Help Desk Evaluation

The following instructions is to perform a manual backup in ServiceDesk Plus,

Step 1: Stop ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus service.

Step 2: From the command prompt, go to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]\bin directory and execute backUpData.bat command to start the backup.

Where, ServiceDesk Plus-Home -> C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk

Once the backup is complete, a backup file with .data extension is placed in the Backup folder under ServiceDesk Plus Home directory. This backup file contains information such as, the Build number of ServiceDesk Plus, and also the date and time when the backup was performed.

The format of the backup file is shown below,

Backup_ ServiceDesk_ [Build number] _Month _date _ Year _ Hour _Minutes

For example, a backup taken in Version 7 and Build 7500 of ServiceDesk Plus looks like this

backup_servicedesk_7500_fullbackup_02_24_2009_07_51.data

ServiceDesk Plus is designed in such a way that the file attachments are not stored in the database. The attachments are stored in the file attachments folder of the installation directory (C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk). If there are lots of attachments in your ServiceDesk installation you can save time by performing a backup without file attachments (i.e.) backup of the database alone.

Step 1: Stop Manage Engine ServiceDesk Plus service.

Step 2: From command prompt, go to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]\bin directory and execute backUpData.bat --trimmed command to start the database backup.

where, ServiceDesk Plus Home -> C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk

Once the backup is complete, a backup file with .data extension is placed in the Trimmed Backup folder under ServiceDesk Plus Home directory. This backup file contains information such as, the Build number of ServiceDesk Plus, and date and time when the backup was performed. Here is the format of the backup file.

Backup_ ServiceDesk_ [Build number] _Month _date _ Year _ Hour _Minutes

For example, a trimmed backup taken in Version 7 and Build 7500 of ServiceDesk Plus looks like this

backup_servicedesk_7500_database_02_24_2009_08_30.data

The following instructions is to restore the backup data.

Step 1: From the command prompt, go to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]\bin directory and execute the command restoreData.bat. Choose the backup file while prompted and select OK.

NOTE: Please note that when you perform a restore, the existing data will be overwritten with the data in the backup file (i.e.) the restore process is not incremental and will not add information over the existing data.

Step 2: Once the restore is complete, a Java UI pops up saying the data restore is successful as shown below. You can click Close and start the application.

You can configure backup scheduling, to perform backup of all the files on a regular interval.

1. Click Admin -> Backup Scheduling under General block -> Edit Scheduling link on the right hand side of the page.
2. Enable backup scheduling by clicking the enable button.
3. Select the number of days from the combo box to schedule the backup process. For every n number of selected days the backup will be taken for the available data.
4. Specify the Start Backup date using the calendar and also select the time in hrs and mins from the combo box. This is a mandatory field.
5. In case of backup failure specify the notify email address in the given text field. This is a mandatory field.
6. Select either or both the Attachment Files and Database option to take the back up. This is a mandatory field.
7. Specify the Backup location in the given text field to store the backup data.
8. Save the changes.

You can configure a backup scheduling over a network share,

1. Click Admin -> Backup Scheduling under General block -> Edit Scheduling link on the right hand side of the page.
2. Set the Backup location as \\Network server name\backup.
   NOTE: Please provide full access rights to the folder where you want to copy the backup.

The following instructions is to upgrade ServiceDesk Plus.

Step 1: Stop ManageEngine ServiceDesk service.

Step 2: Take a backup of the existing build for security reasons.

From command prompt, move to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]\bin directory and execute backUpData.bat. This will start the backup.

NOTE: Taking a backup is essential to revert to the existing build without any loss of data if the upgrade fails due to unexpected reasons. The backup is stored under Backup folder in ServiceDesk Plus Home directory.

Step 3: Download the hot fix or ppm file from the link provided below,

http://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk/service-packs.html

Step 4: Go to [ServiceDesk Plus Home]\bin and execute the file UpdateManager.bat. A Java UI pops up where you can browse for the location of the hot fix and click install to start the installation process.

cmd> UpdateManager.bat

1. I do not want some mails to be fetched into SeviceDesk Plus such as, Out of office emails. Can this be enabled ?

   Please visit the website mentioned below to download the ppm files for upgrading to the latest version of ServiceDesk Plus.

   http://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk/service-packs.html

   This website also contains instructions to apply the service pack. Here are the detailed instructions for upgrade.

   Step 1: Shut down ServiceDesk plus Server.

   Step 2: Take a back up of the existing build for security reasons.

   The step to take a backup of the data in Linux is given below,

   1. Go to the installation folder. [The default installation folder is /opt/ManageEngine/ServiceDesk/. The installation folder will now be referred as ServiceDesk Plus-Home]
   
   # cd [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]/bin
   2. Invoke the backUpData.sh script
      # sh backUpData.sh
      This will take a backup of the existing configuration and the backup data will be stored under
      [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]/backup/BackUp_Version_MONdd_yyyy_hh_mm/
      BackUp_Version_MONdd_yyyy_hh_mm.data
      An example would be,
      /opt/ManageEngine/ServiceDesk/BackUp_5501_AUG15_2006_17_32/
      BackUp_sdp_5501_AUG15_2006_17_32.data

   Step 3: Save the hotfix from the link mentioned below,

   http://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk/service-packs.html

   Step 4: Run the script UpdateManager.sh in the /bin folder. From the Update Manager tool click "Browse" to select the Service Pack file (ManageEngine_ServiceDesk_Plus__0_0_SP-x_0.ppm file that you had downloaded) and then click "Install...". Follow the on-screen instructions to apply the Service Pack / Hotfix.

   Step 5: Once the upgrade is complete, start ServiceDesk Plus Server.

   Command line option to apply a patch in Linux

   To install a patch from console or command line,

   Easiest option:

   sh UpdateManager.sh -c

   And it will guide the user through the steps.

   Here are the other options:

   sh UpdateManager.sh -u server/default/conf -c -option i -ppmPath -h

   To un-install a patch: sh UpdateManager.sh -u server/default/conf -c -option u -h -version

   To view installed patch versions: sh UpdateManager.sh -u server/default/conf -c -option v -h

   To run UPDATEMANGER.bat from konsole mode: UpdateManager. sh -c -option i ppmPath -h C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk

Following are the steps given below to install and setup Manage Engine ServiceDesk Plus on a Linux machine.

Step 1: Download the ServiceDesk_Plus_Linux.bin file.

Step 2: Execute ServiceDesk_Plus_Linux.bin from the console and follow the on screen instructions.

./ServiceDesk_Plus_Linux.bin

NOTE: You require execute permissions for executing the .bin type files.

Manually start ServiceDesk Plus application after the installation process:

Step 1: Go to /bin directory and execute run.sh file as given below,

$ sh run.sh

Step 2: To start the web client, open a web browser and type the following in the address field,

http://localhost:8080

Here, you need to replace the localhost with the corresponding server name where the ServiceDesk Plus web server is running and the port number 8080 should be replaced with the actual port where the server is running.

Follow the steps given below to install ServiceDesk Plus on a Linux machine without GUI or on a Linux machine from windows desktop,

# chmod 755 ManageEngine_ServiceDesk_Plus_5_Linux.bin

# ./ManageEngine_ServiceDesk_Plus_5_Linux.bin console

MDIR=/home/guest/ManageEngine/ServiceDesk/bin

Step 3: Give executable permissions for servicedesk startup script.

# chmod 755 /etc/init.d/servicedesk

Step 4: Create a blank file under /var/log for logging purposes.

# touch /var/log/servicedesk-plus.log

Step 5: Use chkconfig command to add the script as a startup process.

# chkconfig --add servicedesk

No, it is not possible to scan windows workstation if ServiceDesk Plus is installed on a Linux machine. When ServiceDesk Plus is installed on Linux, it scans only Linux workstations.

But by using the Distributed Asset scan functionality of ServiceDesk Plus, you can install the Probe in a windows machine using which you can scan windows workstations, export the information in a zip format and import the information into ServiceDesk Plus Linux server.

Here is how Distributed Asset scan functionality works.

ServiceDesk Plus helps you scan assets distributed across multiple sites (i.e.) assets which are not connected to the network (or) assets which are not reachable from the central ServiceDesk Plus server. This can be done with the help of Asset Explorer Probe which can be installed in the remote network which helps to scan the assets in the remote network, export the asset information into a zip file and then import the information into the Central ServiceDesk Plus server.

In order to use Distributed Asset Scan feature we have to understand the following terms.

