Feb 07, 2009

Ticket Tips

Hey all, I'm Ryan Gelobter and I work the night shift here at LSN. Most people think being on the night-shift is glamorous, but between night owls and various time zones it can get just as busy (if not more so) than during the daytime. Sometimes we get very busy, and the best way you can help us and yourself during those times is to make sure your ticket has all of the needed information. I've compiled some tips below that should make your ticket experience smoother, and quicker.

1. Login Information

When you go to the first screen to submit a new ticket you will notice that we have provided a field for your server's username and password. If you are submitting a ticket that requires us to perform work on your server we will need the login information. By submitting this information with the ticket you can ensure that when we review the ticket we will be able to look at the issue instead of having to request login details. As stated in our control panel, when submitted inside these fields the values are encrypted and wiped once the ticket is closed.

2. Select the Correct Server

For clients with multiple servers we have a drop down so you can choose which server the ticket is in regards to. The server you select is the one we base the ticket off of, if you select the wrong server we may be looking at a different server than the one you are referencing. This is one reason we like to confirm your Server ID before we perform any work that might cause downtime or data loss (reloads).

3. Use Specific Subjects

Subjects such as "URGENT! or PROBLEM!" don't let us know right off the bat what the issue is. If you must place URGENT or PROBLEM in the subject submit it like this, "PROBLEM: Can't RDP Anymore" or "URGENT: Lost cPanel Access". We understand it may be an emergency but the more specific you are about the issue the faster we can get it resolved.

4. The More Information The Better

Sometimes unexpected things happen to your server or maybe a configuration change didn't go as planned. The fastest way to get these issues resolved is to let us know what was performed, and if known, how we can fix it for you. Lets say you changed your SSH port to 3000, but you forgot to open that port in IPTables. You can have SSH back up and running asap if you let us know those details. Just telling us SSH is broken doesn't provide us with much information to go on which means we have to take extra time to see what might be wrong when it was just a simple fix.

Got any other ticket tips? Let them be known in the comments!