SupportAssist for Business PCs with Windows OS Administrator Guide August 2021 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 - 2021 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents Chapter 1: Introduction................................................................................................................. 5 Version................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Audience.......................................................................................................................................................................
Chapter 9: Managing SupportAssist alerts.................................................................................. 33 Alerts overview.................................................................................................................................................................. 33 Details of a specific alert........................................................................................................................................... 34 Alert actions......................
1 Introduction SupportAssist is a proactive and predictive technology that provides automated technical support for your Dell PCs. It enables IT administrators to manage their PC fleet from TechDirect anytime, anywhere. When deployed, SupportAssist monitors each PC and proactively detects both hardware and software issues. Depending on your service plan, when an issue is detected, SupportAssist automatically opens a support case with technical support and sends you an email notification.
● View application experience information for a specific PC and for your PC fleet. ● Download and deploy a security agent—Dell Trusted Device that enables you to view the security assessment for a specific PC and for your PC fleet. ● Remotely run rule-based diagnostic and remediation scripts for your PC fleet. ● Manage alerts and configure alert rules in the Connect and manage service.
Table 1. SupportAssist capabilities available in TechDirect for Dell service plans (continued) Capability Description Basic Automatic system optimizations Perform automatic software optimizations. ProSupport ProSupport Plus and ProSupport Flex for Client NOTE: If autoforward is turned off in TechDirect for technical support or parts dispatch, you can review and determine if the alert should be forwarded to Dell. See Configure alert rules.
Table 2. SupportAssist capabilities and roles in TechDirect (continued) Capability TechDirect navigation Description Connect and manage administrator Connect and manage technician Security Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Manage > Security Track and manage the security of a single PC and your PC fleet. Requires permissions from the Connect and manage administrator. Alerts Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Manage > Alerts Manage SupportAssist alerts.
● ● ● ● Keyboard Mouse Battery Video card Introduction 9
2 Overview The Overview page provides a summary of various details about your PC fleet. To view the overview, from the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Overview. ● Health—displays the overall health score, the number of unhealthy PCs, the number of PCs that need attention, the number of healthy PCs, and the status for each category. Click the specific status to view information about the PCs on the PCs page.
● ● ● ● PC utilizations PC recommendations Service plans Versions NOTE: The Health, Application experience, and Security widgets, and the Trend charts are not customizable. Steps 1. From the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Overview. 2. Click Customize. 3. Customize the widgets as per your preference and click Done.
3 Managing your PC fleet and groups After you deploy SupportAssist, the PCs are automatically displayed on the PCs page in TechDirect within 24 hours after they connect to the Internet. For information about configuring and deploying SupportAssist, see the SupportAssist for Business PCs with Windows OS Deployment Guide available on the SupportAssist for Business PCs documentation page. The PCs page enables you to: ● View all the PCs in your fleet, and its health, performance, and utilization details.
Table 3. PCs (continued) Column Description NOTE: A graphical representation of the numbers of PCs and the associated service plans is displayed on the Overview page. Expiration date Date on which the service plan expires. Version Version of SupportAssist installed on the PC, for example, 3.0.0.4. Last contact to Dell Date on which the asset last connected to Dell Technologies. OS Edition of Windows operating system installed on the PC, for example, Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise.
Table 3. PCs (continued) Column Description OS events* Number of errors or failures encountered by the operating system. Utilization events* Number of errors or failures encountered by a critical hardware component of the PC. System events* Number of errors or failures encountered by a key component of the PC. Health status* The overall health status of the PC fleet for the selected week or day.
Results The service request is submitted to Dell Technologies. Create dispatch request You can create dispatch requests for parts if there is a hardware failure. Prerequisites You must be signed in to TechDirect as a Connect and manage administrator or Connect and manage technician. NOTE: To manage dispatch requests, you must enroll for the self-dispatch service in TechDirect. Steps 1. From the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Manage > PCs. The PCs page is displayed.
Steps 1. From the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Manage > PCs. The PCs page is displayed. 2. Click the Groups tab. 3. Click Create group. The Create a new group window is displayed. 4. Select a site and enter a group name. 5. Click Create. Results The group is created, and the default group configuration of the site is copied to the newly created group.
Update site name Prerequisites ● You must be signed in to TechDirect as a Connect and manage administrator or Connect and manage technician. ● To edit the site name, ensure that you have created one or more asset groups within a site. Steps 1. From the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Manage > PCs. The PCs page is displayed. 2. Click the Groups tab. 3. Locate the row where the details of the asset site that you want to update is listed, click , and click Edit. 4.
4 Managing a single PC SupportAssist for business PCs enables you to view recommendations and perform remote optimizations on a PC. SupportAssist also provides insights about PC health, application experience, and security data, that help manage your PC better. To manage the PC, go to the PCs page and click the Service Tag of the PC.
