Altiris Helpdesk Solution 6.0 SP5 Product Guide

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Altiris

®

_{Helpdesk Solution™ 6.0}

SP5

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Notice

Helpdesk Solution 6.0 SP5

Information in this document: (i) is provided for informational purposes only with respect to products of Altiris or its subsidiaries (“Products”), (ii) represents Altiris' views as of the date of publication of this document, (iii) is subject to change without notice (for the latest

documentation, visit our Web site at www.altiris.com/Support), and (iv) should not be construed as any commitment by Altiris. Except as provided in Altiris' license agreement governing its Products, ALTIRIS ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER AND DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES RELATING TO THE USE OF ANY PRODUCTS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY THIRD-PARTY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. Altiris assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions contained in this document, and Altiris specifically disclaims any and all liabilities and/or obligations for any claims, suits or damages arising in connection with the use of, reliance upon, or dissemination of this document, and/or the information contained herein.

Altiris may have patents or pending patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights that relate to the Products referenced herein. The furnishing of this document and other materials and information does not provide any license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any foregoing intellectual property rights.

No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Altiris, Inc.

Customers are solely responsible for assessing the suitability of the Products for use in particular applications or environments. Products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, life sustaining, critical control or safety systems, or in nuclear facility applications.

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Chapter 1: Introduction to Altiris® Helpdesk Solution™ 6.0 . . . 10

Helpdesk Features . . . 11

Accessing Helpdesk . . . 12

Alert Manager . . . 13

For Non-English Users. . . 13

Chapter 2: Installing and Configuring Helpdesk . . . 15

Setup and Installation. . . 15

System Requirements . . . 16

Altiris® Notification Server™ . . . 17

Installing Helpdesk Solution from the Altiris Console. . . 17

Upgrading from Previous Versions of Helpdesk Solution 6.0. . . 18

Upgrading New Releases of Helpdesk Solution 6.0 . . . 19

Licensing . . . 19

Installing Licenses . . . 20

Create a Worker Account. . . 20

Incident Settings . . . 20

Importing Assets and Contacts from Notification Server . . . 21

Localization . . . 23

Uninstalling Helpdesk . . . 24

Chapter 3: Security Role Management . . . 25

Roles and Privileges . . . 25

Helpdesk Privileges. . . 28

Incident Privileges . . . 29

Altiris Console Privileges . . . 29

Chapter 4: Helpdesk Business Rules. . . 30

Using Rules and Automated Actions . . . 31

Scenario 1 - Using Routing Rules to Enforce Service Escalations. . . 31

Scenario 2 - Using Incident Rules to Enforce Service Escalation . . . 32

Scenario 3 - Using Notify Rules to Notify Customers When an Incident is Resolved. . . 32

Scenario 4 - Using Categorization to Process a New Employee . . . 33

Scenario 5 - Using Automated Actions to Escalate the Priority . . . 33

Complex Conditions for Helpdesk Business Rules . . . 34

Advanced Conditions. . . 34

Advanced Assignments . . . 36

Chapter 5: The Incidents Menu . . . 37

Worker Report . . . 38

Make an Incident into a Bulletin . . . 38

New Incident . . . 39

View Incident . . . 40

Edit Incident . . . 40

Publish Incident to Knowledge Base . . . 41

Incident Search Knowledge Base . . . 42

View Contact Properties . . . 42

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Select a Contact . . . 43

View Asset Properties . . . 44

Find an Asset . . . 44 Select an Asset . . . 45 E-mail Messages . . . 46 Link Incidents . . . 47 File Attachments . . . 48 Incident to Bulletin . . . 49 Find Incidents . . . 50 Simple . . . 50 Advanced . . . 51 Expert. . . 52

Search in Comment or Title Field . . . 53

Service Catalog . . . 54 Queries . . . 54 List Queries . . . 55 Run Query . . . 55 View Query . . . 56 Edit Query . . . 56

Delete a Single Query . . . 57

Clone Query. . . 57 New Query . . . 57 Delete Queries . . . 58 Bulletins . . . 58 List Bulletins . . . 59 View Bulletin . . . 59 Edit Bulletin . . . 60

Delete a Single Bulletin . . . 60

Clone Bulletin. . . 60

New Bulletin . . . 60

Delete Bulletins . . . 61

Last Query Results . . . 61

Edit Multiple Incidents . . . 62

Simple . . . 62

Advanced . . . 63

Expert. . . 64

Retrieve a Queued Incident . . . 64

Delete Incidents . . . 64

Simple . . . 65

Advanced . . . 66

Expert. . . 66

Chapter 6: The Quick Incidents Menu . . . 67

List Quick Incidents . . . 67

View Quick Incident . . . 68

Edit Quick Incident . . . 68

Delete a Single Quick Incident . . . 69

Run a Quick Incident. . . 69

Clone a Quick Incident . . . 69

New Quick Incident . . . 69

Delete Quick Incidents . . . 70

Chapter 7: The Admin Menu . . . 72

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Categories . . . 73 List Categories . . . 74 Edit Categories . . . 74 New Category . . . 75 Modify Category . . . 75 Move Category . . . 76 Copy Category . . . 76 Delete Category . . . 77 Validation Rules . . . 77

List Validation Rules . . . 78

View Validation Rule . . . 78

Edit Validation Rule . . . 79

Change the Order of Validation Rules . . . 79

Delete a Single Validation Rule. . . 79

Clone Validation Rule . . . 79

New Validation Rule . . . 80

Delete Validation Rules . . . 81

Incident Rules . . . 81

List Incident Rules . . . 81

View Incident Rule . . . 82

Edit Incident Rule . . . 82

Change the Order of Incident Rules . . . 82

Delete a Single Incident Rule . . . 83

Clone Incident Rule. . . 83

New Incident Rule . . . 83

Delete Incident Rules . . . 85

Routing Rules. . . 85

List Routing Rules . . . 86

View Routing Rule . . . 87

Edit Routing Rule . . . 87

Change the Order of Routing Rules . . . 87

Delete a Single Routing Rule . . . 88

Clone Routing Rule . . . 88

New Routing Rule . . . 88

Delete Routing Rules . . . 90

Notify Rules . . . 90

List Notify Rules . . . 91

View Notify Rule . . . 91

Edit Notify Rule . . . 91

Delete a Single Notify Rule . . . 91

Clone Notify Rule . . . 92

New Notify Rule . . . 92

Delete Notify Rules . . . 94

Automation Rules . . . 94

List Automation Rules . . . 96

View Automation Rule . . . 96

Edit Automation Rule . . . 97

Delete a Single Automation Rule . . . 97

Clone Automation Rule . . . 97

New Automation Rule . . . 97

Delete Automation Rules . . . 106

About Tasks . . . 106

About Task Types . . . 107

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How Tasks Appear in Incidents. . . 108