1. Central Server: Your ServiceDesk Plus installation is the Central server where you have the Central Asset database.
2. Remote server (or) Asset explorer Probe: You can install Asset explorer Probe as Remote server in your remote network where you would like to scan assets. You will be able to scan and export the Asset information from the Remote server and import it in your Central ServiceDesk Plus server.

You can download and Install Asset Explorer Probe in the remote network by downloading the exe file from the website below.

http://www.manageengine.com/products/asset-explorer/download.html

After installation when you start the application and connect to the client for the first time, it will prompt you to run either as a Central server or Probe (Remote server). Choose Remote server. You will be able to scan assets and perform scan configuration in Remote server as you do in ServiceDesk Plus.

You can then export scanned Asset information from the Remote server under Admin -> Distributed Asset Scan. This will export the scanned Asset information as a zip file. These exported assets can be imported into your central ServiceDesk Plus server under Admin --> Distributed Asset Scan.

By doing this we have a track of all our Assets in the organization in one place which makes it easier for us the manage them. Also Distributed asset scan functionality helps to reduce the load in ServiceDesk Plus server.

Customers interested in using the Distributed scan feature can get the Asset Explorer Probe (Remote server) license from our licensing team (This license will be equivalent to the number of nodes purchased for ServiceDesk Plus) which can be applied in the Asset explorer Remote server installations.

From v 7.5 and above, ServiceDesk Plus does scan softwares installed in Linux machine. Enable the check box which says Scan Software in Linux Workstations under Admin -> Network scan.

Install the MYSQL client which supports your Linux version. Once this is accomplished, make sure that the command "mysql" is in path. (Most often, mysql should be under path, if not, you may add the complete path to mysql command under PATH variable in the bashrc file.

Once this is done, you may try the following:

# cd [ServiceDesk-Home]/mysql/bin

# mysql -u root -S ../tmp/mysql.sock servicedesk A

MYSQL and MSSQL are the supported databases.

ServiceDesk Plus uses MYSQL as its default database. You can connect to the database through the following commands,

cmd> cd C:\ManageEngine\Servicedesk\mysql\bin

cmd> mysql.exe -u root -P 33366 servicedesk

"ServiceDesk" is the name of the database. 33366 is the port on which ServiceDesk Plus database runs. ServiceDesk Plus uses root account to connect to the database and does not use any password. You can connect to MYSQL database only from the server console.

The instructions given below is to connect to MYSQL database from another machine in the network.

Execute the following commands from ServiceDesk Plus server console,

cmd> cd C:\ManageEngine\Servicedesk\mysql\bin

cmd> mysql.exe -u root -P 33366 servicedesk

mysql> grant usage on servicedesk.* to root@'hostname-or-ipaddress';

mysql> grant ALL on servicedesk.* to root@'hostname-or-ipaddress';

mysql> flush privileges;

The hostname-or-ipaddress is the machine from where you wish to connect to ServiceDesk Plus database.

To access the database from another machine, use the commands,

cmd> mysql.exe -u root -P 33366 servicedesk -h[servername-or-ipaddress-of-Servicedesk-server]

This is a scenario applicable only if you do not want to use the default MYSQL database which ServiceDesk Plus installs during the product installation, and you have a separate server having MYSQL version 4.1.18 installed on it.

NOTE: MYSQL version has to be v 4.1.18. as other versions are not supported at this point of time.

Make the following changes on the product installation

Step 1: Edit the [SDP-Home]\bin\startdb.bat file and change "33366" to the port on which the default MySQL runs.

Step 2: Edit the [SDP-Home]\bin\stopdb.bat file and change "33366" to the port on which the default MySQL runs.

Step 3: a) Edit the [SDP-Home]\server\default\deploy\mysql-ds.xml file and change "33366" to the port on which the default MySQL runs.

b) Change "localhost" to the ipaddress or hostname of the server on which MySQL runs, if you want to change the host.

Step 4: Edit the [SDP-Home]\server\default\conf\nms-service.xml file and change the StartDBServer attribute to "false".

false/

Step 5: Create a database "servicedesk" which can be accessed from the port on which the default MySQL runs.

mysql\> create database servicedesk;

NOTE: Service Desk Home -> C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk

Yes it is possible to integrate Crystal reports with ServiceDesk Plus. Refer the link provided below which will help you with the integration.

http://forums.manageengine.com/servicedesk-plus

The database schema is accessible from within the ServiceDesk Plus application.

Go to Reports -> New Query report -> Select the module you want to report on, from the Table Schema drop down list and press the Get button which will give you the Schema.

The following is the procedure to migrate your ServiceDesk Plus database from MYSQL to MSSQL.

Step 1: Stop ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus service.

Step 2: Take a backup of the existing data and configuration under MYSQL database.

From command prompt, go to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]\bin directory and execute backUpData.bat command to start the data backup.

cmd> [ServiceDesk Plus Home]\bin

cmd> backUpData.bat

where, ServiceDesk Plus Home -> C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk. This backup will be stored under the Backup folder in ServiceDesk Plus Home directory.

Step 3: Invoke ChangeDBServer.bat under [Service Desk-Home]\bin folder.

Step 4: Provide the details of the SQL server (i.e.) Host name, username and password and click Test, By doing this, we will be able to check the connectivity with the SQL server. The message should say connection established as displayed above. Then click Save.

Step 5: Start and stop the ServiceDesk Plus server once.

NOTE: A database called ServiceDesk would be created in the SQL server.

Step 6: Now invoke restoreData.bat under [Service Desk-Home]\bin folder. The data should now be restored under your MSSQL server instance. Follow the on screen instructions to restore the latest backup data performed in step 2.

Step 7: Start ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus service once the restore process is complete.

From a command prompt, execute the file changeWebServerPort.bat from [Service Desk Home]\bin folder as in

C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk\bin> changeWebServerPort.bat[port number] https

By doing so ServiceDesk Plus uses the default certificate but this default certificate is not a trusted one. In order to make it trusted you would have to purchase and install third-party SSL certificates with ServiceDesk Plus.

T Follow the instructions given below for SSL Installation

Step A: Create a new Keystore

1. You will be using the keytool command to create and manage your new Keystore file. When you are ready to create your keystore go to the directory where you plan to manage your Keystore and certificates (C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk\jre\bin). Enter the following command,
   keytool -genkey -alias or [Domain Name] -keyalg RSA -keystore sdp.keystore
2. You will be prompted to choose a password for your keystore. You will then be prompted to enter your Organization information. When it asks for first and last name, DO NOT mention your first and last name, but rather it is your Fully Qualified Domain Name for the site you are securing say, helpdesk.yourdomain.com. If you are ordering a Wildcard Certificate this must begin with the * character say, *.yourdomain.com)
3. After you have completed the required information confirm that the information is correct by entering 'y' or 'yes' when prompted. Next, you will be asked for your password to confirm. Make sure to remember the password you choose. Your keystore file named sdp.keystore is now created in your current working directory.

Step B: Generate a CSR from your new keystore

1. Next, you will use keytool to create the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) from your Keystore. Enter the following command
   keytool -certreq -alias
2. Type the keystore password that you chose earlier and hit Enter.
3. Your CSR file named csr.txt is now created in your current directory. Open the CSR with a text editor, and copy and paste the text (including the BEGIN and END tags) into the CA web order form. Be careful to save the keystore file (sdp.keystore) as your certificates will be installed to it later.

Step 3: How to install your SSL Certificate

1. Download your Certificate files from the email from CA to the directory where your keystore (sdp.keystore) was saved during the CSR creation process. The certificate must be installed to this exact keystore. If you try to install it to a different keystore it will not work. The certificates you downloaded must be installed to your keystore in the correct order for your certificate to be trusted. If the certificates are not installed in the correct order, then the certificate will not authenticate properly.
2. Install the Root Certificate file:
   Each time you install a certificate to your keystore you will be prompted for the keystore password, which you chose when generating your CSR. Type the following command to install the Root certificate file:
   keytool -import -trustcacerts -alias root -file TrustedRoot.crt -keystore sdp.keystore
   NOTE: Choose 'Yes' if you get prompted with a message that says "Certificate already exists in system-wide CA keystore under alias Do you still want to add it to your own keystore? [no]:" You will get a confirmation stating that the "Certificate was added to keystore".
3. Install the intermediate certificates if any. (Follow the instructions provided by the CA)
4. Install the Primary Certificate file:
   Type the following command to install the Primary certificate file,
   keytool -import -trustcacerts -alias tomcat -file your_domain_name.crt -keystore sdp.keystore
   This time you should get a slightly different confirmation stating that the "Certificate reply was installed in keystore" If it asks if you want to trust the certificate. Choose y or yes. Your Certificates are now installed to your keystore file (keystore.key) and you just need to configure your server to use the keystore file.

