The Validity period is the period you specified when you purchased you certificate from the CA. 10. Enter a CN that matches the site used in the certificate For example, if WHD is hosted at support.example.com, your CN must be support.examole.com. 11. Enter an Organization Unit (OU) that helps distinguish this certificate from others for your organization. 12. Enter an Organization Name (O), typically name for your organization. 13. Enter a Locality Name (L). This is typically a city name. 14. Enter a State Name (ST). This should be the unabbreviated city and state/province/region/territory of your organization. 15. Enter a Country (C) This should be the two letter ISO 3166 country code for your country. 16. If desired, enter an . This is an optional setting that your CA may use as the address to which the certificate will be mailed. 171

174 Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) 17. Click OK. In the Generate Certificate panel, Porteclé asks you to provide an alias for the new keypair. 18. Enter the alias tomcat, and then click OK. 19. Enter changeit in both fields, and then click Enter After successfully providing the keypair password, you should see the new keypair aliased by Tomcat. Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) 1. Right-click the tomcat keypair and then click Generate CSR. 172

175 Configuring and Managing Authentication 2. Enter a name for the CSR to help you remember the domain it validates. For example, you might use support.example.com.csr. This is the file you send to your CA to request your certificate. The CA should return an x.509 certificate in DER (*.cer, *.crt), PEM (*.pem, *.cer, *.crt) or PKCS#7 (*.p7b, *.p7c) encoding. Importing CA Chain and Root Certificates Before importing your certificate into the keystore, check whether the certificate vendor requires you to include any other certificates to complete the certificate chain. To import a certificate, complete the following steps: 1. ClickTools > Import Trusted Certificate. 2. Locate each of the certificates provided by your CA and import them into the keystore. Importing a CA Reply Certificate After installing any required root certificates, you need to import the response from the CA. To import the CA reply, right-click the tomcat keypair and then click Import CA Reply. 173

176 Creating a New Keypair Note: If your certificate is in Base64-encoded format (*.pem and sometimes *.cer), you may get an error when importing the certificate if it contains anything besides the certificate itself. If this is the case, make a copy of the certificate that includes only the lines starting with -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- and ending with END CERTIFICATE After importing your certificate reply, Porteclé reports that the certificate has been imported successfully. If, when attempting to import the CA Reply, Porteclé gives you an error that the certificate cannot be trusted, you may be missing a root certificate. To determine which certificate you need, temporarily import your CA Reply as a Trusted Certificate, rather than a CA Reply certificate, and examine the Certificate Details. Locate the Issuer property. You need to obtain a certificate from your CA that matches this property and then import the certificate into Porteclé as a Trusted Certificate. Once you have imported this certificate into Porteclé, as well as any other certificates needed by its issuer, you can delete your own trusted certificate and re-import it as a CA Reply to your keypair. Creating a New Keypair To create a new keypair: 1. Launch the Porteclé batch file from the \Program Files\WebHelpDesk folder. 174

177 Configuring and Managing Authentication 2. Select the.jks file type. 3. Enter changeit in the Enter Password field. After opening the keystore, you should see a keypair entry with the alias tomcat. WHD automatically created this keypair. Replace the keypair with a new keypair configured for your domain. 4. Delete the existing tomcat keypair by right-clicking the alias and then clicking Delete. 175

178 Creating a New Keypair 5. Click Tools > Generate Key Pair. 7. Choose an algorithm and key size. Enter either 1024 or 2048, and select RSA. 8. Click OK. Porteclé prompts you to provide the x509 attributes for your certificate. 9. Select a Validity that matches the number of days you CA certificate will be valid. Typical validation periods are 6, 12, or 24 months. Note: The Validity period is the period you specified when you purchased you certificate from the CA. 10. Enter a CN that matches the site used in the certificate For example, if WHD is hosted at support.example.com, your CN must be support.example.com. 11. Enter an Organization Unit (OU) that helps distinguish this certificate from others for your organization. 12. Enter an Organization Name (O), typically name for your organization. 13. Enter a Locality Name (L). This is typically a city name. 14. Enter a State Name (ST). This should be the unabbreviated city and state/province/region/territory of your organization. 15. Enter a Country (C). This should be the two letter ISO 3166 country code for your country. 16. If desired, enter an . This is an optional setting that your CA may use as the address to which the certificate will be mailed. 176

179 Configuring and Managing Authentication 17. Click OK. In the Generate Certificate panel, Porteclé asks you to provide an alias for the new keypair. 18. Enter the alias tomcat, and then click OK. 19. Enter changeit in both fields, and then click Enter. After successfully providing the keypair password, you should see the new keypair aliased by tomcat. 177

180 Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) 1. Right-click the tomcat keypair and then click Generate CSR. 2. Enter a name for the CSR to help you remember the domain it validates. For example, you might use support.example.com.csr. 178

181 Configuring and Managing Authentication This is the file you send to your CA to request your certificate. The CA should return an x.509 certificate in DER (*.cer, *.crt), PEM (*.pem, *.cer, *.crt) or PKCS#7 (*.p7b, *.p7c) encoding. Adding a Certficate Authority to Embedded Java CA Cert Keystore WHD does not accept certificates signed by a Certificate Authority (CA) its Java does not trust. To import the certificate into the trust store, you must export the certificate to the.crt file and import the CA. Run Porteclé as an administrator to import the CA. Importing Certificates on Windows or Mac OSX To import the CA in Windows or Mac OSX: 1. Start Porteclé : a. Windows: Run <WHD>/portecle.bat b. Mac OSX: Navigate to Applications > WebHelpDesk > Porteclé and double click the Porteclé icon. 2. Navigate to File > Open Keystore File. 3. Open the cacerts keystore file: a. Windows: Find the keystore at <WHD>/bin/jre/lib/security/cacerts. b. Mac OSX: Open a terminal window and enter the following command: /usr/libexec/java_home; e.g. System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0jdk/ Contents/Home/lib/security/cacerts 4. When prompted, enter the default password: changeit. 5. Navigate to Tools>Import Trusted Certificates and locate the.crt file 6. Choose the file and alias/name FileSaveKeystore. 7. Restart WHD. 179

182 Importing Certificates on Linux Virtual Appliance Importing Certificates on Linux Virtual Appliance To import the CA in the Linux Virtual Appliance: 1. Open a terminal window and enter following command: echo -n openssl s_client -connect <exchange_ address>:<port> sed -ne '/-BEGIN CERTIFICATE-/,/- END CERTIFICATE-/p' > /tmp/<cert_name>.crt 2. Enter the following command: sudo /usr/local/webhelpdesk/bin/jre/bin/keytool - import -trustcacerts -keystore /usr/local/webhelpdesk/bin/jre/lib/security/cacerts - storepass <password> -noprompt -alias <cert_alias_ name> -f 3. Restart WHD. Importing CA Root and Chain Certificates Before importing your certificate into the keystore, check whether the certificate vendor requires you to include any other certificates to complete the certificate chain. To import a certificate, complete the following steps: 1. ClickTools > Import Trusted Certificate. 180

183 Configuring and Managing Authentication 2. Locate each of the certificates provided by your CA and import them into the keystore. Importing a CA Reply Certificate After installing any required root certificates, you need to import the response from the CA. To import the CA reply, right-click the tomcat keypair and then click Import CA Reply. 181

184 Importing an Existing Certificate Note: If your certificate is in Base64-encoded format (*.pem and sometimes *.cer), you may get an error when importing the certificate if it contains anything besides the certificate itself. If this is the case, make a copy of the certificate that includes only the lines starting with -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- and ending with END CERTIFICATE After importing your certificate reply, Porteclé reports that the certificate has been imported successfully. If, when attempting to import the CA Reply, Porteclé gives you an error that the certificate cannot be trusted, you may be missing a root certificate. To determine which certificate you need, temporarily import your CA Reply as a Trusted Certificate, rather than a CA Reply certificate, and examine the Certificate Details. Locate the Issuer property. You need to obtain a certificate from your CA that matches this property and then import the certificate into Porteclé as a Trusted Certificate. Once you have imported this certificate into Porteclé, as well as any other certificates needed by its issuer, you can delete your own trusted certificate and re-import it as a CA Reply to your keypair. Importing an Existing Certificate If you have an existing certificate that you would like to use with Web Help Desk, you need to import your private key as well as your certificate chain. Important: Do not import the certificate using Porteclé s Tools > Import Trusted Certificate option, as it will not include the private key. 182

185 Configuring and Managing Authentication The PKCS#12 standard specifies a keystore format that is used for transferring private keys and certificates. PKCS#12 files typically use the extension.p12 or.pfx. If you already have your private key and certificate bundled in this format, you can import it directly into Porteclé. If you do not have a PKCS#12 (.p12 or.pfx) file, you can use the OpenSSL pkcs12 command to generate one from a private key and a certificate; or, if your certificate is on a Windows server, you can export a PKCS#12 file from the Microsoft Management Console. Creating a PKCS#12 Keystore from a Private Key and a Certificate OpenSSL provides the pkcs12 command for generating PKCS#12 files from a private key and a certificate. OpenSSL is open source and can be downloaded from The private key and certificate must be in PEM format (i.e., base64-encoded, with ----BEGIN CERTIFICATE---- and ----END CERTIFICATE-- -- headers and footers). Use this command in OpenSSL to create a PKCS#12 file from your private key and certificate: openssl pkcs12 -export \ -in <signed_cert_filename> \ -inkey <private_key_filename> \ -name tomcat \ -out keystore.p12 If you have a chain of certificates, you should first combine the certificates into a single file and use it for the input file, as shown below. The order of certificates must be from server certificate to the CA root certificate. See RFC 2246 section 7.4.2) for details on this order. cat <signed_cert_filename> \ <intermediate.cert> [<intermediate2.cert>]... \ > cert-chain.txt openssl pkcs12 -export \ 183

186 Exporting a PKCS#12 Keystore from Microsoft Management Console -in cert-chain.txt \ -inkey <private_key_filename> \ -name tomcat \ -out keystore.p12 You are prompted to provide a password for the new keystore, which you will need to provide when importing the keystore into the Web Help Desk Java keystore. Exporting a PKCS#12 Keystore from Microsoft Management Console To use an existing certificate located on a Windows server, complete the following steps: 1. Click Start > Run and enter the command mmc. A Microsoft Management Console window opens. 2. Select File > Add/Remove Snap-In. 3. Select Add > Certificates > Add > Computer Account > Local Computer > Finish. 4. Expand Console Root > Certificates > Personal. Your certificate is listed. 5. Right-click your certificate and select More Actions > Export List... Follow the Certificate Export Wizard prompts to export a Personal Information Exchange PKCS #12 (.pfx) file. Note the location where you saved the.pfx file. 6. Select the option to Include all certificates in the certification path if possible, leaving the two other options unselected. 7. Import the certificate into Porteclé using the instructions in Importing PKCS#12 File Into the Keystore. Importing a PKCS#12 File into the Keystore Porteclé provides two ways to import contents of a PKCS#12 file into the Web Help Desk Java keystore. The first method is to open the PKCS#12 keystore in File > Open Keystore File, convert it to a Java keystore in Tools > Change Keystore Type > JKS, and overwrite the existing keystore by saving it as WebHelpDesk/conf/keystore.jks. 184

187 Configuring and Managing Authentication The second method is to open the Web Help Desk keystore file and then import the keypair containing your certificate, using Tools > Import Keypair.. Porteclé prompts you to select which keypair in your PKCS#12 keystore to import. If your keystore already contains a default, unsigned Tomcat certificate, delete this certificate before importing your PKCS#12 file. Be sure that your certificate chain is intact in the Web Help Desk keystore. You can inspect the certificate chain by double-clicking the certificate to view the certificate details. Use the left and right arrows at the top of the details panel to navigate through each certificate in the chain. If you do not see the full certificate chain, try importing the CA certificates first in Tools > Import Trusted Certificate, and then import your keypair again. Porteclé does not establish trust when a certificate is imported before the certificate that was used to sign it. Sequence is important. Import the root certificate first, then the next certificate in the chain, and so on, until you get to your own certificate. Your certificate must be aliased as tomcat. The password for your certificate and for the keystore itself must be the same, and must match the KEYSTORE_ PASSWORD setting in WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf (changeit by default). Adding SSL Certificates to the Virtual Appliance You can replace the SSL certificate included with the WHD Virtual Appliance with one of your own. WHD can manipulate the original keystore.jks file when the certificate's Common Name (CN) does not match the hostname. The following instructions explain how to add the following to the Virtual Appliance: Adding a Self-signed SSL Certificate Adding a Certificate from a Certificate Authority Resolving Untrusted Site Errors After Adding Certificates These instructions, including those for sudo commands, assume you have root access to the Virtual Appliance. Use the Virtual Appliance login credentials wherever a password is required in the steps that follow. 185

188 Adding a Self-signed SSL Certificate Adding a Self-signed SSL Certificate To add a self-signed SSL certificate to your Virtual Appliance: 1. Log on to the Virtual Appliance using the console or an SSH connection. 2. Navigate to the WebHelpDesk folder on the virtual appliance, at /usr/local/webhelpdesk folder. 3. Enter the following command where daysvalid is the number of days the certificate is valid: sudo./bin/jre/bin/keytool -genkey -alias tomcat - keyalg RSA -keysize keystore./conf/keystore_ new.jks -validity daysvalid 4. When prompted, enter a new keystore password. You need this information for a later step. 5. Enter the information needed for the new certificate, providing the following information: Your domain name, instead of a first and last name Note: If you do not use the domain name for the name, you receive certificate errors. The name of your organizational unit The name of your organization The name of your city or locality The name of your state or province Your two letter country code Note: This information displays to users accessing the Virtual Appliance through a secure connection. 6. Enter yes when prompted to confirm your new key information. 7. When prompted for the key password, enter the keystore password you entered before. 8. Modify the owner of the keystore by entering the following command: sudo chown root.root./conf/keystore_new.jks 9. Change the permissions on the keystore by entering the following command: sudo chmod 755./conf/keystore_new.jks 186

189 Configuring and Managing Authentication 10. Make a backup and copy the keystore_new.jks file using the following command: sudo cp conf/whd_keystore.jks conf/keystore_ new.jks.backup 11. Edit the configuration file,./conf/whd.conf. Change password used in step 4 above, by entering: sudo vi conf/whd.conf (i to edit, <esc> to quit edit mode,:w to save edits, :q to quit the editor) KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=<password> KEYSTORE_FILE=/usr/local/webhelpdesk/conf/keystore_ new.jks 12. Stop Web Help Desk by entering:./whd stop 13. Start Web Help Desk by entering:./whd start Adding a Certificate from a Certificate Authority To add a certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA) to your Virtual Appliance: 1. Log on to the virtual appliance using the console or an SSH connection. 2. Navigate to the WebHelpDesk folder on the virtual appliance, at /usr/local/webhelpdesk folder. 3. Enter the following command: sudo./bin/jre/bin/keytool -genkey -alias tomcat - keyalg RSA -keysize keystore./conf/keystore_ new.jks 4. When prompted, enter a new keystore password. You need this information for a later step. 5. Enter the information needed for the new certificate, providing the following information: Your domain name, instead of a first and last name Note: If you do not use the domain name for the name, you receive certificate errors. The name of your organizational unit 187

190 Adding a Certificate from a Certificate Authority The name of your organization The name of your city or locality The name of your state or province Your two letter country code Note: This information displays to users accessing the Virtual Appliance through a secure connection. 6. Enter yes when prompted to confirm your new key information. 7. When prompted for the key password, press <Enter>. 8. Enter the following command: sudo./bin/jre/bin/keytool -certreq -keyalg RSA - alias tomcat -keystore./conf/keystore_new.jks -file mycertreq.csr. 9. When prompted for the key password, enter the keystore password you entered in step 4 of this procedure. 10. Submit the CSR to your CA. 11. Once you have downloaded the certificate, transfer it to the WebDelpDesk folder on the VA, using a utility like WinSCP, and import as follows: a. Import the Root and/or the intermediate CA. Their certificates need to be loaded in order: root first and then the intermediate. sudo bin/jre/bin/keytool -import -trustcacerts - alias root -file /usr/local/webhelpdesk/root.crt -keystore /usr/local/webhelpdesk/conf/keystore_ new.jks sudo bin/jre/bin/keytool -import -trustcacerts - alias intermed -file /usr/local/webhelpdesk/root.crt -keystore /usr/local/webhelpdesk/conf/keystore_new.jks b. Import the CA Reply, the signed primary CA for WHD (tomcat): sudo bin/jre/bin/keytool -import -trustcacerts - alias tomcat -file /usr/local/webhelpdesk/helpdesk.sample.com.crt - 188

191 Configuring and Managing Authentication keystore /usr/local/webhelpdesk/conf/keystore_ new.jks 12. Make a backup and copy the keystore_new.jks file using the following command: sudo cp conf/whd_keystore.jks conf/keystore_ new.jks.backup > 13. Edit the whd.conf file to specify not to use the default key store: sudo vi conf/whd.conf (i to edit. <esc> to exit edit mode, :w to save edits, :q to quit the editor) 14. In the keystore settings section of the file, add a value for the KEYSTORE_ FILE= setting: KEYSTORE_ FILE=/usr/local/webhelpdesk/conf/keystore_new.jks 15. Stop WHD by entering:./whd stop 16. Start WHD by entering:./whd start Note: If you need additional clarification on adding a certificate from a certificate authority to your Virtual Appliance, see Installing a Certificate from a Certificate Authority on the Tomcat website or your CA s help page. SolarWinds Technical Support can only assist with adding a self-signed certificate to your Virtual Appliance. Resolving Untrusted Site Errors After Adding Certificates If you receive an Untrusted Site error after adding a certificate, you may need to either create a permanent exception or install the certificate as a trusted certificate. Each browser handles security differently. In Firefox, you can create a permanent exception. In Chrome or Internet Explorer you must install the certificate in your trusted certificates store. Both Chrome and Internet Explorer use the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store when verifying certificates. If you have performed the steps to install the certificate for either Internet Explorer or Chrome, you do not have to perform the same steps again to use either browser. 189

192 Resolving Untrusted Site Errors After Adding Certificates Note: You must close all instances of your Internet Explorer or Chrome and completely clear your cache. To create a permanent exception for Firefox: 1. Open a browser to your Virtual Appliance using https. 2. When the error occurs, expand I Understand the Risks. 3. Click Add Exception. 4. When prompted, click Confirm Security Exception. To install the certificate as a trusted certificate with Internet Explorer: 1. Open a browser to your Virtual Appliance using https. 2. When the error occurs, click Continue to the website (not recommended). 3. In the address bar, click Certificate Error. 4. Click View Certificates 5. In the General tab, click Install Certificate 6. Click Next. 7. Select Place all certificates in the following store, and then click Browse. 8. Select Trusted Root Certification Authorities, and then click OK. 9. Click Next. 10. Click Finish. 11. When prompted to confirm installation, select Yes. 12. Close the tab, and restart Internet Explorer. To install the certificate as a trusted certificate with Chrome: 1. Open a browser to your Virtual Appliance using https. 2. When the error occurs, click Proceed Anyway. Note: In Chrome version 37, click Advanced Options and then click Proceed Anyway. 3. In the address bar, click the lock icon to view the site information. 4. On the Connections tab, click Certificate Information. 5. On the Details tab, click Copy to File 190

193 Configuring and Managing Authentication 6. Click Next. 7. Select DER encoded binary X.509 (.CER), and click Next. 8. Enter a file name. By default Chrome saves the certificate in a hidden file in \Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Applications\ If you do not want to make hidden files visible, browse to a different location to save the certificate. 10. Click Next. 11. Check the location of the certificate, and then click Finish. 12. In Chrome, open Settings > Advanced Settings, and then click Manage certificates 13. Navigate to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities tab. 14. Click Import. 15. Click Next. 16. Browse to the certificate you exported, and then click Next. 17. Select Place all certificates in the following store, and then select Trusted Root Certification Authorities. 18. Click Next, and then click Finish. 19. When prompted, select Yes. 20. Close the tab and restart Chrome. Certificate Troubleshooting Tips If you are having difficulties importing certificates, check for improper settings or mistakes in your procedures: In Porteclé, navigate to Tools > Options... and check Use CA Certs Keystore. Porteclé checks the built-in Java certificates when attempting to establish trust. This action is fine, because this same set of certificates is available to WHD at runtime. Porteclé requires that certificates be imported in order of most-trusted certificate first (i.e., root certificate, then the intermediate certificate that is issued by the root, then the certificate issued by that certificate, etc.). If you attempt to import a certificate out of order, Porteclé allows it, but complains that 191

