Quick Start Guide 2015 Edition
Table of contents 1. Introduction... 3 2. Instalation... 3 2.1. Appliance CD Install... 3 2.2. First steps... 7 3. Ticket Management (Ticketing)... 9 3.1. Example of Ticketing flow with Integria... 10 3.2. Kinds of Users in a Ticket... 13 3.3. Creating a type of ticket... 15 3.4. Creating a ticket... 18 3.5. Creating a Work Unit (WU)... 19 3.6. Consulting already generated tickets... 20 3.6.1. Customized Ticket Searches... 21 3.7. Reports / Ticket Statistics... 22 3.8. Workflow rules... 23 3.9. Managing tickets using email... 25 3.9.1. Create a new ticket using email... 26 3.9.2. To add a new workunit... 27 4. Project Management...28 4.1. Create a project... 29 4.2. Add a task... 30 5. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)...31 5.1. Create a company... 31 5.2. Create an Invoice... 32 6. Inventory (CMDB)...33 6.1. Creation of a Type of Inventory Object... 33 6.2. Creating an Inventory Object... 34 6.2.1. Importing Inventory Data from CSV... 37 6.3. Inventory Searches... 37 6.4. Inventory Synchronization with Pandora FMS... 39 6.5. Remote Inventory based on Pandora FMS agents... 41 6.5.1. Remote Inventory Internal Performance... 42 7. Wiki...43 8. Troubleshooting and support. Where to look, who to ask....44
1. Introduction The purpose of this guide is to introduce Integria IMS quickly and concisely to someone who is not familiar with Integria IMS, but having a basic knowledge of your organization. The purpose of this guide is not to do a tour of all the features of Integria IMS. We will only discuss those basic most relevant features so that a user can scroll through the entire guide to perform basic tasks of operation in record time. If you want to deepen our official note Integria IMS course, and official documentation. With this guide, we hope to bridge the entry into Integria IMS not so overwhelming. 2. Instalation Use the Integria IMS Appliance CD as it is the quickest and easiest method for intermediate users. There are many alternative forms of installation, but this is the fastest. For more information and other options, see Installing Integria IMS chapter. The installation CD is based on Linux CentOS, pre-installed and contains everything needed to run Integria IMS. You must have a machine with minimum hardware requirements for Integria IMS work properly. We recommend to have 2GB of RAM and 8GB of disk. The more incidents wants to manage more resources (CPU, memory, disk speed) will be assigned to the Integria IMS server. 2.1. Appliance CD Install Download the image CD from our download and burn the ISO to a DVD or boot the system from that file if you are doing it from a virtualization system (XenServer, VMware, VirtualBox, etc). CD images available 32 and 64 bits. We start this screen appears when starting. If you Página 3
do not press any key, it automatically loads the Live CD. You can use the live CD to "explore" Integria IMS, but not recommended. If you press a key in the boot screen, the boot menu will be displayed with the options you can see in the screenshot below. If you select "Install (Text mode) the installation will be performed in text mode. However, if you choose the Install option, the graphical installation will start (recommended). Página 4
The graphical installer will be guiding you throughout the whole installation process. This installer is available in several languages. It is a standard installation process used by Redhat / CentOS. It is a very simple process where the two sections should pay special attention is when asked by the password of superuser (root) and when asked about partitioning: Página 5
Choose the password of the "root" user (super user) Página 6
Choose the partitioning. Unless you know what you are doing, use the "Use the entire disk" option. Integria IMS has been successfully installed. Remove the CD from the drive and press the button to restart the system. 2.2. First steps Once installed, the system should start and after a few seconds, show the desktop, which should look like this (may start and start automatically session). If you prefer to manually log, remember that the "artica" account has no password (you can set one from the configuration system). Página 7
If you click Integria IMS icon on your desktop that will access the Integria IMS web console directly with the browser. Página 8
Use the default credentials: admin and password integria. And now the general characteristics of each of the main functions of Integria IMS detailed. 3. Ticket Management (Ticketing) Integria IMS implements a management system for business tickets or ticketing. It can be used in Software development projects, like helpdesk tool or adapted to your needs to attend any need of interaction with clients or users. A number of common elements unite all these activities, for Integria IMS these common elements are references to other tickets, references to one or more inventory items and the only link between a user with a ticket. Página 9
