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- Group VMs according to data classification. Virtualization allows IT staff to place servers on any.
- Benefits of incident management software. The benefits of incident management software in a successful IT service operation are immense. Here are a few significant ones: Real-time notifications: Real-time notifications to the responsible personnel ensure fast resolutions to incidents. This helps prevent incidents from affecting end-users,.
Important
This version of Service Manager has reached the end of support, we recommend you to upgrade to Service Manager 2019.
Service Manager helps your organization manage incidents and problems by implementing and automating help desk ticketing processes so that these processes comply with the best practices that are described in the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). For more information about MOF 4.0, see Microsoft Operations Framework.
If you need to add or extend the functionality of Service Manager to implement custom processes for handling incidents and problems, you can use standard Microsoft development tools and the Service Manager SDK.
The procedures in this section are organized according to common problem and incident management scenarios. Even though the sample scenarios refer to a fictitious organization, Woodgrove Bank, the scenarios and steps are based on real use and they describe how to use the problem and incident management features in Service Manager.
At first, the difference between affected items and related items in problem and incident forms might not be obvious. However the difference describes different relationships. An affected item is something that is directly affected by the problem or incident, for example, your computer. Whereas, a related item is something more loosely related but not directly affected. For example, a related item could be any other configuration item that is not directly affected but connected to another configuration item as a reference.
Sample scenarios to manage incidents and problems in Service Manager
The following sample scenarios for Service Manager help you achieve your goal of managing incidents and problems by using multiple scenarios end to end. You can think of these sample scenarios as a case study that helps put the individual scenarios and procedures in context.
Manage incidents
In the scenario that encompasses incident management, Phil uses incident management to restore regular operations as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible. For example, by using the E-mail Incident template to populate a new email-related incident, he can quickly create an incident and ensure that the correct Impact, Urgency, Assigned Analyst, and Support Tier fields are configured. Carrying the example further, he creates a new incident for a user who is unable to view an email that was sent with restricted permissions. Phil creates an incident view so that he can easily work with all incidents that are created for email problems. When changes are made to an incident, he edits the incident to reflect the changes.
In another example, an end user experiences a printer problem, and she sends an email message to the help desk. Upon receipt of the message, Service Manager automatically creates an incident from the message. Phil investigates the problem, in part, by viewing the service. After the underlying problem has been solved, he resolves and closes the incident.
At Woodgrove Bank, connectors are configured in such a way that Service Manager imports configuration items and alerts from, so that some new incidents are created automatically. Phil reviews the automatically created incidents for accuracy.
Troubleshoot incidents
In the scenario that encompasses troubleshooting incidents, Phil is conducting an initial investigation of the problem that Joe is experiencing. Phil suspects that the root cause of the problem is that an update for Microsoft Exchange Server needs to be applied to Joe's Exchange server. However, there are other Exchange servers at Woodgrove Bank that probably also need to be updated. Phil starts his investigation by viewing the service that Garret created for the Exchange service. When any incidents affect a service component, that component is marked with an orange icon resembling a square containing an exclamation point. When a change request affects a service component, the component is marked with a special blue icon resembling a square containing a right-pointing arrow. Phil uses the map view on the Service Components tab to view configuration items and view incidents associated with them. Then, he opens other configuration items and adds them to the open incident.
To further troubleshoot, Phil wants to ping a remote computer that is exhibiting problems. He can use tasks that are part of the Service Manager console instead of having to use various other tools.
Manage problems
In the scenario that encompasses problem management, Phil has created a change request asking the Exchange Administrators group to apply an update, which is expected to resolve the problem. When a root cause is found and mitigated or resolved, the change request is completed and Phil is notified. He then uses the prescribed procedures to resolve a problem and automatically resolve incidents associated with the problem.
Manage Service Manager incidents
Help desk analysts use incident management to restore regular operations as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible by creating new incidents. They also work in partnership with Service Manager administrators to ensure that incidents that are created automatically or by end users are correctly categorized and reassigned to appropriate personnel. Methods that analysts use to accomplish these duties include:
- Using the E-mail Incident template to create new incidents.
- Reviewing automatically created incidents, such as those incidents that are automatically created from System Center Operations Manager using the Operations Manager Alert connector.
- Reviewing and updating incidents that are created by end users who have sent requests by email.
- Combining incidents into parent-child relationships when incidents are related.