194 Troubleshooting Scenarios it cannot establish trust. You should never need to confirm trust for any certificate other than the root certificate. Do NOT import your own certificate using the Tools > Import Trusted Certificates... menu option. This option is only for importing root and chain certificates. Instead, right-click your tomcat keypair and select Import CA Reply. Make sure that the password set for the keypair and the keystore are the same, and match the KEYSTORE_PASSWORD setting in WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf. (The default password is changeit.) To set the keypair password, right-click the tomcat keypair and select Set password. To set the keystore password, select Tools > Set Keystore Password... Make sure that your keystore is saved to: WebHelpDesk/conf/keystore.jks. Restart WHD to ensure changes in Porteclé or whd.conf to take effect. On Windows, be sure to use the WHD Start/Stop utilities in the Start menu, not the Windows Services panel (right-click Run As Administrator on Server 2008+). You get a certificate warning when the hostname in the address you are using to browse to WHD is different from the Common Name (CN) field in your certificate. You can get a certificate warning, for example, if your certificate is for help.my company.com and you use localhost as the hostname in your URL. It is no longer necessary to edit web.xml to enable Web Help Desk to switch automatically from HTTP requests to HTTPS requests. Requests automatically switch from HTTP to HTTPS when both DEFAULT_PORT and HTTPS_PORT are enabled in WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf. When using HTTPS, set Setup > Options > Force HTTPS to Always. This setting ensures that links pointing to WHD use HTTPS. Troubleshooting Scenarios Issue: Porteclé says my CA Reply certificate cannot be trusted. An issuer Porteclé does not trust has signed your certificate. You must obtain a root certificate (or chain of certificates) from your CA that match the Issuer identity of your certificate, and import them into Porteclé before importing your own certificate as a CA Reply. 192

195 Configuring and Managing Authentication You can determine the Issuer of your CA Reply by temporarily importing your certificate into Porteclé as a Trusted Certificate rather than a CA Reply, and then examining its Certificate Details. Look at the Certificate Details of other certificates in your keystore to see if any of them match your certificate s Issuer attribute. If not, you will need to obtain from your CA a certificate that does match. Once you have imported a certificate that matches your own certificate s issuer, as well as any other certificates needed to trust those certificates, delete your temporarily trusted certificate and re-import it as a CA Reply to your keypair. Issue: After importing my certificate, WHD does not start. Check your whd.conf file to be sure you have uncommented the SSL_PORT setting, and that your DEFAULT_PORT and HTTPS_PORT settings are not conflicting with any other processes on the server. Ensure that your KEYSTORE_PASSWORD setting in whd.conf matches BOTH the password of your keystore AND the password of your keypair. The default password is changeit. Issue: After importing my certificate, WHD is OK, but my browser shows a selfsigned certificate. Check whether your private key was generated using the DSA algorithm. DSA keys can fail with many browsers, including Internet Explorer. Try using RSA instead. 193

196 Managing Clients Clients typically interact with WHD using the web interface, but they can be set up to work with WHD using as well. Manually Adding a New Client When you create a new client, the information is saved in the WHD database. SolarWinds recommends that clients only be able to create accounts if their s match accepted domains. To manually add a new Client: 1. In the toolbar, click Clients. The Basic Search and Advanced Search tabs appear. 2. Click New Client. The Client Info tab window appears. 3. Complete all required fields and then click Save. WHD sends a confirmation to the new customer. Configuring Client Notifications When you configure a new client, you can enable WHD to send a confirmation to the client regarding their new account. To enable this option: 1. Click Setup. 2. In the left column, click Client > Options. The Client Options page appears. 3. Select the Client When Account is Created check box. 4. Click Save. 194

197 Managing Clients Viewing Client Information To view information about a customer: 1. Click Clients. 2. In the Client Name column, click a client name. The Client Info tab appears with the client's information. To edit the client's information, click the Edit icon, update the fields and check boxes as appropriate, and click Save. The Assigned Assets tab displays the customer's assigned assets. The Ticket History tab displays the client's ticket history. Enabling Client-initiated Account Setup To allow clients to create their accounts upon first login, navigate to Setup > Client > Options and select Customer Can Create Account. New clients see the following screen. To create a new account, they click the New Account button. Notes: Clients must be qualified using the restriction set in Setup > Clients > Options. SolarWinds recommends requiring domain matching for new Clients, as shown below. 195

198 Assigning Assets Assigning Assets To assign an existing asset to a Client 1. In the toolbar, click Assets. 2. Below the toolbar, click Select Assets. The Select Assets screen appears with the Basic Search and Advanced Search tabs. 3. Select the Basic Search tab. The Basic Search tab window appears with an additional window that displays your results. 4. In the tab window, select and/or enter the appropriate criteria to locate the asset. 196

199 Managing Clients To locate the asset using a specific set of conditions, click the Advanced Search tab and enter your search criteria. 5. Click Save. Your results appear in the bottom window. The bottom window includes buttons that allow you to add a new asset or generate an asset report in PDF, tab-separated value (TSV), and Microsoft Excel format. The No. column includes a link to the asset basics, details, history, and ticket history. This column also includes links that provide access to the asset using DameWare remote support software, which integrates with Web Help Desk to access assets remotely from a system running DameWare products. 197

200 Managing Tickets WHD uses tickets to manage service requests. These tickets can be initiated through , created in the WHD application, and imported from another application. Techs, Admins, and Clients can also manage tickets through or through the WHD application in a web browser. Using WHD, you can: Customize ticket views - Create custom ticket views and searches by creating custom filters. Create Quick Tickets - Create quick tickets for frequent issues, such as a forgotten password. Add detailed information to tickets - Create tech notes to provide details about a particular issue. Escalate and de-escalate tickets - Escalate and de-escalate tickets to ensure they are assigned to the appropriate Tech. Create tickets - Set up help desk tickets by sending an to a WHD address. For information about using commands (instead of the WHD interface) to manage tickets, see the Tickets section in the Web Help Desk REST API Guide. Ticket Flow The following diagram details WHD ticket flow. 198

201 Managing Tickets 199

202 Manually Creating Tickets Manually Creating Tickets To create a new ticket: 1. In the toolbar, click Tickets. 2. Click New Ticket. 3. In the Client Search box, assign the ticket to a client (if desired). 4. If the ticket requires an asset, click the Asset tab and add the proper asset. 5. Click the Ticket Details tab. 6. In the tab window, assign a location, room, department, tech, schedule, and any text instructions. 6. Click the Parts and Billing tab. 7. In the tab window, assign parts or specific labor charges (if applicable). See Working with Parts & Billing for more information. 8. Select the applicable parts and billing options, and then click Save or Save and Send . Clicking Save saves the ticket. Clicking Save and triggers the ticket process. The ticket is sent to the individuals specified in the ticket and in the Tech, Client, Location, and Ticket set up options. You can launch DameWare MRC from a customer ticket or from the Web Help Desk Toolbar. Creating Quick Tickets Use quick tickets to create identical tickets for repetitive issues, such as a forgotten password. You can create a quick ticket templates to define the fields in quick tickets. Techs and admins complete the Client and Location information based on the request type in a quick ticket before the ticket is assigned to help desk personnel. 200

203 Managing Tickets To create a quick ticket: 1. Click Tickets. The Tickets screen appears. 2. Click New Ticket. The New Ticket screen appears. 3. In the Quick Ticket section, click the plus icon to create a new ticket. The Quick Ticket Details screen appears. 4. Complete the fields and drop-down menus for your quick ticket. The Subject and Request Type fields are required fields. 5. At the bottom of the ticket, locate the Save Quick Ticket as field. 6. In the field, enter a name for this quick ticket type. 6. Click Shared to allow others to use this quick ticket template. 7. Click Save 8. Click Apply. To launch a previously saved quick ticket: 1. Select the saved quick ticket from the pull down list. 2. Click OK to launch the ticket. To edit a quick ticket before launching: 1. Select the saved quick ticket from the pull down list. 2. Click the Edit icon. 3. Make the required edits. 4. Click Save, and then click Apply. Customizing Ticket Views WHD offers several options for viewing tickets. Begin by clicking the Tickets button in the upper tool bar. 201

204 Customizing Ticket Views The My Tickets and Group Tickets views are pre-filtered tickets lists showing tickets assigned to you or to your group. In the first column, you can select tickets for bulk actions, such as merging tickets. The second column provides color-coded ticket information: Blue. New ticket with no Tech response Purple. Ticket reassigned to a new Tech Yellow. Ticket with a new Client update A ticket without a colored field falls outside the categories listed above. Most tickets can display without colored fields. In the fourth column, click or double click to add or remove a flag on a ticket. Additional columns provide more detailed information on the tickets. Double click the in-column icon to view and edit a ticket's details: No.. Displays the WHD-assigned ticket number. Updated. Shows the date and time of last ticket update. Status. Indicates the ticket level of completion. Initial status is Open. 202

205 Managing Tickets Alert Level. Displays the message warning Techs when a ticket needs attention. Alerts are notifications about ticket priorities, with three configurable levels for automatic escalation. Escalation. Shows the Tech group currently owning ticket, such as Level 1 or Level 2 Support or Group Manager. Priority. Determines the ticket due date, with priority names such as Urgent,.High, Medium, and Low. Client. Displays the WHD Clients receiving support from Techs. Request Type. Shows the category of the help request, such as for hardware support, support, network connectivity, and facilities requests. Request Detail. Provides details about the Client's Request Type. For example, if a Client requested hardware support, the Request Detail might show that they are requesting additional memory for their notebook computer. Latest Notes. Displays the latest notes from the Tech handling the ticket. Tech. Shows the name of the Tech handling the ticket. For information about configuring what appears in the My Tickets and Group Ticket views, see Setting Up Tickets. Techs only see tickets that are assigned directly to them in My Tickets. Techs only see tickets that have been assigned directly to a tech group they belong to in Group Tickets. These two restrictions apply to all accounts, including admin accounts. Searching Tickets Locate tickets quickly using the Search Tickets tab. To initiate a basic search: 1. Click the Basic Search tab. 2. Use the text boxes and lists to narrow the search for the desired ticket. 3. Click Search. 4. To view or edit a ticket, click the Ticket Number (No.) To create an Advanced Search: 203

206 Searching Tickets 1. Click the Advanced Search tab. 2. Select the qualifying conditions starting from the left to the right. To add a new qualifying condition to Tickets matching ALL of these conditions, click the + button to the right of the top condition. 3. Select the qualifying conditions as in step 2. Note: The conditions specified in the ALL grouping must all be true to result in a found ticket. These conditions are qualified using the Boolean AND. 4. To add qualifying condition to Tickets matching ANY of these conditions, click + at the right of the ellipsis and ANY of these conditions: section. Notes: The conditions specified in the ALL grouping must have all condition true to result in a found ticket. These conditions are qualified using the Boolean AND. The conditions specified in the ANY grouping must have at least one condition true to result in a found ticket. These conditions are qualified using the Boolean OR. The ANY condition group begins with and. Therefore the ANY group is evaluated along with the conditions in the ALL condition group, if the ALL group is used. If no condition exists in the ALL group, WHD evaluates the ANY condition is using only the Boolean OR. 5. When you have completed entering search conditions, click Search. The following illustrates a query that returns tickets that meet these criteria: Priority = Urgent Status = Open -- And either Escalation is 2 or above -- Or Company = ABC Co 204

207 Managing Tickets To save the search enter a query name and then click Save. The Shared check box allows other techs to access the query. Refining Search Results The search results list may display a large amount of ticket data. Filter the results using the Column Set widget. The widget is located at the upper right corner of the search results list. 1. To modify the column headers, click + to add a new set or Edit to edit the selected set. 2. Drag and drop column headers between The Available Columns and Selected Columns areas. 3. Click Save. Note: Saved column sets are not shared across techs. Each column set can specify a different PDF download option (Invoice or Ticket format) and full text option. Displaying Print Views To display the ticket information in a printer-friendly view, use the printer at the top of the ticket. Clicking the button opens the ticket in a window for printing. Performing Ticket Bulk Actions Ticket bulk actions apply actions to multiple tickets, based on the criteria you define. Suppose, for example, you want to escalate all open, unassigned, urgent priority IT requests for laptop repairs. WHD allows you to select all these requests and escalate them at one time. To create the bulk action to escalate these tickets: 1. Expand the Bulk Action field. 2. On the Bulk Action Details page, select the details you want to the bulk action to look for when it is applied: 205

208 Performing Ticket Bulk Actions a. In the Ticket Details tab, select the following Request Type options: IT Request Hardware Support Laptop Repair Request b. In the Status & Schedule tab, select Open. 3. When completed, enter the name Escalate Unassigned Urgent Open Tickets for the action in Save Bulk Action as field, and then click Save. 4. Click the Back button at the top of the Bulk Action Details page. 5. Select the tickets you want to escalate. 206

209 Managing Tickets 6. Select the Bulk Action Escalate Unassigned Urgent Open Tickets and click the Start arrow. 7. Click OK. WHD informs you that it is processing the tickets. When the operation completes, you receive a confirmation message resembling the following. Merging Tickets Perhaps a Client has submitted three separate tickets ticket numbers 19, 20, and 21 for items related to obtaining and setting up their new laptop. Since these three tickets are all for the same Client, relate to the same Asset, and are assigned to the same Tech, you can merge the three tickets into a single ticket. To merge tickets into a single ticket: 207

210 Merging Tickets 1. From a Tickets window, select tickets 19, 20, and From the bottom left corner of the page, select the Merge Selected Tickets button. 3. Select the ticket number into which to merge all the tickets. In this example, you can merge all the tickets into the Client's initial ticket, so you can select Ticket 19. Note: If any of the tickets to be merged contain attachments, select Include Attachments so those attachments link to the new merged ticket. 4. Click Merge Tickets. 208

211 Managing Tickets WHD combines Tickets 19, 20, and 21 into Ticket 19. Ticket 19 now contains the attachments, Client request information, and notes from the three original tickets. Configuring Ticket Details When you click Tickets in the WHD, you can view tickets under My Tickets and Group Tickets if: You belong to a group that has assigned tickets. The tickets are directly assigned to you. To view the ticket detail page, you can: Click Tickets in the WHD toolbar. Click My Tickets, and then click a ticket number. Click Group Tickets, and then click a ticket number. Use the search options to locate the ticket of interest. To assign a technician to the ticket use the Assigned Tech list or click Add Tech. To escalate the ticket, click the up triangle on the Tech Group. In the Details page, you can edit all ticket fields, which include: Location Department Ticket Type Request Type Action Rules File Attachments Status Schedules Recipients 209

212 Selecting a Request Type Selecting a Request Type When a Tech or Client opens a new ticket, they must choose a Request Type. Request types define the issue type and the action that needs to be taken. The Request Type selected determines which custom fields appear on the Ticket and which Techs can be assigned to it. The Request Type also determines how the Ticket is routed to a Tech. WHD comes standard with the following Request Types: Hardware Network /Outlook Phone/Voic Printer/Toner IT General/Other Facilities HR Admins can also add Request Types, as described in Defining Request Types. Note: To ensure seamless integration with DameWare, ensure that all WHD request types used for DameWare integration do not include required custom fields. Improving Ticket Resolution with Ticket Types WHD's Ticket Types groups together multiple tickets on the same issue as Child tickets of a Parent ticket. This capability allows Child tickets to be handled when you edit the Parent ticket. WHD uses three types of tickets to facilitate this type of ticket resolution: Service Request: A request submitted by a client to WHD for assistance, such as information, advice, or access to an IT service. Examples include resetting a password, access to a shared network resource, or repairs to their computer system. Problem ticket: A ticket that provides the root cause for attached Incident and Child tickets. An example of a Problem ticket would be a network resource is offline, with Incident and Child tickets describing users who 210

213 Managing Tickets cannot access the resource. Problem tickets are based on an initial Service Request or an automatic trouble ticket from a system integrated with WHD. Incident ticket: A ticket that describes a new occurrence of an issue currently documented in an existing Problem ticket. The Incident ticket can be attached to a Problem ticket. Once attached, the Incident ticket becomes a Child ticket. Incident tickets are created from a Service Request or an automatic trouble ticket from a system integrated with WHD. When a ticket type is set to Problem in the Ticket Details tab, the ticket becomes available in the Problems drawer, as shown below. This capability provides a parent root cause for related tickets. When a ticket is linked to a Problem ticket, it becomes an Incident ticket. Changing the ticket back to a Service Request removes the link to the Problem ticket. When a Parent ticket is closed, all of its Child tickets close as well. When you view a Parent ticket, you can view notes from Child tickets. When you view an Incident ticket, you can also view the notes from the Problem ticket. See Creating Parent/Child Service Relationships for more information. Changing Ticket Relationships When you create or modify parent and child tickets, the following rules apply: 211

214 Linking and Unlinking Incident and Problem Tickets In the Ticket Details > Details pane, changing the existing ticket type to another selection removes all existing relations, whether they are Parent/Child or Problem/Incident relations. Only Service Requests can have Parent or Child tickets. A ticket cannot be linked until it is saved. Linking and Unlinking Incident and Problem Tickets Use the Problem tickets Parent-Child feature to manually link multiple reports of a single issue. The Problem ticket is considered a Parent and each linked Incident ticket is considered a Child ticket. To link an Incident ticket to a Problem ticket: 1. From the Tickets page, double click the desired ticket. The Ticket Details tab appears, displaying the ticket's relevant dates, content, Tech notes, history, and other details. 2. In the Ticket Details tab, ensure that Incident is the active Ticket Type. 3. Click the Problems tab on the upper right side of the page. 212

215 Managing Tickets The Problem Search tab appears. 4. Enter and/or select a ticket number, request type, ticket status, and/or search term that you think may be in any existing Problem tickets. For example, if the connection to building 17 is down, many users in building 17 may open tickets. Searching for building 17 and perhaps Bldg 17 should list existing Problem tickets that you can make into a Parent ticket. 5. Click Search to find Problem tickets relating to your Incident ticket. 6. In the search results, click View to preview possible Parent tickets. 7. Click Link to assign the Problem ticket as a Child ticket. To unlink a Problem ticket from an Incident ticket: 213

216 Adding Details to Tickets with Tech Notes 1. From the Tickets page, double click the desired Problem ticket. 2. Make sure Problem is the active Ticket Type in the Ticket Details tab. 3. Scroll down to the Linked Incidents tab. 4. Click the Unlink Problem button. The Parent Problem ticket is no longer linked to the Incident ticket. Adding Details to Tickets with Tech Notes Technicians add information to tickets using Tech Notes. A ticket can have any number of notes and notes can be added by any technician. Tech Notes can contain basic HTML tag or Bulletin Board Code (BBCode) tag formatting. Note: When Setup > Parts & Billing > Options > Parts & Billing Enabled is selected, the technician can specify a billing rate for the work. A Tech Note can also be used to create a new FAQ, using the request detail as the question and the Tech Note as the answer. WHD sets new FAQs created from Tech Notes to an Unapproved status by default and use the ticket s request type as the FAQ category. See Managing FAQs for more information about FAQs. 214

217 Managing Tickets To add an FAQ to a tech note: 1. Open the ticket details page for the ticket of interest. 2. Click New in the Notes section. 3. Click Link FAQ. The FAQ Search dialog will open. 4. Search for the proper FAQ, and then click the FAQ Number to insert it into the ticket notes. 5. Click the Save & button. Tech Permissions and Tickets Administrators can re-assign technicians, change ticket status, and delete tickets. Technicians have various levels of access depending on the permission set they are granted. Permissions are set at Setup > Techs > Tech Permissions. The access limits are: Limit to Assigned Tech Groups: create, view, and edit tickets belonging only to Tech Groups to which the tech is assigned. New Ticket Assignment Override: override the normal Ticket assignment logic and self-assign the Ticket instead. Other s Ticket Status Edit: Allow the tech to change the status of tickets not assigned to them. Change Ticket Dates: Change the ticket s Open Date, Close Date, Note Date, and Due Date. Request Detail Edit: Allow the tech to update the text of the reported issue. Client Note Edit: Allow the tech to edit a client created note. Allow Re-Assignment: Enable the tech to re-assign the ticket to any other tech. Disabling this option allows the tech to only re-assign jobs to themselves. Change Priority: Allow the tech to change the priority of tickets assigned to themselves or, if Edit Other s Tickets is enabled, the priority of any ticket. Close Tickets: Enable the tech to set tickets to the Closed status type. Delete Tickets: Allow tech to delete tickets. Import Tickets: Allow the tech to access Tickets > Import Tickets. 215