Table 4. PC overview (continued) Widget Assessment factors Scoring ● Storage events ● System events ● 10-49—PC needs attention. ● 0-9—PC is unhealthy and not running optimally. This affects the fleet performance. ● Data unavailable—health data was not received from the PC. Application experience—displays the application experience score, number of applications with issues, and the number of most used applications.
● PC utilization—average utilization score used to gauge the overall performance of the PC. Higher scores indicate that the PC resources are overused and may affect the user experience. ● Memory utilization—the amount of memory (RAM) installed on the PC and the average amount of memory that is used over a selected time period. ● CPU utilization—the average load on the processor of the PC over a selected time period. ● GPU utilization—the average amount of video memory (VRAM) used over a selected time.
Table 5. Risk measurements Risk assessment factor Possible assessment results Anti-virus ● Pass—anti-virus solution is installed and enabled. ● Fail—anti-virus solution is not installed and not enabled. ● Data unavailable—data could not be retrieved from the Dell Trusted Device. BIOS administrator password ● Pass—BIOS administrator password is set. ● Fail—BIOS administrator password is not set. ● Data unavailable—data could not be retrieved from the Dell Trusted Device.
NOTE: You cannot install PC updates when using a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection. When you run a remote optimization task, the task is queued to run when the PC is online and connected to Dell. To perform the tasks immediately, click SHARE LINK, provide the link to the user, and inform the user to open the link in a new web browser window. The browser window in the user's PC must be kept open while SupportAssist performs the optimizations remotely.
5 Recommendations for your PC fleet SupportAssist enables you to review the recommendations for the PCs and take action on them to keep your PCs running at their best. These recommendations are displayed based on scheduled scans or the latest telemetry data that is collected from the PCs. To optimize the PCs, from the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Manage > Recommendations and select the site and groups from the Sites & groups list.
Table 6. Recommendations for your Dell PC fleet (continued) Tile Type of Recommendation Action 3. Click RUN. Tune Performance Indicates the number of PCs that have not been To tune the PC performance, perform the tuned for performance in x number of days, following steps: where x denotes 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days. 1. Click REVIEW PC LIST. 2. Select the PCs on which you want to tune the PC performance. 3. Click RUN.
6 Remediation rules for your PC fleet In Connect and manage, you can create remediation rules that help proactively identify and resolve issues or threats that occur on the PCs. A remediation rule is a mechanism through which you can run a diagnostic script to identify an issue proactively and if an issue is detected, resolve the issue using custom signed PowerShell scripts.
About this task Remediation rules help identify and remediate issues within your PC fleet proactively. You can remediate the PCs by uploading diagnostic and remediation scripts to detect and resolve any issues that have occurred on the PC. When the diagnostic script runs, the script must return a zero or nonzero code. Zero exit code depicts that there were no issues detected and a nonzero exit code depicts that there were issues detected on the PC.
Overview The Overview section displays a roll-up count of the number of PCs: ● ● ● ● On which the rule was triggered. On which no issues were detected. On which issues were detected. Which self-healed. This data helps assess the number of PCs that were able to self-heal using the remediation script and the number of PCs that need your attention. You can also modify the remediation script accordingly. Details The Details section information of the PCs on which the rule was triggered.
Table 8. Details (continued) Column Description after executing the remediation scripts. See Exit codes in PowerShell. Update a remediation rule Prerequisites You must be signed in to TechDirect as a Connect and manage administrator or Connect and manage technician. Steps 1. From the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Manage > Remediation rules. The Remediation rules page is displayed. 2.
7 Application experience for your PC fleet The Applications page enables you to track applications by usage, crashes, and memory utilization that helps understand the performance of each application across the fleet. The application experience data is collected only when the user has logged in and is actively using the PC. You can switch between the Weekly view or Daily view, based on your preference.
Table 9. Applications (continued) Column Description Disk I/O The rate at which the applications are reading and writing data for disk input-output operations. When you click the Application name, the following details about the application are displayed: ● Application utilization—provides insights about application usage. ● Crash details—provides details about the following: ○ Process name—the name of the application that has crashed.
8 Security for your PC fleet The Security page provides information about the security of the PCs based on the security assessment that is performed periodically. This information helps assess the number of PCs at risk to ensure that the PCs are free from vulnerabilities and threats. You can switch between the Weekly view or Daily view, based on your preference. NOTE: The security data is collected only if: ● You have deployed Dell Trusted Device on your PC fleet.
Table 10. Security (continued) Column Description ● Trusted Platform Module is enabled? The score is categorized as follows: ● 70-100—PCs are secure and the risk is minimal. ● 50-69—PCs need attention. ● 0-49—PCs are at risk. For more information about the security assessments that are performed on the PC and the associated results, see Security for a specific PC. Weekly/Daily status The overall security risk status for the PC fleet for the selected week or day.
