osTicket - Ticket Lifecycle: Intake Through Resolution

This tutorial outlines the lifecycle of a ticket from intake to resolution within the open-source help desk ticketing system osTicket.

Environments and Technologies Used

• Microsoft Azure (Virtual Machines/Compute)
• Remote Desktop
• Internet Information Services (IIS)

Operating Systems Used

• Windows 10 (21H2)

Ticket Lifecycle Stages

• Intake
• Assignment and Communication
• Working the Issue
• Resolution

Lifecycle Stages

Intake

Go to localhost/osTicket/index.php and click Open a New Ticket button to create a new ticket.

Fill out the following fields: email address, full name, clock on help topic and select the drop-down menu, type an issue summary, type in the details in the box below, when finished click on create ticket.

Assignment and Communication

Login to osTicket portal as admin

Open your helpdesk ticket by clicking on the ticket number. From there you can set the priority, assign department, assign to a specific rep, and set the service level agreement type (SLA).

In the Tickets window. Click Assigned to and use the drop-down menu to select a support rep.

Within the ticket tab, you can see the thread of any updates to the ticket and submit updates upon assignment. Once finished, click Post Reply and the ticket gets assigned to the appropriate department and your customer gets notified of the change.

Working the Issue

Log into osTicket as an agent

Once logged in, the Tickets window show. It will show the ticket number, Last time it was updated, subject, who submitted the ticket, level of priority, and who it is assigned to. Click on the ticket number to open the ticket to work.

Once the ticket it opened, you can review all ticket items, the history of the ticket items such as who submitted the ticket, who assigned the ticket, and any other activity to the ticket. The bottom section is where you can leave a reply for the user who submitted the ticket and an internal note to notify management if the ticket has been resolved.

In the post reply section click the Post Internal Note tag-->Enter a summary in the Note Title box-->Type in the details in the body to comment what has happened with this ticket.

Resolution

Click on the drop-down menu for Ticket Status-->Select Closed-->Click on Post Note

osTicket will take you back to the Tickets tab. You will see a confirmation that the reply was posted successfully. Below the notification the ticket no longer show in the open menu.

To view the closed ticket, under the Tickets tab click on Closed-->Click on on today from the drop-down menu--> view closed ticket by clicking on the ticket number in the closed ticket list.