218 Ticket Recipients Task Edit: Allow the tech to create and edit tasks at Setup > Tickets > Tasks. Limit by Asset Group: Allow the tech access only to those tickets, clients, and assets in assigned status Limit by Department Group: Enables the tech access to only those tickets, clients, and assets in assigned Department Groups. This option is only visible if Departments are enabled. All of the above are Rights assigned in a grouping called a Permission. To create a new Permission: 1. Navigate to Setup > Techs > Tech Permissions. 2. Click New. 3. Enter a name for the new permission in the Permission Name field. 4. Select the permissions you want this type of user to have. Note: Hover the mouse over an option's text to see detailed information about that option. 5. Click Save. Ticket Recipients When the ticket is saved, you can it to the client, assigned technician, level techs, group manager, or other addresses in the cc: and bcc: fields. Select the recipient check boxes and add cc: or bcc: addresses if necessary, then click Save & . Clicking Save does not cause an to be sent, unless the ticket has been reassigned. In that case, the newly assigned Tech receives an . Clicking the padlock toggles the ticket privacy setting when tickets are private, non-tech users cannot see them. 216

219 Managing Tickets Managing Ticket Tasks A Task is a series of one or more separate steps, called Elements. A task can be scheduled to repeat at daily, weekly, or monthly intervals. 1. To create a new task, go to Setup > Tickets > Tasks. Click the New button at the bottom of the Task list. The Task Info page will open. 2. Enter a Task Name. 3. Use the Client Lookup widget to look up and assign the client. 4. If you want to schedule the task to run automatically, click Scheduled. a. Select a Schedule Interval. b. Click the applicable run times (calendar days, weekdays, or time) you want the task to run. 5. Click Shared if you want other to be able to launch this task. 6. Click Save. 7. Click the Task Elements tab. 8. Click New. 9. Select a Location, Room, and Department. 10. Add a Subject and Request Detail. 11. Select a Tech and Priority. 12. Add Asset Number, if applicable. 13. If you want to generate all task element tickets when the task is triggered, select On Creation in the Generate Next Element section. 14. If you want to issues the next task element ticket based on the status of this element, select When Status Equals in the Generate Next Element section, and then select a Status. 15. Click Save. 16. To create the next element click New, and then repeat steps 1 through 15 above. 217

220 Escalating and De-escalating Tickets Tasks run automatically on their scheduled date or they can be triggered manually using the green Play triangle next to the task name. Escalating and De-escalating Tickets Escalating orde-escalating a ticket moves an assigned ticket to a higher or lower tech group level. If a higher tech group level is available, the ticket can be escalated to that level. If a ticket still requires escalation and a higher level tech group is not available, the ticket escalates to the group manager. If further escalation is required, the ticket can be escalated to the lead tech for the request type. When a ticket is escalated or de-escalated, a tool tip provides more information about the escalation or de-escalation, as shown below. Note: When a ticket is escalated, it inherits the settings from the tech group level settings and ticket assignment strategy. When the assigned tech changes, WHD sends escalation or de-escalation s to the current and former techs assigned to the ticket. To escalate a ticket: 1. From the Tickets page, double-click the desired ticket. The ticket opens in the Ticket Details tab. 2. Scroll to Details in the Tech Tab and click Escalate. 218

221 Managing Tickets 3. Click De-escalate to send the ticket to a lower level Tech group. Note When you have escalated or de-escalated the ticket as far as you can, the dscalate/de-escalate icon deactivates. 4. Click the History tab. The History tab window appears. 5. Review the ticket assignment history for accuracy. This information includes Creating Tickets Clients and techs can create tickets by sending an message to the dedicated help desk address. WHD creates a ticket for each new message its dedicated address receives. See Setting Up for information about setting up the incoming WHD address that receives and responds to support requests. See Applying Templates for information about setting up outgoing and incoming s using information included in WHD tickets. See Updating Tickets Using .for information about ticket updates. 219

222 Updating Tickets Using Updating Tickets Using Clients and Techs can update tickets by responding to the WHD messages about the tickets. Exactly what the Client or Tech sees in their depends on how the recipient's template is set up and which options have been configured for the recipient in Setup. For more information on setting up what a Client or Tech sees in the s they receive from WHD, see Applying Templates. Using Client Ticket s When a Client submits a help request, WHD sends the Client a copy of the ticket. The a Client receives can look like the following example. 220

223 Managing Tickets To add more information to the ticket, the Client clicks Add Note or the ticket number under Ticket Info. Doing this creates a new addressed to the help desk. When the Client sends , it updates the ticket. WHD then sends the Client a new showing the updated ticket. To cancel the ticket, the Client clicks Cancel Ticket. When the Tech resolves and closes the ticket, WHD forwards the closed ticket to the Client. The Client can edit the subject line in the to perform the following tasks: 221

224 Using Tech Ticket s ConfirmSolution This option confirms ticket resolution. RejectSolution This option reopens the ticket. For approval processes, use following in the subject line: ApproveTicket: Adding this option to the subject line approves the approval step. DenyTicket: Adding this option to the subject line denies the approval step. VisibleToRequester: The body of the contains the explanation of the approval decision. Define what a Client can do with their ticket through in Setup > Clients > Options. For more information on configuring Client permissions, see Adding Clients. Using Tech Ticket s When a ticket is assigned to a Tech, WHD sends the Tech an that looks like the following. 222

225 Managing Tickets 223

226 Using Tech Ticket s Techs can easily update a ticket by pressing Control and clicking any of the active links in the . Links in the are: Ticket: In this example, the ticket number is The number specifies which ticket to update. Ticket numbers can be different, based on how you define them in WHD. Action: Because you selected the Add Note option, the TechUpdate action displays. Hidden:[NO YES true false 1 0] (case insensitive) Because you selected the Add Note option (rather than the Add Hidden Note option), this characteristic is set to NO. Client:[NO YES true false 1 0] (case insensitive) The default for this example is YES. In our example, the following characteristics are not defined: Reassigned:< @ADDRESS.COM> Enter the address of the Tech to whom the ticket is reassigned. MinutesWorked:<INTEGER> Enter how much time the Tech has spent working on the ticket. This option works only when the Tech is adding a note, so that the body is not empty BillingRate:<BILLING RATE NAME> Add billing rate information here. Pressing Control and clicking an active link in the from WHD creates a new specific to the link clicked. In the example above, the Tech can add a note that the Client can see, add a hidden note, or delete the ticket. The Tech can also change the ticket's status. Let's say the Tech selects the Add Note option. Selecting this option creates an that looks like the following. 224

227 Managing Tickets Notice the 's subject. The subject reflects the ticket's defined options: Ticket: In this example, the ticket number is The number specifies which ticket to update. Ticket numbers can be different, based on how they have been defined in WHD. Action:[Update Cancel...?] Because you selected the Add Note option, the TechUpdate action displays. When a Tech selects this option, they can perform any of the actions described here, including deleting the ticket. Techs can also add a note to the body of the ticket, a billing rate, time spent on the ticket, and more. When a Client selects this option, they can cancel the ticket or add a note to the body of the ticket. Hidden:[NO YES true false 1 0] Because you selected Add Note, rather than Add Hidden Note, this option is set to NO. This option is not case sensitive. Client:[NO YES true false 1 0] The default for this example is YES. This option is not case sensitive. In our example, the following characteristics have not been defined or selected to be defined: 225

228 Using Tech Ticket s Here, you would enter the address of the Tech to whom the ticket is reassigned. An example of how a Tech might complete this field is Reassigned:sean.green@thecompany.com. MinutesWorked:<INTEGER> This is where you enter how much time the Tech has spent working on the ticket. This option works only when the Tech is adding a note, so that the body is not empty. An example of how a Tech might complete this field is MinutesWorked:45. BillingRate:<BILLING RATE NAME> This option defines which billing rate to us and is active only when the Tech is adding note and the body is not empty. Use whole billing rate name, including spaces and special characters. This option is not case sensitive. An example of how a Tech might complete this field is BillingRate:Standard. Notes: Ticket updates can be sent to the any address as long as it passes the WHD incoming -specific filter. Apply the following construct for editing and of the options described above: FieldName:Value. WHD ignores any spaces before Value. Subject edits must be in the order noted above. WHD validates users' sender address. 226

229 Managing Assets WHD provides a number of options to work with assets: Discovering Assets Manually Adding Assets Editing Asset Properties Searching Assets Adding Purchase Orders Reserving Assets Removing Assets 227

230 Discovering Assets WHD supports several methods of automated asset discovery. Using one or more of these tools, you synchronize WHD with the tool and import the assets into the WHD database. WHD discovers assets using its native WMI discovery engine and can pull assets from the following asset discovery tool databases: Apple Remote Desktop 3.x and later Casper Recon Suite LANrev Client Manager Systems Management Server (SMS)/Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) Database Table or View NPM asset synchronization SAM asset synchronization NCM asset synchronization LANsweeper 5.x Use the Attribute Mapping tab to map asset custom fields to the discovery tool attributes. The available asset attributes you can map depend on your selected discovery tool. These values come directly from the discovery tool s database. Configuring Asset Discovery Tools Select from the links below for instructions on how to configure WHD to use the following asset discovery tools: Absolute Manage (LANrev) 228

231 Apple Remote Desktop 3.2 Apple Remote Desktop 3.3 and Later Casper Asset Discovery 8 and Earlier Casper Asset Discovery 9 Database Table or View Lansweeper Configuring Microsoft SMS/SCCM Configuring NCM, NPM, or SAM WHD Discovery Engine (WMI) Configuring Absolute Manage (LANrev) Settings WHD features asset discovery integration with Absolute Manage. This integration consists of two components: An Absolute Manage MySQL ODBC connection to WHD. Remote control of the Absolute Manage system using a link in WHD. To implement this integration: 1. Configure the Absolute Manage MySQL ODBC export, as described in the Absolute Manage User Guide. 2. Configure the Absolute Manage admin console to respond to HTML requests from Web Help Desk, as described in the Absolute Manage User Guide. 3. Configure WHD to import client inventory data from the Absolute Manage MySQL database and enable the Absolute Manage inventory and remote control links. To create and configure an Absolute Manage connection in WHD: 1. In the toolbar, click Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections. The Discovery Connections screen appears. 2. Click New. The Connection Basics and Attribute Mapping tabs appear. 229

232 Configuring Apple Remote Desktop 3.2 Settings 3. In the Connection Basics tab, enter a descriptive Name for this connection. 4. Enter the Absolute Manage Mysql Database Host IP address and Port. 5. Enter the Database Name, Username, and Password. 6. Select Included Virtual Machines to include virtual machine assets. 7. Optionally, select an Auto-Sync Schedule. 8. Use the Attribute Mapping tab of the asset discovery connection to map any custom asset fields to Absolute Manage attributes. 9. Navigate to Setup > Assets > Options and select Absolute Manage Links Enabled. With this feature enabled, wherever you select assets in Web Help Desk, icons appear that allow you to open the asset in an Absolute Manage browser window. 10. Click Save. 11. Select the Attribute Mapping tab and click Edit 12. Map the desired custom asset fields to Absolute Manage s attributes. The asset attributes are different for each discovery tool, mapping directly to the values in the discovery tool s database. 13. Click Save. 14. To view the imported assets, navigate to Assets > Search Assets. Configuring Apple Remote Desktop 3.2 Settings To use Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) 3.2, enable and configure the ARD PostgreSQL database to allow network connections. WHD provides a setup script to make the configurations for you. Next, you will scan all the assets that must be included in WHD and then run a System Overview report in ARD (The System Overview Report option exports the asset data to the ARD PostgreSQL database. For more information about the Apple database, see: Providing Application Access to SQL Data in Apple Remote Desktop 3.2. This Apple document explains in detail what the WHD script does, and gives instructions on how to manually access the database from the Apple terminal. To set up an ARD 3.2 connection in WHD: 230

233 1. Download WHDRemoteDesktopBridge.dmg. 2. Run the bridge installer on the WHD server. 3. Install Apple Remote Desktop on the discovery database server. 4. Start Apple Remote Desktop and ensure it is scanning for computers. 5. Follow the steps in Providing Application Access to SQL Data in Apple Remote Desktop 2 to configure ARD for TCP/IP access. 6. Ensure that: The Remote Desktop is started before you configure the database for TCP/IP access. You note the Apple script connection settings. The Apple script configures the ARD database to enable TCP/IP access, and then displays your database connection information. Record these connection settings, as you will need to enter them into Web Help Desk. 7. Open Remote Desktop and select the computers to import. 8. Navigate to Report > System Overview, and then click Run to run a System Overview Report. 231

234 Configuring Apple Remote Desktop 3.3 Settings and Later Note: ARD does not remove computers from the database when they are no longer included in a System Overview report. Remove any retired assets from ARD before synchronizing with WHD. 9. In WHD, go to Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections and click New. 10. Select Apple Remote Desktop as the discovery type, click 3.2 or earlier for the version and enter the database connection parameters provided by the database setup script in step Enter the Remote Desktop PostgreSQL Database Host IP address and port. 12. Click Save. 13. Select the Attribute Mapping tab and click Edit 14. Map the desired custom asset fields to ARD s attributes. The asset attributes are different for each discovery tool, mapping directly to the values in the discovery tool s database. 15. Click Save. 16. To view the imported assets, navigate to Assets > Search Assets. Configuring Apple Remote Desktop 3.3 Settings and Later As of version 3.3, ARD uses a local SQLite database to store report data. This means that ARD must be installed on the same machine as WHD to sync inventory data. Using ARD 3.3 requires no additional configuration on the SQLite database to make the connection. To set up an ARD 3.3 connection in WHD: 232

235 1. Install Apple Remote Desktop on the WHD server. 2. Start Apple Remote Desktop and ensure it is scanning for computers. 3. Open Remote Desktop and select the computers to import. 4. Navigate to Report > System Overview, and then click Run to run a System Overview Report. Note: ARD does not remove computers from the database when they are no longer included in a System Overview report. Remove any retired assets from ARD before synchronizing with WHD. 5. In Web Help Desk, go to Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections and click New. 6. Select Apple Remote Desktop as the discovery type, click 3.3 or later for the version. 7. Enter the Remote Desktop SQLite Database Filename. 8. Optionally, select an Auto-sync Schedule. Select the day or days to autosync and define a time and how often to run auto-sync. 9. Set the Advanced Options on the lower section of this screen. See the tool tips for detailed explanations of each option. 10. Click Save. 11. Select the Attribute Mapping tab and click Edit. 12. Map the desired custom asset fields to ARD s attributes. The asset attributes are different for each discovery tool, mapping directly to the values in the discovery tool s database. 13. Click Save. 14. To view the imported assets, navigate to Assets > Search Assets. 233

236 Configuring Casper 8 Settings and Earlier Configuring Casper 8 Settings and Earlier To set up a discovery connection for Casper in WHD: 1. In Web Help Desk, go to Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections and click New. The Connection Basics tab window appears. 2. Click the Discovery Tool drop-down menu and select Casper as the discovery type. 3. In the Casper MySQL Database Host and Port fields, enter your Casper IP address and port number, respectively. 4. In the Database Name field, enter the name of your database. 5. In the Username, and Password fields, enter the database user name and password, respectively. 6. (Optional) In the Auto- Sync Schedule row, select the day or days to autosync and define a time and how often to run the auto-sync. 7. In the Advanced Options section, complete the check boxes and selections as needed. See the tool tips for detailed explanations of each option. 234

237 8. Click Save. Your information is saved. 9. Click the Attribute Mapping tab. The Attribute Mapping tab window appears. 10. Click Edit. 11. Map the desired custom asset fields to Casper s attributes. The asset attributes are different for each discovery tool, mapping directly to the values in the discovery tool s database. 12. Click Save. 13. To view the imported assets, navigate to Assets > Search Assets. See Integrating Web Help Desk with the JSS for information about importing assets directly from the JAMF software database, which stores information about assets in the JAMF Software Server (JSS), Configuring Casper 9 Settings To set up a discovery connection for Casper 9 in WHD: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select Assets > Discovery Connections and click New. The Discovery Connections window appears. 2. Click New. The Connection Basics tab window appears. 235

238 Configuring Casper 9 Settings 3. Click the Discovery Tool drop-down menu and select Casper 9 as the discovery type. 4. In the JSS Server URL, enter the appropriate URL. The URL must contain the JSS server hostname or IP address. Additionally, you can supply the protocol and port number, but they are not mandatory. When no protocol is supplied, HTTPS becomes the default. 5. In the Database Name field, enter the name of the database. 6. In the Username, and Password fields, enter the database user name and password, respectively. 7. (Optional) In the Auto-Sync Schedule row, select the day or days to autosync and define a time and how often to run the auto-sync. 8. In the Advanced Options section, select the appropriate options. See the tool tip help for detailed explanations of each option. 9. Click Save. 10. Click the Attribute Mapping tab. The Attribute Mapping tab window appears. 11. Click Edit. 236

239 Map the desired custom asset fields to Casper s attributes. The asset attributes are different for each discovery tool, mapping directly to the values in the discovery tool s database. 12. Click Save. Your changes are saved. 13. To view the imported assets, navigate to Assets > Search Assets. Configuring Database Table or View Settings To create a discovery connection for a Database table or view: 1. In the Web Help Desk Admin interface, click Setup and select Assets > Discovery Connections. The Asset Discovery Connections window appears. 2. Click New. The Connection Basics window appears. 3. (Optional) In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the connection. 4. Click the Discovery Tool drop-down menu and select the tool used to discover asset information. 5. In the Auto-Sync Schedule row, select how often WHD collects properties from the discovered endpoints. 237

240 Configuring Lansweeper Settings To disable automatic synchronization, select Every <day> but do not select any actual days. 6. In the Advanced Options section, select the appropriate options. See the tool tip help for detailed explanations of each option. 7. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Configuring Lansweeper Settings To create a discovery connection for Lansweeper: 1. In the Web Help Desk interface, navigate to Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections, and click New. 2. Select Lansweeper as the discovery type. 3. Enter the Lansweeper SQL Database Host IP address and Port. 4. Enter the Database Name, Username, and Password for the database. 5. Optionally, select an Auto-Sync Schedule. Select the day or days to autosync and define a time and how often to run auto-sync. 6. Set the Advanced Options on the lower section of this screen. See the tooltip help for detailed explanations of each option. 7. Click Save. 8. Select the Attribute Mapping tab and click Edit 9. Map the desired custom asset fields to Lansweeper s attributes. The asset attributes are different for each discovery tool, mapping directly to the values in the discovery tool s database. 238

241 10. Click Save. 11. To view the imported assets, navigate to Assets > Search Assets. Configuring Microsoft SMS/SCCM Settings To create a discovery connection for Microsoft SMS/SCCM: 1. In the Web Help Desk Admin interface navigate to Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections, and click New. 2. Select Microsoft SMS/SCCM as the discovery type. 3. Enter the SCCM SQL Database Host IP address and Port. 4. Enter the Database Name, Username, and Password for the database. 5. Optionally, select an Auto-sync Schedule. Select the day or days to autosync and define a time and how often to run auto-sync. 6. Set the Advanced Options on the lower section of this screen. See the tooltip help for detailed explanations of each option. 7. Click Save. 8. Select the Attribute Mapping tab and click Edit 9. Map the desired custom asset fields to ARD s attributes. The asset attributes are different for each discovery tool, mapping directly to the values in the discovery tool s database. 10. Click Save. 11. To view the imported assets, navigate to Assets > Search Assets. 239

242 Configuring NCM, NPM, or SAM Settings Configuring NCM, NPM, or SAM Settings Before you configure WHD to integrate with NCM, NPM, or SAM, ensure you have the following: SolarWinds Orion Platform system IP address and port number SolarWinds Orion Platform login and password System database s logon and password To create a discovery connection using Orion NCM, NPM, or SAM as a discovery tools: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select Assets > Discovery Connections The Asset Discovery Connections window appears. 2. Click New. The Connection Basics window appears. 3. In the Connection field, enter a name for the new connection. 4. Click the Discovery Tool drop-down menu and select NCM, NPM, or SAM (depending on which connection you wish to discover your assets). Note: If you want to discover assets for NCM, NPM, and SAM, you will need to set up three separate discovery connections. 5. In the Auto-Sync Schedule row, select how often Web Help Desk collects properties from the discovered endpoints. 240

