Personal Ticket Tracking System for Admins?

sirfunk asks: "I am a student and part-time system admin for a few local businesses. Most of the businesses I work for do not have me come in regularly, I'm sort of on a on-call, fix-it-when-it-breaks schedule. I'm wondering if anyone out there has come across a personal ticket-tracking system, that would allow my businesses to submit tickets with their problems and priority. The primary requirement would be that the user interface (for my businesses) would be very simple. I've checked out Bugzilla and Trac both of them look way overcomplicated for my needs. Any ideas?"

Comments

One or Zero

[joe90]

One or Zero works for me - http://www.oneorzero.com/

Re:One or Zero

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not OSS, you fucking Republican asshole. WHat the fuck is wrong with you? Jesus H. Fucking Christ.

Re:One or Zero

[cbiltcliffe]

From the OneOrZero site:

The OneOrZero Task Management and Helpdesk software is licensed under the latest version of the GPL.

We encourage you to embrace open source development and what it stands for. Please read the license and help support this movement.

What exactly is your definition of OSS?

Re:One or Zero

[kahanamoku]

Hmmm... I read and re-read the author's question 6 times over, and am yet to find a reference where he/she specifically asked that the program be OSS?

P.S. Apologies for feeding the troll

Re:One or Zero

[Sven The Space Monke]

Here's another vote for OneOrZero. I'm a sysadmin for a small 3 location retail company, and it's great. Simple enough that it takes almost no training to use, and it does the job. It looks really professional, too.

Re:One or Zero

[chivo243]

I'm a Network engineer, but also wear the hat of HellDesk Manager... We tried an in house home brew ticking and tracking system using FMP, but it wasn't what "Administration" wanted. We have just implemented OneorZero(tx JFK). So far, it kicks ass. We made the donation to get the latest version, and life is good. We can generate reports that "Administration" can understand. We have only scratched the surface of what this software can do. We are building an extensive KB from our tickets, and we hope the users might look at their past tickets for solutions to their "same old problem." So, check it out, you owe it to yourself. ;-}

Re:One or Zero

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose I should add my own £0.02 and pimp my project. :) It's PHP and uses PEAR:DB. Designed for an educational environment but suitable for anywhere where there are lots of busy users who need an intuitive system. IMHO. http://tonywhitmore.co.uk/storm/

Source

[Neil Blender]

Forge

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

RT

[professorfalcon]

RT: Request Tracker is pretty good.

Re:RT

[ocbwilg]

I second that, RT is great. You set it up to query a POP account every 5 minutes and it automatically grabs issues emailed to you, creates a ticket, and sends a response to the requestor with the ticket number. It has a nice web-based front end so that your customers can log in an open tickets or review the status of cases, and it does everything that you would want from a ticket tracking system. Best of all it's open source, so it costs you nothing and you can modify it to fit your needs (though it is highly configurable without having to dig under the hood and learn perl). There is a sort of a Windows port of it if you're into that thing, but it still runs on Cygwin in part so it's not truly native.

Re:RT

[zamboni1138]

I third RT. I have been using it for years. Apache + mod_ssl + MySQL + Perl + RT + sendmail = a nice ticket system.

Re:RT

[bernywork]

Another vote for RT.

It's brilliant, I used it for years and am about to go through and set it up again.

Berny

Re:RT

[Enry]

What they said. RT rocks.

Re:RT

[Grizzletooth]

RT is great. I run a mid-sized ISP in the Northwest, and we use it for just about every trackable business process. It's only real issue is complexity of installation. It has a truly massive Perl package dependency list.

TrackPlus

[zubinjdalal]

Track Plus

Demo Version

We ran it internally for a bit using Tomcat and MySql.

The last I remember it was free for use for less than 10 users.

Cerberus

[MeanMF]

Cerberus Help Desk. There's a pretty simple web GUI, or you can tell your users to email issues to a support mail address and it'll enter them into the tracking system automatically. There's a free version that's 100% functional, except that it's limited to a single email address/ticket queue. For your purposes that sounds like that's enough.

Re:Cerberus

[phdhell]

I agree. We have made extensive use of Cerberus within our company. The initial chrome is a bit ropey, but it's easy enough to change that with a little PHP knowledge. The email -> ticket facility has been brilliant for our purposes where we need to record when a file has been recieved and track all the changes on it.

Geoff

Re:Cerberus

[Komarosu]

Another vote for Cerb, Used it for a while now and i've had no serious problems. As said above the public web interface is rather ugly to start but easy enough to change

Good Lord...

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

Does nobody at all do even a Google search before asking questions here. A ticket tracking system? Hmmm.....

Re:Good Lord...

[jaseparlo]

Dude, there is such a thing as too much information. Same for people above who said sourceforge. He might *find* every ticketing system on earth through one of those methods, but should he have to research, download, install (including battering himself against poorly documented and painful to implement open source installs) and test every package he finds to decide what to use?

For big orgs with a lot of technical users, RT is fine but for a small simple operation it's hopelessly overcomplicated. He wouldn't find that out without spending a week googling and reading reviews and articles

A number have people have compared the merits of just using email for a small operation, he *never* would have come across that idea by searching google

It's really not such a dumb question. The simple fact that there are so many options means it's worth asking somewhere for some aggregated wisdom. Haha wisdom..slashdot...

It's worth joining an industry group or something for questions like this. I'm in SAGE-AU, under $100/year, the mailing list alone is invaluable for finding useful professional advice, on both technical questions and organisational stuff like this. You may still get flamed with 'check the archive' replies, but the archive will either have the answer or you can explain why it doesn't and get resonable responses.

Re:Good Lord...

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

For big orgs with a lot of technical users, RT is fine but for a small simple operation it's hopelessly overcomplicated. He wouldn't find that out without spending a week googling and reading reviews and articles

Bullshit.

