Polar Help Desk Professional :: FAQ

Polar Help Desk FAQ Categories

1. Top FAQ
2. General FAQ
3. Installation FAQ
4. User Interface Customization FAQ
5. Users FAQ
6. Active Directory & NTLM Integration FAQ
7. Incidents and E-mail FAQ
8. Service Level Management (SLM) FAQ
9. Knowledge Base FAQ
10. Reports FAQ
11. Licensing FAQ
12. All FAQ In One Page FAQ

Installation FAQ

Issues during installation

I cannot install Polar Help Desk because installation error appears. What is the problem?

There could be several causes for this problem, depending on error which is received:

• If installation is interrupted with error: "The specified service already exists" you should do the following:
  1. Go to Start->Run and type Regedit
  2. You need to manual delete Polar Scheduler Windows service from disk and from registry :
     
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\
     Services\Polar ServiceDesk Scheduler
     
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
     Services\Polar ServiceDesk Scheduler
     
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\
     Services\Eventlog\Application\
     Polar ServiceDesk Scheduler
     
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
     CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\
     Application\Polar ServiceDesk Scheduler
     
     HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
     Installer\Assemblies\
     C: |Install_directory|Services|
     Polar.ServiceDesk.Scheduler.exe
     
     HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\
     Microsoft\Installer\Assemblies\
     C: |Install_directory|Setup|Utilities|
     Polar.ServiceDesk.Scheduler.exe
     
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
     ControlSet001\Enum\Root\
     LEGACY_POLAR_HELP_DESK_SCHEDULER
     
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
     ControlSet003\Services\Eventlog\
     Application\Polar Help Desk Scheduler
     
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\
     Services\Eventlog\Polar.HelpDesk
     
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
     CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\
     LEGACY_POLAR_HELP_DESK_SCHEDULER
     
     
  3. Restart your computer
  4. Start installation of Polar Help Desk
     
     
     

• If installation is interrupted and error in error log is following "An exception occurred during the Install phase. System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: Exception from HRESULT: 0x80005000."
  It means that an invalid directory pathname was passed to the IIS (Internet information services) when choosing virtual directory during installation. Do not enter backslash ( \ ) or some other symbols that cannot be accepted as pathname, try just entering default value: PolarHelpDesk and it should work.
  
  

I can't find any information in the Web Site field on the Create Virtual Directory screen of the installation. What do I need put in to the Web Site field?

The web sites available should be listed in the first combo box on the Create Virtual Directory screen of the installation. The web sites listed are the ones available on the web server on the machine where you started the installation. You should choose one of the web sites from the combo box and proceed with the installation. If there is no web sites listed there, please check if you have Internet Information Services (IIS) installed on that machine.

Issues after installation

After installation Polar Help Desk doesn't work. What is the problem?

There could be several causes to for this problem, depending on error which is received:

• If you have MDSE installed you should install free Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express. To install it follow this procedure:
  1. Uninstall Polar Help Desk
  2. Download and install .NET Framework 2.0 from here.
  3. Download and install Microsoft SQL 2005 Express from here.
     
  4. Install Polar Help Desk
  5. Go to Control Panel->Administrative tools->Internet Information Services
  6. Find PolarHelpDesk in directory tree
  7. Right click on it and go to properties
  8. Find tab ASP.NET
  9. Under ASP.NET version choose version 1.4432 and click OK and try to run Polar Help Desk
     

• If error is "Server Error in '/PolarHelpDesk' Application. System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Login failed for user XY" then you should follow this procedure:
  1. Click on your “Security” folder of your database.
  2. Right-click on “Users” folder and choose New Login.
  3. In “Database user - New” window in “User name” text field type “(SERVER_NAME)\XY”
  4. In “Login name” click the “…” (Browse) button.
  5. Now you have “Select Login” window, click the “Browse button” that will open “Browse for Objects” window.
  6. From Object’s list check the “(SERVER_NAME)\XY” user, after confirmation with “OK” button on last two dialog windows, your XY user should be in “Login name” text field.
  7. In “Database role membership” check db_owner and db_accessadmin checkboxes
  8. Click OK button.
     