243 6. Select the Ignore Blank Discovered Values check box to indicate whether blank values encountered in mapped fields of the discovery tool should be ignored or used to overwrite existing values in Web Help Desk. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 7. Select the Sync with Existing Assets Only check box if assets found in the discovery connection will be synchronized with assets that currently exist in the Web Help Desk database or if assets not in the Web Help Desk will be added to current assets. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 8. In the When Assets Are Removed row, select the appropriate action if an asset currently in the Web Help Desk database is no longer found by the discovery tool. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 9. Click Save. Your changes are saved. Configuring WHD Discovery Engine (WMI) Settings The WHD Discovery Engine (WMI) uses an IP address range to scan at least one set of administrator credentials to create a new discovery connection. WHD stores and encrypts all administrator credentials in the database with the connection parameters (such as IP ranges and schedule). Using the WHD Discovery Engine, you can create separate Discovery and Auto- Sync job schedules. A Discovery job scans a selected IP address range and discovers endpoints that accepts at least one of the saved credentials. The first time you run the discovery job, it forces an auto-sync (collection). An Auto-Sync job collects configuration data from endpoints discovered by the discovery job. To create a discovery connection using the WHD Discovery Engine: 1. Navigate to Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections. The Asset Discovery Connections screen appears. 2. Click New. The Connection Basics tab window appears. 241

244 Configuring WHD Discovery Engine (WMI) Settings 3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the new connection. 4. Click the Discovery Tool drop-down menu and select WHD Discovery Engine (WMI). The Connection Basics window options change, and the Attribute Mapping tab appears. 242

245 5. In the IP Ranges row, enter a starting and ending IP address to scan for assets. Click Add IP Range to add additional IP ranges. 6. In the Credentials row, enter the credentials to use when you attempt to authenticate against discovered assets. WHD will attempt to authenticate the discovered assets based on your applied credentials. 7. In the Discovery Schedule row, select the appropriate days and times to scan for assets within your selected IP range(s). All discovered assets are synchronized with WHD based on your selections in the Auto-Sync Schedule row. 8. In the Auto-Sync Schedule row, select the appropriate days and times when WHD collects properties from discovered endpoints. 243

246 Configuring WHD Discovery Engine (WMI) Settings To disable auto synchronization, select Every <day> but do not select a specific day. 9. Select the Ignore Blank Discovered Values check box to accelerate the discovery process. When selected, WHD does not sync blank values. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 10. Select the Sync With Existing Assets Only check box to sync discovered resources with existing resources currently in the WHD database. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 11. In the When Assets are Removed row, select the appropriate action in an asset currently in the WHD database is no longer found by the discovery tool. Select Delete Asset to delete the asset from the WHD database. Select No Action to leave the asset in the WHD database. Select Set Status to and select a status for the appropriate action. 12. Click Save. Your changes are saved. 13. Select the Attribute Mapping tab. The Attribute Mapping tab window appears. 14. Click the Edit icon. The tab window changes to Edit mode. 15. Map the asset fields as appropriate. All bold selections are required. The asset attributes are different for each discovery tool, mapping directly to the values in the discovery tool s database. 16. Click Save. Your changes are saved. To view the imported assets, navigate to Assets > Search Assets. 244

247 Syncing and Discovering Assets To sync and run an asset discovery session after configuring connections and mapping assets: 1. Click the Sync Now button for the desired connection. 2. Click OK when WHD prompts you to sync assets with your connection. WHD returns you to the Connection Basics tab, where, under Discovery Status, you can monitor discovery and collection progress and results. 3. Click Done when the discovery and sync process is completed. Adding Assets For information about import options and discovery tools, see Discovering Assets. To manually add assets: 1. In the toolbar, click Assets and select Search Assets. The Search Assets tab windows appear. 2. In the lower window, click New Asset. The Asset Basics tab windows appear. 3. Click the Asset Basics tab. The Asset Basics tab window appears. 245

248 Adding Assets 4. In the Asset No. field, enter a unique number for the asset. To automatically increment asset numbers, adjust this setting in the Options screen located at Setup > Assets > Options. 5. Click the Asset Type drop-down menu and select the appropriate asset type. 6. Click the Model drop-down menu and select the asset model (if required). 7. Click the Location drop-down menu and select the location where the asset is assigned (if required). 8. Click the Room drop-down menu and select the room where the asset is assigned. 9. Click the Department drop-down menu and select the department assigned to the asset. 10. In the Clients Lookup box, enter a last and first name to look up and assign assets to a client. When completed, click Search to display and select a client. 246

249 11. Click the Status drop-down menu and select the current status of the asset. 12. Select the Synchronization Disabled check box if the asset is disabled. 13. Select the Service Contract check box if the asset is under a service contract. 14. Select the Reservable check box if the asset can be reserved or checked out. 15. Click Save. The asset information is saved. Removing Assets In WHD, the default aging interval for all assetsis 90 days. If a node is not rediscovered or or provided data within the last 90 days, its life cycle status changes from ACTIVE (0) to DECOMISSIONED (2). To update the default aging interval: 1. Locate and open the appropriate configuration file in a text editor. For Microsoft Windows systems, open the wrapper_template.conf file located at: webhelpdesk\bin\wrapper\conf\wrapper_template.conf For Linux and Apple OSX systems, open the whd.conf file located at: webhelpdesk\conf\whd.conf 2. In the file, update the value in the following JAVA_OPTS parameter: -Dasset.agingInterval=30d In this example, all WHD assets are decommissioned if not rediscovered within 30 days. 3. Save and close the file. Note: If WHD discovers the asset after the decommission, the asset will become active in WHD again. See Configuring WHD Discovery Engine (WMI) Settings for information about removing or changing the status of an undiscovered, decommissioned asset listed in the WHD database. 247

250 Editing Asset Properties Editing Asset Properties WHD imports several asset properties when you perform an asset discovery or an import operation. The WHD user interface provides a method of adding and editing asset properties. Working with Asset Properties You can access the asset properties by clicking Setup and selecting Search Assets. The Search Assets screen includes four tab windows that provide information about your asset. Below is a description of each tab window. Tab Name Asset Basics Description Provides general asset information you can edit, including: Asset number (entered manually or generated automatically by WHD) Type (such as a desktop PC, notebook computer, or printer Location (such as a city, room, and department) Clients assigned to the asset Status (such as deployed or in storage) Availability (if the asset can be reserved or checked out) Associated service contracts Asset Details Provides detailed asset information you can edit, including: Serial number Version IP address Network name 248

251 MAC Address Purchase Date Warranty Type Asset History Ticket History Provides dates and actions when an asset was removed, modified, or changed status, as well as the associated tech. This information cannot be edited. Provides the ticket number, date, status, and problem report associated with the asset, as well as the associated tech in each instance. This information cannot be edited. To edit basic and detailed asset properties: 1. In the toolbar, click Assets and select Search Assets. The Search Assets screen appears. 2. Click the Basic Search tab. The Basic Search tab window appears. 3. Select and/or complete the appropriate field to locate the asset. For additional search options, click Advanced Search and complete the fields in the window. 4. Click Search. Your search results appear in the bottom window. For example: 5. In the No. field, click the asset number icon. 249

252 Working with Asset Properties The Asset tab windows appear. For example: 6. In the window, click the Edit icon. The tab window changes to Edit mode. 7. Make any changes as required. 8. Click the Asset Details tab. The Asset Details tab window appears. 9. Make any changes as required. 10. Click Save. Your changes are saved. 250

253 Creating Parent and Child Associations In the Asset Basics tab, you can link assets as a parent or as a child of another asset. When you assign parent/child associations to your assets, the following conventions apply: A parent asset can have any number of child assets. A child asset cannot be a parent to another asset. Removing the parent status orphans all the child assets for that parent. Child assets can be removed from individually from a parent. A child asset can have any number of parent assets. Child assets inherit priorities from the parent objects including location, status, and other properties. Parent/child status is set by adding child assets to a parent asset. You cannot add a parent to a child. To add assets as children of a parent asset: 1. In the toolbar, click Assets and select Search Assets. The Search Assets screen appears. 2. Click the Basic Search tab. The Basic Search tab window appears. 3. Select and/or complete the appropriate field to locate the asset. For additional search options, click Advanced Search and complete the fields in the window. 4. Click Search. Your search results appear in the bottom window. 5. In the No. field, click the appropriate asset number icon. The Asset Basics tab windows appears, displaying information about your selected asset. The Child Assets box appears at the bottom of the window. 251

254 Creating Parent and Child Associations 6. Click the Edit icon at the top of the window. The window changes to Edit mode, allowing you to change the asset details. 7. In the Child Assets tabbed box, click Edit. The Asset Lookup box appears. 8. Select and/or enter the search criteria to locate the appropriate asset, and then click Search. The Search Results box appears with a list of assets. 9. Click Link to select one of the listed assets as a child asset. 10. In the Asset Lookup box, click Done. The asset is added as a child asset. 11. Click Save. 252

255 The asset is saved as a child asset. To removeassets as children of a parent asset: 1. In the toolbar, click Assets and select Search Assets. The Search Assets screen appears. 2. Click the Basic Search tab. The Basic Search tab window appears. 3. Select and/or complete the appropriate field to locate the asset. For additional search options, click Advanced Search and complete the fields in the window. 4. Click Search. Your search results appear in the bottom window. 5. In the No. field, click the appropriate asset number icon. The Asset Basics tab windows appears, displaying information about your selected asset. The Child Assets box appears at the bottom of the window. 6. Click the Edit icon at the top of the window. The window changes to Edit mode, allowing you to change the asset details 7. Click the trash can next to the child asset you want to remove. 8. Click Save. The child asset is removed. Adding Purchase Orders The WHD purchase orders feature simplifies tracking your asset purchases and leases. This feature, however, is not meant to replace your company s current accounting or ordering systems. WHD does not create purchase orders but rather stores information about purchase orders. Defining Vendors Before adding a new PO, one or more vendors must be entered into the database. 253

256 Adding a Purchase Order To add a new Vendor: 1. Go to Setup > Assets > Vendors. 2. Click New. 3. Fill in the vendor information, and then click Save. Adding a Purchase Order Fields in a purchase order include: PO Number must be unique in the database Order Date the date the purchase order was entered Invoice Date the date the vendor shipped the product (used to help calculate warranty / lease expiration date) Vendor - Vendor type Order Type Lease or Purchase Originator Last Name last name lookup of the client who made the PO request. Deliver To Last Name last name lookup of the client to whom the purchased items should be delivered Attachments - Any supporting documentation Notes Any additional information about the purchase order To add Purchase Order information: 1. Click Assets > Purchase Orders. 2. Click New Purchase Order at the bottom of the search display list. 254

257 3. Fill in the Purchase Order information, and then click Save. Adding Purchase Order Line Items After saving a purchase order, you add line items to the purchase order using the line item editor. You add individual parts and their costs to purchase orders in Line Items. You associate specific assets by providing a valid asset number. If you attempt to link a line item to an asset number that does not exist, or is already linked to another PO, you receive an error message. To access the line item editor: 1. Select a purchase order by navigation to Assets > Purchase Orders, search for a PO and click the PO Number link. 2. Click the Pencil to edit the PO. 3. Complete the Line Item box to the right. 4. If you want to add more line items, click New Line Item. 5. When you have completed the line items, click Save. 255

258 Importing Purchase Orders Line items must define a model and may contain part number and price information. Assets can also be associated to a PO from within the Asset detail view. You must have a free line item defined in the PO in order to link the asset. If you were to add a new imac G5 asset, you could associate it with the PO in the example above, because the imac G5 line item is free (not linked) to any asset number. Importing Purchase Orders See Importing Data, for details on importing purchase orders. Searching Assets You search for assets in either the either Basic or Advanced tabs. Basic searching provides a simplified sub-set of the search criteria available in the advanced search mode. To sort your search results, click on a column header. To download the search results in PDF format, click the button for the format type you want. Refining Search Results The search results list can display a large amount of asset data. To control what information is displayed, use the Column Set widget on the upper right of the search results list to enable or disable specific columns. Click + to add a new column set, or edit the selected column set by clicking Edit. Saved Queries You save searches for future use in the Advanced Search Tab. 256

259 To save a query: 1. Define your search criteria using the same method explained in Searching Tickets. 2. Provide a name in the Save Query as: field. 3. Select the Shared box if you want others to be able to use this search. Note: Depending on your access level, you may not have access to the share box. To run a query, select the query name from the Query menu at the top of the search results display. The query runs automatically upon selection. Reserving Assets You ensure assets are available when you need them using the Asset reservation feature. Before reserving it, the asset must first be set to reservable in the Asset Basics editor. Making Assets Reservable To set Assets as reservable: 1. Navigate to Assets > Search Assets 2. Search for and select the Asset you want to make reservable. 257

260 Reserving as a Tech 3. Select the Reservable check box. 4. Click Save. Reserving as a Tech To set up Asset reservations as a tech: 1. Navigate to Assets > Reservations and click New Reservation. 2. Use the Client Lookup to select the client who will be checking the Asset out, and set the Scheduled Out and Scheduled In dates and times. 3. Find the asset to be reserved using the Asset Lookup box 4. Click the asset to be reserved, and then click Save. Reserving as a Client An administrator must give clients permission to reserve asset before clients can use the reserve asset feature. To allow clients to reserve an asset: 1. Navigate to Setup > Assets > Options. 2. Click Clients can Search assets. 258

261 3. Click Limit to Assigned and Reservable, and then click Save. To reserve an asset as a client: 1. Click Assets at the top of the client interface. 2. Click Search. 3. Once the desired asset has been located, select the Reserve check box and then click Reserve Checked. Upon clicking Reserve Checked a calendar window appears, allowing reservation date or range of dates selection. To select a reservation date range, click the first day of the reservation, drag the cursor to the last day of the reservation, and then click Save. To remove a reservation, click the trash can on the reservations page. Checking In and Out Only Techs can check reserved assets in or out. Navigate to Assets > Reservations and click Search to find reserved assets To check assets in or out, click Check In or Check Out. 259

262 Importing Asset Data Importing Asset Data Using the data import function from Settings > Data Import>Import Asset is the easiest way to get Asset data into WHD. To ensure a successful import, use the Assets Import template. See Importing Data Using Templates for information on applying templates. To import Assets into WHD: 1. Navigate to Setup > Data Import. 2. Select Import Assets from the Data Import tab. 3. Select a Sync Based On type. This field synchronizes the data import with any existing Asset data. 4. Choose a Client Key to define the key field for database column reference. 5. Select the Ignore Blank Fields check box ff you expect some of the table fields not to populate. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 6. Select the Add New Entries check box to add fields that are not defined on the downloaded template. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 7. Select the Abort Import on First Error check box if you get poor results after importing your data. Otherwise, leave this check box blank. 8. In the File Type and File Encoding fields, select the proper file type and file encoding, respectively. Select MS Excel for.xls imports. 9. In the Import Data File row, click Browse and select a saved template. 260

263 10. Click Import to import the file. The file is imported into WHD. 261

264 Managing FAQs WHD allows you to import, create, access, and search FAQs and knowledge base articles and make these available to Clients, so you can reduce the number of inbound support requests. WHD promotes self resolution by displaying relevant knowledge base articles and FAQs to clients as they enter their service requests into the web portal. Creating New FAQs To create a new FAQ: 1. In the toolbar, click FAQs. The FAQs screen appears. 2. In the FAQ toolbar, click New FAQ. The Create FAQ screen appears. 262

265 Managing FAQs 3. Click the Category field and select a category. Note: This field is populated from the ticket request types. You can add additional request types in the Request Types screen. See Defining Request Types for more information. 4. In the Question box, enter the question text for this FAQ. Questions can include HTML links and formatting, as well as Bulletin Board Code (BBC) tags. 5. In the Answer box, enter an answer for this FAQ. Answers can include HTML hyperlinks and formatting, as well as BBC tags. 6. In the Audience row, select the appropriate restriction for this FAQ. 7. In the Models row, select the models that apply to this FAQ. 8. In the Companies row, select the companies that can access this FAQ. 9. In the Locations row, select the locations that can access this FAQ. 10. In the Departments row, select the locations that can access this FAQ. 11. In the Attachments row, click Add File to add an attachment to this FAQ. 12. Select the Approved check box to publish this FAQ. Note: Only administrators can approve FAQs. 13. In the Expiration Date row, select an expiration date and time if you want this FAQ to expire. Otherwise, leave these selections blank. 14. (Optional) In the Rating row, select the appropriate rating. 15. Click Save. Your FAQ is saved. Accessing FAQs To access FAQs, click FAQs in the WHD toolbar. From here, you can search for existing FAQs or create new FAQs. All FAQs you create are accessible from within your WHD installation. You can link your FAQs to specific locations so they are available only through WHD with the appropriate user permissions. 263

266 Searching FAQs For information about creating FAQs, see Creating New FAQs. Searching FAQs To search FAQs, click FAQs in the toolbar. You can filter FAQs by FAQ number, category, location, model, approval, expiration, and question/answer text. To edit an FAQ, click the FAQ hyperlink number. To sort the results list, click a column header. 264

267 Working with Reports WHD provides robust, customizable graphic reporting features to monitor technician performance, customer support needs by location, real-time billing data, and incidence frequency. You configure the type of information displayed and the format in which it appears, for Asset, Billing, Ticket, and, for direct comparisons, Composite reports. Pull in data from surveys, to see where the service bottlenecks are. WHD comes standard with sample reports that you can customize or use as-is. Begin the report creation process by thinking about the types of things you'll need to report on, and how you want to categorize those items. You can create reports on any information WHD contains. Perhaps you need to know, on a monthly basis, how much money your company is spending on leased equipment. Or maybe you want to find out which of your organization's Locations have submitted the most service requests over the past quarter. Or you need to find out how long Techs are taking to resolve service requests. If you are planning to use more than 10 or 15 reports, or need to control access to certain reports, consider whether you need to categorize those reports into groups. WHD's Report Groups feature makes reports easier to find. You can also configure a report group so that Techs or Clients can work only with those reports they need. WHD's Report Schedules feature schedules and automates to report creation and distribution. To access reporting, click the Reports icon in the WHD toolbar. A list of existing reports displays. 265

268 Working with Reports For details on how to use WHD's reporting capabilities, see: Using Sample Reports Creating Reports Creating Report Groups Creating Report Schedules Using Sample Reports WHD includes a set of sample reports you can customize or use immediately: Average open time this month Average work time this month Billing report by location Billing report by technician Closed tickets this month Location status this month 266

269 Creating and Editing Reports Open tickets by request type Technician status this month To access, run, and view a sample report onscreen, click Reports and then click the Play icon on the right side of the report row. To generate a printable web view in a new window, click the Print View icon in the report row. To create a PDF for downloading or printing, click the PDF icon in right side of the report row. Creating and Editing Reports You can create custom reports or edit existing reports that focus on a wide variety of issues, including asset, billing, and ticket information. You can also create composite reports that link together a mixture of reports. Each report includes charts and/or tables that display the number of items in possible categories. WHD provides four options to define reports: Category. Determines values represented in Ticket, Billing, and Asset reports. For example, if you set the bar, pie, slice, or row category in an Asset report to Model, the report contains your selected components for each asset model. The Repetition category determines the categories used to create multiple charts for comparison. Chart Metric. Calculates the length and size of bar charts and pie slices in Ticket and Asset reports, as well as attributes included in a table. Time Range. Filters the report information in Ticket and Billing reports to include only what occurs within a given time period. You can limit the report with a time range to increase reporting performance. Report Filters. Defines the included data in Ticket, Billing, and Asset reports by specifying category items to include and/or exclude. For example, if an Asset report filter is set to Model, a Model filter restricts the report to include only selected models. Filter categories are not limited to those used for the report categories. Report button functionality includes: Run Report. Generates a sample report using the current unsaved settings. Delete. Removes the current report from the report list. 267

