ServiceDesk

I am wondering how others handle closing an incident with numerous sub-tasks that is not needed or should be cancelled.  Do you contact each assignee and ask them to resolve the incident even though it is intended to be cancelled? 

Is there any easy way to cancel out tickets and sub-tasks without have to contact each person?

There is a workflow to (quick/mass) close incidents:
Submit Request > ServiceDesk > Close Incidents

If you use 'Quick Close' close code, there will be no communication to users/technicians.

Note that this workflow only works for incidents that are valid/working and that are in some open status (i.e. it will not work with orphaned incidents or Resolved incidents).

Does this option close both the primary task and all sub-tasks regardless of who it is assigned too?

You are right, it does not. It only closes one of the tasks when there are more than one subtask for the incident.

Edit:
If you are OK with modifying the workflows, try this:
http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/how-modify-sdcloseincidents-work-subtasks

Thanks for the information.  This answers my question and gives me a direction to consider.