3.1. Example of Ticketing flow with Integria Our support team is made up by three people (Tomas, Javi, Luis) and one team "manager" (Ramon). We have several kinds of clients. The ones that work in team and the ones that "go alone". The ones who work "in team", that is, a client that has several people working at the same time and that can "see" the tickets of his colleagues, either for contributing with something or to take them in charge. The ones who operates "alone", they can only see their own things, and are the only ones that can see it. The first kind of client will have its own group and users assigned to that group,whereas the second kind of client belongs to a "general" group and will have the bit of "external mode" enabled, so although it belongs to one group it will only can see what is "His". This kind of users works on a "general" object, for example "Support contract", so all the tickets are assigned to that inventory object, whereas the other ones work on their own inventory objects, usually associated to one company, that will be their company. When a client that belongs to the ones that work in group opens an ticket, au tomatically a Integria generic account called "Support" will be assigned to him, generating an email that goes to "support@nowhere.com". Página 10
This email account, Integria IMS will send automatically a copy for each of the support team members. This week, "Javi" is on duty, so he read the mail and click on the link to go to Integria IMS. He will see something like this: On Integria IMS, he will see a new ticket, in red color. He also has an "opened" ticket (in process, in yellow color), which already is assigned to Javi, but the last workunit or "note" is from the people which actually created the ticket (the customer). You can see because it's on bold color, and the name of the user is Julio. In the "flags" column, you can also see the "talk globe" icon, that means, the ticket has beeen updated by the customer (or the creator of ticket), and the owner must reply ASAP. When a new ticket is received, like the ticket in red color, you can add the first reply and automatically, the ticket will be assigned to the user which add the first Workunit. This status change takes the name of "assigned" status. Doing click in the ticket in red, we go to the main ticket management screen. We can change its status, or use the different tabs on the ticket to see it's history, notes/workunits added to the ticket, download/view the files attached to it, etc. We really want to response the ticket as soon as possible, because the first response to the ticket is used to check how much time is taken between the ticket creation and first response. If the time range stablished by the SLA associated to the group of this ticket expired, then an alarm will be fired. When you add a workunit or a file, it's status is changed, all users involved in the ticket will receive an email. In this case, "Java" is going to add a note with says "I see what your problem is, I'm gonna try to reproduce it to learn more about what the source can be". Página 11
When the workunit is created, the ticket change the status. The creator of the ticket will receive the note Javi is entered in the system. Days passes, and the problem persists. Julio, the client that created the ticket, asked again about the issue. But that day Javi is not in the office. A colleague, Louis, in charge of the ticket, see that the incidence is updated by the client, and replied, adding a unit of work himself. From that time, the incidence is subscribed to, receiving all notifications on changes in incidence. We can see in the left menu, users involved in the ticket: the creator, the user "owns" the incidence (javi), and those involved in it. Página 12
A user without "management" permissions in the ticketing system, but with "write" permissions, can add workunits, but he can not "change" the owner of the ticket, or close it, unless it's his own ticket (assigned to him). If he is a "manager" of tickets for that group, he can change the owner of the ticket. If the user owns the incidence, can "reasign" it to another person. This process is known as ticket escalation. Finally, Javi could close the ticket, put in the "Epilogue" the summary about what was the solution to the problem, and change the status to "Resolved". So, the tickets "resolved" or "closed" and not visible in the default ticket listing, but of course, you can search it if desired by selecting "closed ticket" in the right filter/search option. 3.2. Kinds of Users in a Ticket It is important to first know that we have permission for the tickets. There are some different roles in one ticket: Ticket creator Is the ticket original creator. He decides who is the responsible for this ticket, the group this ticket belongs to and other parameters such as its criticity, resolution level, description, inventory elements that are linked with it, etc. The original creator, once an ticket has been created, can't "manage" it, this is, can't close it until that the user that is in charge of the ticket decides to do this. It couldn't reopen it. As any other user with access to the ticket, the creator user could add files and WU. People in charge of the ticket Is the user assigned to the ticket (owner). When the different groups are defined, then, a default user is asigned. The ticket creator can change this user and select other that belongs to his group. The user in charge of the ticket is the only one who can update its details and change its state. When a "manager" changes responsible for ticket we say that there is a "scaled manual" of the ticket. Página 13