Step 4: Configuration of the server

1. Copy the sdp.keystore file from \jre\bin to [ServiceDesk_Home]\server\default\conf.
2. Install the Root Certificate file:
   Each time you install a certificate to your keystore you will be prompted for the keystore password, which you chose when generating your CSR. Type the following command to install the Root certificate file:
   keytool -import -trustcacerts -alias root -file TrustedRoot.crt -keystore sdp.keystore
   NOTE: Choose 'Yes' if you get prompted with a message that says "Certificate already exists in system-wide CA keystore under alias Do you still want to add it to your own keystore? [no]:" You will get a confirmation stating that the "Certificate was added to keystore".
3. Execute the changeWebServerPort.bat script to change the connection mode to HTTPS as follows.
   cmd> cd \bin
   cmd changeWebServerPort.bat https
4. Set the password, you gave in Step1 while generating sdp.keystore to "keystorepass" parameter in the file server.xml present under \server\default\deploy\jbossweb-tomcat50.sar
5. Restart the ServiceDesk Plus server for the changes made. Also refer to the link below which should help.http://forums.manageengine.com/servicedesk-plus

Following are the steps to move data from the existing server to a new server,

Step 1: Stop ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus service.

Step 2: Kindly Upgrade ServiceDesk Plus if required. Refer to the link below to check if you are in the latest version;

http://manageengine.com/products/service-desk/service-packs.html

Refer to the section UPGRADING ServiceDesk Plus of FAQ for detailed instructions for upgrade.

Step 3: Now start and stop the ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus service once after the upgrade process.

NOTE: If you are planning on performing multiple upgrades, please make sure you start and stop the application, and perform a backup before each and every upgrade.

Step 4: From command prompt, go to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]\bin directory and execute backUpData.bat command to start the data backup.

Once the backup is complete, a backup file with .data extension is placed in the Backup folder under ServiceDesk Plus Home directory. This backup file contains information about the Build number of ServiceDesk Plus, and the date and time of when the backup was performed. Here is the format of the backup file.

Backup_ ServiceDesk_ [Build number] _Month _date _ Year _ Hour _Minutes

For example, a backup taken in Version 7 and Build 7500 of ServiceDesk Plus looks like this

backup_servicedesk_7500_fullbackup_02_24_2009_07_51.data

Step 5: Install ServiceDesk Plus on the new server.

Step 6: Copy the backup folder from the old server to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home] in the new server.

Step 7: To restore the backed up data, Go to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]\bin directory and execute restoreData.bat. Choose the backup file while prompted. See example below:

cmd> [ServiceDesk Plus Home]\bin

cmd> restoreData.bat

where, Service Desk Home -> C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk

Step 8: Start the ServiceDesk Plus server once after restoring the data in the new server.

Step 9: Set the new server name under Admin -> Self Service Portal Settings -> Alias url.

NOTE: Data can be restored only across same builds of ServiceDesk Plus version. i.e. data backed up in 7500 build of ServiceDesk Plus can be restored only in 7500 build. Please check if the old build and new build are of same build versions.

Build version can be checked

1. By clicking on the About link in the application [OR]
2. From buildInfo.xml file under /server/default/conf directory.

If the old build is a different build, then the same build needs to be installed in new server. You can download earlier builds of ServiceDesk Plus from our Archives website http://archives.manageengine.com/service-desk/

Since you are using MSSQL, the database remains on the SQL server. So all you have to do is install the same version and build of ServiceDesk Plus on the new server and point the database to the SQL server while installing the product.

You can check your current version and build of ServiceDesk Plus by

1. Clicking on the About link in the application [OR]
2. Build version can be checked from buildInfo.xml file under /server/default/conf directory where, Service Desk Home -> C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk

You can download all versions of ServiceDesk Plus from our Archives website http://archives.manageengine.com/service-desk/

The way ServiceDesk Plus is designed is that it does not store attachments in the database. They are stored in the file attachments folder of the installation directory (C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk)

You would have to copy the following folders to the new server from the existing server in order to retain the file attachments.

1. Custom
2. Inline images
3. File attachments

Follow the instructions below to move ServiceDesk Plus installation to a different drive on the same server.

Step 1: Stop ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus service.

Step 2: De-Register Service: C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk\bin> sd_service.bat -r ..\server\default\conf\wrapper.conf

Step 3: Copy installation folder [ManageEngine\Servicedesk] to another drive say D:

Step 4: Re-Register service: D:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk\bin> sd_service.bat -i ..\server\default\conf\wrapper.conf

Step 5: Start the service.

NOTE:Make sure you have taken the backup first using backUpData.bat in ManageEngine\Service Desk\bin before you perform the procedure.

Following are the steps to move ServiceDesk Plus Windows server to Linux server.

Step 1: Take a trimmed backup using the commands below,

cmd> cd [ServiceDesk-Home]\bin

cmd> backupdata.bat --trimmed

The backup will now be created under [ServiceDesk-Home]\trimmedbackup

Step 2: Copy the following folders and replace it in the same location of the another server.

Fileattachments,inlineimages,customimagesunder Servicedesk[home].

Step 3: To restore the backed up data, Go to [ServiceDeskPlus-Home]\bin directory and execute sh restoredata.sh. Choose the backup file while prompted.

Step 4: Start the ServiceDesk Plus server once after restoring the data in the new server.

Step 5: Connect to the database and execute the query below.

update sdeskattachment set ATTACHMENTPATH = replace(ATTACHMENTPATH, '\\', '/');

Building a test environment is very helpful while upgrading ServiceDesk Plus. When you are planning to upgrade ServiceDesk Plus to the latest version, it is highly advisable to try the upgrade on the test environment first so that you will be confident about the upgrade on the Production server.

Step 1: Stop Manage Engine Service Desk Plus service on the production server.

Step 2: From command prompt, go to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]\bin directory and execute backUpData.bat command to start the data backup. Where, ServiceDesk Plus Home -> C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk

Once the backup is complete, a backup file with .data extension is placed in the Backup folder under ServiceDesk Plus Home directory. This backup file contains information such as, the Build number of ServiceDesk Plus, and the date and time of when the backup was performed. Here is the format of the backup file.

"Backup_ ServiceDesk_ [Build number] _Month _date _ Year _ Hour _Minutes"

For example, a backup taken in Version 7 and Build 7500 of ServiceDesk Plus looks like this

backup_servicedesk_7500_fullbackup_02_24_2009_07_51.data

Step 3: Install ServiceDesk Plus on the new server.

Data can be restored only across same builds of ServiceDesk Plus version. (i.e.) data backed up in 7500 build of ServiceDesk Plus can be restored only in 7500 build. Please check if the old build and new build are of same build versions.

Build version can be checked,

1. By clicking on the About link in the application. [OR]
2. From buildInfo.xml file under /server/default/conf directory. If the old build is a different build, then the same build needs to be installed in new server. You can download earlier builds of ServiceDesk Plus from our Archives website http://archives.manageengine.com/service-desk/

Step 4: Copy the backup taken from the production server to the Test server.

Step 5: To restore the backed up data, Go to [ServiceDesk Plus-Home]\bin directory and execute restoreData.bat. Choose the backup file while prompted as in the screen shot given below,

cmd> [ServiceDesk Plus Home]\bin

cmd> restoreData.bat

Step 6: Start the ServiceDesk Plus server once after restoring the data in the Test server.

Step 7: Stop mail fetching immediately after applying production data to your test server. You don't want it stealing emails that should be going into your production system. (Admin --> Mail server settings --> Stop fetching).

Follow the procedure below to customize the login and logout screens as per your requirement.

Step 1: Save the page served under http://[servername-or-ipaddress:port-number] as index.html and copy this file onto

C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk\applications\extracted\AdventNetServiceDesk.eear\AdventNetServiceDeskWC.ear\AdventNetServiceDesk.war

Step 2: Modify the index.html page as per your needs and the save the file under the same location.

Step 3: Keep the FORM Submit and Action options as they are.

