Owner's Manual

Overview

Dell SupportAssist collects information about your computer hardware and software, and automatically creates support

cases when issues arise. This helps Dell to provide you an enhanced, personalized, and efficient support experience.

Dell uses this data to help solve common problems and design and market the products and services features you use

most.

SupportAssist integrates with Dell OpenManage Essentials to provide support capabilities for the following Dell

enterprise server and storage solutions, using the existing environment data:

• Dell PowerEdge servers running:

– Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or R2

– Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5

– SUSE Enterprise Linux 10 or 11

– VMware ESX or ESXi 3.5, 4.x, or 5.0

• Dell PowerVault NX storage servers

• Dell PowerVault MD storage arrays

• Dell EqualLogic SAN devices (except PS5000)

• Dell PowerConnect and Dell Force 10 S4810 Ethernet switches

• Dell PowerEdge M1000e Blade Enclosure

NOTE: SupportAssist does not support Dell CloudEdge, PowerEdge-C servers, and Dell EqualLogic NAS devices.

NOTE: SupportAssist provides limited support only for Force 10 and PowerConnect stacked configurations.

SupportAssist also provides rich device, support case, and service contract reporting.

You can access information about the OpenManage Essentials-managed Dell devices and related support cases from

the Device Inventory and Case List reports in the SupportAssist dashboard.

Equipping your OpenManage Essentials server with SupportAssist is voluntary, and results in improved support,

products, and services designed to meet your needs.

Key Features

The key features of Dell SupportAssist include:

• Remote monitoring — Monitors your hardware to inform you of critical alerts.

• Automated log and configuration collection — Information required for troubleshooting the issue is

automatically collected and sent to Dell.

• Automatic support case creation — When a critical alert is received from your hardware by OpenManage

Essentials, the alert information is sent to Dell and a service request is automatically created. A Dell technical

support agent contacts you about the alert and helps you resolve the issue.

NOTE: Support cases opened prior to SupportAssist installation, do not appear in the SupportAssist

dashboard.