270 Working with Reports Cancel. Returns to the report list without saving any changes. Save. Saves your report settings. Done. Saves your report changes and returns to the main reports window. To create a new report: 1. Click the Reports icon in the WHD toolbar. The Report window appears with a list of existing reports. 2. Click New to create a new report. 3. Enter a name for the new report. 4. Select a Report Group to organize and control access to reports. For more information about this configuration, see Creating Report Groups. 5. Select a Report Type: Asset Report Billing Report 268

271 Create Ticket Reports Composite Report Ticket Report 6. Click Save. See the following sections for more information about creating and editing each report type: Building Asset Reports Designing Billing Reports Creating Ticket Reports Create Ticket Reports Metrics determine which ticket attribute is used to calculate the length of bars or size of pie slices, and to determine which attributes are included in the table. To create a new Bar Chart ticket report: 1. Click Reports and then click New. 2. In the Report Basics tab, enter the Report Name. 3. Optionally, select a Report Group. 4. Select Ticket Report in the Report Type list. 5. Click the Report Details tab. 6. Select Bar Chart as the Chart Type. 7. Select a Bar Category to indicate what data the bar will represent. 8. Optionally, choose a Bar Stack Category to indicate data to be stacked on the bar. 269

272 Working with Reports For example, the chart below was created using Day of Week Opened as the Bar Category and Hour of the Day Opened as the Bar Stack Category. 9. Optionally, choose a Repetition Category to create multiple charts, separated by this field. For example, the chart below was created using Day of Week Opened as the Bar Category, Hour of the Day Opened as the Bar Stack Category, and Assigned Tech as the Repetition Category. This creates multiple reports, one for each tech. 270

273 Create Ticket Reports 10. Select a Chart Metric to indicate the type of measurement. The above examples were created using the Tickets metric. 11. If you want to show a data table with the chart, select Show Table. 12. Select a Time Range and a Date Attribute. 13. Click Save. 271

274 Working with Reports 14. Optionally, click the Report Filters tab to add a report filter. 15. Select a Filter Attribute. WHD populates the filer values available by this choice. 16. Select a Filter Type and the Filter Values, and then click Save To create a new Pie Chart ticket report: 1. Click Reports and then click New. 2. In the Report Basics tab, enter the Report Name. 3. Optionally, select a Report Group. 4. Select Ticket Report in the Report Type list. 5. Click the Report Details tab. 6. Select Pie Chart as the Chart Type. 7. Select a Pie Slice Category to indicate what data the slices will represent. 8. Optionally, choose a Repetition Category to create multiple charts, separated by this field. For example, the chart below was created using Day of Week Opened as the Pie Slice Category and Location as the as the Repetition Category. 272

275 Designing Billing Reports Date Worked On is a unique date attribute as it looks specifically at tech notes created during the specified date range and not ticket dates. Ticket reports using this date attribute include data based on all tech notes in the date range regardless of who created them, however all work time is attributed to the assigned tech on the ticket. To group request sub-types together within a single entry for their parent type, create a filter that includes the parent request type. For example, if there are request types for Hardware and Software, and each have subtypes that you do not wish to appear as separate lines in the report, create an inclusive Request Type filter that includes the Hardware and Software request types. The report shows a single line for Hardware that includes all tickets with subtypes of Hardware, and a single line for Software that includes all tickets with subtypes of Software. Designing Billing Reports Billing Reports generate a table showing the total work time, parts cost, and labor cost accrued for a set of tickets. To create a new billing report: 1. Click Reports and then click New. 2. In the Report Basics tab, enter the Report Name. 273

276 Working with Reports 3. Optionally, select a Report Group. 4. Select Billing Report in the Report Type list. 5. Click the Report Details tab. 6. Select a Category to indicate the type of information this report will contain. 7. Select a Time Range for the report. Note: The default range is not shown, but it is from today, back one month. 8. Select a Date Attribute for Time Range from the list. 9. Optionally, click the Report Filters tab to add a report filter. 10. Select a Filter Attribute. WHD populates the filer values available by this choice. 11. Select a Filter Type and the Filter Values, and then click Save. Creating Report Groups The Report Groups function helps organize reports and control access to report data. Report Groups control access to created reports sorted by Tech and Location Group. This ensures that each Tech is only presented with reports within their scope of work. To create a new Report Group: 1. Navigate to Reports > Report Groups, and then click New. 2. Enter a Report Group Name. 3. Select the Tech GroupsLocation Groups that will have access to the reports. 274

277 Building Report Schedules 4. Click the Included Reports tab. 5. Select the applicable Reports, and then click Save. Building Report Schedules To further facilitate the distribution of reports, WHD includes the Report Schedules function. This function schedules and automates to report creation and distribution. To create New Report Schedules: 1. Navigate to Reports > Report Schedules, and then click New. 2. Enter a Schedule Name. 3. Specify the Interval values. 4. Use the Client Lookup widget to search for clients. 5. Click a client Name to add a client. 6. Optionally, add non-client and non-tech recipients in the Other Recipients s field. 7. Click the Tech Recipients tab, and the click Edit. 8. Select the applicable tech check boxes. 9. Click the Included Reports tab, and then click Edit. 10. Select the reports you want to include. 11. Click Save. 275

278 Managing Parts and Billing Managing Parts and Billing WHD tracks part inventory levels for locations set to store parts. To add parts to WHD, see Manually Adding Parts. To designate locations for parts storage, see Entering Locations and Departments. You configure tax rates in Tax Rates tab located at Setup > Parts & Billing > Rates & Terms. If you update your rates, tickets created prior to the update retain their original rate. To update an old ticket with the new rates, click Refresh Tax Rate. To add parts to a location: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Parts and select the Inventory tab. The Inventory Tab window appears. 2. In the search box, select the appropriate search criteria (such as part number and description) and then click Search. To list all parts leave the search fields empty and click Search. Your results appear in the tab window. 3. Click the appropriate Storage Location drop-down menu and select storage location. 4. In the Add Count field, add the number of available parts. Note: To reduce the number of parts available, use a negative number. For example, to change the number of available parts from 6 to 4, enter

279 Managing Parts and Billing 5. Click Save. Note: When a part inventory reaches zero, the inventory status changes from Available to Back Ordered. To use parts in a ticket: 1. Click Tickets and then click the ticket number. The client ticket appears. 2. Click the Parts and Billing tab. The Parts and Billing tab window appears. 3. In the Part Search box, enter and select the appropriate information to locate the part. 4. Click Search. The Search Results box appears, displaying the location and number of available parts. 5. Click the inventory name or the number available to add the part. The part now appears in the Assigned Parts box. To remove defective parts from inventory, enter the number of parts in the DOA field. WHD will remove the cost of the DOA parts from the ticket and list DOA parts in a separate area in your billing reports. 277

280 Manually Adding Parts To remove an entire parts line item and return the parts back to inventory, click the trash can icon. 6. Click Save to save your changes. Using additional tools in WHD you can manage your parts and billing procedures by: Manually adding parts Configuring inventory alerts Enabling service time blocks Customizing your billing templates Manually Adding Parts To manually add parts: 1. Click Parts. The Parts List and Inventory tabs appear. 2. Click New Part. The New Part window appears. 3. In the Part No. field, enter a part number. 4. Click the Manufacturer drop-down menu and select a manufacturer. Manufacturers and models are added at Setup > Asset >Manufacturers & Models. For more information about adding manufacturers and models, see Defining Asset Types. 5. Click the Model drop-down menu and select a model. 6. In the Description field, enter a description of the item. 278

281 Managing Parts and Billing 7. In the Our Cost and Customer Cost fields, enter the appropriate amounts. 8. Select the Tax Free check box if this item is not applicable to state or local taxes. 9. Select the Inventory Alerts Enabled check box to receive an alert when inventory falls below a certain level. 10. In the Notes field, enter any applicable notes. 11. Click Setup and select Parts & Billing > Inventory Alerts The Inventory Alerts screen appears. 12. Click the Inventory Alert Interval drop-down menus and select the time and frequency when the alert will be generated. 13. Click Save to save your settings. See Importing Data for more information about importing parts. Configuring Inventory Alerts Use the Inventory Alerts screen to configure the frequency and recipients for all alerts for example, when your inventory threshold falls below your specified level for parts a client regularly requests. To configure inventory alerts: 1. Click the first Inventory Alert Interval drop-down menu and select a number from 0 to Click the second Inventory Alert Interval drop-down menu and select the appropriate alert frequency. 3. In the Default Inventory Alert Recipients field, enter the addresses of the default recipients who will receive inventory alerts. You can override these values for each location that stores parts by 4. Click Save to save your changes. Overriding Default Inventory Alert Recipients You can override the Default Inventory Alert Recipients values for each location that stores parts. To override the Default Inventory Alert Recipients values: 279

282 Enabling Service Time Blocks 1. Click Setup and select Companies and Locations > Locations and Rooms. The Location and Rooms screen appears. 2. In the Location Name column, click the appropriate location. A new screen appears with the Location Info and Room Editor tab windows. 3. Edit the information in the tab windows as required. 4. Click Done to save your changes. Enabling Service Time Blocks This option allows you to offer support to your client locations based on predefined service time blocks. To enable Time Block Billing: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select Parts & Billing > Options. The Parts and Billing Options screen appears. 2. Select the Enable Location Service Time Blocks check box and then click Save. 3. Navigate to Setup > Locations And Rooms. 4. Click Enable Location. The Enter Work Time As option appears. 5. Select the appropriate option to enable time blocks. 6. Click Save. Notes: A message appears, stating that your preferences were saved. For an expired block, the usable value may be lower than the block value depending on how much time was used before the block expired. The amount of service time available for a location displays within the Ticket Details of a ticket under the location popup. If the value is negative, it 280

283 Managing Parts and Billing displays in red. Customizing the Billing Statement Template You can customize billing statements to suit your needs by editing the invoice.html file located in the following directory: WebHelpDesk\bin\webapps\helpdesk\WEB-INF\lib\whdweb.jar\Resources\Invoice.wo\Invoice.html For example, if you wanted to remove the signature line, you could remove lines : <fo:table-row> <fo:table-cell number-columns-spanned="<webobject name=lineitemcolumncount></webobject>" padding-topp="10mm"> <fo:block font-family="freesans, ArialUnicodeMS, sans-serif" font-size="10pt" text-align="right"><webobject name = "SignatureLbl"></webobject>: <fo:leader leader-length="4.0in" leader-pattern="rule" rule-style="solid" color="black"></fo:leader> </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </fo:table-row> After you delete these lines or make any other changes, restart WHD to enable your changes. 281

284 Getting Client Feedback Surveys provide feedback from your client users. After you close a ticket, you can give your clients the option of completing a survey. The survey is at the top of the Ticket and in the Help History page of the client interface. The Survey presented to the client is determined by the ticket's request type that is configured at Setup > Tickets > Request Types > [Request Type] > Survey. If you select Default Survey for the request types survey, the client will be given the survey you configure at Setup > Surveys > Options > Default Survey. You can also send out surveys manually to a group of clients using the Send Survey button in the client search results header. After you submit a survey, you can view but not edit the survey. To view the survey results, click Reports and select Survey Results, or go to a ticket's detail panel and click the View Survey button in the ticket header. The View Survey button appears in the Survey Results screen after the client completes the survey. You can link surveys to a specific ticket for a single client, or send surveys as general questionnaires to a number of clients. Creating Surveys To create a new survey: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup > Surveys > Surveys. The Surveys screen appears. 2. Click New. The New Survey screen appears. 3. In the Survey Name and Description fields, enter the appropriate information for your survey. 4. In the Greeting and Thank You Message fields, enter the appropriate information. 282

285 Getting Client Feedback 5. In the Invitation Message field, enter the message text that will appear in survey invitations ed to clients. This information includes the client name and survey and ticket URL information. Use the following tags in the invitation message: Client name: <first_name>, <last_name> Survey link: <survey_linktext="click here"> Ticket URL: <ticket_url> 6. Click the Frequency drop-down menu and select a frequency for this survey. Frequency defines the rate at which the survey is sent. A frequency of 1 sends the survey for each ticket. A frequency of 2 sends the ticket on every second ticket. 7. Click the Max Invitations drop-down menu and specify how many times the survey is sent when the client does not respond. 8. Click the Reminder Interval drop-down menus and select the frequency that WHD sends reminders to the client. 9. In the -Reminder Subject, and -Reminder Message fields, enter the appropriate subject and message text to include in your reminder. 10. (Optional). In the Competition Notification Address. field, enter a list of addresses that will be sent a notification each time this survey is completed. 11. Click Save to save your changes. To set the survey options: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select Surveys > Options. The Survey Options screen appears. 2. Click the Default Survey drop-down menu and select a default survey for ticket request types that are marked for a default survey. If the Default Survey is set to None, no survey will be provided for tickets with a request type using the Default Survey selection. 283

286 Creating Messages 3. Click the Default Max Survey Invitations drop-down menu and select the maximum number of survey invitations that a client receives by Click the Default Survey Reminder Interval drop-down menus and select the number of reminders sent to clients when they do not respond to a survey. 5. In the Reminder and Reminder Message fields, enter the appropriate text that appears in the customer reminder s. 6. Click Save. Creating Messages To create a new message: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Messages. The Messages screen appears. 2. Click Create Messages. A list of messages appears. 3. Click New Message. The New Message screen appears. 4. In the Message box, enter your message text. Messages can contain plain text, HTML tags, and inserted FAQ links. To include a link to an FAQ, click Link FAQ. 5. In the Audience row, select the types of users that can view the message. If you select Clients or both Techs and Clients, the message will appear as a public message on the login page. 6. Select the Specify Tech Groups check box to enable the message to appear to techs in certain tech groups. Leave the check box unchecked to enable the message to be visible to all techs. 7. Select the Locked check box to lock the message so all recipients cannot delete the message. 284

287 Getting Client Feedback Otherwise, leave the check box blank. 8. In the Start Date row, select the appropriate start date. 9. In the Expiration Date row, select the appropriate expiration date. 10. Click Search and then click Link. 11. Click Save to save and send the message. The message is sent to your selected recipients. Reviewing Survey Results WHD offers two ways to examine survey results: the Ticket Detail View and Survey Reports. Ticket Detail View shows the result for a single ticket. Survey Reports show ticket and general survey data and provide the ability to combine and sort results. View Ticket Details To see the results of an individual ticket: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Tickets. The Tickets screen appears. 2. In the No. column, click the ticket number you want to view. 3. The client ticket appears. 4. In the top left corner of the ticket, click the Survey View icon. The survey results appear on your screen. Viewing Survey Results Reports To view summary data on both ticket and general surveys: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Reports and select Survey Results. The Survey Results screen appears. 2. Select the survey you want to view. Optionally, select any of the other fields to narrow the scope of the results. 3. When you have completed your selections, click Run Report. 285

288 Sending Ticket Surveys Survey reports are the only way to view the results of a general (nonticket) survey. Sending Ticket Surveys WHD sends ticket surveys for each closed ticket with a survey selected in Setup > Tickets > Request Types. Clients can access surveys by replying to the or by selecting History from the top menu. To send a general survey to one or more clients: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Clients. The Clients screen appears. 2. In the bottom box, click Send Survey. A list of options appears. 3. Select the check boxes for the clients you want to send surveys. 4. Select the Survey to send, and then click Save &

289 Importing Data To import data, WHD must first be configured to connect to your network using one or more of the following tools: Absolute Manage Apple Remote Desktop Casper LANsweeper Microsoft SMS/SCCM Web Help Desk (WMI) See Discovering Assets for information on how to set up connections with these discovery tools. The data import options let you import data in bulk, rather than having to add individual items manually. You import data using either predefined templates, or by using an asset discovery tool. WHD provides templates in three formats: Excel spread sheets, Tab Separated Variable (TSV) files, and Comma Separated Variable (CSV) files. Use template data imports for the following WHD items: Locations Clients Assets Purchase Orders Tickets FAQs Parts Inventory 287

290 Importing Data See Using Templates to Import Data for details on how to set up and apply WHD templates to import this data. Using Templates to Import Data After you set up your connections using the discovery tools described in Discovering Assets, you can import data from files in tab-separate-values (TSV), comma-separated-values (CSV), or Excel formats. WHD uses templates to ensure data files are formatted correctly. The first row of data in the file must match the template, which can be downloaded from each importer panel. SolarWinds recommends downloading this template and copying and pasting it into the data file. For all but the ticket import format, the import file format matches the TSV downloads formats available for each entity. A typical TSV template contains column headings similar to the following Client TSV template. The file downloaded when you click the Download Template button in, for example, the Import Clients page, can be reimported directly into the Clients importer template. Because Ticket TSV downloads are typically used for reporting, rather than for making bulk changes, the columns in the Ticket TSV download match the columns in the selected Column Set rather than those of the Ticket importer template. If you are using an Excel spreadsheet to format the data, and your data file contains Unicode characters, be sure to select the MS Excel Unicode (UTF-16) file encoding option, both in Excel and in Web Help Desk. To import data using TSV, CSV, and Excel template files: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select Data Import. 2. In the drop-down menu, select an import type. 288

291 Using Templates to Import Data 3. Select a data format for the template. 4. Download the template. 5. Populate the template. 6. Import the populated template to WHD. The table below specifies the type of import and the fields required for the import. Type of Import Location Companies Clients Assets Required Fields Location Name Company Name, Manager Tech Username Last Name, User Name, Asset Type, Manufacturer, Model 289

292 Exporting Data Purchase Orders Tickets FAQs Parts Inventory PO Number, Vendor Open Date, Request Type Category, Question, Answer Part Number, Manufacturer, Our Cost, Customer Cost Part Number, Location, Count When you populate the template, use the following conventions: To prevent failed imports, do not change the data order or delete columns in any import. Define all inventory import parts in Web Help Desk before you import your inventory. If the tickets implement request sub-types, enter the type and sub-type in the Type column and separate the type and sub-type with a semicolon. Do not use commas or currency symbols in your template. Exporting Data Export Web Help Desk data from the following: Tickets: Export data in PDF, TSV, and Excel formats Clients: Export data in TSV and Excel formats Assets: Export data in PDF, TSV, and Excel formats Parts: Export data in TSV and Excel formats FAQs: Export data in TSV and Excel formats Note: TSV file cells are limited to 32 kbs. Exporting Tickets Export Ticket data to a TSV format for export to other locations or applications. To export Tickets information: 290

293 Exporting Clients 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Tickets. The Tickets window appears. 2. Click the gear icon and select Tickets PDF or Download TSV. 3. View and save the Tickets Report.pdf file to your hard drive or other location. 4. Save the WHD_Tickets.tsv file to your hard drive or other location. Exporting Clients Export Client information to a TSV or Excel format for export to other locations or applications. To export Clients information: 1. Navigate to the Clients window. 2. Click the TSV button to download a TSV file containing a list of Clients or click the Excel button to download an Excel file containing a list of Clients. 3. Save the client_export.txt or client_export.xls file to your hard drive or other location. Exporting Assets Export Assets information to PDF, TSV, or Excel format for export to other locations or applications. To export Assets information: 1. Navigate to the Assets window. 2. Click the PDF button to view and save Assets information as a PDF report. Click the TSV button to download a TSV file containing a list of Assets or click the Excel button to download an Excel file containing a list of Assets. 3. Save the Asset_export.txt or Asset_export.xls file to your hard drive or other location. 291

294 Exporting Data Exporting Parts Export Parts information to TSV or Excel format for export to other locations or applications. To export Parts information: 1. Navigate to the Parts window. 2. Click the TSV button to download a TSV file containing a list of Parts or click the Excel button to download an Excel file containing a list of Parts. 3. Save the part_export.txt or part_export.xls file to your hard drive or other location. Exporting FAQs Export FAQs information to TSV or Excel format for review, or for export to other locations or applications. To export FAQs information: 1. Navigate to the FAQs window. 2. Click the TSV button to download a TSV file containing a list of FAQs or click the Excel button to download an Excel file containing a list of FAQs. 3. Save the faq_export.txt or faq_export.xls file to your hard drive or other location. 292

