Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist Version 1.0 User's Guide October 2020 Rev.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. © 2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents Tables........................................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 1: About OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist.............................................................. 6 How SupportAssist works ................................................................................................................................................ 6 Device information collected by SupportAssist .....................
Prerequisites for collecting system information.................................................................................................. 30 Enable or disable automatic collection of system information on support case creation..........................30 Enable or disable periodic validation of device inventory .................................................................................30 Enable or disable periodic collection of system information................................................
Tables 1 OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist capabilities available with Dell service contracts...................... 8 2 Role-based user privileges for OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist...................................................... 11 3 Types of email notifications...................................................................................................................................
1 About OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist is a plugin to the Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise console that enables proactive and predictive monitoring and management support for your devices with ProSupport and ProSupport Plus entitlements. OpenManage Enterprise with SupportAssist provides a single, unified solution for your complete device lifecycle management and proactive and predictive support experience.
or viewed is treated in accordance with the Dell Privacy Policy available for review at https://www.dell.
2 OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist capabilities available with Dell service contracts The following table provides a comparison of the OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist capabilities available with the ProSupport and ProSupport Plus service contracts. Table 1.
Table 1. OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist capabilities available with Dell service contracts (continued) OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist capabilities Description Basic Hardware ProSupport ProSupport Plus Supported Supported helps you resolve the issue.
3 OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist support matrix For the complete list of compatible devices, hypervisors, and operating systems, see Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist Support Matrix available at OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist page in support site.
4 Role-based user privileges for OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist Assigning roles to each user enables you to apply Role-based Access Control (RBAC) and restrict user access to SupportAssist device monitoring features. The following table provides a list of different user roles and their permissions Table 2.
5 Installing OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist Prerequisites ● While you deploy OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist plugin within OpenManage Enterprise, which is the recommended solution for proactive and predictive monitoring, ensure that: ○ If SupportAssist Enterprise (SAE) standalone application 2.0.50 or lower deployed in your data center, delete the OpenManage Enterprise adapter from the SAE application to avoid duplicate management and serviceability functions.
Next steps Register OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist to monitor your devices for hardware issues and automatically collect device information. See Register OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist on page 14.
6 Getting started with OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist Register OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist to monitor your devices for hardware issues and automatically collect device information. Topics: • Register OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist Register OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist About this task When you access OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist for the first time, a banner message is displayed that you have not registered the SupportAssist.
The Summary page is displayed. 10. Click Finish. The Site Health page is displayed.
7 Site Health The Site Health page enables you to identify and prioritize the most important issues on your site. You can view the following on the Site Health page. ● The number of devices in the following statuses: ○ Managed Devices—Displays the number of monitored devices. Click to view the number of monitored devices according to the device type. NOTE: The Managed Devices tab is selected by default.
The possible statuses are: ● Validated—The support case creation task is successfully validated. ● Not Validated—The support case creation task is not validated. ● Unknown—Unable to retrieve the status of SupportAssist case creation capability because the case creation service is down.
8 Group devices for effective management and monitoring SupportAssist has two predefined device groups—Maintenance and Staging—that help you in managing the devices that you add. Depending on your requirement, you can also create custom device groups to manage certain devices as a group.
View device groups Steps 1. From the OpenManage Enterprise menu, click Devices. 2. In the left pane, in the PLUGIN GROUPS section, expand the SupportAssist category. The list of device groups that you have created are listed under SupportAssist group, along with the predefined groups, Maintenance and Staging. Creating a device group Steps 1. From the OpenManage Enterprise menu, click Devices. 2.
View and update device group information About this task You can view or edit the group name and description, contact information, preferred contact method and time, the parts dispatch information of a device group, and add or remove devices from a group. Updating the contact information for a device group enables SupportAssist to send notifications to the device group contact.
Delete a device group About this task You can delete device groups based on your preference. NOTE: Deleting a device group removes only the device group and contact information. Steps 1. From the OpenManage Enterprise menu, click Devices. 2. In the left pane, in the PLUGIN GROUPS section, expand the SupportAssist category. 3. To delete a device group, click the vertical ellipses next to the device group, and then click Delete SupportAssist Group from the list.
9 OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist cases A support case is automatically created when an issue is detected on devices that are monitored by SupportAssist. The Cases page displays all cases that are created by SupportAssist. NOTE: SupportAssist does not create a support case for every alert that is received from a monitored device. SupportAssist collects evidence file from the device and sends it to Dell EMC backend for alert processing.
