OTRS 3.1 - Admin Manual

René Bakker, Stefan Bedorf, Michiel Beijen, Shawn Beasley, Hauke Böttcher, Jens Bothe, Udo Bretz, Martin Edenhofer, Carlos Javier García, Martin Gruner, Manuel Hecht, Christopher Kuhn, André Mindermann, Marc Nilius, Elva María Novoa, Henning Oschwald, Martha Elia Pascual, Thomas Raith, Carlos Fernando Rodríguez, Stefan Rother, Burchard Steinbild, Daniel Zamorano.

This work is copyrighted by OTRS AG.

You may copy it in whole or in part as long as the copies retain this copyright statement.

The source code of this document can be found at source.otrs.org.

UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open Company Limited. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

MS-DOS, Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other trademarks and registered trademarks are: SUSE and YaST of SUSE Linux GmbH, Red Hat and Fedora are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. Mandrake is a registered trademark of MandrakeSoft, SA. Debian is a registered trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. MySQL and the MySQL Logo are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

All trade names are used without the guarantee for their free use and are possibly registered trade marks.

OTRS AG essentially follows the notations of the manufacturers. Other products mentioned in this manual may be trademarks of the respective manufacturer.


Table of Contents

Preface
1. Trouble Ticket Systems - The Basics
What is a trouble ticket system, and why do you need one?
What is a trouble ticket?
2. OTRS Help Desk
Basics
Features
New features of OTRS 3.1
Top new features of OTRS 3.0
New features of OTRS 2.4
Hardware and software requirements
Perl support
Web server support
Database support
Web browser support
Community
Commercial Support and Services for OTRS
3. Installation
The simple way - Installation of pre-built packages
Installing the RPM on a SUSE Linux server
Installing OTRS on a CentOS system
Installing OTRS on a Debian system
Installing OTRS on a Ubuntu system
Installing OTRS on Microsoft Windows systems
Installation from source (Linux, Unix)
Preparing the installation from source
Installation of Perl modules
Configuring the Apache web server
Configuring the database
Setting up the cron jobs for OTRS
Upgrading the OTRS Framework
Upgrading Windows Installer
Upgrading Microsoft SQL Server Data Types
4. First steps
Agent web interface
Customer web interface
Public web interface
First login
The web interface - an overview
What is a queue?
User preferences
5. The ADMIN area of OTRS
Basics
Agents, Groups and Roles
Agents
Groups
Roles
Customers and Customer Groups
Customers
Customer Groups
Queues
Salutations, signatures, attachments and responses
Salutations
Signatures
Attachments
Responses
Auto responses
Email addresses
Notifications
SMIME
PGP
States
SysConfig
Using mail accounts
Filtering incoming messages
Executing automated jobs with the GenericAgent
Admin email
Session management
System Log
SQL queries via the SQL box
Package Manager
Web Services
Dynamic Fields
6. System Configuration
OTRS config files
Configuring the system through the web interface
7. Sending/Receiving emails
Sending emails
Via Sendmail (default)
Via SMTP server or smarthost
Receiving emails
Mail accounts configured via the OTRS GUI
Via command line program and procmail (otrs.PostMaster.pl)
Fetching emails via POP3 or IMAP and fetchmail for otrs.PostMaster.pl
Filtering/dispatching by OTRS/PostMaster modules (for more complex dispatching)
8. Time related functions
Setting up business hours, holidays and time zones
Business Hours
Fixed date holidays
TimeVacationDaysOneTime
Automated Unlocking
9. Ticket Responsibility & Ticket Watching
Ticket Responsibility
Ticket watching
10. Customizing the PDF output
11. Using external backends
Customer data
Customer user backend
Database (Default)
LDAP
Use more than one customer backend with OTRS
Backends to authenticate Agents and Customers
Authentication backends for Agents
Authentication backends for Customers
Customize the customer self-registration
Customizing the web interface
Customer mapping
Customize the customer_user table in the OTRS DB
12. States
Predefined states
New
Open
Pending reminder
Pending auto close-
Pending auto close+
Merged
Closed Successful
Closed Unsuccessful
Customizing states
13. Modifying ticket priorities
14. Creating your own themes
15. Localization of the OTRS frontend
16. PGP
17. S/MIME
18. Access Control Lists (ACLs)
Introduction
Examples
Reference
19. Stats module
Handling of the module by the agent
Overview
Generate and view reports
Edit / New
Import
Administration of the stats module by the OTRS administrator
Permission settings, Groups and Queues
SysConfig
Administration of the stats module by the system administrator
Data base table
List of all files
Caching
otrs.GenerateStats.pl
Automated stat generation - Cronjob
Static stats
Using old static stats
Default stats
20. Generic Interface
Generic Interface Layers
Network Transport
Data Mapping
Controller
Operation (OTRS as a provider)
Invoker (OTRS as a requester)
Generic Interface Communication Flow
OTRS as Provider
OTRS as Requester
Web Services
Web Service Graphical Interface
Web Service Overview
Web Service Add
Web Service Change
Web Service Command Line Interface
Web Service Configuration
Web Service Debugger
Web Service Configuration
Configuration Details
Connectors
Bundled Connectors
Examples:
21. OTRS Scheduler
Scheduler Graphical Interface
Scheduler Not Running Notification
Start Scheduler
Scheduler Command Line Interface
Unix / Linux
Windows
22. Dynamic Fields
Introduction
Configuration
Adding a Dynamic Field
Text Dynamic Field Configuration
Textarea Dynamic Field Configuration
Checkbox Dynamic Field Configuration
Dropdown Dynamic Field Configuration
Multiselect Dynamic Field Configuration
Date Dynamic Field Configuration
Date / Time Dynamic Field Configuration
Editing a Dynamic Field
Showing a Dynamic Field on a Screen
Setting a Default Value by a Ticket Event Module
Set a Default Value by User Preferences
Updating from OTRS 3.0
23. Additional applications
FAQ
24. Performance Tuning
OTRS
TicketIndexModule
TicketStorageModule
Archiving Tickets
Database
MySQL
PostgreSQL
Webserver
Pre-established database connections
Preloaded modules - startup.pl
Reload Perl modules when updated on disk
Choosing the Right Strategy
mod_gzip/mod_deflate
25. Backing up the system
Backup
Restore
A. Additional Resources
Homepage OTRS.org
Mailing lists
Bug tracking
Commercial Support
B. Overview of all configuration parameters
C. Credits
D. GNU Free Documentation License
0. PREAMBLE
1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
2. VERBATIM COPYING
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
4. MODIFICATIONS
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
8. TRANSLATION
9. TERMINATION
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
How to use this License for your documents