295 Customizing Tickets, Notes, Instructions, and s with BBCode Sometimes you might want to highlight certain information in an , send a clickable link, or format an FAQ or request type's detailed instructions so it's easy to follow. Or maybe you need to highlight crucial information in an asset note, so your coworkers won't forget to notify you when updating your machine. Some forms, like ticket notes, offer formatting options in a small menu on the top of the screen, but these may not be available everywhere, or you might want to do more than standard options offer. Bulletin Board Code (BBCode) is a lightweight markup code for text formatting. It was introduced in message-boards, but is widely used in many other types of software today. Tags are usually indicated by square brackets enclosing a keyword, like this: [ and ]. BBCode has no formal standard; you can find different implementations and variations in supported tags. WHD also has its own customizable implementation of BBCode. Here's a simple example of BBCode, which you can use in WHD. [size=20]title[/size] [img] variable WHD.solarwinds]]].com/favicon.ico[/img] <p> Lorem ipsum [b]dolor sit[/b] amet, [urll= adipiscing[/url] elit. *** sociis natoque [i] penatibus et magnis[/i] dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. </p> And here's a list: [list] 293

296 [*]Fusce tellus. Proin in tellus sit amet nibh dignissim sagittis. [*]Sed convallis magna eu sem. Maecenas sollicitudin. [/list] [list=a] [*][color=blue]faq link:[/color] [faq id=1] [*][u]faq link:[/u] <faq id=2> [/list] This text, which is actually a mix of BBCode and HTML, renders the following: WHD stores transformation rules for tags in WebHelpDesk/bin/webapps/helpdesk/WEB- INF/Helpdesk.woa/Contents/Resources/bb_config.xml. For more additional information on working with BBCode to format custom information in WHD, see: Applying Basic Formatting Creating Your Own Tags Adding Clickable Links 294

297 Applying Basic Formatting Applying Basic Formatting Basic markup follows a simple structure: Simple tags: [tag]something[/tag] Simple parameterized tags: [tag=value]something[/tag] Complex parameterized tags: [tag value1="xxx" value2="yyy"] something[/tag] WHD supports wide range of tags: [code]your code here[/code]: Embeds your code. [quote]text[/quote]: Adds quote to text. [quote=author]text[/quote]: Adds quote from specified author. [b]bold[/b]: Bolds text. [i]italics[/i]: Italicizes text. [u]underscored[/u]: Underlines text. [list][*]first item [*]Second item[/list]: Creates a list using the symbols you define. [img]url[/img]: Links image URL. [ ]address[/ ]: Embeds address [ =address]text[/ ] Adds pre-defined address. [url]address[/url]:provides URL address, [url=address]text[/url]: Adds pre-defined URL address. [color=name]text[/color] : Supports HTML color names. [size=number of pixels]text[/size]: Defines text size by specific number of pixels. [google]key words[/google]: Adds Google key words. 295

298 [google=key words]text[/google]: Adds pre-defined Google key words. [faq id=number]: Provides a link to an existing FAQ. Additionally you can also use the following HTML tags with BBCode tags: <li> <ul> <ol> <font> <br /> <p> <pre> <center> <faq> <hr> <strong> You can use the BBCode in many places in WHD, like ticket subject, request details, notes, templates, FAQ, messages, login messages, custom field descriptions, and so on. Note: Most fields do support BBCode, but some, like secondary fields in your account details, do not. So make sure to test the code to make sure it works. Creating Your Own Tags You can easily create your own tags in the bb_config.xml file. Say you want to use strikethrough text. Simply add this custom tag definition to bb_config.xml, as shown below: <!-- S --> <match name="s"> <regex>(?s)(?i)\[s\](.*?)\[/s\]</regex> 296

299 Adding Clickable Links <replace> <![CDATA[ <strike>$1</strike> ]] > </replace> </match> To apply the formatting, save your changes, and restart WHD. Adding Clickable Links BBCode can detect http and ftp links, s, and Universal Naming Control (UNC) paths and make them clickable. If you link to a YouTube or Vimeo video, WHD can actually embed that video and display it, instead of the link. You can also disable this behavior. In bb_config.xml, you can also disable embedding video instead of displaying a link. Find all rules with name starting with autoyoutube (or auto-vimeo) and comment them out with <!-- and -->. Save your changes and then restart WHD to see the link, instead of the video. Sometimes when working on an incident or writing an FAQ, you refer to other tickets, referencing ticket 544 or terms like request, case, or problem. To make these references into clickable links that open the referenced tickets, write a simple rule. To write a rule linking to other tickets, add the following to the bb_config.xml file: <match name="ticketlink" alwaysprocess="true"> <regex>(?s)(?i)((?:ticket incident case problem request)\s*)([0-9]+) </regex> 297

300 <replace> <![CDATA[ <a href=" helpdesk/webobjects/helpdesk.woa/wa/ticketactionsview?ticket=$2">$1$2</a> ]]> </match> </replace> Note: Remember to replace the URL with the link to your system. Now typing case 22, automatically creates a link to case

301 Integrating with SolarWinds Products WHD v and later can integrate with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM), Server and Application Monitor (SAM), and Network Configuration Manager (NCM) to create WHD tickets from SolarWinds Orion Platform alerts. When configured and enabled, the Orion Platform sends WHD an http request for a network change for example, a SolarWinds-monitored network node that fails for any reason. WHD can be configured to receive and assimilate the alert and generate a corresponding WHD ticket to address the issue described in the alert. Configuring Orion-to-Web Help Desk Ticketing You can configure the Orion Platform to share alerts with WHD by completing the following procedures: 1. Enable SolarWinds Orion to share alerts with Web Help Desk. 2. Enter the SolarWinds Orion server link in Web Help Desk. 3. Configure alert filtering rules in Web Help Desk to recognize and process Orion Platform variables. 4. Test alert filtering rules in Web Help Desk. Enabling SolarWinds Orion to Share Alerts with Web Help Desk To create WHD tickets from alerts triggered in NPM, NCM, and SAM, you can configure any alert on any network change (for example, when a node goes down) in the Orion Web Console (for SolarWinds Orion Platform ) or the Orion Advanced Alert Manager or Basic Alert Manager (prior to Orion Platform ) to initiate a WHD trouble ticket. See the appropriate section depending on your Orion Platform version. 299

302 Integrating with SolarWinds Products Configuring Orion Alerts for Orion Platform Configuring Orion Alerts prior to Orion Platform Configuring Orion Alerts for Orion Platform If you upgraded to Orion Platform , the Advanced Alert Manager and Basic Alert Manager are deprecated from the Orion release. Alerts are now created and managed in the SolarWinds Orion Web Console. Additionally, WHD does not support the following new condition introduced in Orion Platform : To create, modify, enable, or disable alerts, use the Alert Manager integrated in the Orion Web Console. To create a new alert to share with WHD: 1. Log in to the Orion Web Console. 2. Click Settings. The Main Settings & Administration screen appears. 3. Under Alerts and Reports, click Manage Alerts. The Manage Alerts screen appears. 4. In the Alert Manager tab toolbar, click Add New Alert. The Add New Alert screen appears. 5. Follow the instructions on your screen to create a new alert. To share an alert with Web Help Desk: a. Navigate to the Alert Summary > Alert Integration page. b. Select the following check box: Integrate alert with other solarwinds products and subscribers (Recommended). c. Save your changes. 300

303 Configuring Orion Alerts Prior to Orion Platform See Creating and Managing Alerts in the Orion Platform Admin Guide for more information. Configuring Orion Alerts Prior to Orion Platform If you are running Orion with a core version prior to Orion Platform , you can configure WHD alerts by opening the Advanced Alert Manager and clicking Configure Alerts. For more information about Orion alert properties, see NPM Variables and Examples in the SolarWinds Orion NPM Administrator Guide. To configure Orion to share a Node Down alert with WHD: 1. From the Start menu on the Orion server, navigate to SolarWinds Orion > Alerting, Reporting, and Mapping > Advanced Alert Manager. 2. Click Configure Alerts. The Manage Alerts window appears. 3. Select the alert you want sent to WHD and click Edit. 301

304 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 4. In the Edit Alert dialog's General tab, ensure the Enable this Alert option is selected. The Orion server sends the alert only when this option is active. 5. Select the Trigger Condition tab. 6. Click Add and then click Simple Condition. 7. Click the first asterisk * in the condition, and then select Network Nodes > Node Details > Node Name. 302

305 Configuring Orion Alerts Prior to Orion Platform Click the second asterisk * in the condition and select the node from which you want WHD to receive alerts. 9. Click Add, and then click Simple Condition. 10. Click the first asterisk * in the condition, and then select Network Nodes > Node Status > Node Status. 11. Click the second asterisk * in the condition and select Down. 12. Select the Alert Suppression tab. Make sure this tab is not configured. Otherwise, your system will not generate an alert to the WHD system. 13. Select the Trigger Actions tab. 14. Click Add New Action, select Send an /Page, and then click OK. The Edit /Page Action... window appears. 303

306 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 15. In the /Page Addresses tab, locate the /Pager Recipients box and enter the WHD integration address in the To field. Note: Ensure your network environment is configured to allow the Orion server to send alerts to the WHD integration account. Check with your Orion system administrator to find out which networks accept Orion server s. Additionally, you can test whether Orion can access the WHD integration server yourself. See Testing Orion Server Access to the Help Desk Integration Account for more information. 16. Select the Message tab. 17. Review the message and note any variables in the message. Consider adding these variables to the WHD alert filtering rules. See Testing Alert Filtering Rules for more information. 18. Click OK. 19. Click the Alert Sharing tab. 20. Select the Automatically share alert data with other SolarWinds products and subscribers check box. 21. Set the Severity level. 304

307 Configuring Orion Alerts Prior to Orion Platform The alert s Severity level passes along to WHD. In this example, the Severity level is Warning. 22. In the Properties to Include box, review the property names in the Name column. Properties in this example include: IP Address Object Sub Type Status Description Node Name Vendor Note: WHD uses the actual names of the properties as alert fields in WHD rules it uses to filter alerts from Orion. 23. Click OK to apply edits and new properties. 24. Click Done to complete the editing process. 305

308 Integrating with SolarWinds Products Testing Orion Server Access to the Help Desk Integration Account After you assign an Orion alert to the WHD integration account, ensure that your Orion server can access your WHD integration account. If the alert is for an intermittent event (such as a failed node), the following test procedures may not be applicable unless you change the Trigger Condition to a reoccurring event. For example, if a node isn't down, the Orion server cannot trigger an alert. To test your Orion server access, create or edit a test alert for a fairly constant condition (for example, when a node is up and operating efficiently). Configure this test alert to forward to the WHD integration address. See Enable SolarWinds Orion to Share Alerts for more information. To test integration account access from your Orion server: 1. In the Alert Manager - Quick Start window toolbar, click Active Alerts. The Orion server processes and displays the alert state. When completed, the server sends the alert to the WHD integration account. Next, the Active Alerts tab displays the time when the alert was triggered. If the alert does not appear in the Active Alerts tab, a. Click Configure Alerts. b. Select the alert, and then click Edit. c. Check your alert settings and verify if the alert is configured correctly and the alert can be tested. For example, if the alert is configured for a down node and no nodes are down, you cannot test your WHD integration account using this alert. For more information about networks that transmit Orion server integration s, contact your Orion system administrator. 306

309 Entering an SolarWinds Orion Alert Source into Web Help Desk Entering an SolarWinds Orion Alert Source into Web Help Desk Configure WHD to retrieve and process alerts from a SolarWinds alert source by adding the server link to WHD. Before you create a connection with a SolarWinds Orion alert source, ensure that the source is running SolarWinds Orion Platform or higher. Additionally, if you need to edit connection details for a SolarWinds source, delete the existing source and create a new source. To create a SolarWinds alert source: 1. In the WHD toolbar, click Setup and select SolarWinds Integration > SolarWinds Connection. The SolarWinds Connection screen appears. 2. Click Add New SolarWinds Source. The Add New SolarWinds Source screen appears. 307

310 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 3. In the Source Name field, enter the new SolarWinds source name. 4. In the WHD Request Type.field enter the request type. Note: For more information about selecting and defining WHD Request Types, see Defining Request Types. 5. In the Server IP Address or FQDN field, enter the SolarWinds Server IP Address or Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). 6. In the Administrator username field, enter the SolarWinds administrator user name. 7. In the Administrator user password field, enter the SolarWinds administrator user password. Note: To ensure WHD can access the required SolarWinds alerts, enter administrator-level SolarWinds account and credentials data into WHD. 8. Click Test. 308

311 Assigning Request Types The Server Settings Test dialog box appears. When WHD creates a connection with a SolarWinds Orion alert source, the checked areas in the window contain green check marks. 9. Click Next to continue. The alert source is configured. Assigning Request Types WHD creates new tickets from the SolarWinds alerts it accepts. Request types define the ticket issue, such as Hardware, Software, Networking, and so on. WHD requires each new ticket have a request type. You can select a pre-defined request type from the pull-down menu or you can define a new request type. To learn how to define new request types, see Defining Request Types. Entering SolarWinds Account and Credentials Data To ensure WHD can access the required SolarWinds alerts, enter administratorlevel SolarWinds account and credentials data into WHD. Configuring Alert Filtering Rules WHD creates tickets from Orion alerts by matching the Orion alert contents and/or features to filters you set up in WHD. To build WHD alert filtering rules, apply the property names that exist in your system s Orion alerts. 309

312 Integrating with SolarWinds Products Orion alerts use any properties a SolarWinds administrator chooses or creates. Alert properties can have default names or other types of name configurations assigned by the SolarWinds Orion administrator. The following table lists some basic default alert variables you can use to create standard alert properties in SolarWinds applications. Severity AlertID Object Type Alert Type UserProperties Node Name Vendor Description Location Operating System IP_Address Machine Type TotalMemory DNS System Name Location For a detailed list of Orion alert variables used to build alert properties, see NPM WHD and Examples in the SolarWinds Orion NPM Administrator Guide and the SolarWinds paper entitled Understanding Orion Advanced Alerts. The white paper explains how to customize Orion alert properties and provides additional information about Orion alert contents. After you set up the SolarWinds server in WHD (as described in Entering an SolarWinds Orion Alert Source into Web Help Desk) and gather information about your system's Orion alerts and associated properties, configure WHD to transform Orion alerts into WHD tickets. Understanding Rule Configuration WHD defaults to ignoring Orion alerts. To transform alerts into WHD tickets, select and define the appropriate rules so WHD can recognize the alerts. The following table describes these rules. Filtering Rule Type Matching rule Rule Description Defines the characteristics alerts must contain for WHD to recognize and transform them into WHD tickets or 310

313 Using the Rule Configuration Interface ignore them. These characteristics include: Severity level, such as Notice, Information, Warning, Critical, and Serious Exact field name, such as Date, Alert Type, Operating System, and so on Operator (whether the alert field name or severity level contains, equals, starts with, end with, matches regular expression, does not contain, is not equal to, does not start with, does not end with, or does not match regular expression) Value, which can be any type of alphanumeric data AND/OR block Child rule Complex rule Specifies whether WHD accepts or rejects alerts based on whether they meet ANY or ALL Child rules in a Complex rule. Provides additional filtering on existing rules. For example, when an initial filtering rule transforms all alerts with a Critical severity into tickets, you can create child rules to transform only Critical severity alerts from Windows 2008 and Windows 2011 systems into WHD alerts. A set of rules that contain at least one parent rule (which can be a Matching rule or an AND/OR block), plus one or more child rules. Using the Rule Configuration Interface WHD provides the following interface for rule configuration. 311

314 Integrating with SolarWinds Products Begin filtering rule configuration by clicking either Add a new matching rule or Add new AND/OR block. Adding and Configuring Matching Rules Adding a new matching rule tells WHD to match certain variables in alert text fields or a defined severity level. For example, if you click Add new matching rule, WHD displays the following screen. The Filters pane contains a new, unconfigured rule. Use the Configure Rule pane to configure the new rule to recognize or ignore alerts based on criteria you define. WHD provides the following filtering options: 312

315 Adding and Configuring Matching Rules Accept alert: Choose this option for WHD to recognize the alert. Or Reject alert : Choose this option for WHD to ignore the alert. if Severity: Select this option to match alerts by severity level. If you select this option, choose one of the following: o is equal to: Select this option to match alerts by one of the following Orion alert levels: Notice Information Warning Critical Serious Or o is not equal to: Select this option to match all severity levels except the one selected. If you select this option, choose one of the following alert levels to ignore: Notice Information Warning Critical Serious Or if Alert Field: Enter an Orion alert field variable. To further define matching rules, select from one of the following: o o o o o contains is equal to contains is equal to starts with 313

316 Integrating with SolarWinds Products o o o o o o o ends with matches the regex does not contain is not equal to does not start with does not end with does not match the regex In the Configure Rule pane, enter the alpha-numeric information required for matching. The following example displays a sample configuration for selecting and entering the data in the Configure Rule pane. In this example, WHD is configured to create tickets from all Orion alerts containing Windows 8 in the Operating System field. Note: For both the Accept Alert and Reject Alert options, Ignore case and Ignore whitespace are active by default. To ensure the best results, leave these options selected. 314

317 Adding and Configuring Complex Rules Adding and Configuring Complex Rules When you click Add new AND/OR block, the Configure Complex Rule pane appears, as shown below. Selecting Match any matches if any Child rule in the Complex rule matches. Selecting Match all requires all Child rules match for WHD to accept the alert and create a WHD ticket. Alert Filtering Configuration Example In the following example, our goal is to enable WHD to create tickets for improperly functioning network nodes. We want to configure WHD to recognize and create tickets from the Orion alert selected in Enabling SolarWinds Orion to Share Alerts, so the severity-level and condition properties used in the next example include Warning, IP Address, and Node Name. To define and configure filtering rules, using the severity Warning and the alert fields IP Address and Status Description: 1. In the Filters pane, click Add new matching rule. 2. Select Accept Alert or Reject Alert in the Configure Rule pane. For this example, we are selecting Accept Alert. 3. Select if Severity. Note: As explained above, you can find Orion property names by becoming familiar with the properties defined in your SolarWinds Orion system. Warning may or may not be a property your particular SolarWinds Orion system uses; it is only an example in this set of instructions. 315

318 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 4. Select one of the ten options from the pull-down field. For this example, select the word contains, because we want to filter alerts that contain a certain severity level. 5. Enter the Orion property severity level. In this example, enter the severity level Warning. 6. Select Ignore case and Ignore whitespace (treat multiple spaces as one space). Selecting these options helps ensure WHD accepts any Orion alerts in which the properties occur. 7. Click Add new matching rule in the Filters pane. 8. Select Accept alert in the Configure Rule pane. 9. Select If Alert field. 10. Select contains. 11. Enter Select Ignore case and Ignore whitespace (treat multiple spaces as one space). 13. Click Add new matching rule in the Filters pane. 14. Select Accept alert in the Configure Rule pane. 15. Select If Alert field. 16. Select contains. 17. Enter node Up. 18. Select Ignore case and Ignore whitespace (treat multiple spaces as one space). 316

319 Testing Alert Filtering Rules 19. Click Next. Notes: To change the order in which WHD applies the rules you define, highlight the rule you want to move and click Up or Down at the top of the Configure Rule pane. To delete a filter, highlight the filter and click Remove at the top of the Configure Rule pane. Testing Alert Filtering Rules Test your new rules rules to ensure they are filtering properties correctly. You can access the test function by clicking the Test button under the main page title. Properties come from the field names you defined when you configured rules filters, and these properties contain values. For example, you can configure a rule that accepts an alert if the severity of the alert was severe and you configure another rule that accepts an alert if the text in the Alert field condition contains the words node down. To ensure WHD accept alerts using these rules, be sure to test your rules configuration. To test your alert filtering rules: 317

320 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 1. In the Severity field, enter Warning (from the previous page). 2. Under Alert Properties, click Add new property. A field appears under Value. 3. In the new field, enter Status Descriptionfrom the previous page). 4. Click the right side of the Property row to invoke a new field. A new field appears. 5. In the new field, enter Node Down (from the previous page). 6. Click Add new property to invoke a field under Value. A new field appears. 7. In the new field, enter IP Address(from the previous page). 8. Click the right side of the Property row to invoke a new Value field. A new field appears. 9. In the field, enter the following IP address: (from the previous page). The illustration below displays the Test Alert Properties window after you complete the previous steps. 318

321 Parsing Orion Alert-based Tickets Using Action Rules 10. Click Test. If you configured the rules correctly, a message appears stating that the filter rules match and the alert is accepted in the Test Results pane. Click Done. If you did not correctly configured the rules correctly, a message appears stating that the filter rules did not match and the alert is rejected in the Test Results pane. Click Back to resolve your configuration errors. Parsing Orion Alert-based Tickets Using Action Rules The following information offers an example of how to set up an action rule to parse Orion alert-based tickets. To set up an action rule on a ticket created from an Orion alert: 1. Select Setup > Processes. The Processes window appears. 319

