Technical white paper Manage iDRAC alerts by using the Redfish Eventing feature in YX3X and later PowerEdge servers Abstract In PowerEdge servers, alerts are generated and delivered to predict or foresee any actions to be done. This technical white paper enables you to configure and subscribe for alerts generated in iDRAC by using the Redfish Eventing feature.
Revisions Revisions Date Description August 2021 Initial release Acknowledgements Author: Venkataragavan V Support: Mahesh Babu R and Ajay Shenoy Others: Sheshadri PR Rao (InfoDev) The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Contents Contents Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................................2 Contents ............................................................................................................................
Executive summary Executive summary In the entire server lifecycle, several events may occur that administrators must be notified about to take corrective and preventive actions. Therefore, iDRAC supports the alerts-notification feature by using the Redfish Eventing feature. Alerts are streamed to client-created destinations either through Server Sent Events (SSE) or HTTP Push subscription mechanism. iDRAC8 supports Redfish Eventing for alerts by using the HTTP push style Eventing.
Overview of Redfish Eventing for iDRAC alerts 1 Overview of Redfish Eventing for iDRAC alerts A server, in its lifetime, would go through several events such as fan failure, increase in temperature, Power Supply Unit (PSU) failure, and driver software issues. These events must be captured and sent to the customers for further actions. To do this, iDRAC provides a mechanism for notifying about alerts in different ways such as SNMP alerts, Email alerts.
Overview of Redfish Eventing for iDRAC alerts Overview of Redfish Eventing for alerts Redfish Event Service supports two styles of subscription. • • Push Style Eventing (HTTP POST) Server Sent Events (SSE) Push style Eventing • When the alert is generated in iDRAC, Redfish Event service uses an HTTP POST to push the alert events to the subscribed Redfish client.
Overview of Redfish Eventing for iDRAC alerts 1.2 • • SNMP traps—iDRAC alerts are configured to generate SNMP traps. Redfish alerts—All iDRAC alerts that can currently generate SNMP traps can also be configured to generate Redfish event. Redfish events are supported for a larger spectrum of system events. In combination with Redfish Lifecycle events and Telemetry, a complete monitoring solution can be built. • • SNMP traps—SNMP clients require the latest MIB to be imported to decipher the traps.
Configure iDRAC alerts for Redfish events 2 Configure iDRAC alerts for Redfish events 2.1 Enable iDRAC alerts To enable the Redfish Event Service, set the “ServiceEnabled” property in the EventService URI (/redfish/v1/EventService) to Enabled, which in turn enables the iDRAC alerts. • • • Operation: HTTP PATCH URI: https:///redfish/v1/EventService Schema: https://redfish.dmtf.org/schemas/v1/EventService.xml Enable iDRAC alerts for Redfish events 2.
Configure iDRAC alerts for Redfish events 2.3 Configure Redfish alert subscriptions You can subscribe to Redfish Alert events by creating event subscriptions as defined by the DMTF Redfish event subscription service. iDRAC supports two styles of subscriptions—SSE and HTTP Push based. By default, this feature does not require any additional iDRAC license, but requires Redfish service and Redfish Event Service (iDRAC alerts) to be enabled to receive redfish alert events. 2.3.
Configure iDRAC alerts for Redfish events View a subscription instance 2.3.1.3 Delete a subscription instance Delete the subscription instance by entering the subscription ID: • • • Operation: HTTP DELETE URI: https:///redfish/v1/EventService/Subscriptions/ Schema: https://redfish.dmtf.org/schemas/v1/EventDestination.
Configure iDRAC alerts for Redfish events 2.3.1.4 View the collection of subscriptions View the created subscriptions in the subscriptions URI: • • • Operation: HTTP GET URI: https:///redfish/v1/EventService/Subscriptions Schema: https://redfish.dmtf.org/schemas/v1/EventDestinationCollection.
Configure iDRAC alerts for Redfish events 2.3.1.5 Configure delivery of alert events for HTTP Push style subscription Configure delivery of alert events for HTTP Push style subscription Redfish Eventing iDRAC Attributes: RedfishEventing.1.Deli veryRetryAttempts The number of times that the POST of an event to a destination is retried before the EventService goes for another subscription 12 RedfishEventing.1.Deli veryRetryIntervalInSec onds RedfishEventing.1.
Configure iDRAC alerts for Redfish events 2.3.1.6 Redfish event listener The Redfish Event Listener is a lightweight HTTP(S) server which is used to receive the events. The configured HTTPS endpoint must be entered in the Destination property while creating the HTTP Push Style Subscription. See https://github.com/DMTF/Redfish-Event-Listener. 2.3.2 Redfish SSE subscription Server Sent Events (SSE) is another method of delivering the events in Redfish Eventing.
Configure iDRAC alerts for Redfish events 2.4 Test event Client can use the SubmitTestEvent action to generate the test events for testing if the destination is properly configured and receiving the events. Schema: https://redfish.dmtf.org/schemas/v1/EventService.xml Sample Output Test if destination is configured and receiving events 2.5 Redfish alert event format The Redfish alert event which is delivered to both SSE and HTTP Push Style uses the following Event Schema: Schema: https://redfish.dmtf.
Configure iDRAC alerts for Redfish events 2.6 Troubleshooting tips Problem Redfish client not getting Alerts in Push Style Redfish client not getting Alerts in SSE Style 15 Possible Solutions 1. Ensure that the Global alert is enabled. 2. Ensure that the Subscription Destination is configured properly to receive alert events. 1. Ensure that the Global alert is enabled. 2. Ensure that the SSE connection is intact with iDRAC.
Best practices 3 Best practices The most suitable way to configure iDRAC Redfish Alerts Eventing is by using Server Configuration Profile (SCP). After an SCP file is created, the same file can be applied to multiple servers.
Redfish Events: Alerts / Telemetry / Life cycle events 4 Redfish Events: Alerts / Telemetry / Life cycle events Feature Alerts Telemetry Life cycle events System Anomalies Metrics – Time series data Resource - Updates/Actions * Triggers Supports HTTP Push and SSE Redfish clients Supported iDRAC Licenses 17 Express, Enterprise, Datacenter OMEA Advanced, Datacenter Express, Enterprise, Datacenter Manage iDRAC alerts by using the Redfish Eventing feature in YX3X and later PowerEdge servers
References A References Telemetry • Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 — What you Need to Get Started (dell.com) Redfish legacy events (Alerts) • Implementation of the DMTF Redfish API on Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers • https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/idrac7-8-lifecycle-controllerv2.40.40.40/redfish%202.40.40.40/eventing?guid=guid-ab574b6d-b473-4e10-99165d4f7e395e0d&lang=en-us Redfish Event Listener • 18 https://github.
