Documentation forWeb Help Desk

Introduction

Web Help Desk® (WHD) by SolarWinds® is a web-based automated ticketing solution that helps you manage your IT support requests for both internal and external clients. Use Web Help Desk to create and manage tickets through the web console. It also supports email ticket creation, automatic ticket assignment and escalation, asset management, and incident and problem management.

All help desk processes are managed through the web console. After you set up the application, you can configure Web Help Desk to perform specific tasks. These tasks include routing tickets to a specific help desk technician or work group and creating new tickets from email requests or alert messages from a supported monitoring application.

You can run Web Help Desk on the following operating systems and platforms:

  • CentOS
  • Fedora
  • macOS
  • Microsoft Windows Server
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Web Help Desk includes an extensive library of FAQs, integrated tool tips, and online help you can access from the Web console. See the Web Help Desk documentation website for details.

Key features

Web Help Desk includes several features to help you manage your enterprise or managed service provider (MSP) help desk operations.

FIPS cryptography with TLS 1.2 support

You can configure your deployment with FIPS 140-2 compliance cryptography that supports Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2. This feature provides enhanced end-to-end data security over a computer network.

FIPS 140-2 is required for computer systems installed in U.S. Federal government agencies and companies in a regulated industry (such as healthcare and financial institutions) that share and distribute sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information.

Google Gmail and Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) support

You can create a new incoming email account and link the account to your Google Gmail or Office 365 email account. After you complete the configuration, you can access the email account, retrieve the incoming email, and generate a new ticket using the data in the email.

Calendar integration with Microsoft Exchange and Google Calendar

The Calendar tab in the WHD Web Console displays the number of scheduled tickets and events due for the current day.


When a tech schedules a ticket in the WHD calendar, a calendar event is sent to the Microsoft Exchange or Google email address configured in their tech account. When a pending ticket is due, the tech receives a reminder from their Google or Outlook calendar.

This integration allows you to use your email and WHD calendar to review pending tickets, plan your weekly schedule, and ensure that all customer issues are resolved in a timely manner. Administrators can use the calendar to keep track of ticket resolutions and reassign a ticket when the assigned tech is unavailable.

Out of office configuration for vacationing techs to assign tickets to a backup tech

Techs can configure an out of office date and time, as well as a backup tech in their tech account. This feature allows vacationing techs to address their incoming tickets while they are out of the office.

Improved collaboration between techs and admins

Techs and administrators can collaborate with each other within a ticket using the @ mention feature. This feature allows both support personnel to create tickets and then add notes within a ticket and tag (or mention) the collaborating administrator or tech regarding ticket resolution.

After the ticket note is saved, the corresponding team member receives an email that reiterates the ticket note. This process can help assist your team to resolve a ticket in a timely manner.

Ticket checklists

You can create a ticket checklist to ensure that all ticket tasks are completed before a ticket is closed. Techs can create an ad-hoc checklist from within a ticket or an administrator can create checklists templates to automate your ticketing process.

Checklist templates can help you automate your ticketing process by ensuring that all steps are completed before the ticket is closed. To automate your ticketing process, an administrator can create a checklist template and assign the template to new request types. This process ensures that all techs have a consistent list of checklist items to complete for each request type, as well as reduce the overhead of child tickets that provide the same functionality.

Request type archive

You can archive a request type in the Web Help Desk Administrator Console. This process archives the request type and all associated tickets so they are hidden from clients and techs.

When an administrator generates a report, the request type and associated ticket information are included in the report. The archived request type is appended with [A] in the reports and dashboard widgets. You can remove a request type from the archive by clearing the corresponding checkbox. The archived ticket data does not display in the dashboard widgets.

Parent/child service relationships

You can link multiple service requests to one parent ticket to address a repeated issue or task (such as on-boarding a new employee or tracking your IT projects). You can also pass notes, attachments, and custom fields between parent and child tickets to share data to relevant tasks.

Automated ticketing processing

You can generate help desk tickets manually in the user interface or automatically by emails from any third-party monitoring tool. You can also create tasks to link a ticket automatically to an existing ticket that triggers an action rule.

If you are running Dameware® Mini Remote Control (included with SolarWinds Help Desk Essentials), you can establish a remote connection and troubleshoot a client system directly from a ticket or asset and save remote session details into a new or existing ticket.

IT asset management and inventory

Using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or supported third-party discovery tools, you can search a specific IP address range in your corporate network and create a list of client assets (such as computer systems, installed software, and attached peripherals). When asset discovery is completed, you can use Dameware MRC to connect remotely to a client system, troubleshoot the issue, and append remote session information to a new or existing ticket.

IT change management

You can manage change control in your organization using automated approval processes. These include creating approver roles, assigning departments and clients to approver roles, and configuring approval processes.