IT help desks are an essential part of every organization's operations, as it enhances employee productivity and end-user satisfaction. Essentially, these IT help desks are comprehensive platforms that allow you to create tickets for issues through multiple channels like email and Slack, track the issues, escalate them when needed, and get feedback from the end user for further improvement. Some tools even support the creation of self-service portals and knowledge bases, so that all issues are resolved quickly and efficiently.
One tool that perfectly fits the above description of the IT helpdesk is ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus. Besides helping organizations fix their issues quickly, this tool also integrates well with other ManageEngine and third-party tools for a seamless workflow. Plus, it's also simple to use.
Read on as we show you how to get started and use this versatile tool.
System Requirements
Before we get to installing and starting ServiceDesk Plus, let's take a look at the system requirements.
Hardware Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements you need to run ServiceDesk Plus. Note that you may need higher RAM, hard disk space, and memory, depending on your workload.
| Less than 100 inbound requests/day | 500 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM, 4-8 cores/ 1.7 GHz to 2.4 GHz processor |
| 100 - 1000 inbound requests/day | 2 TB SSD, 32 GB RAM, 6-8 cores/ 2.4 GHz to 3.0 GHz processor |
| More than 1000 inbound requests/day | 3 TB SSD, 32 GB RAM, 10-20 cores/ 3.0 GHz to 4.5 GHz processor |
Software Requirements
ServiceDesk Plus works well on Windows and Linux devices only. A key requirement for ServiceDesk Plus is ManageEngine's Endpoint Central, as the scanning agents are shared between the two products. When you download and install ServiceDesk Plus, the Endpoint Central will also automatically download and install on your Windows device. But, you will have to manually install Endpoint Central on a Linux device.
Besides Endpoint Central, ServiceDesk Plus supports only Firefox, Chrome, and Edge browsers while the database can be PostgreSQL or MSSQL, preferably installed on the same LAN as ServiceDesk Plus.
When you have the above requirements in place, you're all set to download and install ServiceDesk Plus.
Installing ServiceDesk Plus
Click here to download the ServiceDesk Plus installation file. To reiterate, the Windows installation file is ManageEngine_ServiceDesk_Plus.exe while the Linux installation file is ManageEngine_ServiceDesk_Plus.bin. Make sure to download the right file for your OS.
Installing on Windows
To install ServiceDesk Plus on Windows, open the ManageEngine_ServiceDesk_Plus.exe, and this will start the installation wizard. Agree to the terms and conditions and select the appropriate ServiceDesk Plus edition you want. At the time of writing this piece, ManageEngine offers three editions, namely,
- Standard Edition Comes with a basic helpdesk plus a knowledge base and SLA modules.
- Professional Edition Standard edition plus asset and software license management.
- Enterprise Edition Professional edition plus service catalog, project management, ITIL-compliant problem, and change management.
After selecting the edition, select the destination folder for ServiceDesk Plus. Next, enter the web server port if you want to change from the default port of 8080. In the next window, you'll have to select the database. The default is PostgreSQL, but you can also change it to MS SQL and configure the same after the installation. Next, register your name, phone number, and email address to get priority technical support from ManageEngine. If you live in a country where GDPR is applicable, you have to explicitly provide consent. For others, this step is not displayed. Lastly, review the settings and complete the installation.
Installing on Linux
On a Linux device, you can install ServiceDesk Plus through the GUI or the command line. If you choose to install through a GUI, the process is similar to the Windows installation explained above.
Now, let's see how you can install ServiceDesk Plus on a Linux device without using the GUI.
- Get the permission to execute ManageEngine_ServiceDesk_Plus.bin with the command, chmod +x ManageEngine_ ServiceDesk_Plus.bin
- Execute the bin file with the command, ./ManageEngine_ServiceDesk_Plus.bin -i console.
- Read through the installation message and press “1” for the next screen, “3” to cancel, and “4” to redisplay.
- Follow the steps displayed on the screen to complete your installation.
With this, you have installed ServiceDesk Plus on your device, and we'll talk about how you can use it.
Starting ServiceDesk Plus
The easiest option to start ServiceDesk Plus on your Windows device is through the Start menu. Click Start > Programs > ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus -> ServiceDesk Server. This option starts the server and the client is automatically displayed in the default web browser. If the client doesn't start for some reason, select Start > Programs > ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus > ServiceDesk Web Client. The username and password are “administrator” by default and you're strongly encouraged to change the password before you start using it.
To start ServiceDesk Plus on a Linux device, create a file called “servicedesk.txt” in /etc/init.d/ and include the following script in it.
cp servicedesk.txt /etc/init.d/servicedesk
Also, change the MDIR variable to the “bin” folder, and get the execution permission for this file. The command is,
chmod +x servicedesk
When you execute the file, ServiceDesk Plus will start. You can even add this script file to the startup process if you want ServiceDesk Plus to start each time when the device starts.
Stopping ServiceDesk Plus
The process to stop ServiceDesk Plus is similar to the start process. On your Windows device, click Start > Programs > ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus > Shutdown ServiceDesk. You'll see a confirmation message and simply click OK to stop ServiceDesk Plus.
On Linux, simply execute the shutdown file, like this:
sh shutdown.sh -S
Now that we have a grasp of the basics, let's move on to configuring the database. During the installation process, we touched on the need to configure the database post-installation. Let's see how to do that.