322 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 2. Click New. The Action Rule Info tab appears. 3. Select the Enabled check box to activate the action rule. 4. Click the Priority drop-down menu and select 2 for the Priority level. 5. In the Rule Name field, enter: Orion Network Issues 6. Select the Criteria tab. The Criteria tab window appears. 320

323 Parsing Orion Alert-based Tickets Using Action Rules 7. Under Tickets matching ALL of these conditions, select: Request 8. Select the Actions tab. The Actions tab appears. 9. Select Change Priority Low. 10. Click Save. Your changes are saved. 11. Repeat step 2 through step 10 for Urgent / High / Medium priorities. 321

324 Integrating with SolarWinds Products Sample Orion Alert-based Web Help Desk Ticket Following is a sample WHD ticket, based on an Orion alert. The fields shown below are not an all-inclusive list. WHD ticket fields can vary, depending on what the Orion alert contains. The field names are what can be used in the filtering rules. Note: Some of these fields are default fields that do not display in the Alert Sharing tab in the Orion Advanced Alert Manager. Here are some notes populating WHD from the Orion alert. 322

325 Embedding Web Help Desk into the Orion Web Console Embedding Web Help Desk into the Orion Web Console Once they have logged in to WHD, users can perform all WHD functions from within the Orion Web Console. To add the WHD interface to the Orion web console, complete the following steps: 1. Click Settings in the upper right corner of the SolarWinds Orion web console. 2. Click Manage Views in the Views resource. 3. Scroll through the views, select the Orion Summary Home view, and then click Edit. 4. Click Edit next to Column Width 5. Change Column 2 width to 1000 and click Submit 6. Click + on the upper right edge of Resources in Column Click + next to Miscellaneous. 8. Select the Custom HTML option. 9. Click Submit. 323

326 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 10. Click Custom HTML in Resources in Column 2, and then click <put in a picture or copy and paste the character>. Move the Custom HTML to the top of the list. 11. Click Done. 12. Select the Home tab, and then click Summary. Your Home Summary view should look similar to the following: 13. Click Edit in the Custom HTML resource. 14. Change the title to Web Help Desk. 15. In the third box type the following HTML: <style type="text/css"> iframe { overflow:hidden; } </style> <iframe src=" Help Desk IP:port or DNS name:port" width="100%" height="1100px"> </iframe> Users familiar with HTML can alter the above as desired. 16. Replace the Web Help Desk DNS name:port with the IP address and port number or the DNS name used to access the Web Help Desk console. You can find this information by opening a browser and navigating to the Web Help Desk console. Once you have navigated to the Web Help Desk console, copy the URL from that browser window and paste it into the HTML replacing Web Help Desk IP:port or DNS name:port After you have launched the SolarWinds NPM web console and authenticated to Web Help Desk, your Home Summary view looks similar to the following: 324

327 Creating Web Help Desk Link in NPM Node Details Creating Web Help Desk Link in NPM Node Details You can add WHD as a new resource to any NPM Node Details view. To add Web Help Desk link resource in NPM Node Details views: 1. In the SolarWinds NPM web console, click Settings. 2. In the Views resource, click Manage Views. 3. Scroll through the views, select the Node Details view, and then click Edit. 4. Expand the upper right edge of Resources in Column Expand Miscellaneous. 6. Select User Links. 7. Click Submit. 8. In Resources in column 2, click User Links, and then click the double up arrow button to move the HTML to the top of the list. 9. Click Done. 10. Select the Home tab. The Home tab window appears. 11. Click Summary. 11. Expand the All Nodes resource until the individual nodes are visible. 325

328 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 12. Click any node to access its Node Details view. A blank User Links resource appears at the top of the right resource column. 13. In the User Links resource, click Edit. 14. In the Name #1 field, enter: Web Help Desk Console 15. In the URL #1 field, type the URL you use to access the Web Help Desk console. 16. Check Open in new window. 17. Click Submit. The Node Details page appears. NPM Node Details now contains a link to Web Help Desk. Putting Web Help Desk on the NPM Menu Bar To add a Web Help Desk link to the Orion menu bar: 326

329 Putting Web Help Desk on the NPM Menu Bar 1. Click Settings in the upper right corner of the Orion window. The Orion Website Administration page appears. 2. Click External Websites in the Customize area. The External Websites page appears. 3. Click Add. A New External Website dialog appears. 327

330 Integrating with SolarWinds Products 4. In the Main Title field, enter the name of the link to appear in the Orion menu bar. 5. In the Page Title field, enter a page title. 6. In the URL field, enter the WHD server s IP address in the following format: 7. Click the Menu Bar drop-down menu and select the Orion menu bar to access the Web Help Desk link. 8. Click OK. The External Website page appears, stating that the Web Help Desk link is added to the external website. 9. Click Preview to see your results and logon to Web Help Desk. Note: If the Web Help Desk Logon dialog does not appear and you receive an error, navigate back to Settings > Customize > External Websites and delete your previous configuration. Create a new menu bar configuration for Web Help Desk, following steps listed above. 328

331 Integrating with DameWare MRC DameWare Mini Remote Control (MRC) is a remote administration and troubleshooting solution that enhances your WHD solution. With built-in integration between both applications, you can: Connect to remote computers directly from help desk trouble tickets and asset inventory Troubleshoot and resolve remote systems directly from your system Save a history of troubleshooting steps to the client ticket Establish and save chat sessions with remote users to client tickets DameWare MRC can access and troubleshoot computers running a variety of supported operating systems, including: Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows Server Linux with VNC enabled Apple OSX with VNC enabled To Integrate DameWare MRC with WHD: 1. Install DameWare MRC on all tech systems running WHD. See the DameWare Mini Remote Control (Standalone) Evaluation Guide for more information. 2. Configure WHD to integrate with DameWare MRC. 3. Enable your techs to access and use DameWare MRC through WHD. When completed, your techs can initiate MRC sessions from within a WHD Asset Details page, connects the tech to the Asset. If the Asset is not connected to the local network included on a Saved Host list, the Remote Connect dialog appears. From here, the tech can create an internet session or add the Asset to their Saved Host list. 329

332 Integrating with DameWare MRC To maintain customer security, Web Help Desk will not allow you to access remotely any server in your WHD system without the appropriate permissions on the DameWare Central Server. Installing DameWare MRC When you DameWare MRC in your help desk deployment, ensure that the application is installed on the same systems techs use to access WHD. Unlike previous DameWare MRC-WHD integration solutions (described in the Web Help Desk v Administrator Guide's Integrating DameWare Mini Remote Control into Web Help Desk chapter), WHD v provides seamless integration with DameWare MRC. Additionally, WHD v provides direct integration with DameWare MRC with no requirement for third-party software. See your DameWare Remote Support and MRC documentation for more information. To ensure seamless integration with DameWare, ensure that all WHD request types do not include required custom fields. Using DameWare MRC When you start DameWare MRC, it opens in WHD Integration mode, allowing you to save information you collect from a remote support session in MRC to a WHD ticket. A banner appears during the session when MRC runs in WHD Integration mode When you close the session, you can save the following session details to the client ticket: Tech IP address Client IP address Session start time Session end time Session duration 330

333 Configuring Integration Session termination reason Tech notes Chat transcripts Screen shots Configuring Integration Techs must have DameWare MRC installed on the same computer on which they are using WHD. So begin the DameWare-WHD integration process by installing DameWare MRC on WHD Techs' PCs. For DameWare MRC installation instructions, see the DameWare Mini Remote Control (Standalone) Evaluation Guide. After installing and deploying DameWare MRC on the Tech PCs, configure WHD to integrate DameWare MRC. Note: You must be a WHD Administrator to integrate DameWare MRC into WHD. Follow these steps to integrate DameWare MRC into WHD: 1. Open WHD. 2. Navigate to Setup >Assets > Options. 3. Click DameWare Integration Links Enabled. Once you enable DameWare here, it is automatically enabled for all Techs in WHD. You can configure more granular access settings for individual techs in their profiles. 4. Select the Default Request Type. When you creates a ticket, you must specify the kind of help needed by selecting a Request Type. The Request Type determines which custom fields appear on the Ticket and which Techs is assigned to it. The Request Type also determines how the Ticket is routed to a Tech. The Request Type you select should be the type most likely to result from a DameWare troubleshooting session. For example, if you know you will be using DameWare to troubleshoot mostly hardware issues, select Hardware as the request type. For more information on Request Types, see Selecting a Request Type. 5. Click Save. 331

334 Integrating with DameWare MRC Launching and Closing DameWare MRC After you configure DameWare integration for tech access, launching and closing DameWare MRC in WHD is a seamless process. Help desk techs can launch an MRC session in WHD from a client ticket or an asset. Note: Each Asset must have a valid IP address in WHD. If an asset does not have a valid IP address, the Remote Connect dialog appears, prompting you for the WHD IP address and your WHD login and password. Launching DameWare from a Client Ticket To launch DameWare MRC from a client ticket: 1. Click My Tickets to open an existing WHD ticket assigned to you. 2. Click the Asset Info tab. 3. In the Ticket Assets tab in the No. column, locate the DameWare icon attached to the asset. For example, it could be linked to a Dell Latitude system. 4. Click the DameWare icon. The DameWare Mini Remote Control (MRC) console appears, stating that you are running in Web Help Desk Integration mode 5. Complete your session with the client. See the DameWare Mini Remote Control Reference Manual for more information. 6. then click Save Details to the Ticket. The Session Detail Upload window appears. Your session details are uploaded to the client ticket. 7. Click OK to close the window. The customer ticket appears. 8. Click the Ticket Details tab. 332

335 Launching DameWare from an Asset The Ticket Details tab window appears. 9. Scroll down to the Notes section. 10. Locate your remote session details. These details include: Chat sessions saved in.rtf format Screen shots stored in.png format Session details incorporated into the note. 11. Complete the customer ticket as needed. Launching DameWare from an Asset To launch DameWare from an asset. 1. Search for the Asset, as described in Searching Assets. 2. Locate the Asset in the search results and click the DameWare integration button next to the Asset number. 3. Troubleshoot the Asset as needed. See the DameWare Mini Remote Control Reference Manual for details on how to use the MRC for troubleshooting. 4. When completed, close the session. Closing a DameWare Session When you close the session, you are prompted for your WHD credentials (see Why Do I Need to Connect to Web Help Desk for more information). Next, you are prompted to select a ticket or to create a ticket to upload the DameWare troubleshooting information to. To close your DameWare session and save the session information to a WHD ticket: 1. Click Disconnect. 2. Save the session details, chat logs, or screenshots to the WHD ticket. 333

336 Integrating with DameWare MRC 3. Log in to WHD to save the DameWare troubleshooting information. Note: You must either have a ticket number or create a new ticket so that the information can be saved to WHD. 4. Select the ticket and click Use selected ticket to save the session details to the WHD ticket listed on the screen. Note: To save the session to a new ticket, click Create new ticket and follow the instructions in Manually Creating a New Ticket. 5. Enter any information you or the client may want to refer to later about the troubleshooting session. To make this information available to Clients, select Make the session details and attachments visible to clients. 6. Click Save details to Ticket. The ticket updates (or new ticket) displays in your WHD list of tickets. 334

337 Deploying as a Virtual Appliance If you run a VMware vsphere or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environment, you can install Web Help Desk as a virtual appliance. The appliance contains the Linux version of Web Help Desk pre-installed on a CentOS Linux distribution. Extract the appliance files from the.zip or.dmg file to your desktop, and then follow the appropriate deployment instructions: Deploying Using VMware vsphere Deploying Using Microsoft Hyper-V Using VMware vsphere You can deploy Web Help Desk on an appliance using VMware vsphere version 4 or higher. To deploy WHD on a vsphere client: 1. Start vsphere client, and log on. 2. Click File > Deploy OVF Template. 335

338 Deploying as a Virtual Appliance 3. To select the WHD vsphere-12.0.x.xxx.ova file on your desktop, click Browse, then click Next. 4. Complete the setup wizard. 5. Select Thin provision or Thick provision disk format, then click Next. Note: Thin provisioning is a space-saving feature. You allocate as much space as required, based on the value entered for the disk size. Thick provisioning allocates virtual space when you first create the virtual disk. 6. After the WHD-vSphere-12.0.X.XXX.ova deploys, and the wizard completes, click Close. 7. On the VM Summary tab, click the Power On link or right-click the VM name in the vsphere Client inventory pane and choose Power > Power On from the context menu. You can also press Ctrl-B to start the appliance. 8. Click the Console tab. This screen is similar to a virtual monitor. 336

339 Using VMware vsphere 9. To manage the appliance, launch a Web browser and navigate to the vsphere Client Console tab, at The Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) login opens. 10. To login to the appliance for the first time, use the default login, admin. The default password is also admin. 337

340 Deploying as a Virtual Appliance Note: We recommend that you change the default password after your first login. For instructions on changing your password, see Changing the Administrator Password. Using Microsoft Hyper-V This section describes how to install WHD using Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 and later. To install WHD using Hyper-V: 1. Extract the contents of the Hyper-V.zip file to a permanent location. 2. Launch the Hyper-V Manager. 3. Connect to the appropriate Hyper-V server. 4. Click Action > Import Virtual Machine 5. Click Browse to select the extracted.zip file s folder. 6. Under Settings, select Copy the virtual machine and Duplicate all files from the Import Virtual Machine window. 7. Click Import. 8. Right-click the newly copied appliance and select Settings. 338

341 Using Microsoft Hyper-V 9. Confirm the network is set to Not Connected by default after deployment. 339

342 Deploying as a Virtual Appliance 10. Specify the network settings the appliance should use and then click OK. 11. Right-click the appliance in the inventory, and then click Action > Connect. 12. If you use DHCP for network setup, and your deployment ends with deployment ends with "warnings/errors - No networking detected," refer to the section on "See "Configuring Network Settings " on page 345" to setup the virtual appliance with a static IP configuration. You will need som or all of the following information: The IP of the virtual appliance. The network mask The IP for the Default Gateway The IP of the Preferred DNS Server 13. In the virtual console window, click Action > Start and wait for the appliance to start. 340

343 Upgrading the Virtual Appliance Note:SolarWinds recommends changing the default password after your first login. For instructions on changing your password, see Changing the Administrator Password. 13. To start the WHD application, launch a web browser and navigate to the URL shown in the Hyper-V Console tab. Upgrading the Virtual Appliance The WHD appliance upgrade is available for download as a compressed file called WHD-Appliance-Upgrade-ISO-12.X.X.XXX.zip. Use the following instructions to upgrade WHD on the vsphere or Hyper-V virtual appliance. Upgrading on vsphere To upgrade on vsphere 4.0 or later: 1. Save the.iso file to the computer you use to access the vsphere client. 2. Run the vsphere Client and then log on as an administrator. 3. Select the appliance currently running WHD. 4. Click the CD/DVD utility icon and then click CD/DVD Drive 1 > Connect to ISO image on local disk. 341

344 Deploying as a Virtual Appliance 5. Select the.iso file and then click Open. 6. Open a browser to the following URL: Log on to the website using the following credentials: admin/admin 9. Click the Update tab. 10. Click Check Updates. 11. Click Install Updates and then click OK. Note: If WHD displays odd behavior after an upgrade, you may need to clear your browser cache. Upgrading on Hyper-V To upgrade on Hyper-V: 1. Save the.iso file to a datastore that you can access from the appliance running WHD. 2. Run the Hyper-V Manager. 3. Select the appliance currently running WHD. 4. Click Settings. 5. Click DVD Drive. 6. Select the Image file, and then click Browse. 7. Select the.iso file and then click Open. 8. Click OK. 9. Open a web browser window. 10. Log in to the WHD Management Console interface at: where ip_address is the IP address or name of the WHD server and 5480 is the port number for the WHD Management Console interface. 342

345 Managing the Appliance 11. Log on to the website using the credentials admin/admin. Note: admin/admin are the default login credentials. Ensure that the login credentials are correct. 12. Click the Update tab. 13. Click Check Updates. 14. Click Install Updates and then click OK. Note: If WHD displays odd behavior after an upgrade, you may need to clear your browser cache. Managing the Appliance The appliance is configured to use default settings, including time zone, IP configuration, and hostname. You must change these settings for the appliance to work in your network environment. Complete configuration takes approximately 10 minutes. Perform each procedure in the following order to ensure correct appliance configuration: Setting the Time Zone Configuring Network Settings Rebooting the Virtual Appliance Changing the Appliance Administrator Password Note: Both vsphere and Hyper-V virtual appliances use the same interface once you reach the appliance log in, so the instructions for both machines are the same after log in. Logging in to the Appliance To log into the appliance: 1. Open a Web browser window. 2. Navigate to the following Website: 343

346 Deploying as a Virtual Appliance where the ip_address is the appliance URL shown in the URL shown in the Console tab. The Login screen appears. 3. Enter you User Name and Password in the appropriate fields. 4. If you are logging in for the first time, use the following credentials: User Name: admin Password: admin Note: SolarWinds recommends changing the default password after your first login. For instructions on changing your password, see Changing the Administrator Password. 5. Click Login. You are logged in to the appliance. Setting the Time Zone To set the time zone for the appliance: 1. Click the System tab. The System tab screen appears. 344

347 Configuring Network Settings 2. Click the System Time Zone drop-down menu and select the correct time zone. 3. Click Save Settings. Your time zone settings are saved and the new time zone settings appears. Configuring Network Settings When you configuring your appliance network settings,solarwinds recommends using a static IP address. During the initial configuration, WHD expects an IP address that never changes and VMware network settings apply DHCP as the default setting. When DHCP is the default setting, WHD may lose connection with other products if the IP address changes for any reason. Additionally, ensure that the DNS forwarding entries are configured correctly for Orion Platform products and WHD so all connected software products can resolve the host name correctly (if you choose to use a hostname). An incorrect setup would be in the SQL tables for Orion Alert subscribers. If the entry for WHD's url says localhost.localdom, the DNS is set up incorrectly and needs to be reconfigured. To configure network settings for the appliance: 1. Select the Network tab. The Network tab appears with the network status. 345

348 Deploying as a Virtual Appliance You can view current network settings or set the network address or proxy settings. See Configuring Proxy Settings for more information. 2. Click Address to set network address settings. 3. Click the IPv4 Address Type drop-down menu and select the appropriate type. DHCP. If you select this option, make sure the DHCP server or manual network settings sets a DNS server that can resolve host names for Orion and servers configured by host name instead of a static IP address. Static. If you select this option, enter the following information: Hostname. Host name labels may contain only the ASCII letters a through z (case-insensitive), 0 through 9, and the hyphen (-). Host names cannot begin with a digit or a hyphen and must not end with a hyphen. No other symbols, punctuation characters, or white spaces are permitted. IPv4 Default Gateway IPv6 Default Gateway Preferred DNS Server None 4. In the IPv6 Address Type row, select the appropriate IPv6 address type. If you select Static, enter the IPv6 address and prefix. 5. Click Save Settings. Your settings are saved. Configuring Proxy Settings To configure the proxy settings: 1. Click the Network tab. The Network tab screen appears. 2. Click Proxy. The Proxy screen appears. 346

349 Rebooting the Appliance 3. Select the Use a proxy server check box. 4. In the HTTP Proxy Server field, enter the proxy server IP address. 5. In the Proxy Port field, enter the proxy port number. 6. (Optional) In the Proxy Username and Password fields, enter the appropriate information. 7. Click Save Settings. Your settings are saved. Rebooting the Appliance To reboot the appliance and re-initialize all services with the new settings: 1. Select the System tab. The System tab screen appears. 2. Click Reboot. 3. In the reboot confirmation dialog, click Reboot. The appliance reboots. After the reboot, the Management tab appears. In this tab screen, you can: View appliance status Change your password 347

350 Deploying as a Virtual Appliance Refresh your view View appliance and application status, version, and time zone Restart the application service Restart the system s time synchronization network time protocol daemon (ntpd) Bundle logs to send to SolarWinds Support Changing the Appliance Administrator Password To change the administrator password: 1. In the SolarWinds Management tab, click Change Password. The Change Password window appears. 2. Enter the current password. The default password is: admin 3. Enter the new password. 4. Enter the new password again to confirm. 5. Click Change. Your password is updated. 348