User with Writing Access to the Ticket The ticket always belong to one group. All users with the access flag "IW" could write WU (Work units) on an ticket. These WU are like "Notes" that are linked to the ticket. These kind of user could't modify any other detail of the ticket, such as status, criticity, nor changing the ticket main description. User with Reading Access to the Ticket Any user that belongs to the work team of an ticket and has the access flag "IR" could read the ticket details but he couldn't change anything, nor add a WU or file. User with Management access to the Ticket An user with th IM access bit on the group to which an ticket belongs can work with it as it would be its owner. This means that it can escalate the ticket keeping it for itself or to another user. Of course you can add WU or files or even close the ticket. User closes an Ticket User responsible for the closure of the ticket, which may be different from the user running the action. For example, the 'technical' user closes a ticket order by 'admin' user. In this case, the user closes the ticket would be the 'admin' user. User assigned to an ticket It could be anyone "external" to the system. You should write his email in the advanced field " Additional email addresses", if there are several ones, they should be separated by commas. If that email is part of the system (in the contact system) some of their data will be visualized, like for example their name or company, or if not, only his email. In the tab "Contacts" we can see the complete list of the people that works on one ticket. Página 14
Then we will see the main options we can do with Integria IMS tickets. 3.3. Creating a type of ticket Before creating a ticket it is very important to define types. A ticket can be assigned a type. Each type of ticket can have associated customized fields if necessary. These fields can be of various types: Text, combo, text area, number or linked. If you select the combo or linked, you should specify the values that this control will have. Next we can see an example of type creation: Now we create a customized field associated to the previous type: Linked fields are custom fields related. We will explain with an example: TIPO,VEHICULO,MARCA,MODELO,MOTOR We create the field TIPO. In this case we don't select any parent because it's the first element in hierarchy. Values are separated by comma. Página 15
We create the field MARCA. Select field TIPO as parent. Values are separated by comma. This field has parent, so you have to associate values separated by We create the field MODELO. Select field MARCA as parent and enter values. Página 16
We create field MOTOR. The fields selected with the check "Show in general view" are fields that could be used in searches and that are shown in the list visualization. In the fields type text area it is not possible to use this box. Página 17
General View: 3.4. Creating a ticket Now that we have a slight notion of users and the types of customers are ready to create our first ticket. Let's take the following steps. Click on the top menu 'Support' -> 'Tickets', then go to the left and click on the 'Create ticket'. Here you can fill in all the information of incidence, assign the ticket, give it a priority, add attachments, etc. Página 18
3.5. Creating a Work Unit (WU) The ticket has been created by an user (let's name him A) and assigned to other user (B). So, now, what? When the ticket was created, the system sent an email to the user A and other to the user B informing about the creation of an ticket. For user A, this message is useful to confirm that the ticket has been registered by the system. The user B, can answer this email, which has an special code and send his first WU, something like "I have received the ticket". He can also connect to the system, with the URL given in order to could add manually a WU to the ticket. In the moment that the ticket in "New" status gets a WU, automatically its status is changed to "Assigned", that is a way to say that "someone has started to work" with the ticket. Regardless of the manner in which the work unit is added we can always consult on the detail tab ticket in your comments. Página 19
3.6. Consulting already generated tickets The ticket search is the basic tool and the default screen when you click on Tickets, in the main menu. It is possible to use the basic search view to find the tickets that we want, or go directly to ticket number in the menu on the left. The default searches show all tickets not closed and not solved. The searches are a list and a basic statistic information on the results of this search. In the left menu you can click on 'Search tickets'. On this screen you can see the tickets that have access and the possibility to filter by various options such as their status, responsible, date, etc. Página 20
