iTop
| ITop
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 ITop 2.4.0 welcome dashboard |
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| Basic data
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| Maintainer | Combodo SARL |
| developer | Combodo SARL |
| Current version |
2.6.1 ( April 11, 2019 ) |
| operating system | platform independent |
| programming language | PHP , JavaScript |
| category | Trouble ticket system , CMDB |
| License | AGPL |
| German speaking | Yes |
| Project page at Sourceforge | |
iTop ( IT Operational Portal ) is a modular, web-based software to support IT operations in terms of IT service management . The system includes a configuration management database (CMDB), the information of which is accessed in further system modules for the help desk or for downstream processes such as problem management or change management . iTop is free software and is under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL).
General
The core of iTop is a CMDB that provides a logical image of all the elements required for the operation of the IT infrastructure, the so-called configuration items (short: CIs), and their links. The stored information includes all classic IT components such as servers, PCs, software or networks, but also people, teams, contracts, services, documents or service level agreements . These are used in the respective further system modules for support. iTop can also be used as a ticket system without a CMDB.
iTop is web-based, completely open source and has a modular structure. The CMDB provides basic functionality across modules and systems, all other modules are optional. iTop is programmed according to the Model-View-Controller paradigm and can therefore be largely adapted to your own requirements without programming and only through reconfiguration.
history
iTop was initially used internally by employees of the technology group Hewlett-Packard in France for projects in the IT service business. The authors created a complete rewrite in 2009 and published it as open source software. In 2010 they left HP and founded the company Combodo SARL based in Grenoble , which has been developing iTop since then and primarily offering training, support and programming services for iTop.
Thanks to the rewrite, iTop is largely free of contaminated sites and its architecture is already based on the current professional and technical standards and best practices at the time of the rewrite , in particular IT service management and web 2.0 interface technology .
distribution
iTop has been downloaded over 350,000 times since it was released as open source software in 2009 (as of April 2018), with around 5,000 new downloads added every month. According to the manufacturer Combodo and its partners, the users of iTop in the corporate context include Deutsche Bahn, the aircraft manufacturer Airbus , the building materials group Saint-Gobain , the credit card company Visa and Agrarmarkt Austria . The largest professional iTop user in Germany is the Max Planck Society , which manages around 16,000 CIs from over 80 Max Planck institutes in the CMDB.
Versions, modules and functionalities
iTop is completely modular and allows you to select, deselect and preconfigure modules during the installation process. The system can also be supplemented with your own modules. Combodo itself provides some additional modules as open source software, especially for expanding the ticketing functionalities and for IP address management.
Combodo also offers the versions iTop Essential and iTop Professional based on the publicly available community version. These supplement the community version with various additional features, particularly from the ticketing area. a. the additional modules already mentioned are used. A so-called "Plus Package" can optionally expand iTop with additional features for iTop Plus, iTop Essential Plus or iTop Professional Plus. iTop Professional Plus has been certified as ITIL-compliant by an independent consultancy. The iTop Professional Plus version was certified for 15 ITIL processes (out of a possible 18).
These versions are also available under open source licenses , but are only made available within the framework of support agreements. In this context, Combodo also offers a web-based tool called ITSM Designer, which offers a GUI for customizing iTop.
The basic modules that are included in the scope of delivery of iTop when downloaded from the Sourceforge project page are briefly described in the following. Detailed documentation is available in English on the iTop Wiki.
Configuration management
This module provides a CMDB and core functionalities of the iTop system. Typical IT components such as software and hardware, but also people, teams and documents, as well as organizational information such as clients or buildings are managed in the CMDB. In particular, the areas of data center and hosting ( servers , racks , power supplies, etc.), end-user devices (telephony, tablets , smartphones , PCs ), virtualization ( hosts , virtual machines , hypervisors ) and storage are covered . Depending on the installed additional standard modules, the CMDB is expanded to include additional object types and relationships, e.g. B. Services, SLAs and contracts.
In addition to inventory lists, which can also be imported or synchronized from any third-party system via the iTop interfaces, you can maintain in particular the meanings of the relationships to one another, e.g. B. A person's relationship with a machine and the type of relationship (“Administrator”). These relationships can be subjected to human and machine-readable dependency analyzes in real time. B. to simulate which machines, software, people and business processes would be potentially affected by a failure of a certain system.
This information is also used in the modules for help desk, incident, problem, change and service management. The CMDB thus provides a single data source ( single point of truth ) for various IT operating processes and for the service catalog . All information can be exported as a CSV file and from version 2.1.0 also directly as a table file in Microsoft Excel format.
Help desk
The help desk module provides a ticketing system which, with the help of a workflow engine integrated in iTop, supports the stored process for processing standard inquiries. Inquiries are recorded in writing, assigned to a service, assigned to a processor and a processor group and supplied to a solution.
The standard workflow corresponds to a typical process for the processing of service requests (request fulfillment) in ITIL . It is possible to select what is known as “simple ticketing” during installation, which makes no distinction between incidents and service requests with regard to the process and the assignable processing groups. This pragmatic configuration variant is primarily intended for small and medium-sized companies. If this option is selected, the features of the incident management module are also displayed in the help desk module, and the incident management module disappears from the navigation.