Creating a Task . . . 108

Deleting a Single Task. . . 109

Deleting Multiple Tasks . . . 109

Changing the Service Category of a Task . . . 109

Field Desciptions for the New Task and Edit Task Pages . . . 109

Options for Most Task Types . . . 110

Options for Invoke a URL Task Type . . . 112

Options for Create or Edit an Incident Task Type . . . 113

Options for Start a Notification Server Task Task Type . . . 114

E-mail Templates . . . 115

List E-mail Message Templates . . . 115

View Template . . . 116

Edit Template . . . 116

Clone Template . . . 116

New Template . . . 116

E-mail Inboxes. . . 117

List E-mail Inboxes . . . 120

View E-mail Inboxes . . . 120

Edit E-mail Inboxes . . . 120

Clone E-mail Inboxes . . . 121

New E-mail Inbox . . . 121

Delete E-mail Inboxes . . . 121

E-mail Inbox Filters . . . 122

List E-mail Inbox Filters . . . 122

View E-mail Inbox Filter . . . 123

Edit E-mail Inbox Filters . . . 123

Change the Order of E-mail Inbox Filters. . . 123

Delete a Single E-mail Inbox Filter . . . 124

Clone E-mail Inbox Filter . . . 124

New E-mail Inbox Filter . . . 124

Delete E-mail Inbox Filters . . . 125

Resource Types . . . 125

Lookups . . . 125

Edit Lookups . . . 125

View Lookups. . . 126

Import Admin Data. . . 126

Export Admin Data . . . 127

About Service Categories . . . 127

Changing the Service Category Display Order . . . 127

Creating a Service Category . . . 127

Changing a Service Category Graphic . . . 128

About the Service Catalog . . . 128

Finding a Service . . . 129

About the Customer Satisfaction Survey . . . 129

Enabling the Customer Satisfaction Survey . . . 129

Modifying the Customer Satisfaction Survey Contents. . . 130

Chapter 8: The Contacts Menu . . . 131

Contact Home . . . 131

Find Contacts . . . 132

View Contact . . . 132

Edit Contact . . . 132

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New Contact . . . 133

Delete Contacts . . . 134

Chapter 9: The Assets Menu . . . 135

Assets Home . . . 135

Find Assets . . . 136

View Asset . . . 136

Edit Asset . . . 136

Delete a Single Asset . . . 137

New Asset . . . 137

Delete Assets . . . 138

Chapter 10: The Worker Menu . . . 139

List Workers . . . 139 View Worker . . . 140 Edit Worker . . . 140 New Worker . . . 140 List Queues . . . 141 View Queue . . . 143 Edit Queue . . . 143 New Queue . . . 144

Chapter 11: The Recents Menu . . . 145

Chapter 12: The Knowledge Base Menu . . . 146

Configure the Knowledge Base . . . 146

Search Articles . . . 147

Simple . . . 149

Advanced . . . 150

Publish Article . . . 151

Publish Existing Document . . . 152

Review Article . . . 154

Publish Article . . . 154

Delete Article . . . 155

View Article . . . 155

Edit Article . . . 156

Search Article Properties . . . 157

Libraries . . . 157 New Library . . . 158 View Library . . . 159 Edit Scope . . . 160 Refresh Scope . . . 160 New Scope. . . 161 View Scope . . . 162 Delete Scope . . . 162 Edit Library . . . 163 Delete Library . . . 163 Refresh Library . . . 163

Library and Article Security . . . 164

Archive Articles . . . 164

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Chapter 13: Format for Print. . . 168

Chapter 14: Helpdesk Knowledge Base . . . 169

Using Libraries . . . 170

Using the File System . . . 171

Publish an Article from an Incident . . . 172

Reviewing an Article by Viewing it in the Review Article Area . . . 175

Publish a Single Document Individually . . . 175

Publish Multiple Documents . . . 177

Moving a Helpdesk/Knowledge Base System to a New Server . . . 177

Prepare for the Move . . . 178

Prepare your Destination Server. . . 178

Copy the Data Files. . . 179

Copy the database . . . 179

Modify the destination database . . . 179

Refresh the Libraries. . . 181

Chapter 15: Customization . . . 183

Customizing Using AppWeaver . . . 183

Customization Integration . . . 184

Best Practices . . . 186

Specification of a custom.config File . . . 186

<custom.configuration> . . . 187 <consoles> . . . 187 <console> . . . 188 <command> . . . 189 <commandParam>. . . 190 <presentations> . . . 190 <presentation> . . . 191 <modules> . . . 191 <module> . . . 192 <files> . . . 192 <file> . . . 193 <imgFiles> . . . 193 <imgFile> . . . 194 <resourceLibs> . . . 194 <resourceLib> . . . 195

Customizing the Helpdesk Consoles . . . 195

Customization Use Cases. . . 197

Should I Override a Command or the File Alias of the Template that Implements the Command?. . 198 Overriding a command . . . 198

Overriding a File Alias . . . 199

How to Override a Command . . . 199

Prerequisites . . . 199

Solution. . . 199

How to Leverage Existing Functionality by Overriding a Template File Alias . . . 201

Solution. . . 201

How to Create Your Own Custom Console . . . 202

Solution. . . 203

Debug and Test Your Customizations . . . 204

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Solution. . . 205

How to Add a Lookup Field . . . 209

Solution. . . 209

How to Centralize all of Your Custom Strings for Ease of Management and Localization. . . 215

Prerequisites . . . 216 Solution. . . 216 Database. . . 218 Tables . . . 218 Views . . . 219 Stored Procedures . . . 219

Support for Pocket PC (PPC) . . . 220

Chapter 16: Advanced Query Settings . . . 222

Query Parameter Replacement. . . 222

Query Data Types. . . 224

Data Field Description . . . 224

Chapter 17: Advanced E-mail Template Macros . . . 227

HTML E-mail Link Macros. . . 227

View Incident HTML Link Macros. . . 228

Output Lists. . . 228

Chapter 18: Incident View Fields . . . 230

Contact view fields . . . 236

Asset view fields. . . 238

Chapter 19: Data Macros. . . 240

Simple Macros . . . 240 Map Macros . . . 243 Complex Macros. . . 243 Date Macros . . . 244 Parsing Macros. . . 244

Index. . . 245

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Chapter 1 Introduction to Altiris® Helpdesk Solution™ 6.0

Altiris® Helpdesk Solution™ provides incident management tools to enhance, expand, and enforce the workflow and resolution of IT helpdesk issues. Helpdesk provides easy-to-use, integrated business rules to route incidents based on features, such as providing an essential foundation of ITIL components to help your organization move from reactive fire-fighting to managing the complexity and demands of IT infrastructure. It lets you ensure infrastructure availability and raise service levels while reducing costs. Designed for quick implementation, it lets you realize immediate benefits. Helpdesk Solution is built on the Altiris® Notification Server™ architecture and is fully integrated with other Altiris components, such as asset management, remote control, and Web-based administration tools.

