Administrator Guide

SupportAssist data
The data that SupportAssist sends does not provide technical support with the information that is needed to connect to an ME4 Series
array, because passwords are not transmitted.
The configuration and diagnostic information that is sent by SupportAssist includes the following:
• ME4 Series features
• ME4 Series logs
• Hardware inventory including model numbers and firmware versions
• Connectivity status of server, controller, and enclosure ports
• ME4 Series volume attributes like name, size, volume folder, storage profile, snapshot profile, and server mappings
• Controller network configuration
• I/O, storage, and replication usage information
Secure data transmission and storage
SupportAssist transmits data using a secure link. Data is sent using a 2048-bit RSA key over a Hypertext Transfer Protocol with Secure
Socket Layer (HTTPS) session.
The data is stored securely in the SupportAssist database in accordance with the Dell EMC privacy policy. The Dell EMC privacy policy is
available at http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/policies-privacy?c=us&l=en&s=corp .
Enabling SupportAssist does not give technical support the ability to access the array to retrieve information. Data is always pushed to
technical support, never pulled. SupportAssist can be disabled at any time, giving customers complete control over the transmission of
SupportAssist data.
About CloudIQ
CloudIQ provides storage monitoring and proactive service, giving you information tailored to your needs, access to near real-time
analytics, and the ability to monitor storage systems from anywhere at any time. CloudIQ simplifies storage monitoring and service by
providing:
• Proactive serviceability that informs you about issues before they impact your environment.
• Centralized monitoring across your environment, using a dashboard that aggregates key information such as system health scores,
performance metrics, and current capacity and trends.
CloudIQ requires the following:
• ME4 Series storage systems must be running firmware version G280 or later.
• SupportAssist must be enabled on ME4 Series storage systems.
• The Enable CloudIQ check box in the SupportAssist - CloudIQ Settings tab must be selected.
NOTE: For more information about CloudIQ, contact technical support or visit the CloudIQ product page.
About configuring DNS settings
You can set a domain host name for each controller module to identify it for management purposes by configuring settings in the Domain
Name Service (DNS) tab. The DNS name server supports IPv4 and IPv6 formats, and the system supports a maximum of three DNS
servers per controller. Configuring the storage system to communicate with a DNS server within your network will allow network changes,
such as frequent IP address changes in a DHCP environment, to occur without interrupting notifications sent by the system to users.
The controller will advertise the domain host name to DNS servers, and the DNS servers will in turn create and advertise a fully qualified
domain name (FQDN) for the controller by appending the domain host name to the DNS domain string that identifies the controller.
A host name must differ for each controller, is not case sensitive, and can have from 1 to 63 bytes. The name must start with a letter and
end with a letter or digit, and can include letters, numbers, or hyphens, but no periods.
After a reachable DNS server is configured on the system, you can configure an SMTP server using a name such as
mysmtpserver.example.com. Further, you could configure search domain example.com and SMTP server mysmtpserver and
reach the same destination.
You must use this feature to configure DNS parameters before you configure email parameters in any environments where DNS i be
required to resolve server names. The system does not support auto-configuration of DNS parameters if network parameters are set to
DHCP mode, so DNS must be manually configured regardless of the DHCP setting. For more information about configuring DNS settings,
see Configure DNS settings on page 43.
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Getting started