Installing Cerberus Helpdesk 3.x

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Below are the instructions for installing Cerberus Helpdesk™ on your web server. Ideally you'll have the following:

  • PHP 4.2 or later.
  • MySQL 3.23 or later.
  • Shell access (i.e., SSH) to your server if using a Unix-based OS -- though the installation can be performed entirely through FTP (if you extract the archive locally and upload the entire directory via FTP).

WebGroup Media LLC also provides an affordable professional installation service which is typically performed the same business day (Pacific timezone).

Contents

[edit] Getting the Files

  1. Download the latest stable release of the Agent GUI from the project website. If you are going to be installing the Support Center (the optional Customer interface), the versions must match, so download it at this time as well.
  2. Copy the archive to your web server. If you FTP the archive over, be sure to use binary mode and not ascii mode.
  3. Extract the archive into the web path of the appropriate domain (e.g., htdocs, httpdocs, wwwroot).
  4. Ensure the directories cerberus-gui/templates_c/ and cerberus-gui/tempdir/ and the file cerberus-gui/logo.gif are writable by your webserver user.

[edit] Setting up your Database

  1. Create a new database and database login for the helpdesk. While there are many ways to create a new MySQL database, we will show you the command line method here.
    C:\mysql\bin\>mysql -u root -p
    Enter password:
    Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
    Your MySQL connection id is 42 to server version: 5.0.24-nt

    Type 'help;' of '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

    mysql> create database cerberus_database;
    Query OK, 1 row affected <0.00 sec>

    mysql> grant all privileges on cerberus_database.* to cerberus_user@localhost identified by 'secretpassword';
    Query OK, 0 rows affected <0.03 sec>

    mysql> quit
    Bye
  2. Edit the cerberus-gui/config.php file and set the database name, login and password values.
    define("DB_SERVER",'localhost');
    define("DB_NAME",'cerberus_database');
    define("DB_USER",'cerberus_user');
    define("DB_PASS",'secretpassword');

[edit] Initializing Cerberus

  1. Open your browser to www.your-website/cerberus-gui/install/ and resolve any reported environment issues.
  2. Open your browser to www.your-website/cerberus-gui/upgrade.php

(Note: You may need to add your IP into the following field in your config.php file.)

authorized_ips = array("127.0", "192.168.33", "192.168.1", "69.229", "0.0.0.0");

  1. Run the "Cerberus Helpdesk Clean Install" script for the latest release.
  2. You should now be all set to log in to the helpdesk using the default superuser. Open your browser to www.your-website/cerberus-gui/ and use a login and password of 'superuser'.

[edit] Configuring Cerberus

Click configuration in the top menu bar to access the main configuration menu.

[edit] Creating Agents and Teams

  1. Click Workflow and then Agents in the left menu.
  2. Click Create a New Agent in the main window area. Enter the Agent's personal information and click Submit.
  3. Repeat the previous step to create all necessary Agent accounts.
  4. Click Teams in the left menu.
  5. Enter a Team Name and click +. Select the Members and Permissions for this Team and then click Save.

[edit] Creating Mailboxes

  1. From the Workflow menu, click << Back to return to the main Configuration menu.
  2. Click E-Mail / Parser and then Mailboxes in the left menu.
  3. Click Create a New Mailbox in the main window area. Fill in the requested information.
    • The Mailbox must have a Mailbox Name and Reply As Address; everything else is optional.
    • Enter an email address in the Unique inbound e-mail addresses assigned to this mailbox: box to route any incoming mail addressed to that address into this Mailbox. In Cerberus, mailboxes are used as the gateway for all incoming e-mail. If you wish for an e-mail to be received by the helpdesk, you will need to have the e-mail address assigned to a mailbox.
    • Select the Teams you want to have access to this Mailbox and click Submit.

[edit] Configuring your Outgoing mail server

  1. In the E-Mail / Parser menu, click Mail Settings.
  2. Enter your SMTP server name and configure the other settings as desired. Be sure to select Mail Enabled to allow the system to send mail. (If your server requires SMTP authorization, you may enter the smtp authorization values inside of your config.php)
  3. Click Submit when done.

[edit] Configuring your Incoming mail server(s)

  1. In the E-Mail / Parser menu, click POP3 Accounts.
  2. Click Create POP3 Account. Enter the POP3 account details for the e-mail address you would like Cerberus Helpdesk to manage. (Note: Make sure to disable Test Mode if you want e-mail to be removed from your mailbox once parsed.)
  3. After creating the POP3 Account, click the Test POP3 Connection button to make sure Cerberus can connect to the POP3 server.

[edit] Setting up a Scheduled Task to check your mail

You can have your POP3 mailbox checked at any specified interval (in minutes). There are two main options for this scheduled functionality: internal timer (handled by PHP) and external timer (handled by Windows Server/Linux cronjob). Internal timers are the simplest, but they will only download your mail when you have Agents logged in and actively using the helpdesk. Your best option is to use an external timer.

  1. In the E-Mail / Parser menu, click << Back to return to the main Configuration menu.
  2. Click Cerberus Helpdesk™ and then Scheduled Tasks in the left menu.
  3. Select External Timer or Internal Timer and click Add a New Scheduled Task. The only script included by default is the pop3.php script to check your email. Other scripts can be added to the cerberus-gui/includes/cron/ directory. Be sure to enable the Scheduled Task before clicking Save.
  4. Enter the IP address value your agents will be browsing from for an internal cron and click Save. For an external cron enter in the IP address value of the server that will be running the cron and click Save.

If you have selected External Timer, please see one of the following pages for instructions:

For Linux, see Setting up a Scheduled Task in Linux
For Windows, see Setting up a Scheduled Task in Windows

A note on the defined intervals for Scheduled Tasks: The defined interval of the task is the maximum frequency with which Cerberus will allow the task to run. The actual frequency will be the longer interval of either the Cerberus task frequency or the external Windows/Linux task frequency.

[edit] Using Cerberus

[edit] Advanced Configuration

For more complete details on the available configuration options, see Advanced Configuration Details.

[edit] Setting up Mail Rules

[edit] Setting up Custom Fields

To set up Custom Fields for use in the Agent GUI, you must first create the available Fields and Field Groups. Go to configuration -> Cerberus Helpdesk -> Custom Fields to be able to create new groups (groups can be assigned to contacts, tickets, companies, and time tracking entries). Click "Create a New Custom Field Group" to begin the process. You must provide a name for the Group (e.g. "Billing", "Support", etc.). You can then add as many fields to the group as you want, entering a name for the field and the type of field and then clicking "Save Changes" after each one. For the "Drop-Down Option List" type, you create the entries in the list in the same fashion, by entering the entry in the "Add Option" box and clicking "Save Changes" (or hitting enter to submit the form).

To set up Custom Fields for use in the Customer Support Center, you must first have created some custom fields for the Agent GUI as outlined above. Go to configuration -> Support Center -> Custom Fields to create custom field groups for the Support Center. The Support Center custom groups are used to tie certain custom fields (not necessarily entire field groups) to a *class* of incoming Support Center requests. Click "Create Custom Field Group" to begin the process. You must provide a name for the Group (e.g. "Bug Tracking Fields" or "Sales Lead Fields"). You can then select which custom fields (from any defined Agent GUI custom field group) will appear in that Support Center Custom Field Group and set each field as either required or optional. Now you can go to configuration -> Support Center -> Profiles and edit your profile and assign the Support Center Custom Field Group(s) to the available target mailbox(es).

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