With the release of Altiris Notification Server 6.0, the Helpdesk file structure is different than previous versions. While these changes were made to improve Notification Server, it also affected the way Alert Manager and Helpdesk Solution are added to the server. Because this release of Helpdesk Solution is complementary to the new Notification Server product, we detail some of the new features in this section.

When you install Altiris Notification Server 6.0 or later, the installation process activates Alert Manager. However, if you install a license for Helpdesk Solution, its features are also enabled.

Throughout this document, all feature references are made to those available in the Helpdesk Solution. The user interface displays “Helpdesk”, even if you have not installed a Helpdesk Solution license; however, the features displayed on the menu depend on which product you are using. See Alert Manager on page 13 for a comparison between the two products.

The menu features are also contingent on the security set by administrators and managers, so regardless of the product you are using, all features may not be displayed. This Incident Management system is a powerful tool to manage any organization and can track any IT resource, create contacts, report and manage incidents that have been submitted to a Helpdesk department.

Note

Notification Server installation creates a Helpdesk database (named as the name of the Notification Server appended with _Incidents) that is used by Alert Manager. Helpdesk Solution can be configured to use the existing database or create another. If Alert Manager has been used, you will want to use the Helpdesk database to maintain existing data. If you are upgrading from a previous version of Helpdesk Solution, then Helpdesk Solution 6.0 can upgrade your existing database.

Quick Links

z Helpdesk Features on page 11 z Accessing Helpdesk on page 12 z Alert Manager on page 13

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Helpdesk Features

Service Catalog

Using Helpdesk tasks, you can define a Service Catalog for your organization. Service Catalog tasks appear in the Worker Console, and can also appear in the My Helpdesk Console. For information on tasks, see About Tasks on page 106. For information on the Service Catalog, see About the Service Catalog on page 128.

Knowledge Base

The Knowledge Base is a convenient, fully integrated way to capture and preserve information for future reference. Helpdesk workers can search the Knowledge Base to quickly find known errors and other documented processes, which significantly reduces the time required to resolve incidents. See The Knowledge Base Menu on page 146. Features:

z Create an article directly from an incident

z Publish existing documents in HTML, Word, and Acrobat file formats

z Organize content into hierarchical libraries and scopes for more targeted searching z Search the Knowledge Base from the My Helpdesk console

z Set expiration dates for each article so that outdated articles can be easily archived z Review each article submitted before publishing it to a library or scope

z Set security to restrict the searching and displaying of articles by group z Let users rate the usefulness of articles after they have been retrieved z Track articles by the number of times they are retrieved

z Search articles by keyword or natural language

Registration of Tasks

This feature enables Helpdesk users to leverage functionality from Altiris® Real Time System Manager™ and other Altiris solutions. The feature allows other solutions (consumers) to register contextual URLs associated with incidents. When an incident is being viewed, Helpdesk provides links that invoke the registered URLs and helps workers run processes that can resolve incidents that meet the tasks’ defined criteria. See About Tasks on page 106.

Inbound E-mail Support

This feature lets you monitor a IMAP4 or POP3 mailbox for new messages and map the content of the messages to the fields of new and existing incidents. To help monitor incoming e-mail, you can set inbox filters to help control spam and auto-reply

messages. You can also receive e-mail messages that correspond to existing incidents. See E-mail Inboxes on page 117 and E-mail Inbox Filters on page 122.

Enhanced Bulletin Board

Administrators, managers, and workers can now create a bulletin from an incident, and then link all incidents reporting the same problem to the bulletin. This lets you track all calls reporting the same problem, managing it as one incident, while keeping all other workers and users informed. When the problem is resolved, and the incident turned

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bulletin is closed, all incidents linked to the bulletin are closed as well. See Bulletins on page 58.

Quick Incidents

This feature lets administrators define templates for incidents that are most frequently reported, saving workers from having to manually enter each field of an incident repeatedly. Example: workers that field calls from users that request password resets enter the same property values in the fields of an incident, every time. This feature reduces the amount of time a worker spends on a call because quick templates have most of the information already entered. See The Quick Incidents Menu on page 67.

Incident Rules

Routing rules affect the Assigned field of an incident, whereas Incident rules affect many more fields of new or modified incidents. Administrators and managers can create Incident rules, which are evaluated by the Helpdesk system and change the field values of incidents if they match the Incident rule’s criteria. The rules are easy to configure and do not require any scripting. See Incident Rules on page 81.

Satisfaction Survey

This feature lets you send a satisfaction survey to any person whose incident has been resolved. After the user submits the completed survey, it can be tracked by a report that provides the overall survey responses. This is a reliable tool for managers to gauge the effectiveness of any support organization, which can ultimately lead to establishing new processes to improve user support.

Improved Summary Pages

The Admin and Worker Report pages now display a more complete summary of incidents entered into the system. Incidents are displayed by item count and time periods and are more easily understood. On the Worker Report page, you can access both shared and personal incident queries, so workers can browse through incident data based on any criteria. On the Admin Report page, a rollup of important incident status values for all active workers is available. See Admin Report on page 73 and Worker Report on page 38.

Edit Multiple Incidents Capability

This feature lets you change selected field values for multiple incidents all at the same time. Example: if a worker is out on vacation or is no longer with the organization, managers and administrators can now reassign their incidents to another worker. This ensures that all incidents are assigned and routed to an appropriate worker or queue. See Edit Multiple Incidents on page 62.

Accessing Helpdesk

Helpdesk can be accessed through Notification Server’s Altiris Console or by using

http://<server name>/aexhd/. If the URL address is used, Helpdesk uses your Windows

NT account and associated roles to route you to an appropriate console. You may also open a specific console (according to your privileges) by providing the URL address for one of the following consoles.

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Used by workers assigned to the Helpdesk department. The user interface features are enabled according to worker’s user authorization and Helpdesk privileges. The Worker Console displays Service Catalog tasks.

z My Helpdesk Console – http://<server name>/aexhd/winuser

Used by users with a Windows NT account in an intranet environment who are not Helpdesk workers. This console lets you set up contact information, create

incidents, and view bulletins. The My Helpdesk Console displays Service Catalog tasks that you have specified should appear there.

z Incident Request - NT User – http://localhost/aexhd/winuser/NTUser.aspx Used by users with a Windows NT account in an intranet environment that are not Helpdesk workers. This console has fewer features available than My Helpdesk Console.

z Incident Request - User – http://<server name>/aexhd/user

For users who want to make requests or report problems but do not have a Windows NT account. The users and their incidents are tracked by e-mail.

z Incident Request - Guest – http://<server name>/aexhd/guest

For anonymous access to the Helpdesk system from the public Internet. Users can report incidents and read bulletins, but only if the bulletins are set for Guest users to view.

