osTicket (https://osticket.com/) is a support ticket system built to improve your customer service and experience. It offers an array of features you need for your help desk solution. Some of its main features include custom fields, custom queues and columns, ticket filters, help topics, agent collision avoidance, auto-responders, thread action, service level agreements, customer portal, and advanced search, among others.
osTicket Web Application can be up and running in the cloud in minutes using BroadIQ. Follow this installation guide and osTicket can help your business with Customer Support Ticketing, today.
NOTE: Sign up on BroadIQ’s webpage for a free trial and run osTicket for free over the next three (3) months.Also, BroadIQ will be testing our discounted SSL/TLS system that provides free wildcard certificates for 12 months and then $7/month after that, if you host your domains with GoDaddy (expanding to other hosts in the future).
Pre-requisites
The items below are required for a successful installation of osTicket:
- A free account in BroadIQ.com
- A BroadIQ Organization (Org) created inside BroadIQ.com
- Access to a MySQL/MariaDB database — Use your own MySQL/MariaDB server, install a test MySQL/MariaDB database in BroadIQ, or use a MySQL/MariaDB cloud service.
- Install osTicket in the cloud using the BroadIQ Marketplace.
Most applications available in the BroadIQ Marketplace follow similar patterns: get a database, connect the database to the application, and run the application. If the application requires a database, a database (like the ones listed above) must be made available before running the application (“Database section” below). Also, Connecting the application to a database is needed before the application can run (“Database Entity” section).
BroadIQ Setup
Sign up with BroadIQ
If you already have an account with BroadIQ you can go ahead and skip to the next step (creating an Organization).
Otherwise, create a free BroadIQ account. Once you have created an account, you will receive an email to verify your account. Now login to BroadIQ using the Sign in link. Log in to begin the installation of osTicket.
Create an organization with BroadIQ
In order to access the BroadIQ marketplace, your user has to be associated with an organization (Org). If you already have an Org in BroadIQ, you can skip this step.
An Org is a way to group people together in BroadIQ. It can be a company, a group of people or your child’s soccer team. By creating an Org, you have access to the BroadIQ marketplace, where applications are run in the cloud and are only accessible to members of your organization.
After logging into BroadIQ.com, in the upper right corner of the page, select “Organizations” from the “Services” drop-down menu.
On the Organizations page, select “Add Org” at the top left of the page and create a new organization. By creating an Org you (Your User) will automatically become the Org administrator. This means that you have complete control over what happens to that Org.
Database Set-Up
Please use the previous post “Deploy MariaDB/MySQL in the Cloud” to set up a MySQL database in BroadIQ or use your own MySQL database, if you have one available. There are some good cloud providers of MySQL that you can use.
Google Cloud SQL (https://cloud.google.com/sql/pricing#2nd-gen-pricing) is a good option (about $10/month for a 10 GB database) to get you started if you do not want to install MySQL on your own servers or use BroadIQ’s test MySQL.
Database Entity
Before installing osTicket, a “Data Entity” needs to be created to store the database connection information. This Information allows osTicket to connect to the MySQL/MariaDB database. Review the “Data Entity” link below for instructions on how to create a database entity (Data Entity).
Running osTicket
To get osTicket running in the cloud, follow the steps below.
Step 1 — The Marketplace
First, select an Org that you have previously created. In order to run osTicket in the cloud using BroadIQ, select “Market Place” from the left side menu for the organization you have selected. When the “Market Place” menu is selected, a listing of available applications are displayed in the main window (See image below).
Hover over the osTicket application and select the “View App” link. This navigates to a new page that provides more information about osTicket.
On this page, you’ll find more information about the application and/or links to the company’s website.
NOTE: To run osTicket a MySQL database is required (See Requirements section). Please setup your own MySQL database or use the instructions in the previous sections. Then create a “Data Entity”, as explained above.Click the “Select” button, to run the application in the cloud.
Step 2 — Selecting a Host
The first step in running any application is to choose a location where the application is going to run. At BroadIQ, applications run in the cloud on an infrastructure called Platform As A Service or PAAS (Host). This page allows you to select an available Host to run your application. Push the magnifying glass button. This will open a window that allows you to select a Host location to run your application.