MAGIC

[XiticiX]

We use MAGIC HELPDESK here where I work. It's clunky, but it works. I would have designed it much differently.

Re:MAGIC

[Kymermosst]

We use MAGIC HELPDESK here where I work. It's clunky, but it works. I would have designed it much differently.

I hear that if you take the MAGIC MUSHROOMS first, the interface appears far less clunky.

Re:MAGIC

[Zero Interupt]

We call it tragic where I work. An saying that it works is being kind....

Request tracker

[secolactico]

Try "Request Tracker" http://www.bestpractical.com/rt Easy to set up, scriptable, both web and email interface.

Or do a search on freshmeat for "ticket system" or something along the lines.

Re:Request tracker

[RollingThunder]

Yup, and was recommended in the recently-reviewed Time Management for System Administrators.

Re:Request tracker

[outZider]

Yeah, but horrible to administer and a completely murdered user interface. :(

Re:Request tracker

[jrockway]

I'll agree that RT is lacking in many areas (but it works)... but what's the problem with the UI? The user logs in, types the text of his ticket, hits submit. Couldn't be better.

Re:Request tracker

[V. Mole]

I like RT, and we use it at work, but it's serious overkill for what the original poster wanted. If Trac is too heavyweight, it's unlikely that RT is going to be easier.

Re:Request tracker

[outZider]

For the person who posted this, and for many geeks, RT works quite well. For those unfamiliar with some types of ticketing environments, or needing more guidance, RT kinda sucks. :(

Re:Request Tracker

[Anonymous Coward]

I use this one on a regular basis. the fact that tickets are generated by e-mails helps the customer submit thier own tickets easy

Re:Dedicated Email Address

[conJunk]

Seriously, use a dedicated email account. Call it "workorders@yourdomain.com." Sounds oversimple, perhaps, but I think it would be more than sufficient for your needs as described.

100% right on. email is the way to go. they come to you, you can look at them easily (and anywhere), and you can easily respond if the fix is a simple one they can do themselves

use a different address for each of your customers: joes.garage.support@example.net; keep it real simple, and everyone is happy

Simple To Do list

[nursegirl]

I'm a nurse and part-time sysadmin for the nonprofit I work for (I know, I know, I agree it's a bad idea, but no one more qualified has volunteered to come and do it for free). I've been using the Backpack ToDo list. I have a Thunderbird template on each computer that has the email for a backpack page and TODO in the subject line. In the body, the submitter has to put their computer ID, the problem, and either "urgent" or "annoying". Backpack is set up to SMS me when messages come in, and then I can categorize the ToDo's and set up a time to deal with it in my calendar.

My bosses all have access to the page, so they can confirm that I'm doing the work within a reasonable timeframe, and I can check on requests from anywhere.

Email

[Anonymous Coward]

Use firefox filtering capabilities to automatically filter email into your 'business' folder.

Re:Email

[painkillr]

wow is there *NOTHING* firefox can't do?

Re:Email

[Anonymous Coward]

some jackass said: Use firefox filtering capabilities to automatically filter email into your 'business' folder.

Then the next guy painkillr said: wow is there *NOTHING* firefox can't do?

To which I say, I may be old and not with it, but last I checked firefox was a web browser, not an email client, and it sure as hell can't give me a blowjob or make my coffee, two requirements of my something that can do everything. But, I could also be very very wrong.

This may be slightly off topic, but I am sure that it is just as slightly on topic as well.

Re:Email

[painkillr]

the only part you got right is that you are indeed "old and not with it"

also summing up the 2 parent posts was stupid, the only other thing you did right was to post as an AC so that you could hide your shame

Suggestion

[Rac3r5]

Hi, I suggest that you try out Mantis. The company I work at used to use Bugzilla before but the interface was overly complicated and fugly to look at and nobody really ended up using it. Right now we use Mantis at work and its quite a change from bugzilla. Very decent interface. It has an advaned and a simple mode as well. http://www.mantisbt.org/

Re:Suggestion

[Anonymous Coward]

Mantis allows you to have public and private bugs, and to limit users to certain projects. That way you can have different clients post to the same system. Each client only sees the bugs related to them, but you can see all the bugs across all projects/clients.

Mantis +1

Write your own.

[Kymermosst]

Seriously. Many CS classes (assuming you are a CS student) will have you do some medium-sized projects anyway. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

I wrote a web-based trouble ticket tracking system for my Database Processing class.

Re:Write your own.

[RomulusNR]

This presumes he is a CS student. While that may seem obvious, it is not at all a given.

I knew plenty of philosophy majors that were admins in their spare time, and currently work with an Oracle developer who is studying Latin.

Re:Write your own.

[sirfunk]

Heh, I'm actually a Music student. I could write my own, and I plan to if I can't find anything suitable that already exists. However, I don't want to re-invent the wheel, nor do I really have time to.

Re:Write your own.

[CanadianBoy]

currently work with an Oracle developer who is studying Latin

Hmmm, I think I just figured out a lot more about why Oracle makes my head hurt sometimes

Re:Write your own.

[goodEvans]

I did write my own. I used a LAMP environment, and it took me a day and a half - and I'm not a real programmer. It's one 13k php file and 4 mysql tables.

My users are, to be frank, not the brightest bunch (aircraft mechanics...), so their interface just asks for a name, their location, and a short problem description. click a button, and it sends the three of us in the department an email. There's also a list interface to see what tickets haven't been taken yet.

It's quick and simple, but there's nothing to slow down access, like having to log in before posting a ticket. If you like, I'll clean the code up and email it to you.

Re:Write your own.

[stan_freedom]

not the brightest bunch (aircraft mechanics...)