3.6.1. Customized Ticket Searches An ticket is a generic concept, like the word "ticket", but this could be applied to a software failure (a bug), to a problem in communications, or to a problem of a client with an order. In one case it will have a serial of "customized" fields, and in another case, it will have another one. So, the possibility to define types of tickets allows this flexibility. In the same system we can work with different types of tickets. For them, within Search Tickets first we filter it through the fields we need and we click on the button Custom Search. After we give a name to the search and already have saved custom search with filters that we have defined. Página 21
3.7. Reports / Ticket Statistics Custom Searches also can be used as a source for reports of tickets. If you click Reports in the left side menu you can access the section where we can use one of those previously saved custom searches and display them on screen or save them in pdf. Página 22
3.8. Workflow rules This option lets you define custom rules that will be applied in the management of tickets, that is, when a ticket is not closed to comply with any condition associated with a rule, certain defined actions are executed. For example: When a ticket of support group has 48 hours without response, an email is sent to the user responsible reporting of this situation. Each rule have conditions associated, which should match in order to execute actions. If a rule has more than one condition, they must meet all the conditions to which the action is triggered. To access them we must have administrator permissions and then go to the left menu Workflow rules. To modify the rule or access their conditions and actions, you have to click on the description. In this condition, we're defined several characteristicas a ticket need to match. Group must be "Soporte" (support), and priority must be "medium" and status "Assigned". In the condition field, we have selected "Match all fields" because we need to comply ALL conditions inside this condition rule. You can also use "Match any field" to math the rule only on one condition match, or force to do a inverse evaluation with "Not match" value. Página 23
Then we will see the actions to be implemented if the above conditions are met in the Actions tab. Some examples: "For any ticket on Customer group, with more than 10 hr without any update, you wanted to send an email to owner, with text "This ticket is now properly managed (Title) on group "Customers". Please check this issue asap". For any ticket, which has been mora than 21 opened, with "high" priority, it will change priority to "Medium" and system will add a Workunit with content "Repriorized by the system". Página 24
I need to send an email to a coordinator, when a ticket with high priority on a specific group has more than 5 days without any update" 3.9. Managing tickets using email Integria allows you to create and update tickets through emails. This feature made easy the ticket management using a common email client. Ticket and workunit creation using mail, uses the same ACL's present in the GUI. Ticket management email works as follows: Lets suppose you have a special email address to manage incoming support mails: support@integria.com, and you have setup the 'mail queue' parameter with this address (support@integriaims.com). We will expect to receive an email on support@integria.com with these contents: From: user@company.com To: support@integria.com, myboss@company.com CC: admin1@company.com, admin2@company.com Subject: Another problem with the servers Body: We are having a big problem with our servers! Attachment: screen1.png, screen2.png 1. Once the email is in the support@integriaims.com inbox, system will check if its check against any mail queue configured. 1. If there is not any queue configured, mail is dropped. 2. If a queue mail is found, we use the default parameters in this mail queue to manage the ticket. 2. On this point, Integria will processing the mail, and two things may happen: 1. Email doesnt match any real ticket. In this case, a new one will be created. Página 25
2. Email match with a current ticket, a new workunit (note) will be added to the ticket, and the ticket will be updated. This schema explains the management workflow on the mail queue: 3.9.1. Create a new ticket using email To create a new ticket through email just send an email to the configured mailbox using the from address of an existing user in Integria. The parameters must be: From: <email address of Integria's user> To: <mailbox configured to use POP> Subject: NEW <ticket title> Body: <ticket description> An example to create a new ticket would be: From: my.email@company.com Página 26
To: integria.mailbox@company.com Subject: NEW My test tickets Body: Ticket description This email will create an ticket as in the following image: Also if you add attachments to email, they will be added automatically. 3.9.2. To add a new workunit If you have the ticket email system enabled you will receive emails with all changes occurred in your tickets. Some of this emails has the ticket ID attached, answering these emails you could create new workunits in the ticket affected. Página 27