Using the E-mail Incident template to populate a new email-related incident, you can quickly create an incident and ensure that the correct Impact, Urgency, Assigned Analyst, and Support Tier fields are configured.
If you configure connectors so that Service Manager imports configuration items and alerts from Operations Manager, some new incidents are automatically created. An analyst reviews the automatically created incidents for accuracy.
In Service Manager, incidents are automatically created from email requests by users. If the user is recognized as a Service Manager end user, the request that is sent to the help desk email address automatically creates a new incident.
Note
Service Manager can automatically generate new incidents from email requests only after a Service Manager administrator enables inbound email processing. By default, the impact and urgency of every incident created by email submission is set to medium, and no category is assigned.
Normally, you create incidents only for user accounts in your organization that have Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) accounts that are synchronized with Service Manager. However, you might occasionally need to manually create incidents for users. For example, you might need to create an incident for a new user whose account is not yet in AD DS or if an Active Directory account is not yet synchronized with Service Manager. You can also manually create incidents to support external vendors who do not have Active Directory accounts. In another example, you might need to open an incident for an on-site technician who does not have an Active Directory account but who needs to report an incident. Or, you might need to open an incident for an externally-supported customer who does not have an Active Directory account. In all these examples, you must manually create a user in Service Manager. For more information, see How to Add a Member to a User Role.
Depending on the needs of your organization, you might want to have a clear distinction between an incident's Assigned To user and the primary owner. Within Service Manager, neither use has any implied value. For example, although you can choose both of these two users in an incident form, you might want customers to deal with a single person who is your customer focal point. In this case, that person might be the primary owner who also owns other incidents. An Assigned To user might be one of many analysts who might work on an incident temporarily before the incident is assigned to another analyst before it is ultimately resolved and closed.
IDs that are assigned to change requests and incidents are not created in sequence. However, newer change requests and incidents are assigned IDs with a higher number than the IDs created previously.
Combine Service Manager incidents into parent-child groups
Incidents in System Center - Service Manager are usually short-lived while help desk analysts investigate and then restore operations. Often, incidents are related and it is useful to group incidents together. You can create a parent incident to group other existing incidents together, which can help provide visibility into them and their relationship to one another.
A Service Manager administrator can define automatic incident resolution settings so that when a parent incident is resolved, all its child incidents resolve automatically, do not resolve automatically, or to let the analyst decide whether to resolve or not. Similarly, an administrator can also define automatic incident reactivation settings so that when a parent incident is reactivated, all its child incidents reactivate automatically, do not reactivate automatically, or to let the analyst decide whether to reactivate the child incidents. Both processes can help you verify that all child incidents are resolved or activated together as a group.
Create a parent incident from an incident form
In System Center - Service Manager, one way a help desk analyst can create a parent incident is when an existing incident is already opened. You can create a parent incident using the following steps. A parent incident serves as a container for several incidents.
The following procedure is performed on an incident that is neither a parent incident nor a child incident. Afterward, a new parent incident is created and the existing incident is converted to a child incident.
To create a parent incident from an incident form
- In the Service Manager console, open the Work Items workspace, and in the Work Items pane, expand Incidents.
- Select any Incident Management view that contains active incidents, and then select an incident.
- In the Tasks pane, click Edit to open the incident.
- In the Tasks pane, click Link to New Parent Incident to open the Link to New Parent Incident dialog box.
- In the Link to New Parent Incident dialog box, select a template to create the new parent incident with, and then click OK. For example, select Networking Issue Incident Template, and then click OK.
- In the Title box, type a new description or modify the description that is inserted by the template. For example, type Network Outage in Bldg 773.
- In the Affected user box, select the user who reported this incident. For example, select Joe Andreshak.
- In the Alternate Contact Method box, enter additional contact information for the affected user (optional).
- The Child Incidents tab appears in the form where you view the child incident that the new parent incident is grouped with and where you can add other child incidents.
- In the parent incident form, click OK to close it.
- In the original incident form, click OK to close it.
Link an open incident to a parent incident
The help desk analyst can link open incidents to a parent incident or remove links using the following procedures.
To link open incidents to a parent incident
- In the Service Manager console, open the Work Items workspace, and in the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management.
- Select any incident view that contains one or more incidents that you want to link to a parent incident.
- Select one or more incidents, and in the Tasks pane, click Link/Unlink to Existing Parent Incident, and then in the submenu, click Link.
- In the Link to parent incident dialog box, click Link.