I usually overlook such remarks, but I couldn't pass on this one. I worked with aircraft mechanics and machinists at Boeing for 10 years. I also have a friend who is a mechanic for a major airline. As a group, these people are great trouble shooters and problem solvers. They are skilled in their profession. They build and repair airplanes, as opposed to clearing paper jams, waiting for the phone to ring, playing Mine Sweeper, etc. My friend is living an upper-middle class lifestyle and is the sole provider for his wife/children. He doesn't fit into the category "not the brightest bunch". Some of the best IT guys I have met transistioned from fields requiring mechanical or engineering aptitude. Don't sell them short just because they don't have computer skills. I wouldn't appear too bright if I had to try to find and repair a micro-crack in a bulkhead, knowing that if I failed, hundreds of people would be instantly and violently tossed into eternity.

Re:Write your own.

[goodEvans]

Some of the best IT guys I have met transistioned from fields requiring mechanical or engineering aptitude

Me, for one ;-)

I did my apprenticeship as an aircraft mechanic, starting in 1990. I have no formal training in computers, and make use of the troubleshooting and problem-solving skills I gained from my background almost every day. I perhaps should have qualified my comment - "Many of my users are not the brightest". There are many very bright guys who work here - responsible, quick-witted, intelligent people who have no problem with computers, and use them every day while also doing a bang-up job fixing aircraft.

But there are more than a few who are, shall we say, less than genteel. Now don't worry - they are not in any sort of position that requires them to think when it comes to fixing an aircraft. Every step that an aircraft mechanic makes (in the European system) is checked by an inspector, and he carries out work strictly in accordance with approved data, so the aircraft are perfectly well looked after. But... I've seen copiers smashed when they close the lid too hard. They move computers without unplugging them, so we spend half our lives replacing network cables. Or if they do unplug it, there's no way they can plug it back in the same way. They're not allowed to replace printer cartridges any more, since one of them got sent home covered from head to foot in toner. And I also know some of the things that do go on with an aircraft under heavy maintenance - some of which would make your hair stand on end. There's a reason there's a sledgehammer in the building...

Re:Write your own.

[phant0m_z3r0]

Im was in the exact same situation as the poster. I manage a small group of Servers and client machines. Im only in the office for 3-4 hours a day. There was 3 poeple whom users were reporting the errors to. Unfortently there was no documentation of if we fixed the issue or no reporting to the other people whom should know. Spent a fternoon and wrote up a asp .net mssql database (ms only network) troubleticket system. Not only is it increased effecincy to the point i dont know how we did it before, I look like a a god. For sure write your own, its really not that hard.

RT request ticketting.

[Slippy.]

Might be a little overkill.

But it's got the necessary features and much of the advanced stuff. I've used this at a job and it worked well. Hardest part was the setup (short-steep learning curve for the initial config).

Install went smooth enough.

MySQL, apache, PHP base. Maybe some other stuff needed too.

Cons:
    - Too many options to sometimes (overly complicated) maybe.
    - Without a nicer template, the default look isn't pretty. Maybe not so hot for customer facing.
        * There might be nicer skins. I didn't bother looking.

http://www.bestpractical.com/rt

Re:RT request ticketting.

[Slippy.]

Oops. No PHP, just perl. It's been awhile.

And the database choice is flexible.

http://wiki.bestpractical.com/index.cgi?ManualRequ irements

unipress footprints 7

[Deathlizard]

http://www.unipress.com/

Unipress Footprints has a lot of nice features: calendaring, submission by form, instant web chatting and VNC support, time tracking, built in knowledgebase, and more.

It's not free, but it's what we use at the college and it works great.

Mantis Bug Tracking System

[Copperhead]

Once you get it set up, Mantis is pretty easy to use. You can have a simply interface for creating tickets, with more information available to those who work, verify, and close the tickets.

OSS Choices

[futuresheep]

There's a few packages out there that you can run on a LAMP server, including the following:

PHP Helpdesk
PHP Support Tickets
Trouble Ticket Express

Re:OSS Choices

[doodzed]

Try Request Tracker from www.bestpractical.com.

We are on our second revision and are very happy. For most users we have an email address they send tickets too. As we interact with the ticket they get updates via email. They can reply to this email and it gets added in with the ticket. Really accessible interface.

They also have an add on wiki available that is fairly usefull and integrated.

Just a note... this is based on mod_perl and may be ram intensive(512MB for us).

The config is also kinda wierd and tedious till you learn to orient yourself. Then you learn to appreciate the ability to restrict or grant access in a magnitude of ways. There has been nothing I havent been able to config with this packege... very happy here.

Re:Dedicated Email Address

[tsstahl]

I'll second this second.

I'll even give you a gmail invite if you need one.

Just tell your folks to send you a news story email: how, what, where, when, why.

Every one of your clients has email in some form. If they don't have an email address, call Wharton for a case study specimen.

The best advice I can give you is as a one man operation, DO NOT get hung up on your own infrastructure. Every minute spent on your office is one less billable, or fullfillable moment of your life.

Time happens, and you won't believe how long these clients will be a part of your life. Hopefully your keyboard will eventually give way to something warm and cuddly (preferably of the same species) and you'll appreciate your sparse, ugly, but workable processes and procedures. :)

Oh yea, since this is slashdot, there is a really useful website at www.google.com. You type a question into the magic rectangle, and a bunch of possible answers appear. Google is kind of like a magic 8 ball on meth. Hopefully this admonishment is snide enough to win mod points. :)^2

So

[BoomerSooner]

Helpful...

Re:So

[Neil Blender]

Thanks, I know it is. Because if you go there and search for 'ticket', there are more than a dozen high activity ticket tracking projects in the first 20 results.

