👉 Part 1: Prerequisites & osTicket Installation

📍 Part 2: Post-Installation Configuration

👉 Part 3: Ticket Lifecycle Demo

🧠 Technologies Used

• osTicket (Help Desk Ticketing System)
• System Administration
• Microsoft Azure (Cloud computing)
• Microsoft Remote Desktop
• Internet Information Services (IIS)

⚙️ Post-Installation Configuration

🗑️ Deleting "setup" folder

To get rid of the ⚠️ Please take a minute to delete setup directory (../setup/) for security reasons. message:

1. Navigate to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\osTicket, right-click the setup folder and then click Delete

👑 Adding a New "Master Admin" role

Now that osTicket is successfully installed from scratch, it is time to do some configuration and system administration work. To start this off, we will create a new Role in osTicket called "Master Admin". This will be the highest level administrator that has every single permission available to them. Roles are used to determine an Agent's permissions. Generally, most Agents will not have every single permission as the Master Admin does.

1. Open http://localhost/osTicket/scp/logs.php in a web browser, enter the correct credentials

2. Navigate to Agents > 📋 Roles > (+) Add New Role

3. In the 📄 Definition tab:

   • In the Name: field, enter the desired role. In this case, it is Master Admin
   • Optionally, add any desired details regarding the new role in the Internal Notes field

4. In the 🔒 Permissions tab, give all available permissions to the Master Admin:

   • ✅ Assign — Ability to assign tickets to agents or teams
   • ✅ Close — Ability to close tickets
   • ✅ Create — Ability to open tickets on behalf of users
   • ✅ Delete — Ability to delete tickets
   • ✅ Edit — Ability to edit tickets
   • ✅ Edit Thread — Ability to edit thread items of other agents
   • ✅ Link — Ability to link tickets
   • ✅ Mark as Answered — Ability to mark a ticket as Answered/Unanswered
   • ✅ Merge — Ability to merge tickets
   • ✅ Post Reply — Ability to post a ticket reply
   • ✅ Refer — Ability to manage ticket referrals
   • ✅ Release — Ability to release ticket assignment
   • ✅ Transfer — Ability to transfer tickets between departments

🖥️ Adding a New "System Administrators" Department

Each Agent is appointed a specific department which is determined by their assigned role within the helpdesk. For now, we'll just create a "System Administrators" department where the Master Admins will be designated. Various other settings such as email settings, service level agreements (SLAs), and managers can also be configured in the Departments tab.

1. Navigate to Agents > 🧑‍💻 Departments > (+) Add New Department

2. In the Name: field, enter System Administrators

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the orange Create Dept button

🤝 Adding a New "Level II Support" Team

Teams enable cross-departmental collaboration by aggregating skilled agents from various units. This structure facilitates the creation of specialized groups. For instance, you can develop a help topic related to a specific product and assign it to a team of agents with expertise in that product. In this demonstration, we'll create a "Level II Support Team" to illustrate this concept.

1. Navigate to Agents > 👨🏻👨🏾 Teams > (+) Add New Team

2. In the Name: field, enter Level II Support

3. At the bottom of the page, click the orange Create Team button

🎟️ Allowing Non-registered Users to Create Tickets

Out-of-the-box installations of osTicket require users to be registered and logged-in before they can create tickets. Since this isn't always ideal, the setting regarding this functionality needs to be adjusted.

1. Navigate to Settings > 👥 Users > Tick ✅ Require registration and login to create tickets

2. At the bottom of the page, click the orange Save Changes button

📝 Adding New Agents

Next, we'll proceed to create Agents. Agents are the helpdesk staff responsible for resolving tickets. Each Agent is assigned a primary department and role for tickets within their designated area. Agents can be granted access to multiple departments, with potentially different roles in each. The Access, Permissions, and Teams tabs are used to adjust access levels, manage permissions, and assign teams for each staff member.

1. Navigate to Agents > 👤 Agents > (+) Add New Agent

2. In the Account tab, fill out the Name:, Email Address:, and Username: fields for the particular Agent being added. Do the same for any desired settings in the Access and Permissions tabs as well

3. At the bottom of the page, click the orange Create button

4. Repeat these steps until as many Agents as desired have been added

Note

While creating an administrator-level Agents (e.g. System Administrators, Managers), permit them expanded access to the Support department so that they are able to assign tickets to support-level employees.

🔐 Setting Agent's Passwords

1. In the Admin panel of osTicket, navigate to Agents > 👤 Agents > and then select that Agent that needs their password set

2. Under the Authentication section, click 🔄 Set Password

3. Uncheck ◻️Send the agent a password reset email

4. In the New Password and Confirm Password fields, enter a matching secure password and then click the Update button

5. Verify that the ◻️Require password change at next login is unchecked

Note

The steps above outline how an admin would manually set an Agent's password. However, the two boxes that were left unchecked are alternative methods for the Agent to set their own password instead.

📃 Adding Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

SLA (Service Level Agreement) Plans define the expected resolution time for specific ticket types. Each SLA incorporates a schedule and a grace period. For instance, in our example, the SEV-A (Severity A) SLA operates on a 24/7 schedule with a one-hour grace period. This structure ensures clear expectations for ticket resolution timeframes.

1. Navigate to Manage > 📚 SLA > (+) Add New SLA Plan

2. Fill out the information in accordance to the SLA plan of choice

3. At the bottom of the page, click the orange Add Plan button

❓ Adding Help Topics

Help Topics facilitate ticket categorization for users. For example, we can create a "Business Critical Outage" topic, which could be used for scenarios such as customers being unable to access mobile banking services. This categorization streamlines the ticket management process and prioritization.

1. Navigate to Manage > ❓ Help Topics > (+) Add New Help Topic

2. In the Topic: field, enter the relevant information for the topic of choice

3. At the bottom of the page, click the orange Add Topic button

👉 Part 1: Prerequisites & osTicket Installation

📍 Part 2: Post-Installation Configuration

👉 Part 3: Ticket Lifecycle Demo