351 Deployment Considerations One of the main deployment factors to consider is the number of concurrent users you expect your application to support. Another item to be aware of is filling up the JVM Heap Memory, which can degrade performance. See Memory Sizing and JVM Options and Clearing JVM Heap Memory for more information on these important deployment considerations. Memory Sizing and JVM Options Use an estimated number of concurrent Tech sessions to determine which type of deployment best meets your needs. Use Tech sessions rather than Client sessions, because Tech sessions use much more memory than Client sessions. Supporting Less Than 20 Techs For a 32-bit operating system, Web Help Desk uses a 32-bit Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The maximum memory that a 32-bit JVM can address varies slightly by operating system. However, 1600MB is a common maximum value. This value supports concurrent techs with no memory issues. Ensure you have enough physical memory in your WHD system to support both the 1600MB requirements for the JVM, as well as the server operating system and any additional services you run on the system. ITo adjust the maximum memory setting, edit the MAXIMUM_MEMORY option in the WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf file. Supporting More Than 20 Techs To support more than 20 simultaneous Tech sessions, SolarWinds recommends installing WHD on a system running a 64-bit operating system and a 64-bit JVM. On a 64-bit JVM, you can increase the max heap memory to multiple gigabytes in size by editing the MAXIMUM _MEMORY option in the WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf file. A 64-bit JVM is included with Apple OSX 10.5 (Leopard) and later. To enable the 64-bit JVM, add the following argument to the JAVA_OPTS option in the /Library/WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf file: 349

352 Deployment Considerations JAVA_OPTS= -d64 For other operating systems, install your own 64-bit JVM (Java 5 or Java 6), then update the JAVA_HOME option in the WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf file to point to your Java installation. Clearing JVM Heap Memory WHD deployments can fill up the JVM Heap Memory, which can degrade WHD performance. To avoid this issue, periodically restart WHD to clear the heap memory. See the appropriate procedure to automatically restart the operating system on your system hosting WHD. Apple OSX Microsoft Windows Linux Automatically Restarting Mac OS X This procedure requires WHD version or later. To schedule the WHD application for a nightly restart: 1. Login to your OS as root or admin. 2. Copy the following file to your /Library/LaunchDaemons folder: /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/ com.macsdesign.restartwebhelpdesk.plist 3. Execute the following command: launchctl load com.macsdesign.restartwebhelpdesk.plist 4. Verify that the plist was loaded successfully by executing the following command: launchctl list 5. To unload the LaunchDaemon, execute the following command: 350

353 Automatically Restarting Windows launchctl unload com.macsdesign.restartwebhelpdesk.plist The provided plist file is configured to restart WHD each night at 1 AM. You can change the schedule by editing the StartCalendarInterval property in the plist. See your Apple OS X documentation for details. The following conventions apply: This launch daemon works only with the standard WHD Tomcat deployment. WebObjects Monitor deployments use the Monitor tool to configure automatic restarts. When scheduling with the Monitor, make sure to clear Is Graceful, to force the instances to restart. Automatically Restarting Windows To schedule the WHD application for a nightly restart: Note: Depending on your Microsoft Windows operating system version, these steps may vary. 1. Click Start and select Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks > Add Scheduled Task The Scheduled Task Wizard appears. 2. Select any application to run. 3. Select a daily time to run the task. 4. Select Open Advanced. 5. Change the Run command to: 6. net stop webhelpdesk. 7. Save your changes. To create a second scheduled task to restart WHD, follow the steps above, but use the Run command net start webhelpdesk as the final step. Note: Schedule the start at least one minute later than the stop command to ensure that the service has completely stopped before attempting to restart. 351

354 Deployment Considerations Automatically Restarting Linux For Linux installations, create a nightly cron job that calls the stop/start scripts as root or use sudo. Create the cron job using the following command: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd stop /usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd start WebObjects on Mac OS X Server Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 Server support WebObjects deployment. Mac 10.6 Server does not support WebObjects deployment. To configure WHD to run under WebObjects using the Monitor tool: 1. Install WHD, and then run the following deployment script in the terminal (as root or sudo): /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/UpdateWebObjectsConfiguration 2. In Mac Server Admin, start the Web and the WebObjects services. Enable the Monitor by selecting Turn Monitor On. You can leave the default ports. 3. With a web browser, connect to the Monitor tool at 4. Select the Site tab. Provide a valid URL to Adaptor. 5. Select Round Robin as your load balance scheme and set the Receive Timeout value to Click Update Adaptor Settings to save. 7. Select the Host tab. Provide the DNS name or IP address of the server and then select Mac OSX as the of type option. 8. Click Add Host. If this is the only host that will be running the application, enter as the Host Address. 9. Select the Application tab. Add an application called Helpdesk. Click Add Application. To configure the new application: 1. Click Path Wizard for the Mac OSX path field to lookup the following path to the application startup file: 352

355 WebObjects on Mac OS X Server /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/webapps/helpdesk/ WEB- INF/Helpdesk.woa/Helpdesk. 2. To capture log files, provide an Output Path. Note: The directory you designate must be writable by the appserver user. 3. Provide Additional Arguments to specify the max JVM heap size for the application instances. Each instance can handle up to 1600m, but values of 256m to 384m are sufficient. The format is: -Xmx256m. 4. Click Push All to save all settings, and then click on the Applications tab again. You should see your application listed. 5. Click Detail View and add the optimal number of instances for your server based on the max JVM memory setting you specified in the application configuration. Note: Remember to leave enough free memory for your system and any other services running on the machine. Leave an additional 64 MB free for the Daemon application to be added. 6. Click Add to create the instances. 7. The instances should startup on their own. Notes: Optionally, to speed up the process click, the Start button in the ALL INSTANCE row for the Start/Stop column. To refresh, click the blue hyperlink Refresh Now text below the application name. At this point, you should be able to connect to your application by going to the following URL: If you did not name your application Helpdesk, make sure to substitute the appropriate application name in the URL. 8. Select the Applications tab and add a new application called Daemon. This application has a configuration similar configuration to Helpdesk, but the path to the application startup file is: /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/webapps/WHDReminder- Daemon/WEB- INF/WHDReminderDaemon.woa/WHDReminderDaemon 353

356 Deployment Considerations 9. Provide an Output Path if you are capturing log files. You can use an additional argument of -Xmx64m for the memory setting. 10. Click Push All to save. 11. Go to the Detail View for the Daemon application and add one instance of the Daemon. Note: It is important that you have only a single instance, as multiple instances will cause problems with ticketing and alert generation. WHD is now configured to run under WebObjects using the Monitor tool. 354

357 High Availability Deployments Create a high availability WHD deployment using one of these methods: Configure a multi-instance Tomcat deployment on Linux or Windows. Deploy on multiple virtual machines Monitoring Deployment on Mac OS X Use Mac OS X Server 10.6 and earlier included WebObjects. For later versions, use the instructions provided in Deploying on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). After installing WebObjects: 1. Run the Web Help Desk installer to extract the application to /Library/WebHelpDesk. 2. Run the following script to configure Web Help Desk to work with WebObjects: sudo /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/UpdateWebObjectsConfigurati on 3. In WebObjects Monitor, add a new application named Helpdesk with the following path: /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/webapps/helpdesk/WEB- INF/Helpdesk.woa/Helpdesk 4. Also in Monitor, add a new application named HelpdeskDaemon with the same path as above: /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/webapps/helpdesk/WEB- INF/Helpdesk.woa/Helpdesk 5. In the instance configuration page for HelpdeskDaemon, add the following to the Additional Arguments setting: -DWHDDaemonMode=dedicated Note: Only one WHD instance should ever be running as a daemon. 355

358 After starting the applications in Monitor, you can connect to WHDusing the following URL: Configuring Multiple Instance Tomcat Deployments Apache Tomcat provides both a web server and an application server. Tomcat is a web container that enables Java servlets and Run Pages that supports Java code running along with a web server. You can run multiple-instance Tomcat deployments on both Windows and Linux installations. Perform the following general steps before installing Tomcat: 1. Set up your database. If you set up an external database, make sure it is available for all WHD instances over the network. 2. Install the WHD application to provide the files and folders Tomcat requires for deployment. 3. Remove the WHD service to disable the WHD application. Or copy the WHD folder structure, put it aside for later, and uninstall the application for now. You will need to reinstall WHD after installing and configuring Tomcat. Perform the following steps to deploy Tomcat: 1. Download the latest released version of Tomcat from 2. Install Tomcat, making sure you use the correct version of Java as the runtime environment. For Linux, edit <tomcat_home>/bin/catalina.sh and add JAVA_HOME=<PATH_TO_JAVA_HOME>. Use the same Java version for all instances you plan to deploy in a load balancer or cluster. 3. Download extended security libraries from html. 4. Deploy the libraries to the Java installation Tomcat uses, at: C:\Program Files\Java\<jre6 or jre7>\lib\security for Java 6 or 7, or /usr/lib/java* or /usr/java/jre*/lib/security for Linux. 5. Deploy the WHD application to the installed Tomcat instance, by copying all folders and files from <WebHelpDesk_Home>/bin/webapps into your 356

359 Configuring Multiple Instance Tomcat Deployments Tomcat webapps folder. In Linux, you can create a symlink to avoid having to recopy folders and files every time you update WHD. 6. Copy the folder C:\Program Files\WebHelpDesk\conf\endorsed span> to your<tomcat_home>/webapps directory. 7. Copy the following files to your <tomcat_home>/webapps directory: logback-config.xml - change <WHD_home> to correct address whd.properties - change database setting For Linux, edit <tomcat_home>/bin/catalina.sh and add following: JAVA_OPTS="-Djava.endorsed.dirs=<tomcat_home>/webapps/endorsed - DWHDconfig=<tomcat_home>/webapps/whd.properties -Dlogback.configurationFile=<tomcat_ home>/webapps/logback-config.xml -Xmx1024m -Xms512m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m - DWHDPrivilegedNetworks=* -DWHDPort=8080 -DWHDDaemonMode=none - DWHDPrivateBaseUrl= For Windows, download the start.bat file to your <tomcat_home> directory. 8. Edit all JAVA_OPTS in start.bat / catalina.sh using the following variables: -DWHDPrivateBaseUrl= Set this parameter for each instance and ensure it refers to the port configured in Tomcat. -DWHDconfig=<path_to_file> This argument must refer to the original conf/.whd.properties files that contains database configuration. Provide the same database configuration for all instances -DWHDconnections=<max_number_of_db_connections> - This argument describes maximum of database connections allowed for WHD connection pools. The argument also requires database configuration. Allow at least 2 times the maximum number of database connections in your database configuration. -Xms<init_size>m - Replace the <init_size> variable by the integer number defining initial amount of memory allocated to WHD application (megabytes) -Xmx<max_size>m - Replace the <max_size> variable by the integer number defining maximum amount of memory allocated to WHD application (megabytes). -XX:MaxPermSize=<perm_size>m Replace the <perm_size> variable by the integer number defining amount of memory allocated to WHD application. The recommended default is 256 MB. 357

360 When running more than one Tomcat instance on one machine, set a different port for the JMS queue by using -Dactivemq.broker.port=<port>. The default is 61616, so use, for example, 61617, for the rest of the instances: -Djava.awt.headless=true May be necessary on Linux systems running without X Windows. -DWHDPort=<Port_number> Port to use in URLs that refer back to WHD. -Dlogback.configurationFile=<path_to_logback_config_file> File for spring logging. -DWHDconfig=<path_to_whd-test.properties_file> File with database settings. -DWHDDaemonMode=<background dedicated none> Specifies the way in which daemon processes will be run in this instance. -DWHDPrivilegedNetworks=ip_address / *> - List of hosts from which WHD is accessible. -DJava.endorsed.dirs=<tomcat_home>/webapps/endorsed - Enables WHD files in Tomcat to run. 9. On Linux, start Tomcat by running <tomcat_home>/bin/startup.sh. 10. On Windows, start Tomcat by running <tomcat_home>\start.bat. 11. Connect to WHD using the URL is your Tomcat port. 12. Log in to WHD and update your port in Preferences > General > Server Settings to match your Tomcat port. 13. Test if WHD starts in standalone Tomcat. Use parameters from How can I run the application in my own installation of Tomcat?, if needed. 14. Repeat Tomcat deployment steps for all Tomcat instances. 15. Install Apache httpd Server. Refer to Compiling and Installing at apache.org for Apache HTTP Server installation instructions. Important: If you configure multiple Tomcat instances to run WHD, be sure only one instance has the daemon mode enabled. Otherwise, duplicate tickets will occur. See Configuring Multiple Instance Tomcat Daemons for more information on configuring daemon modes. 358

361 Configuring Multiple Instance Tomcat Deployments Use the same version of WHD for all instances. Use the <WebHelpDesk>/bin/webapps folder from one installed distribution. Remember to change paths, ports, and all other settings so they fit your environment. Set up a load balancer for the multiple instances of Tomcat. A load balancer is necessary for more than one front-end Tomcat instance. For information on setting up the load balancer, see The Apache Tomcat Connector - Generic HowTo - LoadBalancer HowTo. 359

362 Configuring Multiple Instance Tomcat Daemons For multiple-instance WHD installations, one instance of WHD must be configured to provide either dedicated or background daemon services. Having more than one instance provide daemon services can result in duplicate tickets and the unnecessary use of system resources. All but one WHD instance should run without daemon services (WHDDaemonMode=none). The single daemon instance can be set to either dedicated or background. The other instance must be set to none. Applying these daemon settings results in the following: Dedicated The WHD installation instance functions only as a daemon, and the login page is disabled. Background The WHD instance functions as a daemon, but users can also log in to it. None (default) The WHD instance does not execute daemon tasks. To configure a multiple instance installation, set the memory, the Tomcat deployment descriptor, and the WebObjects daemon mode. Only one instance of WHD can be configured to run as the daemon, either in dedicated or background mode. We recommend running it in background mode so that it can be restarted at will, on a more frequent basis than the front-end instances, without interfering with the front-end application. For information on configuring the daemon, see the SolarWinds knowledgebase article, How to Implement Large Deployments with Web Help Desk. Daemon processes should be allocated at least 256 MB of memory. If the WHD DaemonMode is set to background, it should be given an additional 256 MB of memory beyond the amount given to other instances, since it will provide daemon services in addition to serving the application user interface. 360

363 See the following instructions for details on setting the daemons required for multiple instances of Tomcat: Set the Tomcat Daemon Set the Tomcat Daemon Memory Set Web Objects Daemon Memory Setting the Tomcat Daemon To set the Tomcat deployment daemon: 1. Stop WHD. 2. Open \webhelpdesk\conf\tomcat_web_tempate.xml. 3. Set the WHDDaemonMode (near the end of the xml file) for the instance type described above. 4. Save the file. 5. Restart WHD. Setting Daemon Memory To set the daemon memory: 1. Stop WHD. 2. Open the \webhelpdesk\conf\whd.conf file. 3. Change the MAXIMUM_MEMORY setting to MAXIMUM_MEMORY= Save the whd.conf file. 5. Restart WHD. Setting WebObjects Daemon Mode To set the daemon mode for WebObjects Monitor deployments: 1. Stop Web Help Desk. 2. Open \webhelpdesk\bin\wrapper\conf\wrapper_template.conf 3. Add the following parameter to the end of the # Java Additional Wrappers section. wrapper.java.additional.14=- DWHDDaemonMode=background 361

364 Deploying Multiple Virtual Machines 4. Save the file. 5. Restart Web Help Desk. We recommend creating a separate WebObjects Monitor application for the daemon instance, naming it HelpdeskDaemon. Using this naming convention ensures the WebObjects adaptor does not attempt direct login requests intended for the Helpdesk instance to the daemon instance. Like the other application instances, the daemon instance should have its application path set to /Library/webhelpdesk/bin/webapps/helpdesk/WEB- INF/Helpdesk.woa/Helpdesk. Since the default daemon mode is none, it is not necessary to set the WHDDaemonMode argument for non-daemon instances. Deploying Multiple Virtual Machines Multi-instance WHD Windows deployments can be problematic because the WHD service name and the embedded database are hard coded. This means that you cannot simply install a second instance to a different location. You can, however, install another WHD instance on another machine and connect it to the same database. When multiple instances are required on the same physical machine, they can be installed on separate virtual machines. 362

365 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL External Databases If you plan to use Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL as your database, install the database engine and management tools according to the product instructions. Once SQL server is installed, follow the instructions to configure SQL to work with WHD. Make sure the Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL database resides on its own drive. A Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL database does not need to reside on the same machine as the WHD application. The database drive must be large enough (at least 20 GB) to accommodate not only the database engine, management tools, and help desk tickets, but ticket file attachments as well. SQL databases store ticket file attachments as binary objects, which can take up a lot of space. Configuring Microsoft SQL Server Depending on the version of Microsoft SQL Server being used, TCP/IP may need to be enabled. To enable TCP/IP on your SQL Server: 1. Open SQL Server Configuration Manager on your SQL Server. 2. Expand SQL Server Network Configuration section 363

366 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL External Databases 3. Click Protocols for SQLXXX, where XXX is your version of SQL Server. 4. If TCP/IP is not enabled in the right pane, right-click TCP/IP, and then select Properties. 5. Click Enable. 6. Click Save. 7. Right-click TCP/IP again. 364

367 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server 8. Click the IP Addresses tab. 9. Click the IP Addresses tab and ensure that IP is enabled for the server s network IP address and the loopback address. Also ensure that TCP Dynamic Ports is blank and that TCP Port is set to 1433 and the server s IP address is set to if it will reside on the WHD server. 10. Click Apply, and then click OK. Next, create and configure SQL Server to the WHD database instance. To create and configure your SQL database: 1. Open SQL Server Management Studio on your SQL Server. 2. Right-click the server name in the Object Explorer pane and select Properties. 3. Click Security and ensure that SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode is selected, and then click OK. 365

368 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL External Databases 4. Expand the Security folder and then right-click the Logins folder, and then select New Login. 5. Enter whd in the Login name: field. 6. Click SQL Server authentication. 7. Enter a password in the Password: field, and then enter the same password in the Confirm password: field. 8. Ensure that Enforce password policy, Enforce password expiration, and User must change password at next login check boxes are all not selected. 9. Click OK. 10. Right-click the Database folder and select New database Enter whd in the Database name: field and then assign that user as the Owner. 366

369 Configuring MySQL 12. Click OK. Configuring MySQL 1. Connect to the MySQL database server using the SQL Development pane of the MySQL Workbench application. 2. Select Actions > Add Schema. The New Schema window appears. 3. In the Schema Name field, enter: whd 4. Select utf8 - utf8_general_ci for the collation type. 5. Click Apply. 6. Click the Home tab and click on MySQL server. 7. Select Configuration > Options File. The Options File window appears. 8. Click the General tab. 367

370 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL External Databases The General window appears. 9. In the Networking section: a. Select the Port check box. b. In the Port field, enter: In the General section: a. Select the default-storage-engine check box. b. In the default-storage-engine field, enter: InnoDB 11. Click Apply. Your changes are saved. 12. Click the Misc tab. The Misc window appears. 368

371 Configuring MySQL 13. Select the init_connect check box. 14. In the init_connect field, enter: SET NAMES utf8 15. Click Apply. Your changes are saved. 16. Click Startup/Shutdown, then click Stop Server. The server is stopped. 17. Click Startup/Shutdown, then click Start Server. The server is started. 18. Click Security and select Users and Privileges > Add Account. The Server Access Management tab is highlighted, displaying the Login window. 369

372 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL External Databases 19. In the Login name field, enter: whd 20. In the Password fields, enter and confirm a password. 21. In the Limit Connectivity to Hosts matching field, enter the host name for the WHD server. If MySQL is running on the WHD, enter: localhost 22. Click Apply. Your changes are saved. 23. Click the Schema Privileges tab. The Schema Privileges tab window appears. 370

373 Integrating Apache 24. In the left column, select the whd user, and then click OK. 25. Click Add Entry In the Host box, select your host. 27. In the Schema box, select Selected Schema and whd. 28. Click OK. 29. Click Select All, and then click Save Changes. Your changes are saved. Integrating Apache By default, WHD runs on port If Apache is not required and prefer to run the application on port 80: 1. Stop Apache. 2. Set the DEFAULT_PORT variable in webhelpdesk/conf/whd.conf to Restart Web Help Desk using /usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd start. To enable Apache to run on port 80, allow it to proxy requests to the Web Help Desk on port The application will appear as if it is running on port