Tech support/help desk software (oss)

[Madison Kelly]

Terrence Enger wrote:
> At 09:09 2004-01-23 -0500, you wrote:
> 
>>Hi all,
>>
>>  Here is a little bit of an odd question;
>>
>>  Can anyone recommend help desk-style software package? I'm not sure 
>>what the proper title is for that type of software! What I need is a way 
>>of issuing case numbers, maintain a searchable database of post issues 
>>(and their resolutions) with some way to sort various issues by topic 
>>(ie, Samba issues, Apache issues, etc) and, ideally, a way to let other 
>>people search the issue/resolution database from the internet.
>>
>>  I am going to google/sf for it but I wanted to see if anyone on the 
>>list had any particular pointers. Thanks!!
>>
>>Madison
> 
> 
> bugzilla ?

That is a bug tracking system more aimed at software development, it 
seems. Reading the overview it doesn't quite look like it will work for 
me. More specifically, I want to have something where when a tech comes 
across an issue (ie, an installation problem of a given server service) 
that they can search for previous encounters with this problem, and if 
it exists, help them solve the problem quickly. If the issue is new, 
then let them enter the error details and what they finally figured out 
worked for them. An example I can offer is a BIND configuration issue I 
ran into:

Problem: The server 'named' starts and no error messages are printed to 
syslog but when trying to query the server the error;

[root-uRZ2/RANkOA at public.gmane.org boot]# dig @209.167.68.46 madisonave.ca

; <<>> DiG 9.2.2-P3 <<>> @209.167.68.46 madisonave.ca
;; global options: printcmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
[root-uRZ2/RANkOA at public.gmane.org boot]#

When you set the debug level by stopping the service and reloading it 
manually with '# named -d 2 &' and then look at the file 
'/var/named/named.run' you see the following error:

Jan 16 15:47:29.208 couldn't open pid file '/var/run/named/named.pid': 
Permission denied
Jan 16 15:47:29.209 exiting (due to early fatal error)

Solution: The problem is that the directory shown (ie /var/run/named') 
can't be written to by bind as invoked. To solve either change the 
permissions or add to 'named.conf' the 'option' entry 'pid-file 
"/var/named/named.pid";' (substitute with a directory where 'named' can 
write to). If you are manually invoking 'named' at the console be sure 
to launch it as 'named' by entering 'named -u named <options>'.


Problem: The slave server(s) generate errors like;

Jan 20 12:09:23 alteeve named[12756]: zone madisonave.ca/IN: refresh: \
		unexpected rcode (SERVFAIL) from master 209.167.86.46#53

Solution: There is a problem with your zone file or 'named.conf' 
configuration file. Review, fix and reload. In the example above, the 
error was that 'ns[1|2].madisonave.ca' was in the zone file twice, once 
as an “A” record and again as a “CNAME” record.


Problem: The master server generates an error like;

Jan 20 16:07:15 triton named[4371]: dns_rdata_fromtext: 
db.madisonave.ca:23 \
		near 'madisonave.ca.':bad dotted quad
Jan 20 16:07:15 triton named[4371]: zone madisonave.ca/IN: loading master\
		file db.madisonave.ca: bad dotted quad

Solution: The zone name and IP address are on the wrong sides of the “A” 
in your zone file. Be sure that the name is first and the IP address 
follows then reload the zone data.

   This way, too, if a more junior tech is working a help desk and a 
client calls in with a problem the tech can search for the errors (in 
this case by restricting the search to "DNS") and also record private 
information specific to the customer and assign case numbers.

   Thanks again!

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