Step 4: Edit the Web.xml file present under C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk\applications\extracted\AdventNetServiceDesk.eear\AdventNetServiceDeskWC.ear\

AdventNetServiceDesk.war\WEB-INF and change /Login.jsp

to

/index.html

AND

/Login.jsp?error=truee<

to

/index.htmll<

Step 5: Restart ServiceDesk Plus service.

Step 6: You can now access the modified index page as http://[servername-or-ipaddress:port-number]/

NOTE: This file is bound to changes every time a service pack or hot fix is released. Hence, when you apply the hot fix or service pack, you must redo the changes.

You can integrate ServiceDesk Plus to your personnel homepage by using 2 methods:

First method: If service desk plus is hosted in the internet then in your personnel webpage you can create a hyperlink of ServiceDesk Plus url.

To use this method,

Add servicedesk to the body of your personnel web page.

Second method: You can log into ServiceDesk Plus from your personnel webpage. That is UserName and password for ServiceDesk Plus can be entered from your personnel Web page.

To use the second method add the following tags to the body,

For Windows Users:

Step 1: Goto [SDP-Home]\server\default\conf\TrayIconInfo.xml and add "ipToBind" parameter to the following line:

Now the line would look like,

[ xxx.yyy.www.zzz is the ip address of the server on which you intend to run ServiceDesk Plus]

Step 2: Uncomment the following line in the same file:

Now the line would look like,

Step 3: Save the changes and Restart the Service.

In case, you want to start it from the command prompt, you can edit the run.bat file and add an argument to the AdventNetDeploymentSystem.jar as follows

set ARGS=%ARGS% -LAdventNetDeploymentSystem.jar -b

Save the file and stop the application to effect the changes and start the application again.

Step 4: Change the URL in mssql-ds.xml/mysql-ds.xml like,

jdbc:mysql://

Step 5: In case of mysql Configure the startDB.bat to append

--bind-address=

For Linux Users:

IP Binding on the Linux machine.

1. Stop the server.
2. Open the /bin/run.sh file
3. Modify the line : org.jboss.Main "-LAdventNetDeploymentSystem.jar" to org.jboss.Main "-LAdventNetDeploymentSystem.jar" -b
4. Start the server and you will find that ServiceDesk Plus binds to the specified IP.
5. Change the URL in mssql-ds.xml/mysql-ds.xml like, jdbc:mysql:// :33366/servicedesk

In case of mysql Configure the startDB.sh to append --bind-address=

In order to make ServiceDesk Plus available for users in Internet, let us assume the following scenarios.

Scenario 1: ServiceDesk Plus is installed in LAN and should be available in LAN and WAN:

Assume ServiceDesk Plus is installed on a server in the LAN with IP address 192.168.200.254 on port 80, and the hostname of the server is "servicedesk-lan".

For users within the LAN, the url will be http://servicedesk-lan/ or (http://192.168.200.254)

If ServiceDesk Plus has to be accessed in WAN, you should do the following:

Step 1: Register an IP address (say, 64.12.13.11) and a public hostname (like servicedesk.yourdomain.com) with your Service Provider.

Step 2: The IP address for "servicedesk.yourdomain.com" should resolve to "64.12.13.11". (This will be predominantly handled by the Service Provider).

Step 3: Configure Firewall rules (or access-list in router) redirecting "http" requests on IP address "64.12.13.11" to the LAN ipaddress "192.168.200.254".

Step 4: Configure the alias URL settings in ServiceDesk Plus. [One point to note is that all notifications will now be sent with the Public URL. It is understood that the Public URL will also be reachable within the LAN].

Scenario 2: ServiceDesk Plus is installed in DMZ and should be available in LAN and WAN:

Installing ServiceDesk Plus on a server within the DMZ should help prevent the security risks in installing ServiceDesk Plus on a server in LAN/WAN.

Assume SDP is installed on a server within DMZ with a IP address 192.168.225.254 and the hostname is "servicedesk-dmz" on port 8080.

• MSSQL is the database and the database server is in LAN: You have to configure firewall rules in such a way that the application can reach the Database server in LAN on the MSSQL port ( Default Port : 1433 )
• MSSQL is the database and the database server is in DMZ: Port 1433 should be reachable from the ServiceDesk Plus server in DMZ.
• MySQL is the database: It is recommended that you use the MySQL bundled with the software. In such a case, there are no additional configurations required.

Step 1: You have to configure firewall rules in such a way that users in LAN are able to access the application as http://servicedesk-dmz:80/ [ Note that the application is installed on port 8080, but users have to access it through port 80]. In such a case, you have to redirect "http" requests on port 80 to port 8080 on the ipaddress 192.168.225.254.

Step 2: Register an IP address (say, 64.12.13.11) and a public hostname (like servicedesk.yourdomain.com) with your Service Provider.

Step 3: The IP address for "servicedesk.yourdomain.com" should resolve to "64.12.13.11". (This will be predominantly handled by the Service Provider).

Step 4: Configure Firewall rules (or access-list in router) redirecting "http" requests on IP address "64.12.13.11" on port 80 to the LAN ipaddress "192.168.225.254" on port 8080.

Step 5: Configure Alias URL settings in the Application.

Scenario 3: ServiceDesk Plus is installed in a server in WAN without firewall rules:

This is highly not recommended due to security risks on Tomcat, JBOSS application server, MySQL (or) MSSQL, even though the hardware box may be hardened.

Click Admin --> Self Service Portal Settings and provide the URL in the Alias URL section. Please make the corresponding configuration in the Firewall/Router also.

You can customize the application by choosing to display your custom logo. You need to add the logo in two dimensions, one for the login page and the other for the header image that you see on the top left corner of the pages once you login. The login page image should be of the dimensions 252 px x 61 px (W x H), while the header image needs to be 166 px x 46 px.

1. Click Admin -> Self Service Portal settings.
2. Click Import image ... button.
3. Click Browse button.
4. In the file chooser window, select the file that you wish to import and click Open.
5. Click Import. The image that you just imported will be replaced instead of the login page image. Follow the same process for header image also.

Click Save, to save the changes made in the settings.

For changing the Web Server port, you need to run the file "changeWebServerPort.bat" from C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk\bin folder as in

# changeWebServerPort.bat [newportnumber] [Protocol http or https][

You can add unlimited number of technicians in ServiceDesk Plus. The license is based on the number of technician login (i.e) since you have purchased 10 technician license, only10 technicians will be able to login to ServiceDesk Plus and work with the application. The remaining technicians will be considered as Non-Login technicians. You may wonder the purpose of these Non-Login technicians ? Login permission cannot be enable to these technicians, but you can configure to send SLA violation emails, group notifications and scheduled reports to these technicians. A typical case where Non-login technicians can be used is for your Field Technicians who need not log into the application but be notified about the issues which are assigned to them. When a Request is assigned to these technicians they will receive a notification email from ServiceDesk. Plus in their Blackberries and when they reply to the notification email after completing their job, ServiceDesk Plus appends this email into the original request automatically.

You can remove "Administrator" account from the application by following the instructions below.

1. Login as a technician who has full administrative privileges on all modules of ServiceDesk Plus (i.e. associated to SD-Admin role).
2. Go to Admin -> Technicians. You can either delete the Administrator account or you can click on the Administrator and remove the login on selecting Yes.

Since ServiceDesk Plus license is calculated based on number of technician login this will help you save a license for a technician in your organization.

Yes it is possible. We call this the Department head role. Go to Admin -> Requesters -> Edit the particular requester -> In Requester allowed to view section, select the option 'Show all their departments requests', which will give the requester the ability to view all the requests of his/her department.

In the latest version of ServiceDesk Plus (v 7.5 and above) we have the Site head role which will allow requesters to view all the requests of the Site they belong. In Requester allowed to view section, select the option 'Show all their Site requests', which will give the requester ability to view all the requests of their Site.

When you delete a technician, all the closed Requests, Problems and Changes will still remain assigned to his name as a historic reference.

Requests, Problems and changes in any other status (resolved, open, etc) except the closed status will move to unassigned status. This is the way ServiceDesk Plus is designed.

Yes, it is possible to de-activate the technician account. Since ServiceDesk Plus is licensed based on the number of technician login, by removing the login you will be able to achieve your goal.

Go to Admin -> Technicians -> Edit the particular technician and -> remove the login on selecting Yes and save the configuration.

Now the old technician login account is disabled. You can add a new technician with login permission.

Assume there is a new employee joining your organization, you have created an account for him in the Active directory. But you have not imported him from AD into ServiceDesk Plus, so he is not in the system yet. All you have to do is to provide this user with the URL for ServiceDesk Plus login screen. The moment the user enters his domain username, password, selects the domain he belongs to and clicks login he will be automatically added into ServiceDesk Plus as a requester. This is called Dynamic user addition.