Configuring the Database
ServiceDesk Plus supports both PostgreSQL (default) and MS SQL databases, and we'll see how to configure both.
- Configuring the PostgreSQL Database As a first step, run the changeDBServer.bat file on Windows and changeDBServer.sh on Linux. This file opens the database configuration wizard. In the wizard, enter the values for server type, hostname, port (default is 65432), database, username, and password. If you're logging in for the first time, the default username is sdpadmin and the default password is sdp@123. Again, it's highly recommended that you change the password. Also, note that these credentials provide read and write access to only the database. After entering these values, test the connection, and you'll get a confirmation message if it works. Click Save to save these settings.
- Configuring the MS SQL Database For the most part, the process for configuring MS SQL databases is similar to the process we mentioned above for PostgreSQL. A key difference is that you have to enter the username and password of the SQL server. Also, you have to enter the Master Key password to encrypt the SCHAR columns, and this will be asked at the time of creation only.
For both databases, you can choose to run the changeDBserver file on a command line too.
With this, your database is configured, and you're all set to use ServiceDesk Plus.
Using ServiceDesk Plus
As soon as you log into ServiceDesk Plus, you'll see an integrated console that displays a ton of information like the number of open tickets, reports, asset management statistics, and more. In general, ServiceDesk Plus has two main objectives: IT request tracking and asset management. It achieves both these objectives through a wide range of modules discussed below.
Requests
All the IT requests that are created within your organization are tracked through this module. Essentially, it acts as a single source of truth for all issues, and it also empowers you to handle these tickets quickly. In this module, you can assign tickets to respective technicians, track their progress, merge similar tickets, track overdue tickets, and more. Overall, it helps your helpdesk team to improve the response and resolution time of the issues.
Problem Management
This module is available only in the Enterprise edition, and its role is to minimize the impact of problems on your organization. In particular, it identifies and mitigates the impact of errors that occur within your IT infrastructure, and more importantly, prevents their recurrence.
In this sense, the problem management module takes both a reactive and proactive approach, as it helps to solve the problems that arise due to one or more incidents while identifying known errors before they occur.
Change Management
This is an add-on module for the Standard and Professional editions.
As we all know, change is an essential part of an organization's operations, and this module helps to implement the required changes through a six-step process. It also comes with a detailed configuration workflow for each of these six stages, thereby making it easy to address existing challenges and proactively prepare for future problems.
Project Management
Project Management is another critical module that helps you to plan and control the allocation and usage of resources. It comes with many features like milestones, tasks, task relationships, timesheets, and Gantt view, all of which can help you to allocate resources, plan and budget, track progress, and more.
Here's a snapshot of the different aspects of project management and their interactions.
Solutions
Solutions is another important module that can eventually pave the way for a comprehensive knowledge base. This module is a handy place to store all the solutions for the received requests, and using these solutions, you can quickly create a knowledge base or a self-service portal for your end-users. Over time, the information contained in the solutions can bring down the resolution time.
Assets
As mentioned earlier, asset management is a key objective of ServiceDesk Plus, and this module helps to manage your IT and non-IT assets. Using this module, you can track all your assets and manage them well.
The Assets module works well on,
- IT assets like devices, printers, servers, workstations, cloud instances, etc.
- Non-IT assets like chairs, desks, furniture, projectors, etc.
- Asset components like printer ink, keyboard, mouse, etc.
- Software licenses that are installed across the enterprise.
- Software metering platforms that help to track resource usage across your entire organization.
- Compliance with security laws and standards, so the installation of any unlicensed software is detected and flagged.
Undoubtedly, this module is comprehensive and helps you to get the most out of your resources. At the same time, it reduces the chances for underutilization or non-utilization of your resources, especially software licenses. With this module, you can also save costs by focusing on the more important assets for your organization.
Contracts
The Contracts module, as the name suggests, takes care of the contracts you have entered into with customers, suppliers, vendors, and other stakeholders. In particular, it helps to maintain the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) signed with third-party vendors to maintain the infrastructure without any downtime. With this module, you can track the clauses, the date of commencement, what activities fall into this purview, the likely compensation for failure, and more. In other words, it's a one-stop shop for maintaining and managing your contracts.
Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
Configuration Items, or CIs, are a list of all the significant and critical items in your organization's inventory. This list can include hardware devices, software installations, documents, people, business objects, and more. All this information is stored in the CMDB database.
This database has two important aspects: attributes and relationships. Attributes are data elements that describe the characteristics of a single CI, while relationships depict the interactions between these CIs. The advantage of this CMDB is you can easily identify the dependencies of CIs during troubleshooting. It also helps to proactively protect dependent CIs of an affected CI.
Thus, these are the different modules in ServiceDesk Plus that enable you to track requests and manage your assets. All these modules are displayed as tabs in the console. All that you have to do is navigate to each tab you want to view the state of affairs, provided you have the access to view that module and if it's within your subscription plan.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is an advanced ticketing tool that makes it possible to create tickets, track them, and ensure their quick resolution, thereby improving your employees' productivity and end users' experience. Moreover, it also doubles up as an asset management tool, using which you can track your hardware, software, non-IT, documents, and other assets within your organization. In this article, we looked in detail at how you can install, set up, start, stop, and use this platform. We hope this information helps to make the most of ServiceDesk Plus' capabilities. Start a 30-day free trial.
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