Alert Manager

Alert Manager is a version of Helpdesk that is included with the Notification System and that has limited Helpdesk capabilities.

Alert Manager is useful for capturing incidents generated by the Notification System. You can then pass the incidents or incidents information on to other systems, such as Monitor Solution, SecurityExpress, as well as Notification Server.

Helpdesk capabilities and features that are not available in Alert Manager are: z Create new tickets

z Create and use Quick Incidents, contacts, or assets z Integrate e-mail

z Create and use Helpdesk Knowledge Base z Service Catalog

For Non-English Users

Non-English users of Helpdesk may see pull-down menus in English. These are queries that are populated only in English.

Much of Helpdesk functionality is administrator managed. Helpdesk provides a query/ rule/object infrastructure and the specific behavior is provided by administrators creating instances of these to model their process. All of these data instances are stored in the Helpdesk database and created and managed by the administrator.

With one exception, we do not currently have a mechanism that allows localized variants of these names to be stored in the Helpdesk database alongside the English name. Furthermore, Helpdesk creates an initial set of these names at install time as a

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convenience to the user providing a minimum set of initial behaviors. This initial set is created with English names. Currently the only recourse for those desiring to see localized names is to use the Helpdesk user interface to rename them in their native language.

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Chapter 2 Installing and Configuring Helpdesk

Altiris Helpdesk Solution is a plug-in component of the Altiris® Notification Server™, an infrastructure that provides security, reporting, policy definition, and other services for Altiris solutions. The Notification Server infrastructure also includes the Altiris Console, a user interface with features to manage all resources remotely from a remote Web browser.

As a plug-in Web solution, Helpdesk Solution joins with other Altiris IT management solutions, such as Inventory, Deployment, Application Metering, and Software Delivery solutions. These combined solutions and systems provide comprehensive remote, automated administration of desktops, notebooks, servers, handhelds, network computer devices, and provides integrated incident management from the Helpdesk Solution.

Install Helpdesk Information

To install Helpdesk, you first install the Notification Server and enable Helpdesk Solution. It is a simple process that can be automated in many ways depending on your

environment and individual requirements. This document details the basic tasks required to set up Notification Server and the Helpdesk Solution.

Note

The Notification Server install creates a Helpdesk database (named as the name of the Notification Server appended with _Incidents) that is used by Alert Manager. Helpdesk Solution can be configured to use the existing database or create another. If Alert Manager has been used, you will want to use the Helpdesk database to maintain existing data. If you are upgrading from a previous version of Helpdesk Solution, then Helpdesk 6.0 will upgrade your existing database if you prefer.

For general set up information of Altiris products, see the Altiris 6.0 Getting Started

Guide. For in-depth planning concepts and rollout instructions for large or distributed

environments, see the “Installation” section in the Altiris Notification Server Help.

Quick Links

z Setup and Installation on page 15 z Licensing on page 19

z Create a Worker Account on page 20 z Incident Settings on page 20

z Localization on page 23

z Uninstalling Helpdesk on page 24

Setup and Installation

Helpdesk Solution 6.0 installs to the Notification Server 6.0 infrastructure with new task-based user interface features, updated security, localized language support, easy-to-use

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wizards, and integrated IT solutions. In fact, the whole Notification Server infrastructure has been updated, including the Helpdesk Solution and its complementary suite of IT solutions.

New users will enjoy the ease-of-use and intuitive features for getting up and started. Previous users updating to the new Altiris Console will see significant updates and a new task-based user interface with increased response.

These major updates require the installation of Microsoft .NET services, updated MDAC connectivity, increased database requirements, and other design considerations when moving to a production environment. See Altiris® Notification Server™ for complete information.

Setup, installation, and configuration of this product will vary depending on what Altiris products you have installed. Choose one of the following options:

z If you are a new customer – You must review System Requirements to ensure you have met all software and hardware requirements. Then, download and install

Altiris® Notification Server™ followed by Installing Helpdesk Solution from the Altiris Console.

Note

If you are evaluating Helpdesk Solution, accept the default settings and install in a test environment with the prescribed server and client computers.

z If Notification Server 6.0 is already installed – Go to Installing Helpdesk

Solution from the Altiris Console to install Helpdesk Solution from the Solution Center.

z If you are upgrading to Notification Server 6.0 and Helpdesk Solution from previous versions – Because Notification Server 6.0 and Helpdesk Solution 6.0 include major feature upgrades, in many cases you must perform basic update tasks, such as increasing allotted disk space for the database, and completing additional design optimization tasks before proceeding. Go to Upgrading from Previous Versions of Helpdesk Solution 6.0 for detailed instructions.

z If you are upgrading to a new release of Helpdesk Solution 6.0 – If you already have Helpdesk Solution 6.0 installed and want to check if there is a new release, go to Upgrading New Releases of Helpdesk Solution 6.0 on page 19.

System Requirements

The following information shows the system requirements for installing Notification Server and Helpdesk Solution on the server and setting up the Altiris Agent on all managed client computer devices.

Hardware Requirements for Notification Server

Operating System Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows 2000 Advanced Server with SP2 or later

Processor Pentium III 800 MHz or faster

RAM 512 MB

1 GB recommended for increased speed and large environments

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The following are system requirements for the client computer running the Altiris Agent.

Altiris® Notification Server™

Before you begin the setup and installation process, review the System Requirements on page 16 to ensure you have all hardware and software components necessary to proceed.

Follow the instructions to download, install, and configure the settings for the Altiris Notification Server. See the Altiris Notification Server Help. Go to Installing Helpdesk Solution from the Altiris Console on page 17 when you have finished installing Notification Server.

Installing Helpdesk Solution from the Altiris Console

After successfully installing Notification Server, you can download Helpdesk Solution through the Altiris Console.

To download and install Helpdesk Solution

1. Select Start > Programs > Altiris > Altiris Console. 2. Click the Getting Started tab.

3. Click the Install Altiris Solutions from the Solution Center link.

By default, the Solution Center page opens with the Available Solutions tabview. Click the appropriate Solutions, Suites, or Segments (large suites) button. You can also sort the solutions categorized by the operating system (OS).

4. Click Altiris Helpdesk Solution from the solutions list. 5. Click Start to begin downloading and installing the product.

6. From the Altiris Console, click the Configuration tab on the Altiris Console. Hard Drive 20 GB (recommended)

105 MB for Notification Server and components (disk space) 1 GB for SQL Server database

File system NTFS partition

Altiris Agent Requirements for the Managed Computer

Operating System Windows XP or later

Disk space on client 5 MB disk space for Altiris Agent, plus space to install required software.

RAM 64 MB

Browser Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or later

Worker Console Requirements

Worker Console / End User Console

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or later

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7. Click the Currently Installed tab on the Solution Center page. This table displays a list of the solutions installed on the Notification Server. If the Helpdesk Solution is not listed, try refreshing the Web browser’s page or reinstall the product.