- In the Select Parent Incident dialog box, select the parent incident that you want to link the open incident to, and then click OK to create the link and close the Select Parent Incident dialog box.
To remove links between child incidents and the parent incident
- In the Service Manager console, open the Work Items workspace, and in the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management.
- Select any incident view that contains one or more incidents that you want to unlink from the parent incident.
- Select one or more incidents, and in the Tasks pane, click Link/Unlink to Existing Parent Incident, and then in the submenu, click Unlink.
- In the Unlink confirmation dialog box, click Yes.
Resolve a parent incident
In Service Manager, the help desk analyst can resolve a parent incident, and then Service Manager will automatically resolve all its child incidents, if the Service Manager administrator has configured Incident settings accordingly. This method of resolving incidents can help the analyst quickly close many child incidents. Use the following procedure to resolve a parent incident.
To resolve a parent incident
- In the Service Manager console, open the Work Items workspace, and in the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management.
- Select the All Open Parent Incidents view, and then in the list of parent incidents, select the incident that you want to resolve.
- In the Tasks pane, click Change Incident Status, and then in the submenu, click Resolve.
- In the Resolve dialog box, select a Resolution Category, and then in the Comments box, type a description of the steps that you have taken to resolve the incident.
- If you want child incidents to resolve automatically and the option is available, ensure that the Resolve child incidents when resolving this parent incident option is selected, and then click OK to resolve the incident-and child incidents, if selected, and then close the Resolve dialog box.
Link an active incident to a resolved parent incident
While reviewing active incidents in Service Manager, help desk analysts might determine that an incident should have already been resolved because another analyst has already corrected the underlying cause. If there is a closed parent incident, the analyst can use the following procedure to link the incident to the resolved parent and then automatically resolve the active incident.
To link an active incident to a resolved parent and automatically close the active incident
- In the Service Manager console, open the Work Items workspace, and in the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management.
- Select any incident view that contains the incident that you want to a resolved parent to.
- Select one or more incidents, and in the Tasks pane, click Link/Unlink to Existing Parent Incident, and then in the submenu, click Link.
- In the Select Parent Incident dialog box, select the resolved parent incident that you want to link the open incident to, and then click OK.
- In the Link to parent incident dialog box, select Link to parent and resolve incident.
- If you are linking multiple active incidents to a resolved parent, ensure that you select Repeat this option for all conflicts to automatically resolve all the incidents.
Reactivate a resolved parent incident
In Service Manager, the help desk analyst can reactivate a parent incident, and then Service Manager will automatically activate all its child incidents, if the Service Manager administrator has configured Incident settings accordingly. This method of reactivating incidents can help the analyst quickly activate many child incidents. Use the following procedure to reactivate a parent incident.
Depending on parent incident settings in the Administration workspace, behavior of automatic child incident resolution and reactivation varies.
To reactivate a parent incident
- In the Service Manager console, open the Work Items workspace, and in the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management.
- Select the All Incidents view, and then in the list of parent incidents, select the incident that you want to reactivate.
- In the Tasks pane, click Change Incident Status, and then in the submenu, click Activate.
- In the Activate dialog box, in the Comments box, type a description of the reason that you are activating the incident.
- Click OK to activate the incident and child incidents, if they are available and selected, and to close the Activate dialog box.
Create a parent incident template
In Service Manager, a parent incident template is used to create new incidents. Incidents created from a template will include information for fields that you do not have to enter manually. By using a template for new incidents, new incidents are created faster than from scratch.
The template author creates a template for release records by using the following procedure.
To create a parent incident template
- In the Service Manager console, open the Library workspace, and in the Library pane, select Templates.
- In the Tasks list under Template, click Create Template.
- In the Create Template dialog box, type a name for the incident template and a description of what the template applies.
- Under Class, click Browse; in the Select a Class box, select Incident; and then click OK to close the Select a Class box.
- Optionally, you can select the management pack where the template is saved.
- Click OK to close the Create Template dialog box, and the new incident template form appears.
- Enter information on the General tab, and then click the Activities tab.
- Optionally, you can add, delete, or modify manual activities for the template.
- If you add an activity, the activity form opens. Enter necessary information, and then click OK to save the activity.
- When you have added all the activities you want, click OK to save the incident template and close it. The incident template then appears in Templates list.
View a parent incident from a child incident
In Service Manager, the help desk analyst can use the following procedure to easily view parent incidents when a child incident is open. Reviewing parent incident information is often necessary to determine the status of its child incidents. Use the following procedure to view a parent incident from a child incident.