To add a new workunit just answer this email adding the workunit content in the email body. The result will appear in a new workunit in the ticket. If for example you answer the email with this text in the body "Thanks. Please close the ticket all its ok. Darío" the following workunit will appear. Like the creation of tickets by e-mail, creating workunits added attachments in emails to the appropriate ticket. 4. Project Management Integria IMS can be used to do a project classic methodology (based on Gantt, milestones and tasks) or also on agile methodologies (SCRUM). It has available several types of reports and metrics based on time and costs. Página 28
It allows to define roles and costs. At each role it integrates simultaneously the planning with the cost and time assignment. All updates are notified via email. 4.1. Create a project To do this we will go to the top menu 'Projects'. After clicking we go to lateral left menu and select 'Create Project'. From here we can register the name, dates, managers, etc. of the project. Once created, we can click on the project and we will be enabled a new left-back 'Project Management' menu. From this menu you can control everything related to our project. Página 29
4.2. Add a task The first step is creating a task. We can not allocate resources, add files, allocate work units, etc until you have created the task. So we must go to the side menu 'Project Management' and click on 'New Task'. Página 30
When defining a task, it is defined within a temporal start and end margins and a criticality or priority for it. Assigned resources (people) and assigned target costs and resources of time (in hours). 5. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) It is by itself a fully functional CRM. It includes newsletter management. It is used to manage client accounts, contacts, contracts, leads, and it has an issued invoices management that is integrated in the system. Closely related to this is the inventory where inventory items linked through a contract, and this is linked to a company. Thus, it is possible to know when there is a ticket, which company is related to this problem and what contacts, invoices, or recent business activity is on that account. 5.1. Create a company Companies are at the "central" client management, store data about the company or organization. That is, the name, phone, role which has as a company and certain other information. To create a company must simply go to the top menu 'Customers' and then on the left side select 'New company' and enter your data. Página 31
Once we created a company it enabled us a series of tabs where you can update your contacts, leads, invoices, etc. 5.2. Create an Invoice We use the invoices to know if exists unpaid invoices, and to know how much is billed to a particular company. To create a new invoice would be to click on the left menu on Invoices -> 'New invoice' or in a company in the tab 'Invoices' by clicking the Create button. Página 32
6. Inventory (CMDB) Integria IMS integrates a flexible inventory system, where the types of objects, the fields and the relationships between them are defined by the administrator. This allows from managing a device stock in a simple way, to implement a CMDB with data that already exists in its company. The inventory system is linked (optionally) to the CRM and to the Ticketing system. The inventory items are a key element of the ticketing system as possible to associate a ticket to an asset on the business. 6.1. Creation of a Type of Inventory Object The Inventory allows to create type of inventory objects with customized fields. This way, the system adapts to all needs and allows to do searches with great detail level. The types of inventory object are useful to customize the different elements that are going to be used in inventory. Página 33
To manage the object types by clicking on the top menu 'Inventory' and then on the option on the left side 'Object Types'. Explain the functioning of object types with an example, we will create an inventory object type called Software that will have Version and Description fields. For each type, you can add as many custom fields as you want. 6.2. Creating an Inventory Object In order to create a new inventory object you only have to click on the option Create inventory object from the left menu. Then you will see the following form with all the available options to configure the inventory object. Página 34
The most important fields in this form are: Owner, Associated companies, Associated users and Public. These fields define who sees the object. This way the object will be accessible by the owner, by the users associated directly to the object or by the users that belongs to an associated company, besides if you select the tab Public, the objec t could be seen by everybody. Also depending on the selected object type will have a number of additional fields corresponding to those defined in the type. The Integria IMS inventory has a simple control system of stocks. To manage the stock, all the inventory objects have an "status" field that allows to have a stock system. The possible status are: New, In use, Not used and removed.you can also register the date of reception and start and end data. Let's see an example of inventory object: The Associated tab shows the objects that are related with it. It is possible to associate new objects, so you only have to select it from the combo and link it as we show next. This way, it is possible to relate other objects besides the parent object. Página 35
