Integrating with ServiceDesk Plus (SDP) On-premise

Overview

About the integration

ServiceDesk Plus is a web-based Help Desk and Asset Management software, offered by ManageEngine. With ServiceDesk Plus installed in your network, you can automatically log trouble tickets for specific alarms and maintain a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) that allows you to plot out your IT infrastructure from Applications Manager.

Logging trouble tickets

Applications Manager has the ability to automatically log trouble tickets for a specific alarms and to notify the concerned technician when a particular process exceeds the set threshold point. Along with the provision to e-mail, SMS, and other notifications, alarms can also be tracked by automatically logging trouble tickets to ServiceDesk Plus. Applications Manager takes care of the two way synching of Alerts & Tickets status from SDP. For example, you can automatically log a ticket when an alarm is raised, reopen the ticket whenever an alarm reoccurs or close the ticket if the alarm is cleared. In addition to this, the alerts under the Alarms tab include a Ticket Icon which loads the ticket raised when clicked on.

Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

From a CMDB perspective, all the components monitored in Applications Manager are referred to as Configuration Items (CI). With the ServiceDesk Plus integration in Applications Manager, you can:

  • Identify CIs in your IT environment and Enable CI Sync to create CIs in Servicedesk Plus
  • Map the relationship between the CIs and
  • Use the relationships to predict the impact of CIs before performing any change.
  • Track of all the pending requests, problems and changes raised for the CI Type.

You can track of all the pending requests, problems and change raised for the CI Type. Once a problem ticket is logged, you can also assign a technician for the ticket. Any impact cause by the malfunctioning of these CIs and other CI details can be identified with Relationship Mapping, and specific measures can be adapted to minimize the effect.

Version Compatibility

Below is the version compatibility of Applications Manager with ServiceDesk Plus (SDP):

Applications Manager Version SDP Version
15050 and above 11138 and above 
15000 to 15040, or
Hotfix 15001 and above		 11117 to 11137
14390 to 14911 11000 to 11116 
14380 and below 9102 to 10515
Hotfix 14783 and above, or
Hotfix 14843 and above		 11117 to 11136

Note: The above-mentioned version compatibility is applicable for APM Plugin installations also. To find out the version compatibility of APM Plugin with OpManager, refer here.

Configuring ServiceDesk Plus in Applications Manager

This section describes the method in which ServiceDesk Plus Settings are to be configured in Applications Manager:

Prerequisites

  • ServiceDesk Plus must be reachable from Applications Manager
  • The technician used to integrate Servicedesk Plus with Applications Manager must have SDAdmin privilege. This is to allow access to the form data from ServiceDesk Plus so that it can be loaded in the Create a new ticket action page in Applications Manager.
  • The Default Request template should not have any mandatory fields in ServiceDesk Plus because a sample ticket cannot be executed during Test and Save configuration in Applications Manager.

Important Note: Upon integrating ServiceDesk Plus, a dummy ticket is created to check whether the user's credentials used for integration has the permission to create a ticket in ServiceDesk Plus, which is deleted subsequently once it is successfully created.

Steps to configure

  1. Under Settings tab, click on Add-On Settings under Product Settings.
  2. Click on the Add icon shown under the ServiceDesk Plus section. This will take you to the ServiceDesk Plus Server Details page.
  3. Configuring ServiceDesk Plus Settings in Applications Manager can be done in two ways: Using REST APIs or Using Credentials.
    1. Using REST APIs:This feature supports Applications Manager with ServiceDesk Plus integration using SDP REST API Keys and automatic closing of tickets. Follow the steps below to configure ServiceDesk Plus Settings in Applications Manager:
      • Under the Use Rest API tab, enter the ServiceDesk Plus Server Details, specify the product that you wish to add - ServiceDesk Plus or ServiceDesk Plus - MSP.
      • Name of the server and port number where ServiceDesk Plus is running
      • Enter the REST API key. ( While a ticket action is created, and a technician is assigned from the Log a Ticket form, the technician must have an SDAdmin privilege in SDP. Make sure that the technician whose key you are using has SDAdmin privilege in SDP.)
      • Select one of the given protocols: http or https(SSL).
      • Check the Enable Mail Notification for Connectivity Failurecheckbox if you wish to trigger mail notifications in case of connectivity failures. After enabling this option, enter the following details:
        • Configure the email to which the notification has to be sent. You can configure either by choosing Admin email (Mail address configured for the admin user or the mail address in SMTP configuration) or by selecting email actions to be triggered for the selected email from the dropdown.
        • Enable the Append Custom Message checkbox if you want to append customized text messages along with the mail notifcation.
        • Enable the Repeat mails until successful connection checkbox to repeat mail notifications until connection is established successfully. After enabling, specify the Repeat Interval (in minutes) after which mail notification has to be repeated.
      • By checking the Advanced Settings checkbox you have the option to configure
      • Test if the connection is working and save the settings.
    2. Using Credentials (deprecated in SDP 9101):
      • Under Admin Tab, click on ServiceDesk Settings
      • Enter the ServiceDesk Plus Server Details
        • Enter the Name of the server where ServiceDesk Plus is running.
        • Enter the Port Number of that server.
      • Enter the Authentication Details of the ServiceDesk Plus Server - Login and Password.
      • Enter the Email Address configured in ServiceDesk Plus. All the trouble tickets generated would be sent to that Email ID.
      • Enter the Email Address from which the trouble tickets should be sent.
      • Test if the connection is working and save the settings.