To view a parent incident from a child incident
- In the Service Manager console, open the Work Items workspace, and in the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management.
- Select an incident view that contains a child incident that you want to open, and then select the incident.
- In the Tasks pane, click Edit.
- In the incident form banner, the parent incident ID and description appears next to Parent incident. Click the linked parent incident to open it.
- After reviewing the parent incident information, you can optionally update any information, such as comments, in the Action Log.
- If you make changes to the parent incident, click OK. Otherwise, click Cancel.
- If you make changes to the child incident, click OK. Otherwise, click Cancel.
Link a new incident to a parent incident
When analysts create new incidents, Service Manager automatically notifies you if any parent incidents exist with the same classification category. The purpose of the notification is to help you combine incidents into parent child groups where a common underlying issue exists. Later, you can use the parent incident to manage the group of incidents as a whole and to serve as a single point of resolution.
Use the following procedure to manually create a new incident and then link it to a related parent.
To link a new incident to a parent incident
- In the Service Manager console, select Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management, and then click an incident view, such as All Incidents.
- In the Tasks pane, under Incident Management, click Create Incident.
- In the Tasks pane, click Apply Template.
- Under Templates in the Apply Template dialog box, select an incident template, such as Software Issue Incident Template, and then click OK.
- When the template applies a classification category or if you manually select a classification category that is in use by an active parent incident, a message appears in the incident form banner. You can optionally click the link to create a link from the new incident to the existing parent. If you are linking the new incident to a parent incident, perform one of the appropriate following substeps:
- If the parent incident is resolved, in the Link to parent incident dialog box, click Link to parent and resolve incident.
- Click the link to create the link between the new incident and the parent incident.
- In the Title box, type a new description or modify the description that is inserted by the template.
- In the Affected user box, select the user who reported this incident.
- In the Alternate Contact Method box, enter additional contact information for the affected user (optional).
- If necessary, click the Related Items tab.
- Optionally, in the Attached Files area, click Add.
- Optionally, in the Open dialog box, select the file that you want to attach to this incident, and then click Open. For example, select the screen shot of an error message that the affected user has received.
- Click OK.
To validate creation of a new incident
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management, and then click All Incidents. New incidents appear in the All Incidents view.
Manually create a new incident in Service Manager
In Service Manager, incidents are automatically created from email requests by users. However, you can use the following procedures to manually create a new incident in the Service Manager console and then validate it. For example, you might want to manually create a new incident for a person who is experiencing an email-related problem. You can link other affected items, such as various computers, to indicate that the issue affects more than one computer.
To create a new incident from a configuration item view
- In the Service Manager console, select Configuration Items.
- In the Configuration Items pane, expand Configuration Items, expand Computers, and then click All Windows Computers.
- In the All Windows Computers view, filter for the computer for which you want to create an incident, and then select the computer. For example, select Exchange01.woodgrove.com.
- In the Tasks pane, click Create Related Incident.
- In the Tasks pane, click Apply Template.
- Under Templates in the Apply Template dialog box, select Software Issue Incident Template, and then click OK.
- In the Title box, type a new description or modify the description inserted by the template. For example, type User unable to open e-mail that has restricted permissions.
- In the Affected user box, select the user who reported this incident. For example, select Joe Andreshak.
- In the Alternate Contact Method box, enter additional contact information for the affected user (optional).
- Click the Related Items tab.
- In the Attached Files area, click Add.
- In the Open dialog box, select the file that you want to attach to this incident, and then click Open. For example, select the screen shot of an error message that the affected user has received.
- Click OK.
To create a new incident by email
- In an email program, create a new email message, and enter the help desk alias or email address in the To box. For example, enter [email protected] in the To box.
- In the Subject box, type a subject. For example, enter Unable to print checks.
- In the message body, type additional information that the help desk analyst can use to correct the problem. For example, enter The check printer has a paper jam. I will use a backup printer until the jam is fixed.
- Optionally, attach files that the help desk analyst can use to correct the problem.
To validate creation of a new incident
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management, and then click All Incidents. New incidents appear in the All Incidents view.
Change an existing incident in Service Manager
In Service Manager, you can use the following procedures to change the urgency of an incident, edit an unassigned incident from Operations Manager, link a knowledge article to an incident, and validate the changes. Users create simplified incidents using the Self-Service Portal, based on the Incident portal template. Because user-created incidents are simplified, analysts often need to revise new incidents with additional information. Additionally, there is no functional difference between incidents created with the Self-Service Portal, using either the Need help with a problem or Need repair or fix options.