8. Go to Installing Licenses on page 20.

Upgrading from Previous Versions of Helpdesk Solution 6.0

Helpdesk Solution 6.0 installs to Notification Server 6.0, a major update of the Altiris Infrastructure. Upgrading to Notification Server 6.0 lets you further optimize the design of your system, clean up old files and database data, and expand the database to handle the added features included with Notification Server 6.0 and Helpdesk Solution 6.0. Before upgrading your system, backup the Notification database and the Helpdesk database. This ensures that inventory data, status information, custom reports, collections, and policies in the system can be migrated to Notification Server 6.0. After you uninstall previous versions of Notification Server and any Altiris solutions from the Windows operating system, including previous versions of Helpdesk Solution, you can begin upgrading software.

Steps required for Notification Server 6.0 and Helpdesk Solution 6.0

upgrade

Note

The Helpdesk Database gets upgraded through this upgrade process. After you upgrade to Helpdesk Solution 6.0, you still have your Helpdesk information (including incident information) from your previous version of Helpdesk. If you want to create a new Helpdesk Database after you upgrade, you can do this on the Incident Settings page (see Incident Settings on page 20).

1. Back up the Notification Server database. If the database version you are backing up is previous to the Notification Server 5.5 SP3 database, you must upgrade to that version first, and then perform a database backup.

2. Open Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel of the Windows operating system.

Remove Altiris Notification Server.

Remove Altiris Helpdesk Solution, if it was not removed during the Altiris Notification Server uninstall.

Remove Inventory Solution and any other Altiris solutions that have been installed, if they were not removed during the Altiris Notification Server uninstall.

3. Clean up all MSIs and other files from previous installations.

4. Run InstallHelper to identify any missing software required for Notification Solution 6.0. See the Altiris Notification Server Help for information.

5. Install Notification Server 6.0. See the Altiris Notification Server Help for information.

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Note

As part of the Notification Server 6.0 installation, you are required to specify a database name where all Notification Server data is stored. You can enter the database name previously backed up, which upgrades all data to be compatible with Notification Server 6.0, or you can define new SQL Server settings and database name.

6. Install Helpdesk Solution 6.0. See Installing Helpdesk Solution from the Altiris Console on page 17.

Upgrading New Releases of Helpdesk Solution 6.0

Upgrading Helpdesk Solution can be done by doing an upgrade check in the Solution Center. This installs over the top of the existing software. Downloading the latest AeXHD.exe and running it manually upgrades Helpdesk Solution also. If you use “Add/ Remove Programs” to remove the previous version of Helpdesk, any customization to the Web site you made may be lost and have to be reconstituted.

Upgrading an interim development database is not supported and requires the creation of a new database. An interim development database is defined as any database created by a non-released version of Helpdesk Solution.

Interim builds during beta testing should be removed using the “Add/Remove Programs” in the operating system. Subsequent builds can then be installed once the previous build has been removed. Upgrades between beta versions of the product, only from a released version to either a beta version or a final released version.

Any time Notification Server is being updated to a newer version along with Helpdesk Solution, Notification Server should be upgraded before upgrading Helpdesk Solution. Note

Beta releases are always required to be installed on test servers and kept separate from released production installations of Helpdesk Solution.

Licensing

Starting with Altiris Helpdesk Solution 6.0, Altiris has changed the Helpdesk Solution licensing model from node based to a concurrent user licensing model. This means that Altiris licenses can be purchased based on a factor of 1 concurrent license for every 100 nodes in the Helpdesk Database. However, you may request a license with a higher node limit, if necessary.

To upgrade to Helpdesk Solution 6.0 or renew Annual Upgrade Protection, you need to obtain a new license from Altiris Customer Support.

A concurrent user is considered to be anyone who uses the Helpdesk Solution system except employee self-help users (My Helpdesk Console users). Level 1 and Level 2 workers, Supervisors, Administrators, and so forth are all required to have a concurrent license slot available when they log in. Employee self-help users can open incidents on their own behalf and check the status of these incidents, as well as search the

Knowledge Base, without a license.

When a user requiring a license logs into the system, Helpdesk lets the user search for and view incidents without running a license check. The moment the user attempts to edit an incident or create a new incident, Helpdesk asks the Notification Server for the

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number of concurrent sessions allowed by the license. If the number of open sessions is less than the number allowed by the license, the user can save the record. If not, the user is denied the ability to save changes with an appropriate screen message and is returned to the Edit Incident screen with all modifications intact. There is also a time-out feature that frees the concurrent license slot after 5 minutes of inactivity. The license slot is taken again when the user updates or creates an incident record.

Installing Licenses

Altiris Helpdesk Solution comes with a 30-day evaluation license agreement. You must register the product though the Altiris Web site, and then a product key is sent to you through e-mail. You must install the new product key through the Altiris Console to continue using Helpdesk Solution.

To install licenses

1. From the Altiris Console, click the Configuration tab. 2. In the left pane, click Licensing.

3. In the right pane, click the Install License tab. Option 1: Click Path to license folder.

Click Browse to navigate where the license product key information is located, and then click Install License.

Option 2: Click Paste content to Licenses below (default option).

Copy and paste the license product key information into the text field, and then click Install License.

Create a Worker Account

After installing Helpdesk and applying the Helpdesk license, you are required to set up an administrator to implement role-based security. The worker name you add must be in the Altiris Administrators group through Security Role Management on the Altiris Console (which uses the Windows NT file system). By default, the administrator has the appropriate privileges to complete the Helpdesk setup and installation steps.

To create a Worker account

1. From the Altiris Console, click the Incidents tab.

2. Enter a name in the Worker name field. This is the user name that is used by the administrator to log on to the Helpdesk system. By default, the user name you are logged on to the Notification Server with is the name that appears on the Create worker account page.

3. Enter the worker property values in the fields on the page. 4. Click OK.

Incident Settings

This command configures the incidents database, which is where the Helpdesk incidents are stored.

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The incidents database gets created when Alert Manager is installed (at the installation of Notification Server) and is used by Helpdesk Solution. The Incident Settings page gives you the ability to create a new database. However, if you create a new database, the data in your old database will not transfer over and you need to configure your Helpdesk Knowledge Base again.

If you create a new database, your old database is preserved so you can use it in the future. Keep in mind that data will only be added to the selected database on the Incident Settings page.

Performing search commands much faster is the advantage of keeping incidents stored in a separate database instead of combining data in the Notification Database.

To configure Incidents

1. From the Altiris Console, click the Configuration tab. 2. Select Notification Server Settings > Incident Settings.

3. Enter a property value in the Database field if you do not want to keep the default name.

4. Select the checkbox if you want to use a specific SQL login. a. Enter a property value in the User name field.

b. Enter a property value in the Password field.

c. Click Test Connection to make sure you can connect to the database. 5. (Optional) Select Synchronize resource and incident data with Notification

Server. For information, see Importing Assets and Contacts from Notification Server on page 21.