● ● ● ● ○ Resume—Request Technical Support to resume activities that are related to a support case. See Request to resume support activities on page 24. NOTE: The Resume option is enabled only if you had previously requested to suspend activities that are related to a support case. ○ Request To Close—Request Technical Support to close a support case. See Request to close a support case on page 24. The Refresh icon—The Refresh icon is in the upper-right corner of the cases list.
Request to suspend case activities for 24 hours About this task You can request Technical Support to stop activities that are related to a support case for 24 hours, if necessary. For example, you may want the Technical Support team to stop the activities for a support case in the following cases: ● To resolve the issue without any assistance from Technical Support. ● Not to receive any notifications that are related to the support case from Dell EMC during a planned maintenance activity.
Steps 1. From the Plugins menu, select SupportAssist > Cases. The Cases page displays the list of all cases that were opened by SupportAssist. 2. Select the support case that you want to suspend and click Request To Close. 3. Optionally, enter your reason for requesting to close the support case. 4. Click OK. The support case displays the appropriate status. NOTE: After you request to close a support case, Technical Support may contact you to get more information before closing the support case.
10 OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist device collections Collections are files that contain information of the SupportAssist managed devices. SupportAssist collects device information from each device that you added, and then uploads the information securely to Dell EMC. The purge collections task runs automatically every day at 10 p.m. (time as on the server where SupportAssist is installed).
○ Failed ● COLLECTION STATUS—Displays the status of the collection. The possible statuses are: ● ● ● ● ● ○ Not Initiated ○ Not Applicable ○ In Progress ○ Completed ○ Failed PERCENTAGE COMPLETE—The collection completing status in percentage. COLLECTION PURPOSE—Displays the purpose of the collection. CASE NUMBER—Identifies the case that is associated with this collection. COLLECTION TYPE—Identifies the type of the collection. The possible types are Manual, Periodic, and Alert Based.
3. On the page, click the SupportAssist tab, and then click Collections. 4. On the Collections, click Start Collection. The device collection will be automatically listed on the Collections page. See View collections on page 26. Manually collect system information from a device group About this task When a support case is opened or updated for a device, SupportAssist automatically collects and uploads the system information to the backend.
Upload collection for a specific device Steps 1. From the OpenManage Enterprise menu, click Devices. 2. To collect the device information from a device, in the All Devices list, click the device name. 3. On the page, click SupportAssist > Collections. 4. Select the collections that you want to send to Dell EMC backend and click Upload. To upload multiple collections, see Upload multiple collections on page 28.
● Automatic collection of system information when a support case is created or updated. See Enable or disable automatic collection of system information on support case creation on page 30. ● Periodic collection of system information. See Enable or disable periodic collection of system information on page 31. ● Collection of identity information. See Enable or disable collection of identity information on page 31. ● Collection of software information and the system log.
Steps 1. From the Plugins menu, select SupportAssist > Settings. The Settings page is displayed. 2. On the Settings tab, select Schedule Tasks. The Schedule Tasks page is displayed. 3. Perform one of the following in the Validate Device Inventory section: ● To enable periodic validation of device inventory, select the On day
NOTE: When you disable collection of identification information, some of the data about your company network (including the system log and SMART log) is not transmitted to the backend. This may prevent technical support from resolving issues that may occur on your devices. NOTE: If you have disabled the collection of identity information from the devices, the identity information such as hostname and IP address are replaced by tokenized values. The tokenized values are represented as TOKEN n.
11 Configuring OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist settings The Settings tab enables you to configure the following: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Internet connection settings for the servers on which OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist is deployed Enable SupportAssist maintenance mode for all devices monitored using SupportAssist Collection of system information Contact and shipping information TechDirect integration Schedule device telemetry collection and device inventory validation Email notifications Topics: • • • •
NOTE: If you do not provide the username and password, SupportAssist connects to the proxy server as an anonymous user. 4. Click Apply. The proxy settings are saved. Enable or disable SupportAssist maintenance mode About this task SupportAssist maintenance mode places all monitored devices in maintenance mode, suspends alert processing and automatic case creation. However, SupportAssist does not restricts other operations such as periodic and manual collections, connectivity check, and so on.