The contact tab shows the people associated to this inventory object. We can click on any of them to have a direct access to its information. The inventory object associated tickets tab shows which tickets have suffered this object and in which status are them. When an incident is defined you can be added if it is related to any inventory object. We can click on any of them to have access to its information directly. The tracking tab shows the changes that are made in the inventory object, as for example the change of owner, if an object type is associated, a parent object... Página 36
6.2.1. Importing Inventory Data from CSV There is an option to import inventory data from a CSV file. To do this, the file is loaded with a line per inventory and the values separated by commas. 6.3. Inventory Searches The result of the inventory search could be visualized in two ways: Tree or list. In the tree view are shown the inventory objects grouped by type. It is also possible to visualize the stock, and it shows: Total unities: News: Not used: Minimum Stock. If the number of total unities is lower than the minimum stock, it will be marked in red. Página 37
In the list mode view information about the inventory is shown, and also their customized fields that have been selected to be shown. Página 38
Besides, you can export the searches results in PDF and CSV to get lists to add to any type of report. 6.4. Inventory Synchronization with Pandora FMS Integria IMS allows to create inventory objects synchronizing the information of the agents that already exist in a Pandora FMS instance that is located in its system. To start it is necessary to configure the parameters that connect Integria IMS with Pandora FMS. The configuration is located in the Setup menu -> Pandora FMS Inventory. Página 39
In our Pandora FMS instance we have the following agents installed and we want to synchronize them in the Integria inventory. Once Integria IMS is configured, it will synchronize the agents and the inventory. From this moment we will have available the agents in the 'Pandora agents' type of inventory object. Página 40
This synchronization will create the inventory objects with the information of the agents monitored in the Pandora FMS server. 6.5. Remote Inventory based on Pandora FMS agents This functionality allows to extract customized inventory information of any device and operative system. The remote inventory is based in the use of the Pandora FMS software agents that are installed in the machines from which we want to extract the information. The agents collect inventory information through scripts and they send it to the server where Integria IMS is being performed.once the information is received Integria will process it and will create the necessary inventory objects based on the received data. Página 41
Contrary to the "Inventory Synchronization with Pandora FMS, to use the Remote inventory based on Pandora FMS agents It is not necessary to install the Pandora FMS application, you will only have to install the agents in the machines that you wanted. 6.5.1. Remote Inventory Internal Performance Pandora FMS agents send an XML file with the inventory information to the server that supports Integria IMS. Integria processes these files through the maintenance script, the file processing is done every 5 minutes by default. Página 42
With the inventory information sent in the XML several inventory objects will be created. This way, if an agent sends information about 12 applications installed in the system, there will be created 13 inventory objects (one for the agent and 12 for the different installed applications). When information about a device or inventory item is received, two different things c ould happen: 1. That the item exists: Then the inventory information will be updated. 2. That the item doesn't exist: In this case, a new inventory object will be created only if the type of associated object is defined in Integria. It is important to define the object types that will be used before starting to make the inventory. 7. Wiki A Wiki is a well known system (think in Wikipedia!), to share and publish information and track changes. It's easy, fast and very useful. Now Integria gives you a fu ll featured integrated wiki, with access controls enabled, to use in your team. Página 43
Like other wikis, it supports: Wiki syntax, with hierarchy of titles, hyperlinks, lists, images. Change Management / Revision system. Upload files and link them from the wiki. Generate tables of contents and hierarchical views of information (title, subtitle, etc). Pre-formatted, bold, italic. 8. Troubleshooting and support. Where to look, who to ask. The forum is open to anyone, you can create an account and ask all you want to know the: Integria IMS Forum You have a list of frequently answered questions (FAQs) that may give you a hint or directly a solution to a specific problem: Integria IMS FAQ Of course, you also have the option to train you, through official Integria IMS courses and the possibility of acquiring our official support. Our engineers will be ha ppy to help you solve any problem you need. If you want more information about our courses or official support write to info@artica.es. Página 44