Documentation forSolarWinds Service Desk

Service portal landing page

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Select your language

Before a user logs into theSolarWinds Service Desk (SWSD) portal, they can select the language that works best for them.

On the login page, at the bottom left, users see a button that displays the language used by their organization.

To change the language, click the dropdown arrow to display other languages to choose from, and then select a new language.

After login, the language you selected is stored in the user profile, and future logins will automatically use that language.

Introduction

After logging into your organization's Service Desk, you arrive at the Service Portal landing page, also referred to as the home page. On the home page is an interactive overview that highlights several functions of the service portal and enables you to jump to any functionality quickly and seamlessly.

On the service portal home page you'll find helpful information and links to even more information.

Left navigation panel

Notice the 5 menu icons on the left:

Home lets you quickly and easily return to the service portal home page from anyplace in Service Desk.

My Tasks displays an index page of all tasks assigned to you.

My Incidents displays an index page of all incidents assigned to you.

Service Catalog offers all the services you can request directly from the portal.

Knowledge Base articles will help you better understand processes within your organization.

Welcome message & title

The service portal title is front and center.

The welcome message describes the services offered. It can include important information or urgent messages pertaining to your organization. You can find links that direct you to additional areas, fun images, and anything else included within the Service Portal. 

Your company's administrators have the ability to customize the service portal. Some things you might find on your own service portal include links to important lists, such as the knowledge base or pages where you can create a new incident ticket or service request. Your company might also choose to include a contact phone number and hours of service.

Portal Announcement

The Portal Announcement gives your organization the opportunity to post urgent or important messages to the home page of your SolarWinds Service Portal. This feature allows real-time updates for known issues and could prevent you from having to submit a ticket.

Alternatively, an announcement can include updates such as a down server in a specific office location. 

If you are experiencing any issues SolarWinds recommends first checking to see if there are any important announcements! These announcements could be related to vital systems in your organization, planned outages, or even free food in the break room!

If you would like to close out of the portal announcement, just click the exit button located on the right side of the announcement bar.

Universal Search

The Universal Search bar can be used to search everything you can access or view via the Service Portal. This includes the Service Catalog items, which you can use to create a request. You can also search for solutions your organization has created for you to access.

There are two ways to access the Universal Search feature from the Service Portal, each of which will generate identical results.

  • The first access point is the search bar located front and center on the home menu view, below the title and in the search field labeled Please search for your issue... . Type your search words into the field and click the magnifying glass.

    For accounts with Advance and Premier plans, SWSD displays a pop-up containing suggestions that might help users find the information they are looking for. See Artificial Intelligence (AI).

    Suggestions are categorized by type, for example Services and Articles. The user can then click on a suggestion to open it, or create a new ticket if the suggestions do not provide what the user is looking for.

  • You can also access the universal search feature from any menu on the service portal by using the search bar in the top right of the screen. This search bar follows you around while you access the various menus of the service portal.

Any search query typed into either of these locations will take you to the Search Results page. There you will find all related service catalog items (change requests) and solutions.

For example, if you were interested in a new laptop, you could type new laptop into the search bar. The search would reveal the results page containing a New Laptop Request Service Catalog item. All you need to do is fill out the required details and click Request Item to initiate the request process.

Always be sure to type carefully into the search bar to see useful information. In the example you can see result of typing new labtop instead of new laptop.

service portal example image

You can create a new incident or request an item from the service catalog if you don’t find what you are looking for.

User Profile Card

The User Profile Card allows you to view information regarding your personal user account. You can edit various information and see your service catalog requests as well as any submitted incidents.

To navigate to the user profile card, click your user icon in the top right of the screen to reveal a dropdown menu, and then select My Account.

The user profile card will show you the various information associated with your user account. On the left, you will find user specific information including:

  • Title
  • Phone
  • Role
  • Site
  • Department

In addition, you see all associated requests under the Service Desk section on the right of the card. You can click into these service requests from the Requested Incidents list or jump from your User Profile Card to your requests list by clicking See all….

The user profile card also gives you the option to edit some of the information located on the card. As a user with the Requester role, the information you can edit may be limited. To edit, click the pencil located toward the top of the card.

After you have selected to edit your user profile card you will see the various fields you can edit.  This includes your user profile Image, any field that is not greyed out, and your email signature.

To edit your user profile image, click Upload Image and choose a file from your computer. You can also click into any one of the text fields that are not greyed out to edit the information. This could include your name, title, and phone numbers. You can also edit your SolarWinds password by using the Change Password button. Scroll to the bottom of the edit screen to edit your email signature if your organization allows. This signature will be included in all emails sent from SolarWinds on your behalf.

Highlighted Services

The highlighted services section displays a list of Service Catalog items which your organization has deemed as popular or most used. These services are listed here for your convenience.

You can also select the View all button to jump to a list of all services available in the Service Catalog through the Service Portal.

Popular Solutions

The Popular Solutions section of the Service Portal Home menu highlights solutions that your organization has regarded as useful and more commonly used solutions. These solutions are highlighted for ease of access.

You can also select the View all button to jump to the Solutions/Knowledge Base menu of the service portal.

My Requests

The My Requests section displays all Active or Closed requests that you have submitted in the system. This will include all incidents that you have submitted and Service Catalog item that you have requested.

By default, you will see all “Active” incidents or requests that you have open. This will include any New, Assigned or Resolved items. You can click into any item here to see more details regarding the Incident or Service Catalog Request.

If you would like to view your Closed Requests, please access from the dropdown menu.

You can also click more info at the bottom of this list to view the My Requests index page of the Service Portal.

Chat

Notice the chat window on the right side of your screen.  Your IT team is readily available to answer basic questions and save you time.  If you can’t find what you are looking for in the Useful Services or Useful Articles lists, feel free to ask your chat representative.

After your questions have been answered, simply click End Chat

(The Agent can create an incident off the correspondence, if needed for reporting purposes).

@Mentions

If you have access to a ticket, you can use @mentions in the ticket. When you @mention someone, you are tagging them. Just type the @ symbol, then select the appropriate user's name from the pop-up list of users.