     
  • After this procedure, open new IE window, and try to run Polar Help Desk, if error persists, you should restart the web server by running the command ‘iisreset’:
  1. Go to Start->Run.
  2. Type ‘iisreset’ and run it.
  3. When the web server is restarted, try to access the Help Desk again.

• If error is something like "Parser error" and under Version information on the bottom of the page there is Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0; ASP.NET Version: 2.0 then solution is following:
  1. Go to Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Internet information services
  2. In directory tree find Polar Help Desk virtual directory (default is PolarHelpDesk)
  3. Right click that directory and go to properties
  4. Find tab ASP.NET
  5. Under ASP.NET Version choose 1.4322
     
     
  • After this procedure, open new IE window, and try to run Polar Help Desk, if error persists, you should restart the web server by running the command ‘iisreset’:
  1. Go to Start->Run.
  2. Type ‘iisreset’ and run it.
  3. When the web server is restarted, try to access the Help Desk again.

• If after typing Polar Help Desk URL (default is: http://localhost/polarhelpdesk ) you get "You are not authorized to view this page" then you should do the following:
  1. Go to Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Internet information services
  2. In directory tree find Polar Help Desk virtual directory (default is PolarHelpDesk)
  3. Right click that directory and go to properties
  4. Find tab Documents
  5. Add default.aspx to default documents list

• If you get "Page cannot be found" error and you are running Polar Help Desk on Windows 2003 then you should try the following:

1. Try restarting the web server and open the application in the browser again. You should restart the web server by running the command 'iisreset'. Go to Start - Run. Type 'iisreset' and run it. When the web server is restarted, try to access the Help Desk again.
2. If that does not work - go to the c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322 and run 'aspnet_regiis.exe -i' in the command line. Then restart the web server and try again.
3. If this does not work either, please perform these steps:
   1. Open Internet Information Services (Control Panel - > Administrative Tools - > Internet Information Services), expand the master server node (that is, the ServerName node), and then select the Web service extensions node.
   2. In the right pane of Internet Information Services, right-click the extension that you want to enable. In our case, this is "ASP.NET v1.1.4322".
   3. Click to select the Allow check box.
   4. Restart the web server by running the command 'iisreset'.
   5. When the web server is restarted, try to access Polar Help Desk again
      
      

I am unable to login and the screen flashes and I end up back at the login screen again (no error message is given).

Here the list of possible causes for this error:

1. It is possible that your IIS server is not configured correctly. The session appears to expire immediately. Try to check the session length for the particular web site.
2. Try changing the Application pool settings from the default pool to the some other pool (you can also create another pool).
3. Internet Explorer blocks JavaScript - check Internet Explorer JavaScript settings
   
   

I have installed the new version of Polar Help Desk and I get the following message after trying to go to the url: Server Error in '/helpdesk' Application. Security Exception Description: The application attempted to perform an operation not allowed by the security policy. To grant this application the required permission please contact your system administrator or change the application's trust level in the configuration file.

Here is a list of things you should check:

1. This problem might be caused with by IIS caching mechanisms. Please restart the web server by running ‘iisreset’ in the command line and try again.
2. Check on your Application Pool settings (IIS). Try to change those settings temporarily to see if help desk will work.
3. If you are running SharePoint on the same server and same site, create a new site for Polar Help Desk and install it on that separate site
   
   

The menu on the left side of the screen is showing as text only. What is the problem?

There could be several causes for this problem.

• Internet explorer web controls are missing. Check if webctrl_client folder exists in c:\inetpub\wwwroot (this is default directory). If it doesn't exist go to Polar Help Desk installation directory (default is c:\program files\polar\polar help desk\) and open folder setup\application and there you should find webctrl_client folder and copy it to wwwroot folder of your website and give internet user appropriate permissions to access it. If folder already exists in wwwroot directory just give internet user appropriate rights to access it.
  
  
• Internet explorer security settings prevent menu from showing. You should go to Tolls->Internet options, find tab Security and add Polar Help Desk site to Trusted sites list.
  
  
• Firewall is blocking access; try disabling firewall to check if that is the problem.
  
