Read this through and learn the basics of using OTRS for eScience Support

  1. Where to log in?
    https://tts.geant.net/otrs/index.pl?
  2. Setting up your queues
    If you want to receive an email when a new ticket arrives, etc. go to your settings and set up your queues. Also adjust exactly what developments you want to get notified about.
  3. What is on the Dashboard?
    On the Dashboard you see all the non-closed tickets.
    1. Escalated tickets - in this OTRS instance there is an auto-escalation policy that will bump tickets up to "escalated" level after a certain period. The time you have left until escalation is in the column "First Response Time". This counts down - yes that is slightly misleading
    2. New tickets - tickets in new state, for example the ones that were created from an email to support@edugain.org
    3. Open Tickets - tickets in progress. "Update Time" is similar to First Response Time - the time left until escalation
    4. Ticket queue overview - statistics about how we stand with non-closed tickets. Watch this because tickets neither "open" nor "new" (e.g. pending, etc.) do not show anywhere else on the dashboard.
    5. Upcoming events - a useful section time left until escalation and reminders
    Summary: dashboard shows you only the tickets that OTRS thinks need your immediate attention and hides all else. Good for checking regularly, not-so-good for catching up. See this figure
     
  4. In case of new ticket
    1. Since there is no auto-response set up right now, write a quick response.
      1. Click on the TT# of the ticket
      2. Use the reply button to reply. With new tickets the reply button should be available. In general, the availability of the "reply" & "reply all" and other action buttons (close, pending, etc) depends on ownership and locking. You can make yourself owner in the "people" menu
      3. as you start to reply, the ticket is locked by you.
      4. write your reply
      5. choose a next ticket state wisely:
        1. open tickets show up on the dashboard, and mean that we have work to do with them
        2. information required means ball is back to the user. These only show up in the numbers in the summary but not listed on the dashboard.
        3. pending auto close will close the ticket after a certain amount of time. Not listed on the dashboard
        4. pending reminder: does not show on the dashboard, will become active at the datetime set
        5. validation, amendment, responded: we need to decide the semantics of those
      6. In this example I choose information required, meaning that I expect some further input from the user. When the user responds, the ticket is back to "open" state.
      7. After some work, you will probably close the ticket. You can do it in a reply as a next ticket state, or with the close button (of course you have to own the ticket). If you use the close button you will have to provide GEANT-specific reason codes that are obviously not set up for our needs. You can always choose "other" (OTH)
  5. Where are the closed tickets?
    Since OTRS will remove the past from the dashboard, you will have to go to
    Tickets -> Status View -> Closed Tickets
  6. Merging tickets
    As tickets are created from emails, can happen that a ticket is about the same issue as another. Consider merging them instead of closing one of them as a duplicate. This way all the communication will be merged and information is better preserved.
    1. Copy the number of the older ticket to your clipboard
    2. Open the newer ticket by clicking on its number
    3. Miscellaneous -> Merge
    4. Provide the old ticked # to the "Merge to" field. This way the new ticket will be absorbed by the old. Of course you can do the other way around. 
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