Here's what's new in WHD 12.4. You can find the applicable system requirements here.

To view release notes, system requirements, and product guide PDFs for supported versions of WHD, see WHD previous versions. To view release notes for multiple versions and multiple SolarWinds Platform products on a single page, see the release notes aggregator.

 

New features and improvements in WHD

Support for FIPS 140-2 compatible cryptography

For environments where high security standards are required, you can install and configure FIPS 140-2 compatible cryptography to achieve your required level of regulation compliance. The user interface includes a password migration tool to help you migrate techs and clients to FIPS-secure passwords.

Security improvements

Improved security across the application for FIPS-mode SSL connections, which include:

• HTTP over SSL connections
• Microsoft^® Exchange, IMAP, POP3, and SMTP over SSL
• WMI and other asset discovery connections over SSL
• LDAP over SSL
• SolarWinds integration connections over SSL for encrypting Orion platform alerts from SolarWinds
• Network Performance Monitor (NPM), Systems and Applications Monitor (SAM), and Network Configuration Monitor (NCM) to Web Help Desk

Additional security updates

These updates include:

• User password hashes, integration password hashes, and other static data such as database custom
• fields and stored credentials
• Detection and indication of system cryptography status
• Automatic migration of all stored passwords for stronger and more secure cryptography

Fixed customer issues

Case number	Description
415328	Duplicating an action rule now duplicates an action trigger.
621960, 705290	Links to YouTube videos are no longer broken when included in a ticket note.
586123	Web Help Desk now selects the correct location when adding a company to a request type.
700028 779562 794468 856894 858255	Approval and denial email is now sent to the client or tech for tickets with request types that are not linked with an approval process.
465191	Searching for a pop-up custom field value now returns the correct value.
399395 733872 755531 772494 783947 816023 816544 828164 835696 854116	The Close button now appears above all messages in the Messages > New Messages screen.
450619	You can now edit an assigned room from within a ticket after you select the "Lock Ticket To Client Location" checkbox in the Setup > Tickets > Options > Ticket Options screen.
798399	Saving a numerical value greater than 999 in an asset custom field no longer generates an error.
779339	The request type text now appears correctly against a dark background color.
809636 811655 814160 813859	You can now access and edit the client admin credentials and automated emails.
810897 811692	Generating a ticket invoice in the Parts & Billing tab no longer includes tech notes with excessive line breaks.
814454 815206 820467	You can now access an HTTPS connection to Web Help Desk using the Google® Chrome™ Canary web browser.
814246	The Scheduled time and date appear correctly in TSV and PDF ticket reports.
815916 816798	An error message no longer appears when you click a widget ticket bar chart in the Dashboard screen.
810773	An error message no longer appears when you access incoming or outgoing email using a Microsoft® Exchange email account.
823475	All ticket notes appear correctly in client tickets and emails.
827765	Action rules using "only if criteria did not match before the ticket was updated" logic no longer executes multiple times when using the REST API.
851308	Web Help Desk no longer crashes during startup when using the full text search feature in Microsoft SQL Server®.
685112	The tech group assignment is automatically selected correctly when not selected in a client ticket.
831594 834992 835526 836461 842943	A Failure error no longer appears when you unlink a task from a parent ticket and manually run the task from the Setup > Tickets > Tasks > Task Info tab.
826266	Tickets with preselected parent-level request now appear correctly in a ticket report.
841655 89030	Performing a ticket type search in the Tickets > Search Tickets > Advanced Search tab produces the correct results.
812041 838658 920317	The Locations values in the client now filter correctly in the client help request window.
837328 849309	Plain text emails generated to your outgoing mail account are now formatted correctly.
837452	The tooltip for the Category drop-down menu in the Report Details tab now contains accurate help text.
N/A	You can now set the correct billing rates for each country in the Settings > General > Time & Place > Business Zones tab.
872195	You can now set the hourly rate for each country in the Settings > General > Time & Place > Business Zones tab.
870160	You can now select SAML 2.0 as an authentication method in the Setup > General > Authentication Settings screen.
811818	The client secondary locations now sort correctly in the client view.
877817	Tooltips for the Request Type column now appear correctly in the second and subsequent report pages.

Installation or upgrade

For information about installing Web Help Desk, see the WHD Installation and Upgrade Guide.

How to upgrade

If you are upgrading from a previous version, see the Web Help Desk Upgrade Guide. This guide includes checklists to help you prepare and complete your upgrades, gotchas, and troubleshooting steps.

Upgrade your Apache Tomcat software

The SolarWinds Web Help Desk software installer includes Apache Tomcat 7.0.68, which provides enhanced security and is required for this release.

When you upgrade your Web Help Desk software, the upgrade procedure replaces the (WebHelpDesk)\conf\tomcat_web_template.xml file with an updated file that includes the Tomcat settings.

Before you upgrade your Web Help Desk software, back up your current tomcat_web_template.xml file to an external directory. When the upgrade is completed, add your personal settings to the updated file from your backup file.

Upgrading your Apache Tomcat server template file

To prevent unauthorized access to your Tomcat server, SolarWinds recommends configuring your tomcat_server_template.xml file using the following procedure. Do not add any additional code or modifications to the file, which may result in system performance issues or errors.

1. On your Web Help Desk server, navigate to the following directory:
   (WebHelpDesk)/conf
   where (WebHelpDesk) is your Web Help Desk home directory.
2. In the /conf directory, back up your current tomcat_server_template.xml file to a separate location.
3. In the /conf directory, open the following file in a text editor:
   tomcat_server_template.xml
4. In the file, locate and replace all _DHE_ substrings with the following substring:
   _ECDHE_
5. Save and close the file.

For more information, contact SolarWinds Customer Support.

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