# HP OpenView Service Desk

## version 4.5

## Auditing Attachments

September 2006

© Copyright 2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

## Content:

Last minute information
Introduction
Getting Started
Known Errors and Limitations

## LAST-MINUTE INFORMATION

There is no last-minute information.

## INTRODUCTION

This feature introduces the capability of creating history lines which describe operations Service Desk users perform on attachments. History lines will be created when Service Desk users add or remove an attachment or modify classifications of attachments. This feature applies to ‘Change’, ‘Configuration Item’, ‘Incident’, ‘Maintenance contract’, ‘Organization’, ‘Person’, ‘Problem’, ‘Project’, ‘Service’, ‘Service call’, ‘Service Level Agreement’, ‘Work order’ and ‘Workgroup’.

A new functionality, ‘Remove Old Attachment Versions’, is introduced by this feature, which aims to allow System Administrator to clean up the attachment server by removing all old versions of attachments of a selected set of items with same type.

The main audience for this document is Service Desk users and administrators authorized to maintain attachments.

## GETTING STARTED

### Configuration

A new option is added into configuration page of each item listed on audit rules page. These can be found in Administrator Console under hp OpenView service desk > Security > Audit > Audit Rules. To turn on the auditing attachment feature for a certain type item, just check the appropriate option box, as shown in the following illustration.

Note: Attachments removed from records by Service Desk users are re-attached to a history line of that record by this feature as an integral part of history data. Users can then open attachments on history lines in order to audit changes made on them.

In order to add removed attachments to history lines, System Administrators need to redesign corresponding history line forms. This can be done by going to Administrator Console, hp OpenView service desk > Presentation > Forms. Click the appropriate history line entry on the left tree and open the appropriate form from the list on the right. As shown in following diagram, a new attribute "HistoryLine Attachment" is added onto the Attributes select dialog, to make the history line attachment field visible. Drag this attribute to the desired place on the form.

The most important information about attachment operations are recorded in the 'Subject' and 'New value' fields of history lines. "New Value" is not added by default, user also need add "New Value" attribute onto the form if he wants to know detailed information of operations.

### History Lines of Auditing Attachment

Service Desk users can view the content of a history line created by this feature by double clicking one of the history lines.

A history line about adding an attachment is shown below as an example:

A history line about removing an attachment is shown below as an example; users can open the removed attachment by double clicking the file icon.

A history line about updating classifications of an attachment is shown below as an example:

### Removing Old Attachment Versions

If the auditing attachment option for a certain kind of item is switched on, Service Desk will then version each attachment attached to that kind of item. Service Desk will treat all attachments with the same display name for a single record (and its history lines) as different versions of that attachment. For example, users modify (by adding and removing) one attachment of a Service call a couple of times, different versions of the attachment with that particular display name are maintained by this Service call (and its history lines); the latest version is the one most recently added. Users then can go through the history lines and open attachments to track changes.

However, the storage space on the attachment server might be seriously impacted by Service Desk when this feature is heavily used. In some cases, old attachment versions of certain items are not relevant anymore. In that case, System Administrators can use the new functionality "Remove Old Attachment Versions" to delete attachment versions.

A new tab page "Remove Old Attachment Versions" is added to Attachment Setting dialog (as shown in following illustration) to allow System Administrators to clean up the attachment server by removing redundant attachment versions. This tab page will only be visible by System Administrators of Service Desk.

To remove old attachment versions, System Administrators need to first select item type which they want to perform this operation on, and then select a view from the view list. By clicking "Remove..." button, all old attachment versions selected by this view will be removed; only the most recent version will be kept. Besides, Service Desk will update history lines, which maintains these old attachment versions, in order to log this operation.

Note: Through Web-api user can insert cognominal attachments into one record of Service Desk. It may cause those attachments get lost when performing "Remove Old Attachment Versions" function. Please use it carefully!

### Web API

There is no change specially made in Web-API. If attachment auditing option is switched on, adding or removing an attachment and modification of classifications of attachments through the Web API will be audited.

## Known Errors and Limitations

In Service Page and Web Console, historyline form only has "Information" and "Subject" attributes, which means user can not get detailed information of operations and removed attachment.