List of Tables

3.1. Needed Perl modules for OTRS
3.2. Description of several cron job scripts.
5.1. Default groups available on a fresh OTRS installation
5.2. Rights associated with OTRS Groups
5.3. Events for Auto answers
5.4. Function of the different X-OTRS-headers
21.1. List of Init Scripts And Supported Operating Systems
22.1. The following fields will be added into the system:
A.1. Mailinglists

List of Examples

5.1. Sort spam mails into a specific queue
7.1. .fetchmailrc
7.2. Example jobs for the filter module Kernel::System::PostMaster::Filter::Match
7.3. Example job for the filter module Kernel::System::PostMaster::Filter::CMD
11.1. Configuring a DB customer backend
11.2. Using company tickets with a DB backend
11.3. Configuring an LDAP customer backend
11.4. Using Company tickets with an LDAP backend
11.5. Using more than one customer backend with OTRS
11.6. Authenticate agents against a DB backend
11.7. Authenticate agents against an LDAP backend
11.8. Authenticate Agents using HTTPBasic
11.9. Authenticate Agents against a Radius backend
11.10. Customer user authentication against a DB backend
11.11. Customer user authentication against an LDAP backend
11.12. Customer user authentication with HTTPBasic
11.13. Customer user authentication against a Radius backend
18.1. ACL allowing movement into a queue of only those tickets with ticket priority 5.
18.2. ACL disabling the closing of tickets in the raw queue, and hiding the close button.
18.3. ACL removing always state closed successful.
18.4. ACL only showing Hardware services for tickets that are created in queues that start with "HW".
18.5. Reference showing all possible important ACL settings.
19.1. Definition of a value series - one element
19.2. Definition of a value series - two elements
21.1. Example To Start The OTRS Scheduler Form An Init.d Script
21.2. Example To Start The OTRS Scheduler
21.3. Example To Force Stop The OTRS Scheduler
21.4. Example To Register The OTRS Scheduler Into the Widows SCM
21.5. Example To Start The OTRS Scheduler
21.6. Example To Force Stop The OTRS Scheduler
22.1. Activate Field1 in New Phone Ticket Screen.
22.2. Activate Field1 in New Phone Ticket Screen as mandatory.
22.3. Activate several fields in New Phone Ticket Screen.
22.4. Deactivate some fields in New Phone Ticket Screen.
22.5. Activate Field1 in Ticket Zoom Screen.
22.6. Activate Field1 in Ticket Overview Small Screens.
22.7. Activate Field1 in TicketCreate event.
22.8. Activate Field1 in the User preferences.
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