Support Buttons: Deploy Support Buttons for Quick Session Start
Configuration
Support Buttons
Support Button Mass Deployment Wizard
Deploying a Support Button on your customer's computer installs a customer client on their machine, providing a quick, seamless method of starting support sessions. The Support Button does NOT maintain a connection to the B Series Appliance, but rather provides a customer-initiated method of requesting support. Depending on the configuration of the Support Button and the support site, clicking the Support Button will connect the customer to a previously defined representative or team, allow the customer to enter a session key, or allow the customer to submit an issue submission form. Support Buttons can be installed on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
This feature is not supported for ARM-based Windows systems.
For more information, please see Manage Support Buttons.
For more information, please see Support Button: Quickly Request Support.
Description
Create a unique name to help identify this Support Button. This name is helpful when managing deployed Support Buttons.
Public Portal
Select the public portal through which this item should connect for a support session. If a session policy is assigned to this public portal, that policy may affect the permissions allowed in sessions started through this item.
Language
If more than one language is enabled on this site, set the language this Support Button should use. Support Buttons do not detect the local language when they are run; they only use the default language assigned during deployment.
Team
Specify whether starting a session from this Support Button should place the customer in your personal queue or a team queue.
Deployed Support Buttons Are Valid For
Set the lifespan of the button. The customer can use this button to start sessions for only as long as specified here. If the customer clicks this button after it has expired, an invalid session key message will display, and the browser will refresh to your support portal. This time does NOT affect how long the installer remains active or how long a session can last.
Install Mode
Choose whether to install the Support Button for a single user or for all users on the remote system. Deploying a Support Button for all users is available only for Windows platforms. Also, if you make any changes to a Support Button profile, a single-user Support Button will automatically incorporate those changes the next time it connects, while an all-user Support Button will have to be redeployed in order to receive those changes. For the best experience, redeploy all-user Support Buttons each time you upgrade your BeyondTrust software. Note that all-user Support Buttons may not be removed from within the representative console; they must be uninstalled directly from the target computer.
Profile
Select a profile to use form the dropdown menu.
Create
Click to create the Support Button.
Download Now
Platform
Choose the operating system on which you wish to install this software. This dropdown defaults to the appropriate installer detected for your operating system.
For system administrators who need to push out the Support Button installer to a large number of systems, the MSI option can be used with your systems management tool of choice. In your command prompt, when composing the command to install the Support Button using an MSI, change to the directory where the MSI was downloaded and enter the command included on the Support Button page.
Unlike the representative console, Support Buttons installed from an MSI do auto-update.
When installing a Support Button executable on remote Windows machines, you can specify a custom install directory path where you want the Support Button to install. If the install directory you specify does not exist, it will be created, assuming the installation has sufficient permissions on the local system. You can specify the install directory using either the MSI installation package or the EXE installation package. Installation to custom paths is not supported on Mac or Linux systems.
The syntax for the EXE installation is:
bomgar-scc-w07dc30w8ff8h51116g785zgh151hdfe8y6z7jgc408c90 --cb-install-dir "C:\Support Button"
where bomgar-scc-w07dc30w8ff8h51116g785zgh151hdfe8y6z7jgc408c90 is the filename of your executable install client and "C:\Support Button" is the path you wish the installation to use.
The syntax for the MSI installation is
msiexec /i bomgar-scc-win64.msi KEY_INFO=w0hdc301hd18wxj8xjfd8z6jzyefz7wzd1gwwd6c408c90 INSTALLDIR="C:\Support Button"
where bomgar-scc-win64.msi is the name of your MSI installation package, w0hdc301hd18wxj8xjfd8z6jzyefz7wzd1gwwd6c408c90 is the key of your installation package, and "C:\Support Button" is the path you wish the installation to use.
To install a Support Button without displaying any windows, spinners, errors, or other visible alerts, append --silent to the end of the EXE command or /quiet to the end of the MSI command.
Download
You can download the installer immediately if you plan to distribute it using a systems management tool or if you are at the computer to which you need later access.
