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Switching from Quest KACE
Beacon reads the CSV files that the KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Service Desk exports from its lists. Nothing is installed on the appliance and no API access is needed: export three lists, choose Quest KACE as the source in Admin › Import, and the columns are recognised. KACE keeps running on your own server for as long as you like; a later export of the same tickets updates them in Beacon instead of duplicating them. The import wizard in general covers the mapping step, limits and errors.
How KACE exports a list
Every KACE list page exports the columns it shows: open the list, add the columns you want with the column chooser, then use Choose Action › Export and pick CSV (all rows, or the selected ones). The column names below are the list headers as Quest's documentation names them; your appliance may show a renamed label or a custom field, which you map by hand on the mapping step. Menu names are from the KACE SMA 14.1 documentation; older appliances say Help Desk where newer ones say Service Desk. Files are UTF-8 CSV; the importer takes up to 5 MB per file, about 20,000 rows, so split a large ticket export by year.
Order: users, then assets, then tickets
A KACE ticket names its submitter and owner by display name, and an asset names its holder the same way, so the people must be in Beacon before the assets and the tickets. Sites are created from the Location column as they appear.
1. Users
In KACE: Settings › Users, then Choose Action › Export. Columns Beacon reads: Full Name, Email, Role, Location, Work Phone, ID. KACE's Administrator role becomes a Beacon admin, Help Desk an agent, and User (or any other role) a requester, so technicians arrive as agents and everyone else as a requester. Imported accounts have no password: they sign in with single sign-on (Microsoft Entra ID, Google) or use Forgot password. The KACE user ID is kept on the person as kace_id, and the scanner's person lookup finds them by it. User Name is the sign-in name, never an address; if some people have no Email in KACE, the mapping step can build their address from that column with an email rule.
2. Assets
In KACE: Asset Management › Assets, pick the asset type's view, then Choose Action › Export. Only the columns in the current view are exported, so add the ones you want first, or run a report on the asset type with CSV output. Columns Beacon reads: Name (becomes the asset tag; if your tags live in Barcode, map Asset tag to that column instead), Asset Type, Serial Number, Model, Manufacturer, Asset Status, Location (the site), Assigned To (a display name, matched to the people you imported first; an address works too), Purchase Date, Warranty Expiration, Cost, Vendor, Notes, ID (kept as kace_id). Missing asset types are created. KACE statuses map like this: Active → in service; In Stock and Reserved → in storage; Repair → in repair; Missing → lost; Stolen → stolen; Retired → retired; Disposed → disposed. Expired and any custom status are listed under unmatched values and the device keeps the default status.
3. Tickets
In KACE: Service Desk › Tickets, choose the queue and a view that shows every status, add the columns, then Choose Action › Export. If your list shows one queue at a time, export each queue you keep (Tech, Facilities, Events); the Queue column is kept on every ticket. Columns Beacon reads: Number, Title, Summary (the ticket body), Status, Priority, Category, Submitter, Owner, Asset, Due Date, Created, Modified, Time Closed, Resolution. Everything else in the export is listed under Other columns on the mapping step; tick the ones to keep, and each is stored on the ticket as a field under the column's own name. Impact, Queue, Device and the queue's custom fields start ticked; bookkeeping columns such as Age, Progress, Hours Worked and the ID columns start unticked.
- Submitter and Owner are matched by the exact display name of someone already in Beacon; an address in the column counts as an address. Submitter: a name nobody has, or that two people share, is a row error with its line number. Owner: the ticket is imported unassigned and the name is counted under Assignees not found (left unassigned). Fix the person, then re-run with Update tickets already imported on.
- Status. KACE has a status name (which each queue can customise) and a state behind it: Opened, Stalled or Closed. Beacon maps New → new; Opened, Reopened and Escalated → open; Waiting on Customer, Need More Info, Waiting on Third Party and Waiting Overdue → pending; Stalled → on hold; Resolved → resolved; Closed → closed. Anything else takes the default status you choose on the mapping step and appears in the unmatched list. High, Medium and Low priorities map to high, normal and low.
- Categories arrive as
Parent::Childpaths and are created as they come, with their parents, hidden from the portal; show the ones staff should pick under Admin › Categories, or turn Create categories that are not in Beacon yet off: a path Beacon has is matched (by the full path, or by its last name alone), and the rest are left blank and listed. - Dates. Created, Modified and Time Closed keep their original values (read in your organization's time zone). The due date is kept on the ticket; an open ticket already past it is recorded as breached at once and quietly, so nothing is emailed about old history.
- Resolution becomes one internal note titled Resolution, dated when the ticket closed.
- Numbers. The KACE number stays on every ticket. Turn on Keep the exported ticket numbers and import oldest first to reuse them where they are free.
A later export updates the same tickets
For a KACE export, Update tickets already imported is on by default: a row whose Number was imported before updates that ticket (status, owner, dates, resolution and kept columns) instead of being skipped, and rows that are new are created. So run both systems for a few weeks, then export the tickets changed since the switch and import that file. Users and devices are updated in place on every run. Turn the switch off to get the skip behaviour the Incident IQ path uses.
What does not carry over
- Comments and work notes. The ticket list export has no comment column. A KACE report that lists comments per ticket can be mapped to Comments / history on the mapping step and becomes one internal note per ticket; email us a sample if you want help with the report.
- Attachments. Not in any CSV export. Keep KACE readable for as long as you need the files.
- Ticket rules, processes, SLAs and surveys. Rebuilt in Beacon: automations, categories with a default team and SLA policy, and the portal's forms. Nothing is imported.
- Knowledge Base articles. Not through this import; paste the ones you keep into Beacon's knowledge base.
- Imported rows never email anyone, run no automations, start no SLA clocks and are not triaged by AI.
Sources
Menu names, the ticket states, the Parent::Child category form and the rule that user fields take an email, a user name, an ID or a display name are from Quest's documentation: the KACE SMA 14.1 Service Desk Administrator Guide, Import tickets from another system and Customize ticket status values, and Quest knowledge base articles 4259083 (ticket and comment import) and 4257808 (the user list export, and the user field exported as a display name). Column names are the lists' headers; a renamed label is mapped by hand.