Re:So

[Anonymous Coward]

so how about if you name one that you've had some personal experience with, with your commentary about its pro's and con's, instead of just giving an arrogant "look it up yourself" answer such as "look on source forge"?

as to the actual question, using a prebuilt system might not always be the best answer. developing a very simple PHP+MySQL ticketing system may be the best result, as you will have only what is exactly pertinent in your scenario. in a couple of my past experiences we felt it was easier in our situation to build something basic from scratch rather than extensively custom tailor a pre-existing system.
however, i did check out the link mentioned in an earlier thread, http://www.oneorzero.com/ and from the demo it seems like it could be a very well rounded tool, which i will be looking into.

Re:So

[SuiteSisterMary]

And heaven forbid you want some real-world advice on pros and cons, gotchas, pitfalls and nifty features, ease of installation/maintenance, suitability for specific purposes, or any of that other stuff.

Re:So

[Vorx]

Nice DT reference in your sig

PmWiki

[math0ne]

I had this same problem recently and came up with PmWiki's bug tracking solution. Small, Wiki based, nice looking. Slightly complicated to set up but not anything like TRAC (I recently set this up and it was a nightmare). http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/PITS In the comments thread there are some updated versions that include decent installation instructions. You can check out my installation of it here: http://mcquay.org/bugs/ Hope this helps.

A little dusty but still pretty good

[assantisz]

I successfully implemented req a few years ago on a job. It's entirely e-mail based, i.e. it's easy for your customers to interface with.

Another option (a little more modern) would be RT. Our security group is using it with success. They get at least a hundred new tickets every day and RT made it possible for them to deal with all of them in a timely manner.

IRM

[pci]

I'm going to suggest IRM, it should do everything your looking for and keep track of the computer systems (inventory) on each site.

I used to use it and liked it.

Smarter Ticket...

[joecm]

If an ASP.Net app meets your needs, you might check it out. Free single user version I believe.

http://www.smarterticket.com/Products/SmarterTicke t/Default.aspx

Re:Dedicated Email Address

[Vellmont]

I'd have to disagree here. The point of a form to fill out is to elicit more detailed responses from the ticket submitters. All too often if you only have the free-form of an email people won't give enough details of the problem to be able to start finding a solution. If you have fields like "what do you expect to happen", "what error messages, if any do you get?", "what do you do to replicate the problem?", "how urgent is a solution needed?", etc asks people many of the questions you're ultimately going to need the answer to solve the problem.

Remember, the people who are submitting job tickets aren't necessarily problem solvers, so they don't know what kind of information you're going to need to fix a problem. A little guidance of a form can go a long way to make the system more useable for everyone.

Roll your own

[wetfeetl33t]

In all seriousness, you could try building one yourself. Firstly, it allows you to build it to your exact specifications and tastes. Secondly, it shouldn't be too difficult, especially if you're looking for something simple. I wrote a pretty nice one with plenty of features for my IT department in an afternoon, with a couple more hours of testing before it was rolled out.

Re:Dedicated Email Address

[Bogtha]

All too often if you only have the free-form of an email people won't give enough details of the problem to be able to start finding a solution. If you have fields like "what do you expect to happen", "what error messages, if any do you get?", "what do you do to replicate the problem?", "how urgent is a solution needed?", etc asks people many of the questions you're ultimately going to need the answer to solve the problem.

So stick an HTML form in front of the email, with a textarea for each question. When the form is submitted, send it straight to your email address and CC the client so they have a copy too.

OTRS...

[NeuralAbyss]

OTRS is the way to go.. been trialling it here with another person (two admins, ~200 users).. works a treat.

Re:OTRS...

[Thalagyrt]

I tried to install OTRS a long time ago when I was setting up my small hosting business... I was never able to get it to run within Plesk. The setup for it is ridiculous, and has almost no documentation at all... I wound up using OSTicket. It meets my needs, by no means anything flashy, but it does the job.

Re:OTRS...

[NeuralAbyss]

We considered osTicket for our project.. but one (minor?) setback - it's not available for download at present.

Re:OTRS...

[Thalagyrt]

Ah, yeah, I can see that would make things slightly difficult. =P

JIRA

[LadyLucky]

JIRA is great! http://www.atlassian.com.au/

FlySpray

[Anonymous Coward]

I use Flyspray, it is lightweight and direct. http://flyspray.rocks.cc/

Try elogd

[Obstin8]

Definately give elogd a spin. Customized inputs. security, self-contained web server, xml exports, simple configuration, very quick, searching, yada yada. I used it for a few years for ticket tracking when I had a smaller number of customers. Worked like a charm. See it here: http://midas.psi.ch/elog/index.html.

SharePoint Services

[returnoftheyeti]

What about somthing like Sharepoint Services. Have a public facing Sharepoint site, some custom forms, and maby even a calander. You could even post some documentation, like an explaination as to WTF "PC load Letter" means.

Zwiki Tracker

[batfish]

http://zwiki.org/ZwikiTracker is easy and effective. See the links demonstrating three different views (use login x, x for the last). Also works in Plone.

I agree! Mantis!

[Daath]

I considered bugzilla at our business, but some of the users reporting bugs, would never figure that out - I installed Mantis and it was a success - So much so, that they started using it to request features etc ;P

Oracle Application Express

[MrCreosote]

Oracle Application Express Tutorial: Building an Issue Tracking System

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database /application_express/tutorials.html

Application Express is included in the Oracle Database 10g Express Edition.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database /xe/index.html

Try this one

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.liberum.org/

Liberum Help Desk. Searched for a couple days and tried all sorts of PHP/MySQL ones before I found this nice little ASP system.

Good feature set. Uses LDAP for authentication, so if your users are on a Windows domain, it will authenticate automatically. Has great email functionality too.

Not as polished as some of the other packages out there, but it's free and it works.

Re:Try this one

[Rinnt]

I will second this. I've been using Liberum in my organization for well over a year. The interface is simple, the setup is easy, and the benefits are great. Liberum lets you track and and submit problems via a web based interface. As OP mentioned LDAP or AD integration is possible. You can store the data in an Access file or SQL. Perhaps mysql would work too...

