Sysaid Installation Guide
Abbie Pilz
SysAid is available in two editions: a fully Cloud, SAAS solution and an installed, In-House solution. This document describes how to install the SysAid On Premises edition (Windows version).
Users accessing the help desk connect to the SysAid server via a web browser. For asset management, you deploy the SysAid agent to your network's computers. Please see the Agent Deployment guide for more information about installing the SysAid agent.
When you registered for a trial of SysAid or placed your order for SysAid, you received an email with a link to download the SysAid server and an attached activation file, activation.xml.
Setup now asks you to input your license file. Select the license key you saved during Step 2 above, then click Next. If you chose Typical installation, skip now to Initializing Your Account and Setting Up A Username and Password.
SysAid comes bundled with MS SQL 2008 R2 Express database. This is the default option when installing SysAid. However, you may also connect SysAid with an external database -- either MS SQL, or MySQL.
User Name and Password
You cannot change the default user name here, but you can change the password if you like.
Note: The password must contain at least eight characters, one uppercase letter, and one number.
Choose a Server HTTP port. This is the port the SysAid Server listens on. The default is 8080. You use this port number when logging into SysAid (this is detailed later on). Unless you have another service already listening on port 8080, there is no reason to change this.
The LDAP Integration Wizard found here works only for Microsoft Active Directory. If you do not want to use LDAP integration, or if you would like to use a different LDAP software, you can click Skip.
The next thing to do is choose your default language for SysAid. Choose from one of the nine available languages. If your language is not in the list, you can still use SysAid in your language of choice by editing the translation file after you've completed installation. Also, the End-User Portal is available in 42 different languages, any of which may be selected after you finish the installation.
After completing installation, the SysAid login page opens in a browser window (it take a minute until it loads, as the SysAid Server is still initializing). Another window opens with the Getting Started Guide. Be sure to read through this guide to learn where to go and what to do when you first start using SysAid.
Congratulations! You've installed SysAid and are now logged in. You will now want to ensure that all of your users are imported into SysAid, install the SysAid agent for asset management, and configure SysAid's many preferences to suit your specific needs. If at any time you need assistance, access the Online Help by clicking your user name in the top right corner and choosing Online Help, this opens a window containing the help topic for the current screen. Also be sure to read our Getting Started guide, which shows you where to go and what to do as you take your first steps with SysAid. Our support team is always available to help you as well. You may contact them at help...@sysaid.com.
You've just installed SysAid and are really excited to get started with it, but rather than diving in haphazardly, you want a guide to show you where to go and what to do first. That's why we've created this Getting Started Guide. Below, we'll take you on a tour of SysAid's basic features. You'll see where to find and how to use the features that you need in order to immediately start managing your service desk and assets more efficiently.
This guide is an overview, and many features will only be mentioned in passing. For a full explanation of any feature, please review the specific feature content, accessible from this guide by clicking on the various hyperlinks you will see, or from any page within SysAid by clicking your user name in the top right corner and choosing Documentation. You are also welcome to contact our support team, and they will be able to provide you with any additional information you require.
SysAid is entirely web based, so you can also access it from any computer that has network access to the SysAid server. Simply open a web browser and enter the IP address of the server you installed SysAid onto followed by a colon followed by the port you chose. If you did not change the port, the default is 8080.
When you log into SysAid, you will see the Manager's Dashboard. For more information on this module, see Dashboard. Note that if you are using the Free edition of SysAid or have purchased SysAid without the Manager's Dashboard module, you will see the Admin Portal instead.
Note: Administrators do not automatically have all permissions within SysAid. In order for an administrator to have all permissions, they must be a "SysAid Administrator." See administrator permissions for further information.
Start out by verifying that your personal settings are correct. Click on your user name in top right corner and choose the My Setting option. Here, you can select your language of choice and ensure that your personal information is correct. For information about the different fields on this page, go here.
Next, go to Settings > Customize > Account Defaults. This page contains many of the same items as the My Settings page. The difference here is that these settings affect all new users you create in SysAid, both end users and administrators.
Note: SysAid includes translations for the Self-Service Portal for 42 different languages, as well as full translations for nine languages (click here for a complete list). If your language is not on this list, you can still translate SysAid yourself. See Translating SysAid and customizing text below for details.
You now need to import your users into SysAid. If you set up LDAP/AD integration during installation, then this is already done. To verify this, go to Tools > User Management > End Users.
Option 2: Import Users From a .csv (Comma Delimited) File
SysAid allows you to import your users from a file. You may do so from Settings > User Management > Import Users. For full instructions on importing from a .csv file, please go here.
Option 3: Create Users Manually
SysAid also allows you to manually create your users. You may do so from Tools > User Management > End Users. For full instructions for manually creating users, please go here.
As you begin to use SysAid, you will want to give access to your other service desk technicians, your administrators. There are two ways to create administrators: directly, or by converting existing end users into administrators.
If you have imported your users from LDAP or from .csv, your administrators were imported into SysAid as end users. You must now convert them into administrators so that they can access the administrator portions of SysAid.
If you did not integrate with LDAP or import users from a .csv, you can create your administrators manually. You may do so from Tools > User Management > Administrators. Go here for further instructions for creating admins manually.
If you imported your users from LDAP, you had the option to import all of the groups in your LDAP. If you have not done this, you may create groups from Tools > User Management > Groups. For detailed instructions on creating groups, please go here.
Go to Settings > Service Desk. The options you see here control settings for your service desk. There are some settings that you should configure before beginning to use the service desk:
General Settings SysAid can send out a variety of automated emails to update administrators and end users when changes are made to service records. It's recommended to choose your settings here carefully, so that you receive the notifications you need without getting swamped by emails. More details
Categories In order to properly classify your service records, you should create categories. SysAid comes with a number of default categories. The Categories tab is where you add your own categories. More details
Routing Rules If you have predefined roles for your service desk staff, you can set up routing rules so that all SRs of a specific type or from a particular user group are assigned to the correct administrator. This saves valuable time when dispatching new SRs. More details
Whether you've used another service desk software before or not, it helps to understand the way incidents are managed in SysAid. This includes how you create incidents, how you manage them, and how you resolve them.
Once an incident has been recorded in SysAid, it falls upon you and your service desk technicians to resolve it. Resolving an incident has two parts: part one is the actual resolution, usually done outside of SysAid. Part two is managing the incident, which is where SysAid comes in.
Go to Service Desk > Help Desk > Incidents to view a list of all incidents recorded in SysAid. You can filter the list to view specific types of incidents, such as new incidents, and then browse through the list to find the specific incident you're looking for.
Helps you to categorize the types of service calls. Examples could include "Printer problems," "Server down," "Broken keyboard," etc. In SysAid, you can set up categories, sub categories, and third level categories.
Indicates how important the immediate resolution of this service record is to the continued normal operation of the company. A server down issue could have a priority of "Very High," while a toner low message could have a priority of "Low."
You can instantly discover your network using agentless discovery methods based on WMI and SNMP protocols. To access a full picture of your network, deploy the SysAid agent to computers running various operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac, and Unix). And to optimize network communication in large-scale networks and to perform discovery tasks behind firewalls, SysAid's Remote Discovery Service (RDS), acts as a proxy for the SysAid server in remote networks.
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