Note
Incidents are automatically created by System Center - Service Manager when the Operations Manager Alert connector is enabled. You can edit the new incidents that are generated when an Operations Manager alert is raised and then assign the incidents to analysts.
To change the urgency of an incident
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management, and then click All Open E-Mail Incidents.
- In the All Open E-Mail Incidents view, select the original incident. For example, select the Unable to print checks incident.
- In the Tasks pane, click Edit.
- In the Incident form, in the Urgency list, select High.
- Optionally, type a comment in the Action Log box. If you do not want end users to be able to read the comment, select the Private check box that is above the Action Log box. For example, in the Action Log box, type The user called to say that the backup printer is unavailable and that this issue is now urgent. Then, click Add. The new comment appears as a log entry.
- Click OK to close the form and to save your changes.
To edit an unassigned incident from Operations Manager
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management, and then click All Open Operations Manager Incidents.
- In the All Open Operations Manager Incidents view, select an incident that was created automatically from an Operations Manager alert.
- In the Tasks pane, click Edit.
- In the Incident form, under Support Group, select Tier 1.
- Under Assigned to, enter the name of the help desk analyst who will investigate the problem.
- Click OK to close the form and to save your changes.
To link a knowledge article to an incident
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management, and then click All Open Operations Manager Incidents.
- In the All Open Operations Manager Incidents view, select the incident that was created automatically from an Operations Manager alert.
- In the Tasks list, click Search for Knowledge Articles.
- In the Knowledge Search dialog box, type a search term in the Search for box, and then click Go. For example, type MICR Check Printer Article.
- Select the article, click Link to <IncidentName>, click OK to close the informational dialog box, and then click Close.
To validate incident edits
- Open the incident, and then verify that your changes appear. For example, verify that the comment you entered appears as a log entry.
Contact a user from an incident form
In Service Manager, you can contact a user by Skype for Business when an incident form is open. The presence indicator is shown in the form next to the affected user's name, and it displays their current status, if known. For the presence indicator to accurately reflect a user's status, the user must have an Active Directory account, and the user must be a member of the same domain in which the Service Manager management server has its computer account. Additionally, the computer running the Service Manager console must have Skype for Business installed.
Note
If a user's account belongs to a domain other than the domain in which the Service Manager management server has its computer account, the presence indicator might not accurately display the user's status.
To contact a user by instant message
- In an open incident form, click the presence indicator next to the Affected user box, and then click the triangle next to the box.
- Click Send Instant Message.
- Your instant message program opens. Compose the instant message, and then send it.
Create an incident view and personalize it in Service Manager
In Service Manager, you can use the following procedures to create and personalize an incident view and then validate it.
Views let you group incidents that share certain criteria. For example, the following procedure helps you create a view that lists all the incidents in which the classification has been set to E-mail Problems or to some other classification. When you create a new view, it is saved and becomes available for later use.
You can also personalize a view. However, when you personalize changes to a view, those changes are not saved. For example, you can personalize the All Incidents view, but if you change column widths, column sorting, or grouping or if you remove columns, the next time you return to the view it displays information in the same manner as it did before you personalized it.
To create an incident view
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management.
- In the Tasks pane, click Create View.
- In the General section of the Create View dialog box, type a name for the view in the Name box. For example, type E-mail Incidents.
- In the Description box, type a description. For example, type All incidents in which the classification is E-Mail Problem.
- Click Criteria.
- Next to the Search for objects of a specific class list, click Browse.
- In the Select a Class list, under View, select Combination classes, select Incident (Typical), and then click OK.
- In the Related classes box, ensure that Incident is selected. In the Available properties list, select Classification Category, and then click Add. You might need to scroll to see the Add button.
- At the end of the Criteria section, in the Criteria definition area, select E-mail problems. When the criterion is complete, it resembles [Incident] Classification Category equals E-Mail Problems.
- Click Display, and in the Columns to display list, select Status, Classification Category, and Description. Next, under Assigned To User, select Display Name. Then, click OK.
To personalize an incident view
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management, and then select an incident view. For example, select All Incidents.
- Right-click any view column heading to resize the columns, to remove items from the results, or to change column sorting and grouping. Repeat this step until you are satisfied with the results.