By using the Dynamic user addition feature new users are automatically added into ServiceDesk Plus without performing an AD import. You can enabled or disabled this feature under Admin -> Self-Service Portal Settings.

No, only Technicians and Administrators can add tasks and delegate work accordingly.

Try the following configuration. Click Admin -> Windows Domain Scan -> Edit the domains which you do not want to be shown in the login screen and uncheck the checkbox which says Public Domain. By this you can avoid these domains from showing up in the log in screen.

ServiceDesk Plus does not store the AD password, it just authenticates the password with AD. While performing an AD import, ServiceDesk Plus will import and store the Login information and Domain information from AD (ie) Login name and the domain to which the users belongs. So when the user enters his login name and enters the new password, the password is authenticated with AD and the user is allowed to log into ServiceDesk Plus instantaneously.

Organizing business rules will help us in decide the order in which the rules should be applied on the requests that are fetched by the application. Business rules have to be organized in such a way that the rules do not collide with each other (i.e) the criteria of the first rule should not coincide with the second one.

Here is a scenario which will help us understand the process better.

1. If the Category is Hardware Assign to Technician C and Group General
2. If the Category is Hardware and subcategory is Workstation assign to technician B and Group Desktop support
3. If the Category is Hardware and subcategory is Server assign to technician A and Group Servers.

In which order should the business rules be organized for it to work properly.

a) 1,2,3

b) 3,2,1

c) 2,1,3

Answer ->b

You can configure rules in Spam filter (Admin -> Mail server settings -> Spam Filter) in such a way that mails matching certain criteria will be fetched from the mailbox and dropped before it is fetched inside ServiceDesk Plus.

Enable the following notification which will alert you when mail fetching stops under Admin -> Notification Rules.

Click Admin -> Notification Rules -> Enable the notification which says Send Self-service login details and save the settings.

ServiceDesk Plus will send self service login details to users henceforth. ServiceDesk Plus will not send in the details to users already created in the system.

Click Admin -> Notification Rules -> Click Edit criteria next to the following notification.

Here you can configure rules which will help you avoid sending unwanted notifications from ServiceDesk Plus.

On enabling Pass-through authentication, ServiceDesk Plus directly authenticates your windows system user name and password. Hence you need not login again to enter ServiceDesk plus, just provide the URL for ServiceDesk Plus and authentication is done automatically.

You can enable this under Admin -> Active directory.

If you have issues logging into ServiceDesk Plus after enabling Pass-through Authentication then you can disable it through the data

base. For MYSQL database

1. Connect to MYSQL Server on Port 33366 using the command from the ServiceDesk Plus server console. cmd > cd [Service Desk Home]\mysql\bin, where Service Desk Home -> C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk cmd> mysql.exe -u root -P 33366 servicedesk
2. Execute the following query Mysql> update globalconfig set PARAMVALUE='false' where CATEGORY='SSO';

For MS SQL database

1. Connect to the query analyzer of the SQL server and execute the following query: Update globalconfig set PARAMVALUE='false' where CATEGORY='SSO'
2. Restart the Manage engine ServiceDesk Plus service.

Domain Controller	:	ldap://helpdesk-test1:389
User Name	:	CN=Administrator,CN=Users,DC=helpdesk-test1,DC=com
Password	:	Password
Base DN	:	CN=Users,DC=helpdesk-test1,DC=com
Search Filter	:	(objectClass=person)
LDAP Server Type	:	Microsoft Active Directory

where 'helpdesk-test1' is the name of our Domain Controller .

In case if you are using Novell e-directory, you could select Novell e-directory from the drop down menu, save the settings and check whether you could import the users.

Yes ! You can schedule ServiceDesk Plus to periodically import users from Active directory under Admin -> Active directory.

Survey can be enabled under Admin -> Survey settings. You can configure the default values for welcome message, email content, survey success or failure message, and thank you message. You can also schedule the periodicity of conducting the survey.

Yes it is possible. Once a request is closed click on the Actions button -> Send Survey for this request.

Click on Edit button beside the grayed out category -> Uncheck the checkbox 'Category not for further usage' and save the configuration. This will reactivate the category.

The same procedure can be followed to reactivate a Subcategory or an Item.

The Category Tree View helps you accomplish this goal ! You can view all Categories, Sub-Categories and Items configured in ServiceDesk Plus.

Go to Admin -> Helpdesk Customizer -> Category -> at the extreme right corner of this screen you have the Tree view icon -> click on this icon to display all the Category, Sub category and Item in ServiceDesk Plus.

1. Create an email account, say "ServiceDesk" in your mail server. Configure a password for this account.
2. Configure the settings in ServiceDesk Plus software using Admin -> Mail Server Settings -> Incoming. Specify the email address as "servicedesk@yourdomain.com" and the username as "ServiceDesk". Select the protocol through which you prefer to fetch the messages say, POP or IMAP.
3. Ask your requesters to send their requests to "servicedesk@yourdomain.com".
4. ServiceDesk Plus will fetch emails at regular intervals and automatically convert them into tickets.

Yes, it is possible to disable the Quick create option. It is available as a configurable option under Admin -> Self Service Portal Settings.

This is configurable under Admin -> Self Service Portal Settings.

Yes, this can be possible with our API functionality under Admin -> General -> API where you can create a form similar to the one used in the other application, and design it in such a way that ticket will get automatically created in ServiceDesk Plus.

In the Home tab under the Task block, click on 'Show All' button which takes you to the Task details screen that gives a detailed information about the task.

ServiceDesk Plus helps you to merge 2 or more requests and combine them into a single request. Requests can be merged from the request list view page and from a request details page. The following two examples will help you in understanding the merging technique and after the merging process which request will be the parent request.

a) I'm in the Request List view screen where I'm able to view all the requests in the helpdesk. I'm going to merge 2 requests say, Request id 10 and 7. So I select the check box beside these requests and click on the Merge button. Which request id will be the parent request?

a)7

b)10

c)none

Answer -> a

If you merge two requests from the request list view, then the older request will be the parent request and the new request will be the child request. In other words, the newly added request is merged with the old request.

b) I'm in the request details page of Request id 7. I choose 'Merge Request' option under the Actions button to merge this request with Request id 10. Which request id will be the parent request?

a)7

b)10

c)none

Answer -> b

No. All the notes, resolution and worklog added in the parent request will not be associated to the child request.

This is a Service Level Agreement configuration which can be configured according to your convenience. Go to Admin -> Service Level Agreement -> edit the given SLA and change the resolution time accordingly so that you can have the desired time frame before a request becomes overdue.

Technicians can start using the Add Work Log functionality of ServiceDesk Plus which helps in calculate the exact time spent by a technician on an Incident.

The template is available under Admin -> Notification rules -> Notifying for Approval Template where you can customize the content of the message.

Follow the instructions given below to change the request id number,

1. Connect to mysql database as follows: From the command prompt, C:\ > cd ManageEngine\ServiceDesk\mysql\bin cmd > mysql.exe -u root -P 33366 service desk Note: For MS SQL connect to the Query analyzer of the SQL server
2. Create a dummy workorder as follows: mysql> insert into workorder (WORKORDERID, REQUESTERID) values (19000,2); [ 19000 is the dummy workorder id number to start the requestid from 19001. 2 is a valid requester id. You may have to check the AaaUser for a valid requester id. Rest of the values can be the same as shown above ]
3. Restart ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus service. Note: Existing request id numbers cannot be changed. The new request id will start from 19001.

You can use the custom filter icon in the request list view page to create custom views in such a way that tickets based on the filter is listed. The filters can also be made private.

Yes it is possible under Admin -> Helpdesk Customizer -> Request closing rules. Request closing rules can be used to select the mandatory fields to be filled in by the technicians while closing the requests.

In our latest version (v 7.5) we have 'Approval Status' as one of the fields in the request column customizer to be displayed in the request list view. On choosing 'Approval Status' column from request column chooser, the requests that require approval and the requests that are approved is displayed.

Follow the steps as mentioned below which would help you to reset the "admin"/"administrator" password as "admin" using the Local Authentication option in the Login screen.

