KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.1 Common Documents

About Service Desk

Service Desk is the default name for the end-user trouble-ticket tracking system that is part of the appliance User Console. The Service Desk enables end users to submit trouble tickets through email or through the User Console.

Your help desk team manages these tickets through email, the Administrator Console, http://appliance_hostname/admin, or the KACE GO app. You can customize the categories and fields associated with tickets as needed.

NOTE: In previous versions of the appliance, Service Desk was referred to as Help Desk. If you upgraded from a previous release, you might see Help Desk or a custom phrase on the tab in the Administrator Console. You can change this label as described in Rename Service Desk titles and labels.

Overview of setup tasks

You can configure Service Desk to meet your company policies and branding requirements.

Setup tasks include:

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Set up User Roles and labels: Create permission-based roles to manage user access. See Setting up roles for user accounts.

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Set up user accounts: All Service Desk users and administrators must have authenticated user accounts. See Configuring user accounts, LDAP authentication, and SSO.

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Customize ticket information: Add ticket categories, status, impact, and priority properties as needed. Identify additional information to include in tickets. See Configuring ticket settings.

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Customize email templates: Configure the Service Desk email templates used to send notifications. See Configure email templates.

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Set up email notifications: Configure the events that trigger email notifications. See Configuring email settings.

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Set up queues and processes:

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Queues: Use queues to organize tickets or to handle different types of tasks, such as hardware tasks and software tasks. See Configuring Service Desk ticket queues.

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Processes: Use processes to set relationships between tickets that are parts of major or sequential tasks. You can also establish relationships by using parent-child relationships within tickets. See Using Service Desk processes.

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Set up ticket rules: Configure the rules that Service Desk uses to process tickets. See About Ticket Rules

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Decide whether to offer a Satisfaction Survey to users: See Using the Satisfaction Survey.

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Configure company business hours and holidays: Define your company's hours of operation and recognized holidays. These hours and holidays are used in determining ticket due dates and Service Level Agreement violations. See Configuring Service Desk business hours and holidays.

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Configure Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Configure the SLAs used in calculating ticket due-dates and SLA violations. See Enable Service Level Agreements.

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Configure User Console home page settings: Change the logo and welcome information on the User Console home page. Or, show or hide quick actions and announcements as well as links to Knowledge Base articles, tickets, and other items. See:

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Change the User Console logo and login text at the Admin-level

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Show or hide action buttons and widgets on the User Console home page

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Add, edit, hide, or delete User Console announcements

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Add, edit, or delete custom links on the User Console home page

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Show or hide links to Knowledge Base articles on the User Console home page

Import tickets from another system

You can import tickets from another system using prepared CSV (comma-separated value) files. Start by exporting your tickets to a CSV file and then use the Import Tickets wizard to import that content into the appliance. The wizard validates the data being imported, and certain fields must follow predefined formats, to prevent related records from being rejected.

Export your ticket data to a CSV file.

Go to the Import Tickets :

Log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Or, if the Show organization menu in admin header option is enabled in the appliance General Settings, select an organization in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information.

On the left navigation bar, click Service Desk, then click Configuration.

On the Configuration panel, in the Import section, click Import tickets.

In the Import tickets wizard, on the Step 1 of 3 - Select File page, specify the CSV file and the related options, as needed.

TIP: You can review the status of the most recent ticket import by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.

In the Upload file (.csv) section, click Choose File, and select the CSV file containing ticket data that you want to import.

If your CSV file has a header row, select the File Header Row check box.

In the Importing to section, specify the queue and template into which you want to import your ticket data.

If your ticket data includes one or more users who do not exist in the appliance database, and you want to automatically create them as you import the tickets, select the Auto Create User check box.

Click Next.

In the Import Tickets wizard, on the Step 2 of 3 - Map Fields page that appears, map the ticket template fields to the ticket fields specified in the CSV file.

Use the following guidelines when mapping ticket fields:

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To specify a ticket field, click the CSV Fields column, and select the applicable value.

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A Comment field must use the following syntax: "<datetime>";"<user_name>";"<comment>";"<owners_only_flag>". Multiple comments in a single Comment field must be separated with |EOL|. For example: "01/01/2019 10:10";"Admin";"This is a sample comment";"Y"|EOL|"01/02/2019 11:20";"User A";"This is a sample comment 2";"Y"|EOL|"01/02/2019 12:00";"Admin";"This is a sample comment 3";"Y"|EOL|. Alternatively, you can use the Primary Key to combine multiple column entries in the same ticket field. See Table 32 and Table 33.

