Zen Desk
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digression....is there a product that does what Spiceworks does but better and won't break the bank?
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@thecreativeone91 Well I don't know about that
We never got that far, the initial issues scared us away.Biggest let down was the awful setup/inventory.
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@garak0410 said:
Digretion....is there a product that does what Spiceworks does but better and won't break the bank?
All in one? no. You need separate tools that are good at each task.
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@garak0410
https://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk-msp/Give the free edition a try.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@garak0410 said:
Digretion....is there a product that does what Spiceworks does but better and won't break the bank?
All in one? no. You need separate tools that are good at each task.
And pardon the typo...fixed "digression"...
And for what I need it for a solo IT shop, Spiceworks fine...I can't get anyone to really use the help desk though they will get a ticket for every time they walk into my office for me to help...it helps me keep a good KB of how I fixed things...
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@Breffni-Potter said:
@garak0410
https://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk-msp/Give the free edition a try.
Very powerful. Full enterprise style helpdesk. Takes a bit to set up but really nice and flexible. That it is totally free AND hosted is huge. And they have a presence in MangoLassi too, which is awesome.
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@garak0410 said:
digression....is there a product that does what Spiceworks does but better and won't break the bank?
Why do you want those pieces all in one? I always found that a big negative. Jack of all trades, master of none. Too much integration.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@garak0410 said:
digression....is there a product that does what Spiceworks does but better and won't break the bank?
Why do you want those pieces all in one? I always found that a big negative. Jack of all trades, master of none. Too much integration.
Why is that? (note my context is intense curiosity and not flaming...like others opinions to help form my own)
The reason I don't mind it all in once place is that I like the way the help desk attaches issues to devices and keeps a history attached to it...plus it is free (sans the data they collect)
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@garak0410 I like it all in one spot as well, but it's a resource pig and should be run on SSD's if you have more than 2 or 3 IT staff. We have 3 staff, if someone runs a search it absorbs all the I/O we have in the crummy array that hosts it. This results in crap performance for all our VM's on that host. Granted that's all our fault for a garbage config, but, it's still a bit of a resource hog.
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@garak0410 said:
The reason I don't mind it all in once place is that I like the way the help desk attaches issues to devices and keeps a history attached to it...plus it is free (sans the data they collect)
The free is great, but the lack of hosting is huge. The actual cost of running it is relatively high as you need a lot of hardware and Windows licensing to do it (you can do a VM, but then you either need Windows Server or VDI licensing!!) Because it is Windows only and because it is so resource intensive you really end up spending a lot. Plus you need to deal with patching and management yourself, which adds that cost too.
The devices with history attached to tickets is certainly awesome.
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@MattSpeller said:
@garak0410 I like it all in one spot as well, but it's a resource pig and should be run on SSD's if you have more than 2 or 3 IT staff.
When we ran it a few years ago, that's what we did. It was physical install, with SSD (100K IOPS+), 6GB RAM and it was still SO slow.
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@MattSpeller said:
@garak0410 I like it all in one spot as well, but it's a resource pig and should be run on SSD's if you have more than 2 or 3 IT staff. We have 3 staff, if someone runs a search it absorbs all the I/O we have in the crummy array that hosts it. This results in crap performance for all our VM's on that host. Granted that's all our fault for a garbage config, but, it's still a bit of a resource hog.
I'm the only IT staff and no one really uses the helpdesk (but I do to log my issues and reference them to the hardware)...I am actually running it on a VM along with an internet monitor...I've not really had any performance issues with it or that server (it is on my "play" virtual host and not the main product host)...Still wondering if I should still get a decent workstation with memory and SSD and run it there...
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@garak0410 You're probably just more patient than I am. Wouldn't take much
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@garak0410 said:
if I should still get a decent workstation with memory and SSD and run it there...
That's a lot of money for a "free" product. I'd do some TCO analysis there.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@garak0410 said:
The reason I don't mind it all in once place is that I like the way the help desk attaches issues to devices and keeps a history attached to it...plus it is free (sans the data they collect)
The free is great, but the lack of hosting is huge. The actual cost of running it is relatively high as you need a lot of hardware and Windows licensing to do it (you can do a VM, but then you either need Windows Server or VDI licensing!!) Because it is Windows only and because it is so resource intensive you really end up spending a lot. Plus you need to deal with patching and management yourself, which adds that cost too.
The devices with history attached to tickets is certainly awesome.
Thanks for the input...certainly makes sense from that perspective...hosted would for sure be awesome but spending money here is a luxury at time, especially with our Microsoft Dynamics GP2015 upgrade this year (with estimated 30 hours of Dynamics consultant pay we have to dish out)...
Interesting about being a hog...I peeked on on that VM...CPU was sitting nicely at 4% CPU...jumped up to 99% andf hovered between 50 and 80% for the next 2=3 minutes or so...and it was the slowing services:
SPICEWORKS APPLICATION SERVER
SPICEWORKS NETWORK SCANNER AND TFTP SERVERThen it settled back down...
If I enter a ticket, SPICEWORKS APPLICATION SERVER causes CPU usage go jump up to 50% for a few seconds and stops...
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@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@garak0410 said:
The reason I don't mind it all in once place is that I like the way the help desk attaches issues to devices and keeps a history attached to it...plus it is free (sans the data they collect)
The free is great, but the lack of hosting is huge. The actual cost of running it is relatively high as you need a lot of hardware and Windows licensing to do it (you can do a VM, but then you either need Windows Server or VDI licensing!!) Because it is Windows only and because it is so resource intensive you really end up spending a lot. Plus you need to deal with patching and management yourself, which adds that cost too.
The devices with history attached to tickets is certainly awesome.
Thanks for the input...certainly makes sense from that perspective...hosted would for sure be awesome but spending money here is a luxury at time, especially with our Microsoft Dynamics GP2015 upgrade this year (with estimated 30 hours of Dynamics consultant pay we have to dish out)...
We moved from Spiceworks to ManageEngine's hosted solution. It is free for basically everything that matters. Although you may have to do inventory a different way.
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@coliver said:
@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@garak0410 said:
The reason I don't mind it all in once place is that I like the way the help desk attaches issues to devices and keeps a history attached to it...plus it is free (sans the data they collect)
The free is great, but the lack of hosting is huge. The actual cost of running it is relatively high as you need a lot of hardware and Windows licensing to do it (you can do a VM, but then you either need Windows Server or VDI licensing!!) Because it is Windows only and because it is so resource intensive you really end up spending a lot. Plus you need to deal with patching and management yourself, which adds that cost too.
The devices with history attached to tickets is certainly awesome.
Thanks for the input...certainly makes sense from that perspective...hosted would for sure be awesome but spending money here is a luxury at time, especially with our Microsoft Dynamics GP2015 upgrade this year (with estimated 30 hours of Dynamics consultant pay we have to dish out)...
We moved from Spiceworks to ManageEngine's hosted solution. It is free for basically everything that matters. Although you may have to do inventory a different way.
I think inventory is more important than help desk, as I had a decent self-written help desk app for a good while...
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@coliver said:
We moved from Spiceworks to ManageEngine's hosted solution. It is free for basically everything that matters. Although you may have to do inventory a different way.
The Hosted version is free as well?
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@coliver Their website is a bit of a mess, where is this free hosted service? I could only find the free installable helpdesk.