When processing tickets, iTop accesses the information from the service management module and applies the customer-specific SLAs stored there or, depending on the customer, only allows certain services to be selected from the service catalog. The system can automatically create and send e-mail notifications, e.g. B. when assigning the ticket to an agent, and automatically perform escalations if z. B. an SLA is not complied with.
Inquiries (tickets) can be linked directly to objects from the CMDB, whereby further objects linked to an object in the CMDB are automatically attached with a corresponding note in the ticket according to the dependency rules. For example, if the hardware of a database server malfunctions, all applications accessing the databases running there, as well as related business processes and persons responsible for support, would automatically be linked to the ticket.
If further modules with ticketing functionality are installed, relationships to these can also be established in tickets. For example, a request can be linked to a change or a problem ticket, and any known errors that may be appropriate are automatically linked to the ticket as possible solutions.
Incident Management
The Incident Management module is structured in the same way as the Helpdesk module and offers a standard workflow with its own processing groups for incidents. The other functionalities, in particular direct access to the service catalog and the linkability of CMDB objects, are regulated in the same way as for the Helpdesk module.
ITop is often installed with the preconfiguration of "Simple Ticketing", which integrates the functions of the incident management module directly into the help desk module. Incidents can then only be differentiated from service requests via a classification in the respective ticket, but follow an identical processing sequence and can be assigned to the same persons and groups of persons for processing.
Problem management
In this module, problems can be stored in their own problem tickets and processed in a structured manner along their own workflow. The basic functionalities are similar to the help desk module: Problems can be assigned to a service and CMDB objects can be linked.
Storable are also Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and so-called known errors in accordance ITIL representing the solution of a problem. These can be linked to CMDB objects (e.g. with the machines to which a certain known error relates). These links are used automatically when a new incident or help desk ticket is created.
Change management
The change management module supports the structured processing of changes in the ITIL sense based on pre-defined steps and processes. As in the other ticketing modules, it is possible to link CMDB objects with changes, and this information is automatically supplemented with additional objects, which the system automatically determines as part of the impact or dependency analysis.
So-called normal changes, emergency changes and routine changes are supported with different workflows. A pragmatic preconfiguration similar to "simple ticketing" for the help desk area is possible at the time of installation and only stores a single workflow, which is then used to process all changes regardless of the exact type.
Service management
In particular, this module manages the entirety of all services and their subcategories that can be offered to internal or external customers. In addition, service level agreements are managed here and stored in customer contracts, which clients are offered which services in which quality (i.e. using which SLAs). You can also maintain the contracts that you as a provider yourself have bought in order to provide your own service (e.g. hardware support for printers).
In ITIL terminology, this module supports the processes of service catalog management, service level management and supplier management. The information is used directly in all ticketing modules, e.g. B. to offer only certain services depending on the selected tenant and to determine and automatically apply the SLAs agreed with the tenant.
Data management
This area contains mechanisms for the manual import of data from Excel, LibreOffice or CSV files and for checking data consistency. An assistant supports you when importing data or updating existing data using CSV data files. So-called audits allow fixed real-time queries of the system data in a panel according to certain criteria, e.g. For example, a query of all devices with the status "productive" that are not monitored by a monitoring solution, or all software installations without an assigned license. Audits are defined in an object-oriented query language based on SQL called Object Query Language (OQL) and can be freely configured and changed.
Extended user portal
From version 2.3.0 iTop offers an extended user portal. The portal provides a GUI with limited functions and views in a responsive design especially for end users. Inquiries can be opened here using an assistant and the processing status of existing inquiries can be viewed by the end user. It is also possible to interact with the help desk and upload files as attachments to tickets. The portal offers a possibility to make an FAQ available to end users . A modern design is achieved through the CSS framework Bootstrap .
Admin tools
Administrators can manage users and rights in this area of the system, configure audits for the data management module as well as queries and via the web, e.g. Reports that can be queried via Excel or LibreOffice are provided. In this area, the synchronization mechanisms are set up and configured, with which iTop can automatically and regularly synchronize data from any external sources (e.g. software distribution, Active Directory , inventory systems) with its database. In addition, as of version 2.1.0, the central configuration file can be edited directly, and system backups can be created regularly and automatically, as well as manually at the push of a button. From version 2.2.0 there is also an interactive assistant for exporting data in various formats, including CSV , XML , PDF , and Excel .
The entities and relations that can be managed by iTop are described in XML files and together form the so-called data model . This is structured object-oriented. It can be displayed graphically in the admin tools with the browser and navigated within it.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Combodo - Accueil
- ↑ iTop 2.6.1 is available! . April 11, 2019 (accessed July 9, 2019).
- ↑ ITIL for everyone - ADMIN magazine
- ↑ Download Statistics: itop
- ↑ ITOMIG GmbH: Reference ITOMIG. Accessed April 12, 2018 (German).
- ↑ http://www.combodo.com/customer-cases Customer references at Combodo (English)
- ↑ Service management in Agrarmarkt Austria: Review after 1.5 years of use ( memento of the original from December 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ 3.2 Open Source-Based IT Service Management in the Max Planck Society
- ↑ Additional modules
- ↑ iTop Plus package
- ↑ SERVIEW Certifiedtool iTop Professional Plus
- ↑ iTop versions (German) https://www.itomig.de/shop/category/itop-version-7
- ↑ ITSM Designer (German) https://www.itomig.de/shop/product/itsm-designer-76
- ↑ Wiki from iTop
- ↑ Presentation of the new iTop end user portal