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A Work Detail field must use the following syntax: "<user_name>";"<start_datetime>";"<end_datetime>";"[adjustment_time];[<note>]. Multiple comments in a single Comment field must be separated with |EOL|. For example: "Admin";"01/01/2019 08:10";"01/01/2019 10:30";"10";"Work Note"|EOL|"User B";"01/01/2019 11:20";"01/01/2019 12:30". Alternatively, you can use the Primary Key to combine multiple column entries in the same ticket field. See Table 32 and Table 33.

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A Category field that contains subcategories must use a double colon "::" to separate subcategories. For example: Hardware::Printer::Paper. If the import detects any categories that do not already exist on the appliance, those records are automatically rejected.

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Impact and Priority fields must contain valid contents that are predefined on the appliance.

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User name fields (such as Submitter) accepts the user email, user name, user ID, and the display name. Multiple records with the same user name are automatically rejected.

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The contents of any custom fields that expect a certain data format (such as links) are validated and rejected if the data is invalid.

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Use the PK column to indicate if a row is a primary key for the data records. Any records that have the same value of the column marked as a primary key are combined into a single Service Desk ticket. For example, if you mark the Title column as a primary key for the ticket table, and all of your records in the CSV file have the exact same Title column (for example My Ticket), the import results in a single Service Desk ticket being created, with multiple entries combined in the same column. Alternatively, when importing Comment and Work Detail columns, you can use |EOL| to separate the entries. The following examples show you how to structure your input CSV file when you want to combine multiple entries into the same ticket field, either by using the |EOL| delimiters (Comment and Work Detail columns only), or the Primary Key (PK) setting (any column).

Table 32. Example: Combine multiple column entries using |EOL| delimiters (Comment and Work Detail columns only)
Title	Status	Priority	Owner	Comment
Title A	New	Medium	Admin	"6/15/2021 3:15:44 comment AAA" \|EOL\| "6/17/2021 5:17:25 comment BBB" \|EOL\| "6/19/2021 7:21:42 comment CCC" \|EOL\|
Title B	Closed	High	Admin	"7/21/2021 2:18:31 comment DDD" \|EOL\| "6/17/2021 4:56:56 comment EEE" \|EOL\| "6/19/2021 6:28:32 comment FFF" \|EOL\|

NOTE: The |EOL| delimiter instructs the wizard to combine these entries into a single Comment field. There is no need to declare the Title column as the primary key (PK). The same syntax applies to Work Detail contents.

Table 33. Example: Combine multiple column entries using the Primary Key setting
Title	Status	Priority	Owner	Comment
Title A	New	Medium	Admin	"6/15/2021 3:15:44 comment AAA"
Title A				"6/17/2021 5:17:25 comment BBB"
Title A				"6/19/2021 7:21:42 comment CCC"
Title B	Closed	High	Admin	"7/21/2021 2:18:31 comment DDD
Title B				"6/17/2021 4:56:56 comment EEE"
Title B				"6/19/2021 6:28:32 comment FFF"

NOTE: When you declare the Title column as a primary key (PK), all entries with the same Title (Title A and Title B) are combined into a single Comment field. There is no need to use |EOL| delimiters. The same mechanism applies to other columns, including Work Detail .

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The PK setting can also be used to update an existing ticket. For example, you uploaded Ticket A with the data listed in Table 34, you can easily replace by uploading an updated CSV file outlined in Table 35, but you must set the Title column as the Primary Key (PK) in the settings:

Table 34. Example: Initial CSV data
Title	Status	Priority	Owner
Title A	New	High	User A

Table 35. Example: Updated CSV data
Title	Priority	Owner
Title A	Low	User B

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When done, click Preview.

Confirm that the data you are about to import is valid on the Step 3 of 3 - Review page that appears.

Review the following sections:

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Records for insertion: Lists all ticket records from the CSV file that are about to be created as Service Desk tickets.

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Records for update: Lists all ticket records from the CSV file that are about to update existing Service Desk tickets.

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Rejected records: Lists all ticket records from the CSV file that are not going to be created as Service Desk tickets due to errors. For each rejected record, the Reason column in this section indicates the cause of the error. The related ticket field appears highlighted in red. Review the contents of that field to better understand the problem. For example, if you have users in your CSV file who do not exists on the appliance, and did not select Auto Create User check box, this causes an error for each such user. You can resolve any errors by editing the import CSV file, or changing the applicable import options on the Step 1 of 3 - Select File page.

When you are ready to proceed with the import of the ticket data, click Import.

NOTE: Once you start with the import, the process cannot be stopped or reverted, however you can delete any tickets once the import is completed.

The Import Tickets - Status page appears, indicating that the ticket records are being imported. The time required to complete import depends on the amount of ticket data being imported. When done, the Status row tells you the outcome of the import operation. If any errors are detected during the import, this is indicated in the Error records row. Click Show details to find out more (when applicable).

If you are satisfied with the outcome of the import, and do not need to import any additional records, click Done. To import more tickets, click Import More, and repeat the import process, as applicable.