Ticket Settings

You can configure the following settings:

Reopen Settings

  1. Set Applications Manager to perform one of the following actions when an alarm is raised again for a closed ticket:
    • To reopen the ticket whenever an alarm is reoccured.
    • To reopen the ticket within a certain number of days from the closed time. If the ticket is not reopened, a new ticket is automatically created. (To reopen the ticket whenever an alarm is reoccured within a certain number of days else open a new ticket.)
    • To create a new ticket or to open a new ticket whenever an alarm has re-occured.
  2. Set Applications Manager to perform one of the following actions when an alarm is raised again for a resolved ticket:
    • To reopen the ticket whenever an alarm is re-occured.
    • To reopen the ticket within a certain number of days from the closed time. If the ticket is not reopened, a new ticket is automatically created. (To reopen the ticket whenever an alarm is reoccured within a certain number of days, else open a new ticket.)
    • To create a new ticket or to open a new ticket whenever an alarm has re-occured.
  3. Set Applications Manager to perform one of the following actions when an alarm is raised for an entity that was previously clear and if the existing ticket in HelpDesk is not closed/resolved:
    • To update the existing ticket whenever an alarm is re-occured.
    • To update the existing ticket within a certain number of days from the clear alert. If the ticket is not updated, a new ticket is automatically created. (To update the existing ticket whenever an alarm is reoccured within a certain number of days, else open a new ticket.)
    • To update the notes associated with that ticket.
    • To create a new ticket or to open a new ticket whenever an alarm has re-occured.
  4. Enable on-demand ticket generation using :
    • Raise a ticket action, so that you can raise a ticket on demand using a ticket action from alarms page. The new on-demand tickets are mapped to the respective configuration items.
    • Request Form, so that you can raise a ticket on demand using the request form from alarms page. The new on-demand tickets are mapped to the respective configuration items.

Update Settings

  1. Set Applications Manager to perform one of the following actions when the severity of an alarm is changed / RCA of the alarm is updated for an already created ticket:
    • To update the ticket.
    • To update the notes associated with that ticket.
  2. Set Applications Manager to perform one of the following actions when an alarm is cleared for a ticket:
    • To close the ticket.
    • To update the notes associated with that ticket.
  3. Set Applications Manager to perform one of the following actions when a monitor or a ticket action or a metric is deleted for a ticket:
    • To close the ticket.
    • To update the notes associated with that ticket.
  4. Update the ticket only if there is a status change in the alarm.
    • If enabled, action is triggered only when there is a status change in alarm.
  5. Add notes for the ticket whenever an annotation is made for the alarm.

Accessing from Applications Manager

  1. Access ticket details from Application Manager. User can access the ticket details from the ticket details link in the alert details page.
  2. Launch Read-only ticket. When selected, the ticket details launched from Applications Manager would be read only.
  3. Over-write the request template with the fields selected in the action profile.
    • This option is disabled by default. In Log a ticket action, on selecting the Incident template, the other fields will be hidden. The default values of the Incident template chosen would be used to log the trouble ticket in ServiceDesk Plus.
    • If enabled, the other fields will become visible, thereby, allowing the user to modify the default fields of the Incident template.

Configuration Item Details and Relationship Mapping

Once the ServiceDesk Plus Settings are configured, Applications Manager identifies all the monitors (unless you have configured to exclude a monitor(s) or a selected monitor type(s)) and adds them as Configuration Items in ServiceDesk Plus CMDB.

You can change the following Configuration Item Settings by clicking on the Advanced Settings checkbox and then enabling the Enable Configuration Item (CI) sync option.

  • Delete the CI if the corresponding monitor is deleted
  • Exclude the monitor(s) of the selected monitor type(s). Users can select the monitors types that they wish to exclude from the list provided to be added as CI(s). Select the monitors that you wish to exclude from the first list and move it to the second list.
  • Configure custom fields of the monitor as attributes of a configuration item. The new custom field need not get added in Service Desk Plus.
  • Users can access configuration item and relationship details from Application Manager in the monitor snapshot page.

To view the details of a Configuration Item and view Relationship Maps:

  1. Go to the Monitors tab.
  2. From the Select View list, choose the Bulk Configuration View.
  3. Open the List View which will give you a list of all the monitors.
  4. In the list, click on the  icon near a monitor to view the CI Details.
  5. Click on the  icon to view the Relationship Map.

To view the list of configuration attributes that are supported in the CMDB CI Sync through ServiceDesk Plus On-Premise (SDP OP) integration, refer here.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How can I map an asset to a ticket?

An asset gets added from Applications Manager when a Server monitor is added as a CI in ServiceDesk Plus during the CI Sync. Any trouble ticket associated to the Server and its child monitors would get tagged with the corresponding asset provided it is successfully synced.