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Queues¶

Teams need a workspace and the ability to dispatch work based on skill level, security level, department or responsibility just to name a few. Other teams may also need to view or react in these requests as well.

OTRS uses queues to provide your teams with structure. Queues provide a powerful way to divide and disperse the work to the responsible group of people.

Use this screen to add queues to the system. In a fresh OTRS installation there are 4 default queues: Raw, Junk, Misc and Postmaster. All incoming messages will be stored in the Raw queue if no filter rules are defined. The Junk queue can be used to store spam messages. The queue management screen is available in the Queues module of the Ticket Settings group.

Queue Management Screen

Manage Queues¶

To add a queue:

Click on the Add Queue button in the left sidebar.
Fill in the required fields.
Click on the Save button.

Add Queue Screen

Warning

Queues can not be deleted from the system. They can only be deactivated by setting the Validity option to invalid or invalid-temporarily.

Warning

The maximum number of 200 valid queues should not be exceeded. Exceeding this limit may affect the system performance.

To edit a queue:

Click on a queue in the list of queues.
Modify the fields.
Click on the Save or Save and finish button.

Edit Queue Screen

Note

If several queues are added to the system, use the filter box to find a particular queue by just typing the name to filter.

Queue Validation Dialog

If you change the name of a queue which is used in the system configuration, a validation check will warn you and give you the following options:

Save and update automatically: Apply the change and also update the affected settings.
Don’t save, update manually: Apply the change, but don’t update the affected settings. The updates need to be done manually.
Cancel: Cancel the action.

Warning

Changing the name of this object should be done with care, the check only provides verification for certain settings and ignores things where the name can’t be verified. Some examples are dashboard filters, access control lists (ACLs), and processes (sequence flow actions) to name a few. Documentation of your setup is key to surviving a name change.

Queue Settings¶

The following settings are available when adding or editing this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Name *

The name of this resource. Any type of characters can be entered to this field including uppercase letters and spaces. The name will be displayed in the overview table.

Sub-queue of

It is possible to add the new queue under an existing one as sub-queue. This will be displayed as Parent Queue::Child Queue.

Group *

It is possible to limit access to the selected group. The group creates a permission link between the queue and an agent or a customer user.

Unlock timeout minutes

Any ticket on open, which is locked, in this queue will automatically unlock after the set amount of minutes. The value 0 (default) means tickets in this queue remain locked.

Escalation - first response time (minutes)

Defines the time span for this queue within the defined business hours, in which an agent has to send the first reply to the customer as a visible article to a ticket created by a customer. The escalation time for the first response is cancelled as soon as the agent sends an article that is visible to the customer.

The first response time is triggered if a ticket has been created by an agent.

Once a ticket has been escalated because of exceeding the defined time span then this ticket stays in the status escalated.

The first response time escalation notification will be sent to all agents who have selected the specific queue as preferred queue in the My Queues setting and the ticket escalation notification is enabled.

Escalation - update time (minutes)

Defines the time span for this queue within the defined business hours, after which the ticket will be escalated if no further articles are written. This escalation update time is reset whenever an agent writes an article that is visible to the customer user. The escalation update time is also reset when a customer user responds to an agent article for the first time. Additional articles written by the customer user do not affect the escalation update time.

The escalation notification will be sent to all agents who have selected the specific queue as preferred queue in the My Queues setting and the ticket escalation notification is enabled.

Escalation - solution time (minutes)

Sets the time span for this queue, within the defined business hours, within the ticket has to be solved. Solved means that the ticket is set to the status closed. If the ticket is not set to solved until the time span defined here is reached, the ticket escalates.

The escalation notification will be sent to all agents who have selected the specific queue as preferred queue in the My Queues setting and the ticket escalation notification is enabled.

Once resolution time escalation has been triggered for a ticket, the ticket remains escalated.

The solution time will not reset if the ticket is reopened.

Note

The escalation settings of Service Level Agreements will overwrite the escalation settings of queues.

Follow up Option *

Specify the handling of a follow up on closed tickets. Possible values:

new ticket: The follow up will create a new ticket.
possible: The follow up will reopen the already closed ticket.
reject: The follow up will be rejected.