To validate the incident view creation
- In the Work Items pane, ensure that an E-Mail Incidents view exists under Incident Management. Ensure that the view displays all the incidents in the E-Mail Problems category.NoteIt might take a few seconds for the new incident view to appear.
Resolve and close an incident in Service Manager
In Service Manager, you can use the following procedures to resolve and close an incident and then validate that the incident was resolved and closed.
After you research a problem and resolve its source, you can resolve and close the incident. An incident is considered resolved when the required change has been made. When the affected user has confirmed that the problem that caused the incident has been eliminated, the incident can be closed.
To resolve and close an incident
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management, and then click E-Mail Incidents.
- In the E-Mail Incidents view, select the incident you want to resolve and close.
- In the Tasks pane, click Change Incident Status and then click Resolve.
- In the Resolve dialog box, select the appropriate category for resolving this incident in the Resolution Category list. For example, select Fixed by higher tier support.
- In the Comments box, type a comment that explains the resolution. For example, type Resolved by installing Service Pack 1 on the Exchange server, and then click OK.
- In the Tasks pane, click Change Incident Status and then Close.
- In the Close dialog box, type a comment about the closure of the incident, and then click OK.
To validate that an incident was resolved and closed
- In the All Incidents pane, the status for the incident or incidents changes from Active to Resolved when you resolve an incident and from Resolved to Closed when you close the incident.NoteIt might take a few seconds for the new status to appear. To immediately view the change, click Refresh.
Troubleshoot Service Manager incidents
You can use the following procedures to troubleshoot an incident in Service Manager using a service map. A service map is a visual representation of a service from the perspective of the business and user that shows critical dependencies, settings, and areas of responsibility. Because a service map can show the relationship between incidents and configuration items, it is especially useful when you troubleshoot issues that might affect multiple incidents and configuration items. For example, if an incident affects one configuration item, other configuration items that are part of the service might also be affected. If necessary, you can add additional configuration items as items that are affected by the same open incident.
Incident Management Servicenow
Additionally, when you use the Service Components tab to view the service map, you can easily determine whether there are active incidents or change requests open for a service component. When any incidents affect a service component, that component is marked with an orange icon resembling a square containing an exclamation point. When a change request affects a service component, the component is marked with a special blue icon resembling a square containing a right-pointing arrow.
To view incidents that affect service components
- In the Service Manager console, click Configuration Items.
- In the Configuration Items pane, expand Business Services, and then click All Business Services.
- In the All Business Services list, double-click a business service. For example, double-click Exchange Service.
- In the dialog box that opens, click the Service Components tab.
The list of service components includes configuration items. For example, the list might include computers running Microsoft Exchange Server. When a service component is marked with an icon, the icon indicates that an incident is associated with the service component. - Select a configuration item that has a related work item. For example, select the Exchange01.woodgrove.com server.
- In the Related work items for the selected item list, select a work item to view, and then click Open.
To add related service components to an open incident
- In the list of service components, select an item that has an active incident.
- Under Related work items for the selected item, select a work item, and then click Open to open the incident.
- Under Affected Items, click Add.
- In the Select objects dialog box, select the configuration item to add to the incident, click Add, and then click OK.
- Click OK to update the incident, and then return to the Service Components tab for the service.
- Repeat the previous steps to add other service components to the open incident.
- Click OK to close the service item.
To validate that the service components were added to an incident
- Open the business service to which you added the incident, and then click the Related Items tab. Verify that the new incident appears under Work items affecting this configuration item.
Manage problems in Service Manager
The procedures in this section describe how to manage problems in Service Manager.
In Service Manager, problems are records that are created to help prevent future problems and incidents from happening, to eliminate recurring incidents, and to minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented. Analysts can use the Service Manager console to create problem records and to associate incidents with problems.
Create and edit problem records
Incident Management Severity Levels
You can use the following procedures to create new problem records and then edit them by using the Service Manager console. You can create a new problem record from the Service Manager console, from an incident view, or from an incident form.
To create a new problem record from the console
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Problem Management, and then click Active Problems.
- In the Tasks pane, click Create Problem.
- In the Title box, type a title for the problem. For example, type Outlook E-Mail Restricted Permissions.
- In the Description box, type a description of the problem. For example, type Users cannot view e-mail messages sent with restricted permissions.
- If you want to assign the problem to an analyst, enter the name of the analyst in the Assigned to box.
- In the Source list, select the source of the problem request.
- Select the appropriate values in the Category, Impact, and Urgency boxes.