For MYSQL database

1. Connect to MYSQL Server on Port 33366 using the command from the SD+ server console cmd > cd [SERVICEDESK PLUS Home]\mysql\bin cmd> mysql.exe -u root -P 33366 servicedesk

To find Administrator login:

select aar.account_id,al.name from aaaauthorizedrole aar left join aaarole ar on aar.role_id=ar.role_id left join aaaaccount aa on aar.account_id=aa.account_id left join aaalogin al on aa.login_id=al.login_id left join aaauser au on al.user_id=au.user_id left join sduser sd on au.user_id=sd.userid where aar.role_id=4 and sd.status='ACTIVE';

2. Use the following query to reset the "admin" password mysql> update AaaPassword join AaaAccPassword on AaaPassword.password_id = AaaAccPassword.password_id join AaaAccount on AaaAccPassword.account_id = AaaAccount.account_id join AaaLogin on AaaAccount.login_id = AaaLogin.login_id set PASSWORD='2+uYvE3SLfO3XaHl+CaGLA==', SALT='1103287238602' where name like 'admin%';

For MS SQL

To find Administrator login:

select aar.account_id,al.name from aaaauthorizedrole aar left join aaarole ar on aar.role_id=ar.role_id left join aaaaccount aa on aar.account_id=aa.account_id left join aaalogin al on aa.login_id=al.login_id left join aaauser au on al.user_id=au.user_id left join sduser sd on au.user_id=sd.userid where aar.role_id=4 and sd.status='ACTIVE'; Use the following query to reset the "admin" password update AaaPassword set PASSWORD='2+uYvE3SLfO3XaHl+CaGLA==', SALT='1103287238602' where PASSWORD_ID = ( select AaaPassword.PASSWORD_ID from AaaPassword LEFT join AaaAccPassword on AaaPassword.password_id = AaaAccPassword.password_id LEFT join AaaAccount on AaaAccPassword.account_id = AaaAccount.account_id LEFT join AaaLogin on AaaAccount.login_id = AaaLogin.login_id where name = 'administrator' ) Instead of admin at the end of this query you have to enter the name of the person for whom you would like to reset the password.

Attached is a screenshot for your reference. Using the first query, the list of admin users were found and from the second you can reset the password for administrator to admin. After resetting the password you will be able to login with password as admin, provided you select localauthentication in the logonto dropdown list. Note: For MSSQL connect to the query analyzer of the SQL server and execute the same queries.

Go to Admin -> Requesters -> Select the user whom you want to change as Technician -> select the option which says "Change As Technician". By doing so, the technician can use his domain credentials to log into ServiceDesk Plus.

The Priority Matrix (Admin -> Helpdesk Customizer) helps you to determine the Priority automatically based on Impact and Urgency of a request. Impact is listed in the y-axis and Urgency in the x-axis of the matrix. Priority Matrix is a one-time configuration by the Administrator for the given Impact and Urgency values.

Based on ITIL best practices, it is recommended to define and follow priority matrix as it reflects the business need. However it is designed flexible enough for technicians and requesters to override the matrix according to their needs.

Go to Admin-> Self Service Portal Settings and change the default currency from $ to .

According to ITIL an incident must be closed only when the user confirms that the solution provided is beneficial in resolving the incident. Helpdesk technicians are the Single Point of Contact to keep the users informed by tracking the status and making sure that all incidents are responded and closed. It is a tedious process to make sure that all users have confirmed on their incident closure.

i) Create and Educate users about your closure policies

You can define that helpdesk will resolve issues and get back to you. Users must confirm if the Incident has been resolved and if users do not respond within 2 days, we will assume that the users have agreed on the incident closure.

ii) ServiceDesk Plus helps you with Incident Closure

Your Helpdesk Technicians can resolve incidents and change the status of the request to resolved state. ServiceDesk Plus will send an email to the requester asking if the resolution helped. If the users does not respond within 2 days the request will be automatically closed.

Note: Technicians should not close the ticket; instead they should move the ticket to 'Resolved' status. To configure Automated Close, select Admin -> Helpdesk customizer -> Request closing rules.

According to ITIL an incident must be closed only when the user confirms that the solution provided is beneficial in resolving the incident. This is the reason for displaying the pop up when you close an incident. It is an ITIL best practice. But for your convenience we are providing an option to disable it in our latest version (v 7.5) You can disable this option under Admin -> Helpdesk Customizer -> Request Closing Rules -> Confirm User Acknowledgment section.

Enable the notification rule 'Email User when a Request is Resolved' under Admin ->Notification Rule, to send an email to the requester when the technician changes the request Status to 'Resolved'. The user can look into the resolution provided by the technician in the email. A Close Request link will be available with which, the requester can close the request raised by him. If the resolution provided by the technician is unsatisfying, then the requester can reply back to the notification mail to reopen the request.

Assets in ServiceDesk Plus are categorized as,

IT Assets: All Assets with the product type as IT asset are considered as Nodes. Assets which are discovered during the scan process of ServiceDesk Plus are listed under IT Assets (or nodes). For example, Workstations, Servers, Routers, Switches and Access points.

Assets listed under IT Assets correspond to the Max. Number of Assets license you purchase. Say, you have purchased a 250 node or asset license which means you can add only 250 IT assets.

Non IT Assets: All Assets whose product type comes under Non-IT asset categorization will be considered as Non-IT Assets.

Asset Components: Parts of the asset which do not stand alone are grouped under components. For example, Keyboards, mouse, monitors etc. Every Product listed under Admin -> Product is associated with a Product Type that is listed under Admin -> Product Type. These Product Types can be categorized either as an IT or Non-IT Asset. The ones categorized as IT is calculated as an Asset license.

You can add any number of Non IT assets and Components as it does not correspond to the Asset license you purchase.

When you install and start ServiceDesk Plus for the first time, it detects all the domains in your network and from the neighbouring network of the server on which it is installed.

Click Admin -> Windows Domain Scan to list all the domains.

You can also enter the domain controller information, login name and password on editing the domain you want to scan. The login name and password should be a domain admin login name and password.

For a successful discovery, the target workstation should be pingable from the ServiceDesk Plus server using the name which the ServiceDesk Plus discovers. In case of Non-English Operating System, TCP port 7 should be opened in the firewall.

In ServiceDesk Plus; the scanning for Windows Workstation is done using WMI. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is an interface which allows management information to be shared between management applications so that the data from any source can be accessed in a common way.

The Accessibility of the data using WMI is been controlled by the RPC and DCOM settings.

• RPC (Remote Procedure Call)
  RPC (Remote Procedure Call) dynamic port allocation will instruct the RPC program to use a particular random port above 1024 and the static TCP ports 135 and 445. Customers using firewalls may want to control which ports RPC is using so that their firewall router can be configured to forward only these Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) ports.Opening of all these ports above 1024 might not be feasible. However you can restrict the usage of these random ports to some specific ports (say 5000, 5001, and 5002) by adding manually into the Registry Editor for REG_MULTI_SZ value. Once these ports are been added in the registry, you will have to open these TCP ports including 135 and 445.
  In case of Windows Firewall, the Remote Administration for the administrators in each workstation has to be enabled.
• DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model
• WMI has default impersonation, authentication, and authentication service (NTLM or Kerberos) settings that the target computer requires. For this ensure that the correct DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) settings and WMI namespace security settings are enabled for the connection.You can configure DCOM settings for WMI using the DCOM Config utility (DCOMCnfg.exe) found in Administrative Tools in Control Panel. This utility exposes the settings that enable certain users to connect to the computer remotely through DCOM. Members of the Administrators group are allowed to remotely connect to the computer by default. With this utility you can set the security to start, access, and configure the WMI service.

Setting up the RPC and DCOM settings in each target workstation are not so easy. You can run the Scan setup script provided under the troubleshoot section of the Assets tab, to set the default RPC and DCOM settings required by WMI.

In ServiceDesk Plus the scanning for Windows Workstation is done using WMI. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is an interface which allows management information to be shared between management applications so that the data from any source can be accessed in a common way. WMI is a windows component which has all the details about the machine.

Hardware and software information of the workstation are fetched using WMI queries that are sent from ServiceDesk Plus to WMI. ServiceDesk Plus does not install any agent for fetching the hardware and software information of the machines at this point of time.

We are working towards implementing support for agent based scanning in near future.

ServiceDesk Plus uses SSH/TELNET to scan Linux workstations.

Yes, ServiceDesk Plus supports Macintosh scanning. It scans MAC machines using SSH/TELNET, bring in the hardware details of the MAC machines. These MAC machines can be scanned in ServiceDesk using Network scan option under the Admin tab.