6. (Optional) Select Read e-mail from active e-mail inboxes and enter the Inbox processing interval (in seconds).

7. (Optional) Select Process deletions and multiple incident edits and enter the Incident processing interval (in seconds).

8. Select Include incident change log with every incident comment for the incident change log to be included with every incident comment. This applies to changing an incident comment on the incident edit page.

9. Select Show decrypted passwords to workers to unencrypt passwords and make them visible to workers.

10. Click Apply.

Importing Assets and Contacts from Notification Server

Alert Manager imports Notification Server resources into its own database for use as Assets. Initially, Alert Manager imports Computer resources only. Use the Resource Types command under the Admin menu on the Incidents tab to choose the types of resources to be imported. This process is also called “autoupdating” because it happens automatically.

This process occurs in the background on a schedule you can set on the Incident Settings page. You can disable all automatic integration with Notification Server by clearing the Synchronize resource and incident data with Notification Server checkbox. The Synchronize Interval can be any integer number of seconds greater than or equal to 60.

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The autoupdate process is efficient but it can take several seconds of CPU time to run on very large databases. Do not set the interval too small. The default for a new installation is 3600 seconds (one hour). Most of the data imported into Alert Manager changes very slowly, if ever. A more aggressive schedule is usually not required. If you want to force an autoupdate, run the Resource Types command, choose Edit and then OK without changing the list. That causes the autoupdate process to start in the background. The autoupdate process executes the queries found in the

\AexHD\templates\nssource.xml file. This file has more detailed information about how the queries work. The queries are carefully designed to only return resources that are new or whose data differs from the data stored in the Alert Manager tables.

Alert Manager considers two Notification Server resources to be identical if they share the same asset name and resource type. The asset name is constructed by Alert Manager from various data fields if the raw name field is blank. The first resource found by Alert Manager is imported – duplicates are then ignored. Computer resources are a special case. If the vResource.IsManaged field is set, then those resources take

precedence and Alert Manager imports it. Also, if an asset created by a worker using the New Asset command matches the imported data, then that asset is updated to become an imported asset.

Assets that are autoupdated from Notification Server are not directly editable inside Alert Manager/Helpdesk, even if they were originally created by a worker. You must use Asset Control to edit the underlying resource data in Notification Server which will then be autoupdated into Alert Manager the next time the autoupdate runs. If you do not have Asset Control, you must identify where the data was pulled from, such as Active Directory, and fix the data at the import source because Notification Server does not allow a direct edit of the data without Asset Control.

User resources are a special case. User resources that meet certain criteria are added as Contacts in the Alert Manager database. User resources cannot be added as Assets. User resources must have a non-empty row (UserId, Domain) in the

Inv_Global_Windows_Users table or a non-blank E-mail field in the vUser view to be considered for importing. If some User resources have identical (UserId, Domain) rows or identical e-mail addresses, then only one of them is imported and the others are ignored.

Unlike assets, workers can always edit contact information but changes made to the imported data fields, such as contact_email, revert back to what the Notification Server User resource has as the correct value of that field when the next import occurs. Changes to fields that are not autoupdated, such as contact_comment, are preserved. The autoupdate process detects when Notification Server resources previously autoupdated into Alert Manager have been deleted from the Notification Database. It then marks those assets and contacts as not autoupdated, allowing workers to edit them again.

The autoupdate process reports its activities in the Notification Server logfile. When assets or contacts are created or modified, a message is written there. If no changes are made, then no messages are written unless the LogBackgroundActivity value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\eXpress\Helpdesk Package registry key is set to “true” without the quotes. In that case, a message is output each time the autoupdate process runs.

Troubleshooting

z If you have problems with synchronization, set the LogBackgroundActivity registry value as shown above. Then set the Synchronize Interval to a small number

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(Example: 120) so you can see results quickly. Do this using the Incident Settings page. Do not try to set the other registry values directly. Because of .NET, the actual times between autoupdates may be up to 60 seconds more than the interval you specify.

Note

Using the Incident Settings page resets Alert Manager. Workers using the user interface may lose work.

z Because Notification Server accepts data from a variety of mechanisms, it is sometimes possible to get bad resource data into the database. Duplicates and incomplete information are the most common problems. Troubleshooting these kinds of problems involves looking at the Notification Database at the raw SQL level using tools like SQL Query Analyzer. It helps to have a basic familiarity with the Notification Server data tables and views.

z You can run the autoupdate queries manually in SQL Query Analyzer or other SQL server tools. Simply copy them out of the nssource.xml file and run them against the Notification Database. The nssource.xml file contains a detailed description of how the queries work.

z If one of the queries return rows, even after autoupdate has run many times, then Alert Manager is rejecting those rows because they would create illegal duplicates in the Alert Manager database or because they are otherwise incomplete. This may represent a Helpdesk problem, especially if the logs report an autoupdate

processing error. If they fail to return resources you believe should be being picked up, you need to look at those resources closely to see if they actually exist in the Notification Database and are not marked as “deleted”. Also, check the Alert Manager managed_object or contact table to see if there might be an asset or contact that has status “i” for inactive that might be a duplicate of what you are trying to find.

Localization

Helpdesk Solution supports localized versions of French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Danish, Swedish and Arabic. Assuming the browser is installed and properly configured, Helpdesk Solution displays its content in the preferred language configured by the browser. All text in the user interface is localized to the above specified languages; however, database values in the drop-down lists, incident titles, and comments will not. Information from other components, such as error messages from SQL Server, is displayed in the configured language of the server or in English, depending on how other components were installed.

Note

You must change the locale setting of the computer to view the language in Internet Explorer 6.0 or later.

Configure Regional Option

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional Options.

Worker Console

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End User Console

1. Select one of the supported languages from the drop-down list. English Spanish French German Portuguese (Brazilian) Japanese Simplified Chinese Russian Danish Swedish Arabic

2. Click Apply, then OK.

3. The changes take affect when you refresh or launch the Web browser.

Uninstalling Helpdesk

To ensure that Helpdesk Solution uninstalls from the Notification Server cleanly and successfully, perform a stop and restart of IIS prior to removing the product. Caution

Restarting IIS causes current users to lose their work.

You can uninstall the Altiris Helpdesk Solution by selecting Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel of the Windows operating system.

Files that have been added to the Helpdesk Solution custom directories will not be deleted by Uninstall; however, files installed by the setup program that you modified

are deleted.

Uninstall does not delete or modify data or tables in SQL Server databases, or delete Helpdesk Solution registry settings and license data from the Notification Server. If you reinstall Helpdesk Solution, the previously configured SQL Server and database are selected unless you define new settings.