Roundup

[Richard Jones]

[I'm the author of Roundup]

I get good feedback from people using Roundup for this sort of thing (amongst others).

You can set it up to accept mail in, and for each new ticket (issue) created, it sets up a little mini-mailing list of the author and the people cc'ed on the incoming email.

Re:Roundup

[Chalex]

I would also like to recommend Roundup. I used it at a previous place of employment. The nice feature (which other trackers probably also have) is that a user can send an e-mail to the Roundup tracker, and it'll generate a ticket.

In general, you can modify an issue through the commandline or through the web interface or through e-mail. Of course, I don't think anyone uses the command line interface.

Also, Richard does a great job of responding to any issue regarding Roundup, just see the mailing lists.

Also, it's written in Python and can be easily modified to suit your needs.

Re:Roundup

[dalesc]

I'll add my vote for Rounudup. We use it.

Roundup is good. It is easy to install and very easy to use.

Your clients can use the web interface or submit problems by email.

It's very configurable but, if you want to really bend it, it's written in Python so it's hackable.

I also agree

[HelloKitty]

Mantis is cool.
it's kinda source forgey, and you get to run it yourself on your own server.
customization of certain things is possible and they're improving it all the time.
I found customization of the views (i.e. the columns you see when viewing all your bugs) wasn't supported and you had to hack PHP files. though who knows, maybe they'll fix that soon too (or already!)...

There's also Gforge, which aims to be like sourceforge, though last I tried to use it I felt confused, which was maybe like 3 years ago, so maybe it's good now...

Perldesk

[Androclese]

http://perldesk.com/

Best $100.00 I've ever spent. It even allows tickets to be accepted via email with an auto-responder.

Re:Perldesk

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice if you don't need to customize. We chose it as a basis for our helpdesk and did a lot of customization. We practically had to re-write it from scratch. I think the phrase spaghetti-code applies here.

osticket community version

[capsteve]

i'm actully glad to see the question asked, i'd like to see some of the other options...

i was researching this a couple weeks ago, and have decided to give osticket community version a try.

i've used wreq in the past and recommend it, and will also check out RT, it is we documented and even has an oreilly book! both of these are heavy perl based, where as osticket is more php/mysql based. make sure to check out the community version, the commercial version is a little stale... in any event my requirement was a web interface with both help desk and user interfaces, and the ability to email submitted tickets to submitter as well as help desk, and perform searches.

eventum

[Anonymous Coward]

We recently starting using a tracking system, our QA person came in did some research and told us that the system with the simplest interface for the reporters was Eventum. So we have been using and it seems to work pretty well very customizable so you can hide all of the scary options if need be. http://eventum.mysql.org/

FogBugz?

[dFaust]

Well, you didn't say free or open-source, so I'll throw out the suggestion of FogBugz. For a single user it would set you back $129. It has a whole interface for dealing with external users (ie: your clients) where they just send an email to an email address you setup and it goes into the system as a new issue. It then sends them an email back giving them a link where they can track the status of the issue. Within the issue, you have the ability to add notes that are either hidden or visible to the client, should you ever need to make note of anything regarding an issue that you don't want them to see.

All in all it's not bad. Definitely easy for both you and especially the client, since they won't have to learn the interface of an application, just send an email. Plus you get support, though to maintain the support contract past 45 days it would run, for a single user (clients don't count as users), $1.50/month. So not too shabby.

I don't have experience with other applications that would fit the bill, so I can't say this is the best option... but I think it's a pretty decent one.

Re: Form-by-email

[jipis]

I have to disagree with the whole form-by-email thing for a few reasons:

a) You're starting to take the (IMHO overly-) simple concept of having problems emailed in and making it more complicated. As time goes on, you're going to realize that it'd be nice if the form had this-or-that capability or just a bit of functionality, etc. You're going to end up right where you started: wanting a ticket-tracking system.

b) As a local sysadmin without a ticket-tracking system and as a customer of the enterprise-wide IT dept which does have a tracking system (which only they can access -- I submit a helpdesk ticket via email using a form I designed because they always were bouncing my requests back to me with requests for more info), I feel I've seen it from both (all?) sides. The email system is bad because, as I said before, the email will never have all of the info you want. Even when you kick the ticket back to the client with requests for specific information, the information still isn't all there.

It's for this reason that one of these days I'm planning on rolling my own inventory tracker / trouble ticket / work task ticket system (where linking a trouble/work ticket to a particular inventory item is the most important part). I have very specific needs on this job that I haven't before on any of my 4 previous sysadmin jobs. If I could find something already made which took care of this, great. I haven't been able to find anything, though. Guess we're in the same boat. Well, similar, at least.

-J

You might try...

[metaomni]

We've had a lot of success implementing OSTicket. It's an open-source (and apparently now abandoned) ticketed support system. You can still find the code on the message board at that site, along with some modifications.

It's at least a start. It took us a little while to implement, but now it runs like a dream. It seems to offer everything you're looking for. It's PHP/mySQL based. Hope that helps!

One or Zero looks good.

[Futurepower(R)]

Quote from the One or Zero web site: "The OneOrZero Task Management and Helpdesk software is licensed under the latest version of the GPL."

-
Cheney's company is building prisons for the U.S. government.

MantisBT

[sasha328]

I Agree with the parent. Mantisbt is one of the best out there. Very easy to configure (at least when I used it last about 18 months ago). It is also quite easy to customise and reprogram. This is what I did. I did a major edit of the ssource code and the database in order to customise it for our own internal mini-helpdesk. It worked brilliant (I think it was version 17 or 18). The reporting is also fantastic. The reason why I had to customise it was because it was geared towards "bug reporting" but I wanted to make it into a "problem/ticket" reporting system.