Yes, you can scan win 98 machines. Please check if WMI is installed in the PC. If it is not installed then, install WMI by following the instructions provided in the forum post below,

http://forums.manageengine.com/?ftid=49000002657433#

You can schedule periodic scanning of your network, enable regular cleanup of scanned information, and set re-scanning interval for scanning workstation under Admin -> Audit settings [OR] in the Assets tab you can configure the scan schedule.

ServiceDesk Plus helps you scan assets distributed across multiple sites (i.e) Assets which are not connected to the network (or) Assets which are not reachable from the central ServiceDesk Plus server. This can be done with the help of Asset explorer Probe which can be installed in the remote network which helps to scan the Assets in the remote network, export the Asset information into a zip file and then import the information into the Central ServiceDesk Plus server.

In order to use Distributed Asset Scan feature we have to understand the following terms.

• Central Server:
  Your ServiceDesk Plus installation is the Central Server where you have the Central Asset database.
• Remote server (or) Asset explorer Probe:
• You can install Asset explorer Probe as Remote server in your remote network where you would like to scan assets. You will be able to scan and export the Asset information from the Remote server and import it in your Central ServiceDesk Plus server.

You can download and Install Asset Explorer Probe in the remote network by downloading the exe file from the website below.

http://www.manageengine.com/products/asset-explorer/download.html

On completing the installation, when you start the application and connect to the client for the first time, it will prompt you to run either as a Central server or Probe (Remote server). Choose Remote server.

You will be able to scan assets and perform scan configuration in Remote server as you do in ServiceDesk Plus.

You can then export scanned Asset information from the Remote server under Admin -> Distributed Asset Scan. This will export the scanned Asset information as a zip file.

These exported assets can be imported into your central ServiceDesk Plus server under Admin --> Distributed Asset Scan.

By doing this we have a track of all our Assets in the organization in one place which makes it easier for us the manage them. Also Distributed asset scan functionality helps to reduce the load in ServiceDesk Plus server.

Customers interested in using the Distributed scan feature can get the Asset Explorer Probe (Remote server) license from our licensing team (This license will be equivalent to the number of nodes purchased for ServiceDesk Plus) which can be applied in the Asset explorer Remote server installations.

Standalone workstation audit functionality of ServiceDesk Plus helps you to scan workstations individually by using the script file provided. This script when executed will scan the remote workstation and push the inventory data to the ServiceDesk Plus server automatically if the server is reachable. If ServiceDesk Plus server is not reachable from the remote machine, an xml file will be generated which can be imported into ServiceDesk Plus.

You can find Standalone workstation audit under Quick Actions. Once you click on Standalone workstation audit a pop up window appears where you can download the script file. The instructions of using the script file is also mentioned in the pop up window.

Since the machine is not in network, you cannot connect to server machine to download script. The script can be stored in a floppy or Usb drive and should be executed in the stand alone PC. The xml file which is generated can be stored in a Usb drive and then imported into the server.

You have three option,
Manual scan: Click Assets -> Workstation -> New scan -> Provide the details about the workstation and click Scan.You can have ServiceDesk Plus look for new workstations added to the network every specified number of days automatically. (Click Admin -> Audit Settings -> Enable Check for newly added workstations and specify the number of days interval in which ServiceDesk Plus should look for new workstations)

Stand alone workstation audit: Please refer to the previous question which has information about the standalone workstation audit.

Please check if both these machines have either similar

• Service tag number
• Mac Address or
• Workstation number

ServiceDesk Plus differentiates between workstations with the help of these criteria and assumes the Service tag number, Mac address and workstation number to be a unique for each workstation.

Say, you have allotted a workstation to a new joinee in your organization. In this case, the service tag will be similar but with a different workstation name. So while performing a schedule scan the old workstation information is replaced with the information of the new joinee.

ServiceDesk Plus helps you to automatically assign owners for successfully scanned workstations easily and efficiently. ServiceDesk Plus provides owner suggestions based on the last logged user for workstations successfully scanned. You also have an option to change the owner during the assignment process. After the Auto-assign owner process, Resource state for workstations is automatically changed from In Store to In Use.

You can find Auto-Assign feature under the Assets tab.

You can move assets to different categories by changing the Product Type of the asset. First make note of the Product Name for those workstations you wish to move to the Router/Printer category.

Search for the same product name under Admin -> Product. Edit and change the product type from workstation to as per your choice (Printer or Router).

In the latest version of ServiceDesk Plus (v 7.5 and above), we have an option to select the particular asset from the workstation list view and select 'Change as Server(s)' option under the Actions menu which will move the asset into the Servers section.

Go to Assets -> Workstations -> Click on the workstation which you want to change as Laptop and make a note of the Product name.

Now, go to Admin -> Products -> look for the particular product name -> Edit the product and select Laptop.

ServiceDesk Plus helps you to group assets based on the asset properties. You can group assets of users belonging to the same team and location. Organizing assets based on groups gives you more fine-grained control and helps you manage assets efficiently.

For example, you can group assets based on OS, service packs, memory size and so on. When you are getting ready for migration you will be able to pinpoint assets with 256 MB RAM that needs upgrade before rolling out Windows Vista.

There are two types of Groups.

STATIC GROUP: You have to define the group by listing its members manually say, Grouping all the Printers in first floor (you have to handpick static group members).

DYNAMIC GROUP: Resources are grouped automatically based on certain criteria say, OS, RAM, Vendor and so on.

Dynamic group helps you to group assets as per your requirement. Go to Assets -> Groups -> New group -> Provide a name for the group -> select Dynamic Group type -> Define Group criteria; say Site is Texas -> Save and view group will list all assets in this particular Texas site.

Remote Assistance feature is available in ServiceDesk Plus version 7.5 and above. Remote control feature of ServiceDesk Plus helps you to connect remote machines successfully scanned in ServiceDesk Plus from the application itself.

You can find Auto-Assign feature under the Assets tab.

ServiceDesk Plus will draw all information about the softwares listed in Add/Remove programs of the workstations on performing a workstation scan such as the Domain scan or Network scan. The softwares scanned are listed under Assets -> Software -> Scanned Software.

If you want to view the softwares installed in a particular workstation, Go to Assets -> IT Assets -> Workstations -> Click on the specific workstation-> Software.

Working of ServiceDesk Plus on managing softwares:

a) Service Desk Plus automatically discovers softwares present in workstations.

b) These softwares by default are identified as "Unidentified" softwares initially under Assets -> Scanned Software.

c) In order to apply license and manage a software, the software should be of Type 'Managed'.

If the software is not 'Managed' then convert it to Managed software as given below,

Click Assets -> Scanned Software -> Click on the particular software you want to change as Managed -> Click Actions -> Change Software type -> From the pop up window select Managed option.

To apply the license to this Managed software, click on Actions -> Add Software License option.

The Add Software License window pop ups.

Specify the Number of licenses in the given text field. There are two types of license.

Enterprise: License for the entire organization (license for unlimited users),

Individual: License for each individual (license for limited users or each installation has its own unique license key). Specify the License Keys in the given text field.

Once you apply the license, the applied license shows up under purchased licenses. You can then allocate these licenses for workstations listed under unlicensed installation and make them licensed installations.

ServiceDesk Plus automatically fetches software license keys only for Microsoft products.

When you click on the Assets tab, the software metering section gives the details about the usage of the softwares.

This information is fetched from the Add/Remove programs of the workstations it scans.

Yes you can customize your own Software Type. This option is made available from ServiceDesk Plus version 7.5 and above. You can add new software types under Admin -> Software Type.

ServiceDesk Plus allows you to group minor versions of the software into one major version.

Say, you have purchased Adobe Photoshop 7.0 with 4 licenses. The license is applicable for both 7.1 and 7.2 versions and vice versa. In this case 7.0 is the major version and 7.1 and 7.2 are the minor versions. The licenses purchased are the same for all the three versions.

If Adobe Photoshop 7.0 is installed in two different machines and 7.1 & 7.2 is installed in other two different machines. On scanning for Adobe Photoshop software before grouping, the ServiceDesk Plus shows the list as different single entries. The purchased licenses for the software would be as' 4 ' for the version 7.0 and ' 0 ' purchases for other versions (7.1 & 7.2)

Using associate minor versions option you can group 7.1 & 7.2 minor versions under 7.0 Major version. This shows the software list to be a single entry with the number of Purchased licenses and installations. Thus helps you in avoiding individual entry for each Version of the software.