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Chapter 3 Security Role Management

When you install Notification Server 6.0, five new groups are added to the Local Users and Groups for NT authentication. These groups are provided so you can control the attributes of the solution available to users based on privileges set by the Altiris System Administrator. These groups are considered Roles, which dictate privileges to features available in the Notification Server and other Altiris suites and solutions. You can add as many Roles as you want to fit the needs of your organization.

All users must have a valid NT User ID and be assigned to a Role in order to use Helpdesk Solution. Helpdesk Solution uses a person’s Windows NT account and the Role to which they are assigned to determine what features are available in the user

interface. The privileges for each role are described in Roles and Privileges on page 25. For more information on Security Role Management, see the Altiris Notification Server

Help.

To change the Role Management settings

1. From the Altiris Console, click the Configuration tab.

2. Select Server Settings > Notification Server Settings > Security Role Management.

3. In the right pane, click on one of the management Roles.

4. Click the scroll arrow in the lower pane and select or clear the Global Privileges. 5. Click Apply.

Roles and Privileges

The Altiris Security Roles are designed to give you the security you need in a typical helpdesk environment. Example: only the Altiris Administrators have permission to delete incidents. This prevents users from accidentally deleting incidents. This also prevents users from intentionally deleting incidents that might reflect negatively on them.

The following table describes the Roles as they are designed for specific types of users. You can edit these Roles or add Roles to fit your needs.

Altiris Guests: Altiris Guests by default do not have access to the Incidents tab or the Worker Console (that is accessed in the Incidents tab view). Those who belong to this group can still use the My Helpdesk, NTUser, and user (authenticated by e-mail address) consoles. Altiris Guests have access to the Reports tab. You can then grant guests permissions to run specific reports or view saved reports.

Altiris Level 1 Workers: Level 1 Workers have the rights to create incidents, edit incidents, create bulletins, and search and view Knowledge Base articles. Users assigned to this role are full Helpdesk workers and are able to work in the worker console. Level 1 workers are the front-line Helpdesk workers. They answer the call when the end-user calls the support number.

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Altiris Level 2 Workers: Level 2 Workers have all the same rights as a Level 1 Worker and also can edit Knowledge Base articles. Users assigned to this role are full Helpdesk workers and work in the worker console. Level 2 workers are specialists to whom an incident is escalated when the Level 1 worker’s expertise has been exceeded.

Altiris Supervisors: Users assigned to this role have all of the Level 2 Worker rights and also the rights to administer the Knowledge Base.

Altiris Administrators: Users assigned to this role have all rights to administer Helpdesk.

Role Management Default Settings Role Name Global Privileges

Altiris

Administrator

Incident Privileges Administer Incidents Create Bulletins Edit Incidents

Edit Multiple Incidents Manage Workers View Incidents Altiris Management Privileges Create Agent Settings

Create Collections

Create Secured Collections Create Reports

Create Notification Policies Create Shortcuts

Altiris System Privileges Change Security Import XML Take Ownership View Security Edit SQL Directly

Helpdesk Privileges Administer Knowledge Base Create Incidents

Edit Knowledge Base Articles View Knowledge Base Articles Altiris Console Privileges View Incidents Tab

View Resources Tab View Configuration Tab View Reports Tab View Tasks Tab

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Altiris Supervisors Incident Privileges Create Bulletins Edit Incidents Manage Workers View Incidents Edit Multiple Incidents Altiris Management Privileges Create Agent Settings

Create Collections

Create Secured Collections Create Reports

Altiris System Privileges z View Security Helpdesk Privileges Create Incidents

Edit Knowledge Base Articles View Knowledge Base Articles Altiris Console Privileges View Incidents Tab

View Getting Started Tab Altiris Level 1

Workers

Incident Privileges Create Bulletins Edit Incidents View Incidents Altiris Management Privileges z None available Altiris System Privileges z None available Helpdesk Privileges Create Incidents

View Knowledge Base Articles Altiris Console Privileges View Incidents Tab

View Getting Started Tab

Role Management Default Settings (Continued) Role Name Global Privileges

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Helpdesk Privileges

These privileges are available only if you have Helpdesk Solution installed. Altiris Level 2

Workers

Incident Privileges Create Bulletins Edit Incidents View Incidents Altiris Management Privileges Create Agent Settings

Create Collections Create Reports

Altiris System Privileges z None available Helpdesk Privileges Create Incidents

View Knowledge Base Articles Altiris Console Privileges View Incidents Tab

View Getting Started Tab Altiris Guests Incident Privileges z None available

Altiris Management Privileges z None available Altiris System Privileges z None available Helpdesk Privileges z None available Altiris Console Privileges View Reports Tab

Administer Knowledge Base Lets you configure the Knowledge Base, create libraries, archive content, delete content, and approve articles for publishing.

Create Incidents Lets you create incidents. When granted, this lets users access Incidents > New Incident on the Incidents tab.

Edit Knowledge Base Articles Lets you create or edit a Knowledge Base article.

View Knowledge Base Articles Lets you search for and view Knowledge Base articles.

Role Management Default Settings (Continued) Role Name Global Privileges

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Incident Privileges

These privileges are available if you have Alert Manager or Alert Manager and Helpdesk Solution installed.

Altiris Console Privileges

The following privilege is available for Alert Manager and Helpdesk Solution.

Administer Incidents Lets you access all nodes on the Admin menu on the Incidents tab.

Create Bulletins Lets you create bulletins (Incidents > Bulletins > New Bulletin on the Incidents tab or within an incident). Edit Incidents Lets you edit all incidents. Workers

should be granted this as well as View Incidents to perform their work. Edit Multiple Incidents Lets you edit multiple incidents by

accessing Incidents > Edit Multiple Incidents on the Incidents tab. This lets you grant the ability to edit multiple incidents without giving Administrator privileges.

Manage Workers Lets you list, create, and edit workers and queues.

View Incidents Lets you view all incidents. Workers should be granted this as well as Edit Incidents to perform their work.

View Incidents Tab Lets you view the Incidents tab. Users who are not granted this will need to open the worker console to perform any incident work.

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Chapter 4 Helpdesk Business Rules

Helpdesk Solution provides Validation rules, Incident rules, Routing rules, Notify rules, Automation rules, and Automation Actions to automatically route incidents through your Helpdesk system and notify anyone at any step, giving you a way to enforce your corporate policies, business rules, and service escalations.

z Validation Rules

Validation rules allow you to define a new set of rules to ensure that modifications to an incident meet certain criteria before they can be saved. For more information, see Validation Rules on page 77.

z Incident Rules

These go a step beyond Routing rules and let you affect any field in the incident. This gives you control over creating a workflow process. For more information, see

Incident Rules on page 81. z Routing Rules

Routes incidents to an individual or a queue and lets you set the status of each Assigned field. Routing rules lets you get the incident to the right worker. For more information, see Routing Rules on page 85.

z Notify Rules

Notifies workers or groups via e-mail of an incident based on criteria that you set. For more information, see Notify Rules on page 90.

z Automation Rules

Automation rules allow you to build and manage more complex and automated workflow and change management scenarios. For more information, see

Automation Rules on page 94. z Automated Actions

Specifies the action to take when a Notification Policy is run. Each Notification Policy can have multiple Automated Actions. Automated Actions let you send e-mail, launch applications, and launch reports. For more information on Notification Policies and Automated Actions, see the Altiris Notification Server Help.