Once you push the “Select” button for the Host, the small window will close and the selected Host will appear in the box. Your selection will appear as shown on the page below.
Now push the “Continue” button to advance to the next page.
Step 3 — Storage Entity
Some applications in the BroadIQ marketplace require application storage. This is called a “Storage Entity”. This entity stores the items that the application may use that are not stored in a database. This includes image files, application upgrades, look and feel templates, etc.
If an application requires the use of a Storage Entity, the application install wizard asks for a Storage Entity configuration. If you have not created a Storage Entity before you can create a new Storage Entity by selecting the “New Storage” button, as shown below.
A window will open where the name of the Storage Entity can be entered. Click the “Save” button.
NOTE: If you have previously created a Storage Entity, you can find and use it by selecting the magnifying glass icon, and selecting the existing storage entity.
NOTE: Saving the new Storage Entity name does not create a Storage Entity. The Entity will get created when the application is installed in the cloud.After the “Save” button is pushed, the window will close and the new Storage Entity name will be listed, as seen below.
To move on to the database configuration page, click the “Continue” button, which allows you to continue with the installation of the osTicket application.
Step 4 — Database Selection
On the next page select the MySQL Data Entity that you want to use for the osTicket application. This is where osTicket will store the application data. This page allows you to select an available MySQL application that you previously configured in the “Database Entity” section. Push the magnifying glass button on the page to open the window that allows you to select an available database.
Once you push the “Select” button for the Database, the small window will close and the selected database will appear in the box. Your selection will appear as shown on the page below.
Now push the “Continue” button to move to the next page.
Step 5 — Billing
A credit card is required to run the application in the cloud. The credit card is billed at the end of the billing cycle (typically, only 30 days). Only the balance that is outstanding is billed to the card. If your organization or business has any credits for that month, those amounts will be credited (deducted) before a final balance is calculated.
On this page enter credit card information for each of the fields that are on the page.
Click the “Save” button and move to the final “Purchase Review” page.
Step 6 — Purchase Review
On the Purchase Review page, you will see an overview of the application customizations you have selected. It also provides an estimate of how much it will cost to run the application for the full month (30 days) and how long it takes to deploy the application in the cloud.
If you are happy with the configuration, click the “Deploy” button, which starts the process of deploying and running the application in the cloud.
If the application is deployed and running successfully in the cloud, the screen will change from a progress screen (above) to a running screen as shown below.
NOTE: If this is a fresh installation of osTicket there might be a delay, because it is installing a new database schema in your selected database.The application details page shows how many instances of the application are running as well as other details. Also, from this view, access to the application website is available and the application can be deleted by pushing the delete button, which removes the application from the cloud.
Applications are made up of artifacts. The artifacts in an application are the software instances of the application that are running in the cloud.
From this screen, you can view the details of the running application by clicking on the cog icon, which is to the right of the running application. In the above figure, it is shown on the same line as the artifact “osticket” (“Application Artifacts” section). The cog is on the same line as the name on the right side. Click the cog icon and be taken to a page that shows the detail about the application (artifact) that was selected.
The artifact detail page displays information about the running artifact. At this point, the URL as shown in the “Configuration” section can be distributed to your team. That URL gives your organization access to the osTicket application.
To get to the admin login screen you need to append “/scp” to the end of the URL. That admin user can be used to manage other users who want access to the application.
Above is a sample of the osTicket application admin login, that your team will see.
NOTE: Initial login credentials
User: ostadmin
Password: Admin1 (Please change the password after login)In your BroadIQ Org, click the left side menu “Deployed Apps” to see the applications your Org is running in the cloud. On this page, running applications can be managed and/or stopped (removed) when you no longer want to run the application.
Conclusion
You have just deployed osTicket in the cloud using BroadIQ. It should not take very long (less than 10 minutes), to have the application up and running.
BroadIQ is an application marketplace that is constantly adding new applications that can be deployed in the cloud. Next, you might want to try another application listed in BroadIQ’s marketplace that could help your business move forward.