  
• Internet information services default path is set to Polar Help Desk virtual directory and it appears as Polar Help Desk installed in root of a web site and that is wrong because Polar Help Desk cannot work correctly in root of a web site. To change default path go to Control Panel->Administrative tools->Internet information services and in directory tree find Default web site and go to properties. Find tab Home directory and set it to root of a we site (usually c:\inetpub\wwwroot). It shouldn't point to Polar Help Desk directory.
  
  
• ISAPI filtering enabled on your web site which prevent Polar Help Desk from working correctly. To check/disable it go to Control Panel->Administrative tools->Internet information services and in directory tree find Default web site and go to properties. Find tab ISAPI filters and try removing them and see if it works now.
  
  
• IP restrictions are enabled on your Internet information services. Go to Control Panel->Administrative tools->Internet information services and in directory tree find Default web site and go to properties. Find tab directory security and disable IP address and domain name restrictions and see if it works now.
  

Currently none of the buttons work. Clicking the 'new incident' just makes the screen flash and then it returns back to where you were. Clicking on 'print' has the same effect. I can raise incidents using the menu so I know that the back-end of the system is working.

It looks like the pop ups are being blocked on your client computer. It might be that security level is too high. You should check your browser for that as well as settings on Windows XP if you are using them.

When I connect to the server I have Polar Help Desk running on and from inside our network everything looks fine. However, when I connect from outside the network (via MS ISA Server) the menus don't display correctly. There are no images, just text.

The problem is in the way the internal web site was published through the Microsoft ISA Server. You should create a Destination Set for the internal server that exposed Polar Help Desk to the web publishing rule. I needed to add webctrl_client folder into the same destination set and everything works fine now.

The installation of PHD completed successfully but when I launched the program I see the number of incidents in parentheses in the left window column but the detail window on the right does not show them. When I entered a new incident it appears in the detail window.

1. As the view filter (found in the upper right corner of the Help Desk desktop) is set to 30 days by default, it is possible that the incidents are older and thus are not displayed. You should try changing the time filter to "All time" and see if the incidents appear.
2. It is also possible that you are not a member of the group that the incidents are assigned to and therefore are not able to see them.
   
   

Other

How can I purge the database?

We advise you to create a new, empty database. This is far simpler than purging the old one.

How can I reinstall my Polar Help Desk release without losing my data?

You should do the following:

1. Uninstall the product. The database is preserved.
2. Backup the database!
3. Download the new version and install it. During installation choose to use the existing database (the one you backed up) and proceed with the database upgrade (if necessary).
4. Finish installation.
   
   

How to upgrade Polar Help Desk to latest version?

You should do the following:

1. Go to Download Release section of our site.
2. Log in using your existing Username and Password (you got them when you first purchased Polar Help Desk).
3. Click to download the latest version of PHD.
4. After the download, please follow these steps:
   1. Uninstall the product. The database is preserved.
   2. Backup the database!
   3. Download the new version and install it. During installation choose to use the existing database (the one you backed up) and proceed with the database upgrade (if necessary).
   4. Finish installation.

Note : during the upgrade process your data will be saved.

What database do you recommend to use with Polar Help Desk?

Polar Help Desk supports SQL Server database engine. For its best performance we recommend MS SQL 2005 Express which is free and it can be downloaded from here.

How can I backup Polar Help Desk?

You only need to backup your database. You can setup a backup and maintenance plan for SQL Server Enterprise manager.

If you are planning on making a backup copy of your database and restore it later on here is what you need to do:

1. Open your SQL Enterprise manager
2. Right click on your database and choose All Tasks > Backup database
3. On the Backup dialog choose Database complete
4. Add a file in the destination box and click OK
5. You should make a safe copy of this file.
6. In case you need to restore this database over the existing one here is what you need to do:
   1. Open your SQL Enterprise manager
   2. Right click on your database and choose All Tasks > Restore database
   3. Select From device option
   4. In Select Devices dialog choose your backup file
      

Process of backup is similar to SQL Server Management Studio Express if you are using SQL 2005 Express Edition.

How can I use automatic login in Polar Help Desk?

http://localhost/PolarHelpDesk/AutomaticLogin.aspx?
Username=USERNAME_HERE&Password=PASSWORD_HERE

For example the address for polar support site would be: http://support.polarsoftware.com/helpdesk/AutomaticLogin.aspx? Username=USERNAME_HERE&Password=PASSWORD_HERE