When Rules and Actions are Applied

Rules can be created at any time and are active as soon as they are created. Any time the Save button is clicked on an incident page, all active rules which apply to that incident get run in the following order:

1. Validation rules 2. Incident rules 3. Routing rules 4. Notify rules 5. Automation rules

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Note

Validation rules are run first to ensure that all data that is required from the user is in place when the rest of the rules run.

The rules (Validation, Incident, Routing, and Notify, and Automation) get applied to an incident immediately after the Save button on that incident is clicked. Automated Actions are associated with Notification Policies, which are time based. Notification Policies run on a set schedule.

You can set up e-mail notification through the use of Notify rules or Notification Policies. Notify rules send e-mail immediately after the incident is saved. Notification Policies send e-mail on a set schedule.

Quick Links

z Using Rules and Automated Actions on page 31

z Complex Conditions for Helpdesk Business Rules on page 34

Using Rules and Automated Actions

This section gives you some scenarios for using routing and notification tools in your Helpdesk system.

Quick Links

z Scenario 1 - Using Routing Rules to Enforce Service Escalations on page 31 z Scenario 2 - Using Incident Rules to Enforce Service Escalation on page 32 z Scenario 3 - Using Notify Rules to Notify Customers When an Incident is Resolved

on page 32

z Scenario 4 - Using Categorization to Process a New Employee on page 33 z Scenario 5 - Using Automated Actions to Escalate the Priority on page 33

Scenario 1 - Using Routing Rules to Enforce Service Escalations

Suppose a telephone call comes in from someone who wants some software installed. The worker assigns the incident to the category of Add/Install software and gives it a Medium priority.

Suppose a Routing rule has been put in place to automatically route all incidents of this category type to a Desktop Software queue. When the worker saves the incident, it automatically gets placed in the Desktop Software queue.

Suppose you have a service escalation to respond to all incidents within 24 hours. You can set up an Automated Action in a Notification Policy to notify someone if that incident has not been responded to in 24 hours. Or you can set up an Automated Action to assign that incident to another worker.

This helps you enforce your service escalation by sending out an e-mail or updating the priority or status or routing the incident to another person.

Now suppose this incident gets escalated by getting sent to another worker because it has not been responded to in the set amount of time. This worker then changes the status on the incident and saves the incident. Suppose you have an Incident rule that sets the value of the Category field every time the status of an incident changes. This

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incident will then be placed in a different queue (perhaps an escalation queue) when the incident is saved.

Scenario 2 - Using Incident Rules to Enforce Service Escalation

Suppose you have a service escalation to fix network printer problems as soon as possible.

You can create an Incident rule to change all incidents that are logged against an asset that is a network printer to the ASAP priority.

To create an Incident rule to change incidents with Asset type of

“Network Printer” to the ASAP priority

1. From the Incidents tab of the Altiris Console, select Admin > Incident Rules > New Incident Rule.

2. Enter the name of the rule (Example: All Network Printers to ASAP). 3. Enter a comment to describe the rule in more detail.

4. In the Set these properties section, select Priority from the drop-down list, and then click the Add button.

5. Select the specific Priority to automatically assign (Example: ASAP) and then click OK.

Note

You can enter as many properties as you want.

6. In the When section, select Asset type from the drop-down list, and then click the Add button.

7. Select the When the value of “Asset type” check-box, and then select is equal to and Network Printer from the drop-down lists.

8. Click the OK button.

9. Select the Active and/or Terminal check-boxes depending on your needs. 10. Click OK to save this Incident rule.

11. When an Incident rule is created, the status is automatically set to Active.

To view an Incident rule

1. From the Incidents tab of the Altiris Console, select Admin > Incident Rules > List Incident Rules.

2. From here, you can view, edit, delete, or create Incident rules.

Now when incidents are created for network devices with the Asset type of “Network Printer”, the priority of those incidents automatically get changed to ASAP when they are saved.

Scenario 3 - Using Notify Rules to Notify Customers When an

Incident is Resolved

Notify rules allow you to notify customers of an incident’s progress. You can create a Notify rule that runs only when the status of an incident changes from Open to

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Resolved. You can use this Notify rule to notify a customer that the incident has been resolved and ask them to verify.

Scenario 4 - Using Categorization to Process a New Employee

Helpdesk Solution can help you set up a process for new employees. When a new employee comes in, a request is made to create a new employee incident. When a new employee incident comes through, there should be an approval request. So, when a new employee incident comes in, the category of Authorize Approve is selected. When this happens, an e-mail gets sent to the person responsible of approval (Example: a manager). That person replies to the e-mail and the incident gets assigned a new category (such as Service Request) and gets placed in the appropriate queue. The owner of the incident then monitors it. Then a whole new set of rules can come into play based on the new category.

You can also set up Tasks to show up on an incident based on certain criteria. Example: a new employee incident might have the following Tasks show up:

z Get approval

z Show me the assets that are in stock z Go get a computer from receiving

z Install the default image (with a link to Deployment Solution) z Install additional software (with links to that software)

Scenario 5 - Using Automated Actions to Escalate the Priority

Notification Policies are time-based, running automatically on the schedule you want. Each Notification Policy can have one or more Automated Actions, which perform a separate task when the policy runs.

Suppose you want to escalate the priority of all incidents of High priority to ASAP every 2 days.

Helpdesk Solution comes with several built-in Notification Policies. One of these is called Escalate Incident Priority: High to ASAP. This policy, when enabled and on a business schedule (every hour during business hours), changes the priority on all incidents of High priority to ASAP. These incidents are then re-assigned based on applicable Routing rules. Example: this might let you forward these incidents to a different group that handles incidents with ASAP priority.

This Notification Policy can be changed to fit your needs. Example: you can change the schedule on this Notification Policy from hourly during business hours to every 2 days. Now, this policy runs on a 2 day schedule.

If you want to keep this policy, but also have a slightly different policy, you can clone it and change the clone. Suppose you clone this policy and change its schedule to run every 2 days. Now, suppose you want to send an e-mail informing the helpdesk supervisor which incidents had their priority changed. In this policy, you would create a new Report Automated Action that runs a report and set it up to send an e-mail containing the report. Now, when the Notification Policy runs, incident priorities are changed from High to ASAP and a report is generated and e-mailed.

You can also create Notification Policies from scratch if you desire.

For more information on Notification Policies and Automated Actions, see the Altiris