Because some browsers require that the installer be saved before it can be run, there may be some confusion about when the Support Button is fully installed. The downloaded bomgar-scc-{uid}.exe file is not the button itself but rather the installer for the button. This executable file must be run to complete the installation.
Deploy to Email Recipients
You can also email the installer to one or more remote users. Multiple recipients can install the client from the same link. Click on the Direct Download Link to copy the link.
Support Button Profiles - Add
Create a new profile, modify an existing profile, or remove an existing profile. You can edit but not delete the default Support Button profile.
Name
Create a unique name to help identify this profile. This name should help a representative decide which profile to assign to a Support Button.
Icon
Upload the file containing the customized button icon. The file must be a PNG file, no larger than 150KB and with a minimum height and width of 128 pixels. The height and width must be equal.
Title
The title is used as the title of the desktop icon.
Short Title
The short title is used when the customer’s operating system limits the title length.
Deployment Locations
Select where the Support Button should be deployed, whether to the desktop or the menu. The menu option is only supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
Allow direct access to queue
Select if the customer can use the Support Button to connect directly to a specified queue (the queue is specified by the Team dropdown in the Support Button Mass Deployment Wizard).
Embedded Support Button Registry File Generator
Use the Embedded Support Button Registry File Generator to create registry files which will embed the Support Button into the title bar of an application. An embedded Support Button gives support providers the ability to streamline the support path for specific applications. For example, if your support team frequently handles issues with Microsoft Outlook, you can embed a Support Button within Outlook. You can configure this embedded Support Button to point to a specific issue so that when a customer clicks the button, a session will immediately start with the team best suited to handle Outlook problems. Embedded Support Buttons are a Windows-only feature.
To create an embedded Support Button, a Support Button must first be deployed on the remote system. You may wish to define the Support Button profile so that neither the desktop shortcut nor the menu shortcut is created.
Install Mode
Select whether to install for all users on a system or a single user.
Executable Name
Enter the name of the program in which you want to embed a Support Button. Do not include the file path.
Issue
Optionally, select an issue that will be associated with sessions started from this embedded Support Button. You can alternatively select No Issue Assigned.
Show Front-End Survey
Checking Show Front End Survey prompts the customer to describe their issue before starting a session. If this option is unchecked, the session will start immediately, without any further customer input.
External Key
You can add an external key to assign to sessions started from this embedded Support Button.
Delete
Remove an existing application from this registry file.
Add New Row
To add multiple applications to one registry file, click Add New Row and enter the information for another application.
Import a Registry File
To edit an embedded Support Button's functionality, you can import the registry file and modify its entries. When complete, click Create Registry File. Running the registry file will overwrite the existing registry entries.
Create Registry File
When you have finished adding executables in which you want to embed Support Buttons, click Create Registry File. This prompts you to save a registry file to your system. Using Active Directory or a deployment tool, deploy the registry file to all remote systems which should use these embedded Support Buttons. After running the registry file, the remote user will have to log off and back on for the Support Button registry entry to be created.
It is a best practice to save a copy of any generated registry files. Registry file information is not saved on the BeyondTrust Appliance B Series.
Now, when one of the designated applications is run, a Support Button will appear in the top right corner, beside the minimize button. Clicking this embedded Support Button will start a session as defined by its profile and its registry file settings.
Running a Support Button registry file on a system that already has Support Button registry entries will overwrite the original registry entries. Therefore, if you have embedded a Support Button in one application and you wish to embed it in another, the new registry file must contain both executable names. If the new registry file contains only the new executable name, then the embedded Support Button will appear only in the new application and not in the previous application.
To remove an embedded Support Button from a specific application without adding it to another application, you must edit the registry. Using Notepad or a similar editor, open the registry file you initially deployed and insert a hyphen in front of each registry key you wish to delete. Save the registry file and redeploy it to remove the registry entry. An example of a registry entry marked for deletion is presented below.
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Test]
For more information about registry entries, please see https://support.microsoft.com/kb/310516.
Uninstalling the Support Button will remove it from all embedded programs but will not delete the registry entries. Thus, if another Support Button is installed for the same site, it will inherit the previous registry entries and will appear embedded in the same programs.
For more information, please see Manage Support Buttons.
