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    Home Orlando Now Platform Capabilities Now Platform capabilities Configuration Management Database Help the Help Desk

    Help the Help Desk

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    Help the Help Desk

    Help the Help Desk is a tool that allows users to populate the CMDB automatically with information about their Windows computer.

    Help the Help Desk is a small web application that downloads and runs locally, using a WMI login script to gather information such as serial number, computer name, disk configuration, network configuration, installed software, memory, and much more. Users have the option of using two types of SOAP authentication for running the Help the Help Desk script.
    • Cookie-based authentication for Help the Help Desk
    • Basic access authentication for Help the Help Desk
    Note: Domain separation is not supported for Help the Help Desk.

    User roles and user names

    Users must have the hthd_user role, and only this role, to use Help the Help Desk from within an instance. The user should also be configured with web service access only.

    For users without access to an instance, you can configure Help the Help Desk to allow users to run the script without login credentials. Users with access to an instance can also use Help the Help Desk configured in this way, but only if they have the hthd_user role.

    User name cannot contain these characters: \n

    Any user name that contains the \n characters prevents the Assigned to field on a computer from being populated.

    Help the Help Desk device identification

    Help the Help Desk uses a predefined series of queries to identify and update existing CIs in the CMDB or to create a new CI if no match is found. These queries attempt to match devices using three criteria in a certain order.

    Updates to an existing CI require only a single match as the list is evaluated. For example, if a device's name has changed, but the MAC address is the same, the CI with the matching MAC address is updated.

    • Serial number in the [cmdb_ci_computer] table
    • MAC address in the [cmdb_ci_network_adapter] table
    • Computer name in the [cmdb_ci_computer] table
    Note: Discovery Identifiers are incompatible with Help the Help Desk queries.

    Script include

    The script include CIIdentifierForHelpDesk provides the logic for updating existing CIs or creating a new CI if no matching device exists in the CMDB. Do not modify this script. Errors introduced into this script can result in update failures or in new CIs being created for every device found.

    • Configure SOAP authentication for Help the Help Desk

      By default, the ServiceNow system requires SOAP authentication. This affects the way in which your browser is configured for Help the Help Desk.

    • Cookie-based authentication for Help the Help Desk

      Cookie-based authentication uses cookies generated by Windows Internet Explorer for SOAP authentication on the instance.

    • Basic access authentication for Help the Help Desk

      An alternative to cookie-based authentication for the Help the Help Desk script is basic access authentication, which employs two properties to configure the script with credentials.

    • Help the Help Desk login script

      The Help the Help Desk script enables organizations to proactively scan their network to discover all Windows based hardware and the software packages installed on those devices.

    • Help the Help Desk script troubleshooting

      With the Help the Help Desk script, you can detect all system software on a 64-bit machine. You can also configure the Help the Help Desk script to run for users without prompting for a user name and password.

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    Release version
    Choose your release version

      Help the Help Desk

      • Save as PDF Selected topic Topic & subtopics All topics in contents
      • Unsubscribe Log in to subscribe to topics and get notified when content changes.
      • Share this page

      Help the Help Desk

      Help the Help Desk is a tool that allows users to populate the CMDB automatically with information about their Windows computer.

      Help the Help Desk is a small web application that downloads and runs locally, using a WMI login script to gather information such as serial number, computer name, disk configuration, network configuration, installed software, memory, and much more. Users have the option of using two types of SOAP authentication for running the Help the Help Desk script.
      • Cookie-based authentication for Help the Help Desk
      • Basic access authentication for Help the Help Desk
      Note: Domain separation is not supported for Help the Help Desk.

      User roles and user names

      Users must have the hthd_user role, and only this role, to use Help the Help Desk from within an instance. The user should also be configured with web service access only.

      For users without access to an instance, you can configure Help the Help Desk to allow users to run the script without login credentials. Users with access to an instance can also use Help the Help Desk configured in this way, but only if they have the hthd_user role.

      User name cannot contain these characters: \n

      Any user name that contains the \n characters prevents the Assigned to field on a computer from being populated.

      Help the Help Desk device identification

      Help the Help Desk uses a predefined series of queries to identify and update existing CIs in the CMDB or to create a new CI if no match is found. These queries attempt to match devices using three criteria in a certain order.

      Updates to an existing CI require only a single match as the list is evaluated. For example, if a device's name has changed, but the MAC address is the same, the CI with the matching MAC address is updated.

      • Serial number in the [cmdb_ci_computer] table
      • MAC address in the [cmdb_ci_network_adapter] table
      • Computer name in the [cmdb_ci_computer] table
      Note: Discovery Identifiers are incompatible with Help the Help Desk queries.

      Script include

      The script include CIIdentifierForHelpDesk provides the logic for updating existing CIs or creating a new CI if no matching device exists in the CMDB. Do not modify this script. Errors introduced into this script can result in update failures or in new CIs being created for every device found.

      • Configure SOAP authentication for Help the Help Desk

        By default, the ServiceNow system requires SOAP authentication. This affects the way in which your browser is configured for Help the Help Desk.

      • Cookie-based authentication for Help the Help Desk

        Cookie-based authentication uses cookies generated by Windows Internet Explorer for SOAP authentication on the instance.

      • Basic access authentication for Help the Help Desk

        An alternative to cookie-based authentication for the Help the Help Desk script is basic access authentication, which employs two properties to configure the script with credentials.

      • Help the Help Desk login script

        The Help the Help Desk script enables organizations to proactively scan their network to discover all Windows based hardware and the software packages installed on those devices.

      • Help the Help Desk script troubleshooting

        With the Help the Help Desk script, you can detect all system software on a 64-bit machine. You can also configure the Help the Help Desk script to run for users without prompting for a user name and password.

      Tags:

      Feedback

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