Description and main features

The EOSC Helpdesk https://eosc-helpdesk.eosc-portal.eu is the entry point and ticketing system/request tracker for issues concerning the available EOSC services. It implements incident and service request management and provides efficient communication channels between customers, users and providers of the IT resources and services. The EOSC Helpdesk provides multiple capabilities, which were established during requirement analysis, such as self-service, reporting and notifications; it guarantees the integrity of the IT infrastructure and quality of the delivered services.

High-level Service Architecture

High-level architecture and integrations of the EOSC Helpdesk

                                                                              High-level architecture and integrations of the EOSC Helpdesk

The Helpdesk Back Office is integrated with multiple components as depicted on Figure above:

• EOSC submission webforms: the integration will provide ready to use webforms to be embedded on the dedicated portals of the EOSC services for easy submission of the request without logging to the helpdesk.Ready to use javascript snippet will be provided upon request for adding it to the web page and enable webform submission. 
• E-Mail submission: enable the integration of the helpdesk with a particular group with a specific mailbox which can be offered for users to submit their requests via e-mail. 
• Community helpdesks: the integration allows bi-directional synchronisation of the user requests created in EOSC Helpdesk for further processing in the integrated helpdesk.
• Community Helpdesk Portals: the integration of the multiple user-faced community branded portals under community domains together with dedicated community knowledge bases. 
• Integration with CMDB for EOSC-Core Services: the integration with the configuration management database which holds the metadata for all EOSC Core Services and their components, which will enable assignment and tracking of the service request for the dedicated EOSC Core service. 
• Integration with the EOSC Monitoring system: the integration will provide easy access to live information about supported services, their production statuses, availability information. 
• Integration with EOSC Resource Catalogue: the integration with EOSC Resource Catalogue service will allow direct submission of issues and requests  from Provider Dashboard interface to the Helpdesk.

Adopted Standards

List with references of the main standards and protocols/APIs adopted by this service.

Integration Options

For new EOSC providers and communities onboarding services three levels of interoperability with helpdesk, which correspond to the three integration paths will be offered: 

• Full integration: this path corresponds to the integration of community helpdesks described in the previous section, which implies full synchronisation between EOSC Helpdesk and community helpdesk. This integration can be achieved by application of a set of helpdesk REST APIs. The exact integration guidelines are defined based on the specifications agreed with the community. 

• Ticket redirection: in this integration the EOSC helpdesk is used only as a contact point to redirect the initial request to the provider’s or community mailing list without further integration. 
• Direct usage: in this integration the EOSC helpdesk can be used as the ticketing system for the community and their onboarded services.

Interoperability Guidelines

In this section the interoperability guidelines and information which is required to enable each of integration options listed in the previous section are described. 

Guidelines for Direct Usage

In order to enable the direct usage the service provider or the community has to provide a set of parameters which are summarised in the Table below.

Table 1: Information required to enable Direct Usage of the EOSC Helpdesk as a service.

Guidelines for Ticket Redirection

In order to enable ticket redirection  option the service provider or the community has to provide a list of attributes listed in the Table 2:

Table 2: Information required to enable Ticket Redirection to any community email address for further processing

Guidelines for Full Integration with EOSC Helpdesk

In order to enable full intergration  option the service provider or the community has to provide a list of attributes listed in the Table 3:

Table 3: Information required to enable Full Integration of the EOSC Helpdesk as a service.

Integration Procedure

This sections defines the procedure and single steps to be accomplished to enable one of the chosen integration options listed above. The overview of the procedure and single steps is shown in Picture below:

Implementation of integration options for helpdesk: integration procedure and steps

Examples of solutions implementing this specification

List already available Open Source services that fit with the high-level service architecture, Include references to the service web page.