9 Managing SupportAssist alerts SupportAssist alerts generated from connected PCs can be managed in Connect and manage or through ServiceNow. If you have configured SupportAssist to manage the alerts in Connect and manage, all alerts are processed as per the configured alert rules. To manage the alerts in Connect and manage, from the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Manage > Alerts. You can also configure the alerts to be managed in ServiceNow.
Table 11. Alerts (continued) Alerts details Description ● If the alerts are not assigned, the Unassigned status is displayed. ● If the alert is assigned to a technician, the name of the TechDirect administrator or technician is displayed. Alert created on Date and time when the alert was created on the PC. Line of business Type of Dell device, for example, Latitude. Region Region where the asset is present, for example, Americas. Service plan Service plan of the asset, for example, ProSupport Plus.
Table 12. Alert actions (continued) Available actions Description To view the Technical Support page, from TechDirect, go to Services > Get Support and Replace Parts > Technical Support. To view the Dispatch page, from TechDirect, go to Services > Get Support and Replace Parts > Self-Dispatch.
10 Configuring settings On the Settings page, you can configure the following settings: ● Select different options to identify your asset. ● Integrate the alerts with ServiceNow. ● View and modify Connect and manage technician roles and permissions. To configure the settings, from the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Manage > Settings. NOTE: You require Connect and manage administrator rights to configure the settings.
The Alert rules page is displayed. 2. In the Inactivity period section, enter the number of days an alert can reside in the queue with no activity. The alert resides in the queue for the number of days you have entered. After the inactivity period ends, a notification is sent to the administrator and alert owner, and the alert status is displayed as Overdue in the Last activity column of the Alerts page. See Alerts overview. 3.
NOTE: If SupportAssist is unable to automatically create an incident in ServiceNow, an email is sent to the email address provided in the Failure Notification box. c. Click Create a test incident in ServiceNow to send a test alert to your ServiceNow instance. 5. For SupportAssist to send alerts to ServiceNow by email, perform the following steps: a. Select Use Email. b. In the Alerts Notification box, enter the email address to which you want to send the SupportAssist alert details. c.
Features, roles, and permissions By default, the Connect and manage administrator can access and manage all SupportAssist capabilities and features. You can grant or revoke the technician permissions by selecting or clearing the corresponding check boxes. For more information about SupportAssist capabilities and roles, see Connect and manage roles in TechDirect.
11 Audit trail The Audit trail page provides a record of activities that are performed by SupportAssist, the Connect and manage administrator, and the Connect and manage technician in the last 30 days. This helps in tracking, monitoring, and reviewing all the actions performed on the PCs, when required. To view the audit trail details, from the TechDirect dashboard, go to Connect and manage > Manage your PC fleet > Summary > Audit trail.
Operations view In the Operations view, you can view the activities that are performed or events that have occurred in the Connect and manage configuration, settings, or preferences. The following table describes the information that is displayed in the Operations view: Table 14. Operations view Column Description Activity Type of activity performed by the administrator or technician, for example, Remediation rules.
12 Email notifications from SupportAssist By default, SupportAssist notifies the primary and secondary contacts of a group configuration in Connect and manage. NOTE: For alerts, email notifications are sent depending on the configured alert rules. Configure alert rules. The following table provides a summary of the different types of email notifications that are sent by SupportAssist: Table 15.
13 Retrieve SupportAssist data using WMI You can get information about the state of each system where SupportAssist is deployed by using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) classes. The namespace to access the SupportAssist profiles and classes is root\supportassist. The information that are exposed by WMI classes is as follows: ● ● ● ● Registration status Support request details Alert details Configuration and entitlement details This section provides information about the available WMI classes.
Table 17. DSA_CaseInformation (continued) Property Property Type Description Status CIM_UNIT16 An integer that indicates the status of the support request. The possible values are: ● 0—any other status. ● 1—the support request has been submitted. ● 2—the support request is open. ● 3—the support request is reopened. ● 4—the support request is in progress. ● 5—the customer has deferred the support request. ● 6—the support request is closed.
Table 19. DSA_SystemInformation (continued) Property Property Type Description ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 0—Other 1—Basic 2—ProSupport 3—ProSupport Plus 4—Premium 5—Premium Support Plus 6—ProSupport Flex for Client 7—Unknown Warranty EntitlementExpiryDate CIM_DATETIME Indicates the expiry date of the system service plan. Version CIM_STRING A string that identifies the SupportAssist version installed on the system.
14 Resources This section provides information about the documentation resources and other useful links that provide more information about SupportAssist for business PCs. Table 20.