- Click OK.
To create a new problem record from an incident view
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Incident Management, and then click All Incidents.
- In the All Incidents list, search for incidents whose titles match the problem record that you want to create, and then click Search. For example, search for restricted permission.
- In the search results, select the incidents for which you want to create a problem record. In the Tasks pane under Selected Items, click Create Problem.
- In the Title box, type a title for the problem. For example, type Outlook E-Mail Restricted Permissions. When you create a problem by using this method, the problem form inherits the title from the open incident if a single incident was selected. If multiple incidents were selected, the Title box is blank. You can change the title of the problem record.
- In the Description box, type a description of the problem. For example, type Users cannot view e-mail messages sent with restricted permissions.
- If you want to assign the problem to an analyst, enter the name of the analyst in the Assigned to box.
- In the Source list, select the source of the problem request.
- Select the appropriate values in the Category, Impact, and Urgency boxes.
- Click OK.
To create a new problem record from an incident form
- Make sure that an incident is already open. Then, under Tasks, click Create Problem.
- In the Title box, type a title for the problem. For example, type Outlook E-Mail Restricted Permissions. When you create a problem using this method, the problem form inherits the title from the open incident. You can change the title of the problem record.
- In the Description box, type a description of the problem. For example, type Users cannot view e-mail messages sent with restricted permissions.
- If you want to assign the problem to an analyst, enter the name of the analyst in the Assigned to box.
- In the Source list, select the source of the problem request.
- Select the appropriate values in the Category, Impact, and Urgency boxes.
- Click OK.
To edit a problem record
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Problem Management, and then click Active Problems.
- In the Active Problems view, double-click a problem. For example, double-click the Outlook E-Mail Restricted Permissions problem.
- In the problem form, edit information that needs to be changed. For example, if a workaround is found for the problem, click the Resolution tab. Then, in the Workarounds field, type the workaround steps.
- Click OK.
To validate the creation of a new problem record
- In the Tasks list, click Refresh to view the new problem record, or open the problem record to view the revised information.
Resolve problem records and related incidents automatically
You can use the following procedures to resolve a problem record and the incidents that are associated with it and then validate the resolution.
To resolve a problem record and the incidents that are associated with it
Incident Management Service
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Problem Management, and then click Active Problems.
- In the Active Problems view, double-click the problem record that you want to resolve. Then, in the Tasks pane, click Resolve.
- Click the Resolution tab, and then click to select the Auto-resolve all incidents associated with this problem check box.
- In the Resolution Category box, select the appropriate category.
- In the Resolution Description box, type a summary of the resolution for this problem record. For example, type Application of Exchange Server 2010 SP1 fixed the restricted permission problem that affected users across forests.
- Click OK.
To validate problem and incident resolution
- Verify that the incidents associated with the problem record appear in the All Incidents view and that they have a status of Resolved.NoteIt might take a few minutes for the incident status to be updated to Resolved.
Link an incident or change request to a problem record
Incident Management Service Desk
You can use the following procedure to link an incident or change request to a problem record if you created a problem record without linking it to an existing incident or change request.
To link an incident or change request to a problem record
- In the Service Manager console, click Work Items.
- In the Work Items pane, expand Problem Management, and then click Active Problems.
- In the Active Problems view, double-click a problem record. For example, double-click the Outlook E-mail Restricted Permissions problem record.
- In the problem form, click the Related Items tab.
- Under Work Items, click Add.
- In the Select objects dialog box, either select a work item or search for and select one or more work items to link to the problem record. Click Add, and then click OK.
- Click OK to close the form.
To validate the link
- In the Active Problems view, open the problem record to which you linked a work item, click the Related Items tab, and then verify that the items you linked appear under Work Items.
Incident Management Server Definition
Next steps
- Manage changes and activities by providing repeatable, predictable, and measured processes to implement change.
Problem and Incident Management for SQL Server
Incident Management Severity
Problem and incident management with SQL Server is similar to problem and incident management with other server applications or the Windows operating system infrastructure itself. The SQL Server Logs (which should always be enabled), Analysis Services process log file , the DTS error and execution logs, and the Windows application log should be reviewed on a regular basis to attempt to detect potential problems before they become bigger problems. These same logs should be reviewed after incidents to attempt to associate events with incidents and identify patterns that lead up to the failure. The resolution of problems should be documented to help resolve future incidents and also used to train personnel in troubleshooting and understanding symptoms.