Anyway, you can find it here: http://www.mantisbt.org/

WREQ

[KerberosKing]

I've used it for years, simple easy email and web driven work request system. Here's the site and here's a live WREQ queue to poke at with read-only access.

Jira is the best for the money right now

[puppetluva]

If you can stomach paying for it (it's pretty cheap). Jira from Atlassian is the best out there right now. it has all of the features of the free ones and a whole lot more and they are a pretty good citizen of free software (they contribute quite a bit to the community).

I spent a long while looking at the free alternatives and jira really blew them away.

Huge thumbs up for Mantis!

[DamienMcKenna]

I've used Mantis for years and it is wonderful - pretty easy to use, flexible, powerful, easy to install, just lovely. There are two things to bear in mind, though, out of the box it doesn't support time keeping of any sort (besides adding a custom field), and also its UI is a bit tricky to configure, it isn't templated so you have to jump into editing its core files. Its PHP & MySQL-based, though they've recently added a database abstraction layer so you can try hooking it up to MSSQL, PostgreSQL, etc.

Another one to consider is the hosted system Backpack, from 37 Signals, the folks you brought Ruby on Rails to the world. They've got a pretty powerful system there, available as a free account or paid if you need extra space, etc.

Damien

Re:Huge thumbs up for Mantis!

[Rac3r5]

hmm.. Backpack.. that is really cool.. I'll look into that.. thanks.. :)

Re:Dedicated Email Address

[Vellmont]

You could do that, but like the other responder I think it's going to be a poor replacement for a real ticket tracking system. Why use a crappy form->email system when someone else has already created a fully functional system that's been designed for future expansion in mind?

BTNet

[lucm]

If you are looking for something running on Windows, BugTrackerNet is a nice solution.

http://btnet.sourceforge.net/

This is a .NET web application, easy to setup and very user-friendly. There is also the usual support for mailed-in requests (POP listener), reports, flexible properties, and so on.

Write your own

[Radical Rad]

Create a self-contained HTML form with the submission action being a mailto url addressed to you. They can store it on their desktop or even open it as an attachment from an email you sent them. Then you can keep track of the issues in your email client. You could even have the url cc your phone or pager. Here is a page with good examples. Also note that you should ask them to test it once because there are combinations of browsers and email clients that don't work or at least there used to be back in the bad old days.

Email is the simplest interface

[Wespionage]

Even in a small office environment where we have tools for making/tracking requests, as well as an Outlook/Exchange setup with task management built into it, everybody falls back on email for the initial "can you help me with X?" questions.

As was already mentioned, perhaps something like a dedicated email address that would enable you (or your ticketing system) to receive and enter this request yourself would be the best -- you could even auto-generate an email reply that would direct the sender to your ticketing system where they could enter more details.

Unless you're quite sure that you can get your clients using the system you pick, I would suggest picking the system that best fits your needs.

Best Practical's RT

[queenb**ch]

http://www.bestpractical.com/rt/

It's what we use. It parses email to open tickets, generates replies, allows you to track an issue, handles attachments and it's open source.

HTH,

Queen B

Re:Best Practical's RT

[Helmholtz]

I've used RT in many different environments now, and am completely sold on it. The last place I was at I combined Nagios alerts with an Alert queue in RT. If a critical alert was generated by Nagios, then a ticket was created. If the issue went away by itself (network link was down temporarity, etc), then the "Status OK" alert sent by Nagios would close the specific ticket that it had opened. We also used it for tracking user account and priviledge requests. All of this played a critical role in our passing of our SOX 404 audits.

On a smaller scale, I now use RT for my own small business trouble ticket system. There is now an O'Reilly book out there about RT, "RT Essentials", that has a real good content spread about how to use and customize the RT system. Short story is I've had very good luck with RT, and would definitely reccomend it, for whatever that's worth.

Horde project

[bofkentucky]

If you've got a lamp server, Horde WHUPS may be the way to go.

You can always build your own

[cecil36]

I wrote my own ticketing system in MS Access almost two years ago. In my system, there are only three tables, and two relations between the tables. The first table is the list of businesses using our services, the second is the employees that can be dispatched, and the third is the list of tickets reported in. When a ticket comes in, a new record is created in the tickets table, and the record is viewable from the business that reported the trouble. The tech then can add his name to the ticket and enter in the work done, and you end up with a complete case history for a company. Although this was quick and dirty, this system suited our needs. Build from this, and you should have a halfway decent system.

Interfacing with Email

[KidSock]

I just looked into this. At first I was hopeful given the number of OSS problem/bug tracking progects out there. Some of them are pretty polished and work well for what they are designed to do.

But then I realized that what I really want is just a simple web front end into an IMAP mailbox so that support personnel just manage tickets like they manage their email. In practice I suspect most "tickets" would be processed entirely without using the web front end at all. But regular users should be able to use the web front end to submit new tickets, view exiting tickets with From/To/CC that match the logged on user's email address, or reply to an exiting ticket (to the hard coded support email address).

I noticed PHP has IMAP classes so I thought for sure someone would have thought of this already. But I was not able to find such a thing. Anyone heard of this? Where? If not, please write it :->

I will have something like it

[vaderhelmet]

I'm working on something like this for myself. It will be done "soon" depending on how busy I am with clients and the like. But when I'm done, you're more than welcome to the code. Feel free to e-mail me.

Get Trac

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been using Trac for almost a year now, and it works great. It's simple to set up and use, and has handy features such as a built-in wiki, RSS feeds and an interface to a Subversion repository.

The Trac site is at http://www.edgewall.com/trac.

Re:Get Trac

[math0ne]

I don't know how you could call TRAC easy to set up. Thier install instructions are neolithic, unless your a linux guru. Its got so many requirments that have to be instaled in a certain order with certain compile flags or you have to start over from the begining.

