RT is a high – level, open source ticketing system efficiently enabling a group of people to manage tasks, issues, and requests submitted by a community of users. |
|
About RT
RT Essentials – Google Books (by Jesse Vincent, Robert Spier, Dave Rolsky, Darren Chamberlain, Richard Foley)
Accessing the RT web application
- Go to http://portal.bluegecko.net and click on ´Ticketing´
- If this is the first time you have accessed RT via the web, then you will need to set your password. You will see the message “If you have forgotten your password or one has not yet been assigned to you, RT can reset your password.”
- Click on the “reset your password” hypertext.
- You will be directed to this page https://support.bluegecko.net/NoAuth/Reminder.html and will receive an email.
- Once you log in you can change your password by clicking on the ‘Preferences’ link in the upper right hand corner.
What is an RT Queue?
An RT queue is a centralized location for all your company’s support tickets. Each Blue Gecko customer has their own queue. Authorized RT users from your company can log on to the RT web app and see all the open tickets in your company’s queue.
Creating a new Ticket
Blue Gecko RT tickets can be created by various methods.
- Send an email to your RT queue. (E.g. yourcompanyname@bluegecko.net)
- Blue Gecko employee acknowledges a Nagios alert and selects to create a ticket.
In the upper right-hand corner there is a button “New ticket in” and a drop down to the right. The drop down will display all the queues you can access. Select the queue in which you want to create a new ticket, and click the “New ticket in” button. It will take you to the new ticket form.
New Ticket Form
The most important fields for our customers to fill in on the ‘New Ticket’ form are:
- Subject – The subject is displayed on the main page and reports with no context, so it is helpful to make sure that it is clear and concise.
- HW Devices(s) Affected – if applicable
- Severity – (Critical, High, Medium, Low) If this is an emergency issue you must phone Blue Gecko Support.
- Description – The description field is the primary explanation for what the ticket is about, so make sure to provide as much information as possible.
Once you have filled in all the appropriate details, click the Create button, and you will have a new ticket.
Ticket View
Once you click on a ticket you will see the following sections.
- The Basics – The basic category includes obvious things, like the subject, status, queue and the total amount of time worked on the ticket.
- Custom Fields – These are BG custom fields to support internal processes. As mentioned above the key ones for our customers to fill out when creating a new ticket is HW Device(s) Affected and Severity.
- People – This section will show you the current owner of the ticket, who created it (requestor) and any other individuals who are copied on the correspondence.
- Dates – The dates category includes the start date of the ticket, the date the actual work started, when the requestor was last contacted about the request and the date by which the work must be completed.
- Links – Sometimes more than one ticket can be created for the same issue or there are related requests. The links section will display tickets. that are related.
- History – Beneath the blocks of metadata on the ticket display page, is the ticket ´s history . This is an audit trail – each ticket update has its own place in this list, from the initial creation to every attribute change, reply, or comment.
Replying to a Ticket
Correspondence and comments are what adds content to a ticket and covers all the replies and user feedback that RT collects. You reply to a ticket by clicking the Reply link at the top right of the ticket display page or beside an individual item in the ticket’s history. The new display page with a form for responding tickets will open. The same form creates either replies or comments, depending on what you select for Update Type. Fill in all the appropriate information and click the Update Ticket Button.
Resolving a Ticket
When you are satisfied that the ticket you are working on is finished, you can change its status to resolved. To modify a ticket status, just click resolve in the upper right hand corner of any ticket page.
Viewing Open Tickets
To see all the open tickets in your queue you can click on your queue from the list on the right side of the RT Home page.
-or-
At the top there is a drop-down called “Show queue”. Click on the drop down , select your queue from the list then click ‘Go.’
Searching for Tickets
To start a new search, click on the Tickets link in the main menu. This takes you to an empty ticket search form. RT search tool is very flexible and powerful search tool. Each criterion you want to add is represented by a row of form elements. When you click the Add button, it adds all the criteria to the query at once. The query builder also allows you to choose the fields you want to display when listing your search results.
Once you selected your query and chosen the fields you want to display, execute the search by clicking the Search button at the bottom of the form.
RT Terminology
Extra Status
- Waiting on Customer – Blue Gecko has updated the ticket and is now waiting on the customer.
- Waiting on Blue Gecko – The customer has updated the ticket and is waiting for a response from Blue Gecko.
- Scheduled – Either the project or request changes have been scheduled.
- WIP – Currently being worked on by BG
- Account Mgmt – A ticket has been escalated out of the NOC or projects group to an account manager.
- Handed off – Ticket has been hand delivered (virtually, of course) to a new staff member with special skills, a more intimate knowledge of a customer’s network or any other reason that we believe your ticket needs special attention.
- Needs Infrastructure – This is a general category that usually means that BG is waiting on hardware from a vendor or occasionally it can mean a staff member has been swallowed by a pothole during the Seattle winter.
Resources
RT Essentials by Jesse Vincent, Robert Spier, Dave Rolsky, Darren Chamberlain, Richard Foley