Steps 1. From the OpenManage Enterprise menu, click Devices. 2. In the All Devices list, click the device name that you want to place it in SupportAssist Maintenance mode. 3. On the page, click SupportAssist > Device Info. 4. On the Device Info page, click Enable SupportAssist Maintenance. 5. To place the device in maintenance mode, in the confirmation message displayed, click Yes. A banner message is displayed that the device in SupportAssist maintenance mode.
Configure Shipping Details About this task Entering your dispatch preferences and shipping information enables Dell EMC to dispatch a replacement part for your device. NOTE: If a device is moved to a different location, ensure that the dispatch preferences and shipping information are updated. Steps 1. From the Plugins menu, select SupportAssist > Settings. 2. On the Settings page, click Shipping Details. 3.
Schedule collection and inventory validation About this task By default, periodic collection and inventory validation is scheduled on a randomly determined day on every month at 11 p.m. If necessary, you can change the schedule (day) based on your requirement. Steps 1. From the Plugins menu, select SupportAssist > Settings. 2. On the Settings page, click Schedule Tasks. 3.
Table 3. Types of email notifications (continued) Email notification type When the email notification is sent Unable to collect system information After a support case is created automatically for a device, but SupportAssist is unable to system information from the device. Unable to send the collected system information to Dell EMC After a support case is created automatically for a device, but SupportAssist is unable to send the collected system information from the device to Dell EMC.
12 OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist product information The About page displays the OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist version, publisher name, registration ID, serial number, and product overview. To access the About page, from the Plugins menu, click SupportAssist > About.
13 Disable OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist About this task Disables all the functionality of SupportAssist on OpenManage Enterprise. NOTE: Disabling an plugin in OpenManage Enterprise restarts the appliance services. Steps 1. From the OpenManage Enterprise menu, click Application Settings > Console and Plugins. The Console and Plugins tab is displayed. 2. In the SupportAssist section, click the Disable option. The Disable Plugin page is displayed. 3.
14 Uninstall OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist About this task You can uninstall SupportAssist from OpenManage Enterprise and remove all data associated with SupportAssist. Steps 1. From the OpenManage Enterprise menu, click Application Settings > Console and Plugins. The Console and Plugins tab is displayed. 2. In the SupportAssist section, click the Uninstall option. The Uninstall Plugin page is displayed. 3. To uninstall SupportAssist from OpenManage Enterprise, click Uninstall Plugin.
15 SupportAssist maintenance mode The SupportAssist maintenance mode functionality suspends the alert processing and automatic case creation capability of SupportAssist, thereby preventing the creation of unnecessary support cases during an alert storm or a planned maintenance activity. You can also enable the maintenance mode functionality before a planned maintenance activity to temporarily suspend the automatic case creation capability.
The global-level and device-level SupportAssist maintenance modes work independent of each other. For example: ● If a device is placed in manual maintenance mode, the device continues to remain in manual maintenance mode even if global-level maintenance mode is enabled and then disabled. ● If a device is placed in automated maintenance mode, the device continues to remain in automated maintenance mode for 30 minutes even if the global-level maintenance mode is enabled and then disabled.
16 Alert policies in OpenManage Enterprise SupportAssist This chapter provides details on how SupportAssist processes alerts and automatically creates support cases.
Alert notifications in SupportAssist occur through automatic email notifications from Dell EMC Technical Support. If the device that generated the alert has a ProSupport or ProSupport Plus service entitlement, Dell Technical Support will also contact you by phone to assist you in resolving the issue. SupportAssist automates support case creation with Dell EMC. If the alerts generated by a device exceed the Dell EMC Support Services predefined alert threshold, a support case is automatically created.
For SupportAssist to create a support case, the alert must match a criteria in the alert policy defined in SupportAssist. Dell EMC may change a policy for a specific alert within the alert policy for either the SupportAssist application or the back-end infrastructure at Dell EMC. This may be done from time to time, as Dell EMC Technical Support and Engineering continue to incorporate experience from support case data with all customers.
17 Accessing documents from the Dell EMC support site You can access the required documents in one of the following ways: ● Using the following links: ○ For Dell EMC Enterprise Systems Management, Dell EMC Remote Enterprise Systems Management, and Dell EMC Virtualization Solutions documents — https://www.dell.com/esmmanuals ○ For Dell EMC OpenManage documents — https://www.dell.com/openmanagemanuals ○ For iDRAC documents — https://www.dell.