Which isn't to say i don't think TRAC is one of if not the best bug tracking solution out there. I use it every day extensivly, but its not for the faint of heart.

Anything you need root access and hours of time to install probably not the simple bug tracking solution this person is looking for.

Re:Get Trac

[ducman]

I'm not sure what happened to that guy. I'm no linux or unix guru, and I failed completely when I tried to get Bugzilla up and running on a fresh Linux box. But I had no trouble at all getting TRAC to work, and I was thrilled to find it's just like subversion: functional enough and easy enough to use that people actually use it. While it may not do everything, it does many things easily enough that people actually use it instead of trying to get around it. I think Trac + Subversion is a tremendous example of the potential of open source.

FogBugz is great. Bugzilla, Scarab, not so much.

[MCRocker]

FogBugz is great. Sure, it's a commercial system that you have to pay for, but it is easy to install, simple to use, has a very clean user interface and even has a philosophy. Believe it or not, the last point is the most important. The folks behind FogBugz seem to work really hard to adhere to the KISS pricipal and produce a superior product.

If you compare them to workhorses like Bugzilla, Fogbugz seems very minimalistic, but it turns out to actually be more useful that way. The guy behind the folks behind Fogbugz, Joel Spolsky, has lots of interesting things to say about the design of Fogbugz that are just good reading for ANY CS/IT person to even if you don't buy his product.

Another product that I tried out was scarab, which was appealing since it was a Java J2EE application from the same folks who brough us subversion. From a CS point of view, scarab is an interesting example of how to use turbine. Unfortunately, scarab is hard to install and configure.

Although the version of scarab that I tested was still a beta product that might not be quite so hard to use out of the box any more, it is interesting to compare it to FogBugz. Scarab had the kitchen sink approach that is so configurable that it could be set up to be every bit as complicated as Bugzilla or as simple as FogBugz. However this flexibility made it a nightmare to configure and administer. While you could, conceivably set it up like FogBugz, it would be hard to make it work exactly the same way and wouldn't provide the same ease of use... just the same limitations with an added level of complexity.

To summarize less is more... in quality and price this time ;)

Try this one

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.sitasap.com/amstooldemo Send me an email to get the user/pass. jsmammen at gmail dot com

zentrack

[Anonymous Coward]

you could always use zentrack - http://www.zentrack.net/

Problem with OSS

[digitaltraveller]

I'm shopping around for a bug/issue tracker at the moment as well. There are quite a few. This is a central problem with OSS, it's easier to write a new one than use someone else's.

That is, there are too many problems with configuration management.

In the time I have invested trying to find the right package, I could have written one that would have supported my needs quite adequately.

But if anyone knows of one that is dead easy to setup, eg. uses sqlite or something like that as a backend, please post in this thread...

phpaga

[chriscappuccio]

phpaga is the perfect tool for this
it also has mechanisms for you to track your time on each project and print invoices
grab the latest cvs version of it
phpaga.net

Simple Ticket

[Maverick1337]

http://www.simpleticket.net/ Its written using Ruby on Rails :)

CA ServiceDesk

[Hyperhaplo]

We've decided to 'implement' Computer Associates ServiceDesk.
Do. Not. Use. This. Product.
Go to http://www.bestpractical.com, download RT3 and ask them about support if you need it.

Re:CA ServiceDesk

[Anonymous Coward]

ServiceDesk is one of the worst pieces of software I've ever had the displeasure of working with. Just plain horrible. There's virtually nothing redeeming about it.

Do. Not. Use. This. Product.

Post-it (tm) notes

[Theatetus]

...and a cell phone. Take tickets by phone only so you can ask them right then and there "what do you expect to happen when you click there and what actually happens?" "what does the error message say?" "is the little green light in your ethernet card lit?". Write down the info you get from the phone call on a post-it note. Stick it on the side of your monitor. When the issue is resolved, put the note in a file or in the wastebasket, depending on how much archiving you want to do.

Technically ...

[A nonymous Coward]

OSS is Open Source Software, the GPL is for Free Software.

However, lawyers apart, it certainly fits the standard Free Source Software definition most people use.

Re:Technically ...

[Eivind Eklund]

Technically, free software is a subset of open source software (and a significant philosophy difference).

Eivind.

Just try OTRS

[jalet]

OTRS : http://www.otrs.org/

Works like a charm and is relatively simple to setup.

Re:Just try OTRS

[cypherz]

We're using it in a commercial environment. I like it, and more importantly, our users like it! The price is right too!

Re:Just try OTRS

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't the fact that bugs.orts.org uses Bugzilla betray a lack of confidence in their own product?

Re:Just try OTRS

[jalet]

I don't think so.

You are confusing Apples and Oranges.

The OP wanted a ticketing system for administrators, and NOT a bug tracking system. Both things exist, but serve different purposes.

Re:Just try OTRS

[Anonymous Coward]

More like oranges and tangerines.

They're essentially the same thing. You take input from users, notify some admins. (or coders), provide a web and/or email dialog system, slap on a search function. Voilà.

Explain to me how they're different.

Re:Just try OTRS

[jalet]

Bug tracking systems are completely overkill and inadapted for sysadmins who don't need to track source code revisions, source patches, etc... Also, I can't see a need for a BTS to accept phone tickets, but they are definitely a must have for software like OTRS.

Definitely FogBugz?

[sunbeam60]

I've used FogBugz for external clients and it works a treat. Sure, there's an initial outlay, but it's definitely worth it. Very user friendly and doesn't require much admin.

Eventum (from MySQL AB)

[voidstin]

If you're a PHP/MySQL person, check out Eventum... a nice balance of ease of use and power.

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/other/eventum/

Use Flyspray

[Enleth]

It's very simple and elegant, supports e-mail and Jabber notifications and is a snap to set up. http://flyspray.rocks.cc/

Re:Use Flyspray

[Forgery]

Checked out a number of the sites listed here and Flyspray looks really great. I'm going to have to check it out.