1. From the software view list page. Click on the software name. The software details page opens.
2. Click on the Actions tab on the right hand side upper corner of the page. Click Associate Minor Versions option. The Associate minor versions page opens.
3. Select the minor versions of the selected software from the list to group under the Major version.

Yes ServiceDesk Plus does has a relationship diagram which helps to maintain the relationship of assets with other assets in the organization. With the help of the relationship diagram you will be able to define the assets connected (connection relationship), the department or user to whom the asset is assigned to (Usage relationship) and the softwares installed in it (container relationship).

If an asset has all these relationships established and pre configured, assuming the asset is your mail server and it goes down due to some unexpected reasons, you will be able to rebuild a new machine with the exact same configuration as your previous mail server had with the help of this relationship diagram.

In v 7.5 and above of ServiceDesk Plus, assets moved to Expired or Disposed state will not be taken into account as a node. Currently these assets can be scanned and maintained in the system mainly for historic data.

The primary goal of problem management is to reduce adverse impacts caused by incidents and to avoid the recurrence of problems related to these incidents.

We will engage Problem Management when,

1. Root cause is unknown.
2. Multiple incidents involving the same issue.
3. Common Symptoms.

Yes this is possible by enabling the option 'Close all associated Incidents' under Admin -> Problem Closure rules -> Optional Rules section.

You can automate in such a way that when a solution is added to the problem it automatically gets copied to every incident which is associated to the problem.

This can be done under Admin -> Problem Closure rules -> Copy problem solution and workaround to all associated incidents.

Only the changes approved by the Change Manager are listed under Approved Changes. According to ITIL, the Change Manager decides whether to approve or reject a change.

Standard changes are pre-approved changes. Make sure you do not select the Change type to be Standard unless the change does not need approval from the Change manager.

In 7.6 we have an option to customize standard Change to whether it should be approved or not.

Yes, the change can still be implemented as long as the change manager approves it.

The change schedule will reflect in change calendar only after it is approved by the change manager.

In the command prompt of the server, execute run.bat command in the bin directory as depicted in the image below,

You will be prompted with a popup stating your license has expired; this popup has 2 options OK and DETAILS. Click the OK button to prompt you for the new license file. On applying the new license, the server will start.

If this does not solve the problem send an email to servicedeskplus-support@manageengine.com along with your license file and our support team will get back to you shortly.

Licensing in ServiceDesk Plus application is based on the number of nodes and the number of technician logins. Any asset with the product type as IT asset is considered as a node. The nodes can be automatically discovered during the scanning process and takes up a license. For example, workstations, servers, printers, routers, switches and access points.

If an IT asset is moved to "Expired" or "Disposed" state, then the asset will not be considered as a node and hence will not take up a license. But these assets will be maintained in the system for historic data purpose.

You can add unlimited number of technicians in ServiceDesk Plus but the login permissions provided to these technicians is based on the license purchased. Say, you have purchased license for 10 technicians, then only 10 technicians will be able to login to ServiceDesk Plus and work with the application. The remaining technicians will be considered as Non Login technicians. These Non-Login technicians will not be provided with login permissions but you can configure to send SLA violation emails, group notifications and scheduled reports to these technicians.

A typical case where Non-Login technicians can be used is for your Field Technicians, who need not log into the application but be notified about the issues assigned to them. When a request is assigned to these technicians, a notification is sent via email from ServiceDesk Plus and on replying to the notification email upon completing of their job, ServiceDesk Plus appends this email into the original request automatically.

You can remove "Administrator" account from the application by following the instructions below.

1. Login as a technician who has full administrative privileges on all modules of ServiceDesk Plus (i.e. associated to SD-Admin role).
2. Go to Admin -> Technicians. You can either delete the Administrator account or you can click on the Administrator and remove the login on selecting Yes.

Since ServiceDesk Plus license is calculated based on number of technician login this will help you save a license for a technician in your organization.

You can add them as Asset component which will not be calculated as an asset for license. Click on Admin -> Product Type and add a product type called Monitor and select the Type as component.

You will find the Product Type 'monitor' under Assets -> Resources -> Asset components, where you can add the new component for monitor and associate to an asset.

Refer to the below link to be updated of the languages supported by ServiceDesk Plus.

http://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk/localized-versions.html

Customers with Multi Language license will have the option to select language in the Personalize link. You can select the License link in the application to check if Multi Language license is applied. Please contact our Sales Team (sales@manageengine.com) if you require Multi Language license.

Login to ServiceDesk Plus, click on the Home tab and select Assets tab under Home to find the total number of the Assets added in ServiceDesk Plus. The sum of IT Assets corresponding to the total number of nodes purchased in ServiceDesk Plus is displayed.

No, technicians cannot view reports scheduled by other technicians.

The Announcement will not get listed under Announcements in the Home page, instead it will be listed under All Announcements.

Organizing business rules will help us in decide the order in which the rules should be applied on the requests that are fetched by the application. Business rules have to be organized in such a way that the rules do not collide with each other (i.e) the criteria of the first rule should not coincide with the second one.

Here is a scenario which will help us understand the process better.

1. If the Category is Hardware Assign to Technician C and Group General
2. If the Category is Hardware and subcategory is Workstation assign to technician B and Group Desktop support
3. If the Category is Hardware and subcategory is Server assign to technician A and Group Servers.

In which order should the business rules be organized for it to work properly.

a) 1,2,3

b) 3,2,1

c) 2,1,3

Answer ->b

You can configure rules in Spam filter (Admin -> Mail server settings -> Spam Filter) in such a way that mails matching certain criteria will be fetched from the mailbox and dropped before it is fetched inside ServiceDesk Plus.

Enable the following notification which will alert you when mail fetching stops under Admin -> Notification Rules.

Click Admin -> Notification Rules -> Enable the notification which says Send Self-service login details and save the settings.

ServiceDesk Plus will send self service login details to users henceforth. ServiceDesk Plus will not send in the details to users already created in the system.

Click Admin -> Notification Rules -> Click Edit criteria next to the following notification.

Here you can configure rules which will help you avoid sending unwanted notifications from ServiceDesk Plus.

On enabling Pass-through authentication, ServiceDesk Plus directly authenticates your windows system user name and password. Hence you need not login again to enter ServiceDesk plus, just provide the URL for ServiceDesk Plus and authentication is done automatically.

You can enable this under Admin -> Active directory.

If you have issues logging into ServiceDesk Plus after enabling Pass-through Authentication then you can disable it through the data

base. For MYSQL database

1. Connect to MYSQL Server on Port 33366 using the command from the ServiceDesk Plus server console. cmd > cd [Service Desk Home]\mysql\bin, where Service Desk Home -> C:\ManageEngine\ServiceDesk cmd> mysql.exe -u root -P 33366 servicedesk
2. Execute the following query Mysql> update globalconfig set PARAMVALUE='false' where CATEGORY='SSO';

For MS SQL database

1. Connect to the query analyzer of the SQL server and execute the following query: Update globalconfig set PARAMVALUE='false' where CATEGORY='SSO'
2. Restart the Manage engine ServiceDesk Plus service.

Domain Controller	:	ldap://helpdesk-test1:389
User Name	:	CN=Administrator,CN=Users,DC=helpdesk-test1,DC=com
Password	:	Password
Base DN	:	CN=Users,DC=helpdesk-test1,DC=com
Search Filter	:	(objectClass=person)
LDAP Server Type	:	Microsoft Active Directory

where 'helpdesk-test1' is the name of our Domain Controller .

In case if you are using Novell e-directory, you could select Novell e-directory from the drop down menu, save the settings and check whether you could import the users.

Yes ! You can schedule ServiceDesk Plus to periodically import users from Active directory under Admin -> Active directory.

Survey can be enabled under Admin -> Survey settings. You can configure the default values for welcome message, email content, survey success or failure message, and thank you message. You can also schedule the periodicity of conducting the survey.

Yes it is possible. Once a request is closed click on the Actions button -> Send Survey for this request.

Click on Edit button beside the grayed out category -> Uncheck the checkbox 'Category not for further usage' and save the configuration. This will reactivate the category.

The same procedure can be followed to reactivate a Subcategory or an Item.

The Category Tree View helps you accomplish this goal ! You can view all Categories, Sub-Categories and Items configured in ServiceDesk Plus.

Go to Admin -> Helpdesk Customizer -> Category -> at the extreme right corner of this screen you have the Tree view icon -> click on this icon to display all the Category, Sub category and Item in ServiceDesk Plus.