¶ Introduction
This section provides access to advanced configuration options such as dropdowns, components, notifications, SLAs, general, automated tasks, authentication, plugins and external links, etc.
¶ Dropdowns
Most values in ALCM are customizable. It is in this section that you can add, modify, or remove values.
¶ Components
A hardware component is defined by a type, a name, a manufacturer, a comment, as well as several specific fields. Once you've selected the type of component, you'll automatically have access to the list of components already registered. From here, you can:
- Search component from the standard search engine
- Edit an existing and listed component by clicking on its name
¶ Notifications
Notifications allow you to receive messages for certain pre-defined actions. Here the three base notification types:
- Email follow-ups configuration: to configure the server notification connection
- Notification templates: to format the notification messages
- Notifications: association of a template for a given event and define its recipients
¶ Email follow-up configuration
Notifications are sent via email. It is therefore necessary to configure the server notifications connection. In order for notifications to work, you must provide information in the following fields:
- Enable follow-up via email
- Administrator Email
- Administrator reply-to Email
- URL of the application
- Administrator name
- Way of sending emails
- SMTP Host
- Port
¶ Notification templates
ALCM comes with a set of pre-defined templates for all notifications (tickets, reservations, etc …). This template is by default available in English but can be translated in different languages.
Template:
- Name: Template name
- Type: indicates to what type of object the model relates
- Comments: additional information related to the model being edited
- CSS: style sheet used for the model in HTML
¶ Manage notifications
A notification is the association of an event with a given design type. A recipient list is created for this purpose.
A notification consists of a number of specific fields to be filled:
- Type: Object type to which the notification relates
- Notification method: currently only “email” is available
- Event: indicates to which event object type notification relates
- Notification Model: associates a notification template with the current notification
Once the form is validated, the list of potential recipients appears. From this list you must choose which recipients will receive the notification by selecting the recipient and clicking the “Add” button.
¶ SLAs
SLA (Service Level Agreement) is the formalization of an agreement negotiated between the client and the Service Desk defining the level of service expected, or the maximum time to resolve a problem or a request.
Levels of escalations can be defined in an SLA. Each level triggers automatic actions for the resolution of the ticket as soon as possible. Levels trigger before or after the expiry of the SLA according to the defined time period.
SLA's are associated with the tickets via the rules engine. The combination of an SLA with a ticket allows for an automatic calculation of the due date.
SLA have not been implement to be set by a simple requester. It is a part of a service contract. Contract passed between the support service and the users.
¶ General
This tab lets you customize the overall appearance of the application. Different tabs provide parameters related to specific features of the software. For example under 'Assistance', you see personalized information related to the ticketing system. Browse through the tabs and parameters to set your custom values if needed.
¶ Checks
This section allows you to carry out checks before inserting an object into the database. This feature makes adding or updating an inventory object impossible if one already has the same value. This mechanism applies to manual additions, but also to imports from external sources such as inventory tools.
¶ Automatic actions
For each action, it is possible to configure:
- Run frequency
- Status: Turns action off if needed
- Run mode: Internal (ALCM) or External (CLI)
- Run period: To disable certain treatments such as overnight
- Number of days action logs are stored: Stored in SQL DB
The interface also allows you to reset the execution date, force execution, and view statistics and execution logs.
¶ Authentication
The authentication section provides external authentication mechanism that offers the possibility to authenticate with an LDAP server or mail server. This could be useful if you want to use Active Directory to provide users access to ALCM or need authentication for sending mail outside your organization.
¶ Receivers
A receiver can import mail from an inbox and turn it into an ALCM ticket. A routing mechanism is used to assign it to a destination entity. A receiver is associated with an email address. It is possible to add as many receivers as desired.
To define a new receiver, you must provide a name for the receiver, a server IP or hostname, connection options (POP or IMAP, SSL, TLS certificate validation), and a username & password. It is possible to limit the maximum size of attachments (no import or 1-99 MB).
The name of the receiver must be the e-mail used. This determines the address associated with the account.
¶ External Links
Some elements of ALCM may be associated with a set of links to external applications. These links are visible from different tabs. Each link can be associated with one or more item types.
¶ Plugins
Plugins allow you to add new features to ALCM. All previously downloaded and installed plugins are listed on this page. If the plugin is configurable, from the list of plugins you can click on the name of the plugin. This link leads to the configuration page of the plugin.
