Request Assistance

You can determine which user accounts in your domain are allowed to receive assistance requests and for which devices. Once you have granted at least one user account in the domain to receive assistance requests, the operators of the selected remote devices can use
Request Assistance
 from a remote device to inform the
FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
 that intervention is required on the system.
NOTE:
Device installer
 permissions are required to enable or disable the
Request Assistance
 entry. See Domain user permissions for further information on this subject.
To enable a remote device to request assistance:
  1. Sign in to the
    FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
     domain using an administrator account.
  2. Access the
    Explorer
    Domain view
     section.
  3. Select the remote device in the left pane.
  4. Scroll the right pane until you reach the
    Submit Assistance Requests
     entry and flag it.
  5. To limit the assistance time frame for security reasons, enter a date in the
    Expiration Date
     field. After that date, assistance requests for that specific remote device will no longer be permitted.
When
Submit Assistance Requests
 is enabled on a remote device, the user operating it can click on the
Request assistance
 button showing up on the Windows Runtime
Network Connection
 section of the remote device to submit an assistance request.
If the domain entry
The user must provide contact details when assistance is requested
 is enabled, the user operating the remote device will be prompted to populate the
Name
,
Contact Information
 and
Description
 fields to submit an assistance request.
NOTE: See FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager overview and related entities to view the Assistance required toggle switch in the application.
NOTE: If both
Require contact details when requesting assistance
 and
Submit Assistance Requests
 are enabled, the user of the Runtime device can provide a comment while sending their assistance request. The text in the comment shall not include
../
, because this text string might be considered as a path traversal attack.

Assistance request notifications

A user registered to the
FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
 that is required to give assistance will be notified as follows:
  • They will receive a pop-up notification showing the assistance request.
  • They will receive an email to the account related to the concerned domain in the
    Assistance Request Notification Email
     setting.
NOTE: You can activate both notification options or one of them, as needed.
NOTE: In the
Explorer
Domain view
 right pane, the remote devices for which
Request assistance
 has been activated are identified with a small
red bell
 icon.

Cancel or close an assistance request

It is possible to cancel an assistance request from Windows Runtime or close one from the
FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
.
An assistance request can be closed from the
FactoryTalk Remote Access Manager
 by accessing the right pane in 
Explorer
Domain view
 and selecting
Close
if a resolution has been provided.
If support is no longer needed, a user can cancel the assistance request by accessing the Windows Runtime of the remote device and selecting
Cancel request assitance
 from the
Network Connection
 section.
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