The low-tech route

[c0d3h4x0r]

Just use a white-board or a series of post-it notes.

Another option: STuNT

[TheBAFH]

http://freshmeat.net/projects/stunt/

Request Tracker

[rakerman]

Request Tracker

Mantis?

[Scarblac]

Another bug tracking tool to consider is Mantis. We use it in our product to track a large number of small issues that the client is constantly coming up with; we think it works well.

However, it's quite possible that it's also too complicated for your needs. I like the suggestion of a simple email address as a public interface; perhaps just install Mediawiki for yourself so you can store everything in it? I like wikis for keeping track of simple stuff.

how about email

[figital]

Why not use email? You could setup some filters to catch and flag messages from your clients, then move them into folders to designate their status.

Everyone likes email.

Request Tracker

[CarrotLord]

I recall using RT (http://www.bestpractical.com/rt/features.html, I think) a few years back, and finding it very easy to set up and use. Clients even used it, as it could be linked to emails... Very cool.

37Signals

[Phrack]

While no ticket systems exactly, useful tools at http://www.37signals.com/

Try Trac

[Synistar]

I think that Trac would provide you with all that you need. It combines the features of a wiki with an issues tracker. From their page:

"Trac allows wiki markup in issue descriptions and commit messages, creating links and seamless references between bugs, tasks, changesets, files and wiki pages. A timeline shows all project events in order, making getting an overview of the project and tracking progress very easy."

Bugzilla can be made to look simpler

[huguley]

It is pretty easy to change the standard templates to look however you want.
You can put in default values for the bugzilla required fields so the user does not have to enter them or don't even show them at all. It also has a mechanism for adding custom fields for things that are not there that you want to track.

I spent less than a week working with it and stripped out a lot of the stuff that is more bug related and ended up with a workable ticket system. I added a custom field for needed by date and another for end date for temporary requests.

DCL, Double Choco Latte

[boy_afraid]

http://dcl.sourceforge.net/

It's the best, customizable, using MySQL. Our team LOVES DCL!

OTRS is easy to setup, professional quality, FREE

[cypherz]

http://www.otrs.org/

Somebody mod the OTRS posts up! Its a really good OSS solution!

The Open Ticket Request System is used by lots of commercial entities. We're using it around here and it works well. The latest version is a pretty big improvement on an already pro quality product. Its easy to change the graphics to reflect your company's look and feel.
The price is right (free and OSS) and commercial support is available (we haven't needed it). FWIW, we have about 200 users and the OTRS stuff is running on pc class hardware along with some other applications. We're using SuSE Linux 9.3 on the OTRS box.

One post here on OTRS complained that it was hard to set up. Don't know why he found it hard to setup, unless he was trying to run it on Windows (which works but is still not completely QA'ed). OTRS ships with SuSE Linux, and I think its included in OpenSuSE. The SuSE version worked for me right out of the box. I'm not an admin, (I just write software) and it was very easy for me to install and configure. We've upgraded it once since we installed it. The upgrade required a little knowledge of MySQL (just a little). You're an admin right? You'll probably have no problems installing from scratch via tar file etc. If you use an RPM just make sure it puts things where you're distro expects them. Or just run it on SuSE/OpenSuSE.

Our users like the web interface. There's also an email interface, but we're not using it at this time (we're waiting on the guy who admins the exchange server to "get around" to setting up forwarding).

Request Tracker

[Telastyn]

RT for short has a setup that will allow your clients to send problems to a particular email address and those problems get sucked into the Ticket Tracking tool. You'll still have to enter tickets caused via phone call, but it's terribly easy to use.

PHPNuke/MySQL Help Desk

[one_winger]

A PHPNuke Implementation (Sourceforge.net) I'm currently developing something along those lines for PHPNuke. Check it out, it organizes by technician, priority, date, etc.. A few modifications might be possible that would allow NON-tech users to submit tickets, although they will be present in future versions... I'm currently looking for people to help with development, as well... any takers?

IssueTrackerProduct

[ucsimon]

http://www.issuetrackerproduct.com/

You have to have Zope installed, but I think it's great and super-simple to use and configure.

Exo

[Anonymous Coward]

http://exoscripts.com/exohelpdesk

I like this

[really?]

http://www.isolsoft.com/ - simple to set up, and easy to use.

Elementool

[ChurroCSU]

Elementool is highly customizable and easy to use there is a free version up to 200 issues and one step up is $40 bucks a month. Check it out! ahref=http://www.elementool.com/rel=url2html-9156h ttp://www.elementool.com/>

Helpcore

[NastyGnat]

We've been using HelpCore for a few weeks now. It's not bug free and in just a few places there's hints of the "nederlands" in the language but it's all php and sql so it's easy to patch. We're using 1.3.1 and it's made us realize how far behind we are on stuff :)

OTRS

[Abstract]

Take a look at http://otrs.org/.

It even has autoresponders and a webinterface for customers.
Integrates with procmail or POP3 accounts.

itracker

[ggeens]

I use itracker for issue tracking on a few personal projects. It's easy to set up (just drop the EAR in a JBoss installation and configure a database) and easy to use.

Not too fancy, but it should do the trick.

HelpDesk Reloaded

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.helpdeskreloaded.com/

RUQueue

[op00to]

RUQueue is an interesting rewrite of RT. I never really got into RT. I use RUQueue at work, and it works just fine. It may be too much for your needs, but it's worth looking into.

RT. Is there any other choice?

[mrcpu]

There's lots of options, but if you're a unix guy, RT just kicks butt. If you're a windows guy, I'm sure it does, but I've never tried it.

If you haven't tried it, try it, then look at other options. You may stop after step 1, instead of lather, rinse, repeat.