Technical information

IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa Hardware
Announcement ZG14-0098
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
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control options, environmental monitoring, reset, restart, remote maintenance, and
diagnostic functions, including console mirroring. The service processors menus
(ASMI) can be accessed concurrently with system operation, allowing nondisruptive
abilities to change system default parameters.
Call home
Call home refers to an automatic or manual call from a customer location to
the IBM support structure with error log data, server status, or other service-
related information. Call home invokes the service organization in order for the
appropriate service action to begin. Call home can be done through HMC or most
non-HMC managed systems through Electronic Service Agent
TM
running on top of
operating system. While configuring call home is optional, clients are encouraged
to implement this feature in order to obtain service enhancements such as reduced
problem determination and faster and potentially more accurate transmittal of
error information. In general, using the call home feature can result in increased
system availability. The Electronic Service Agent application can be configured
for automated call home. Refer to the next section for specific details on this
application.
IBM Electronic Services
Electronic Service Agent and the IBM Electronic Services web portal comprise the
IBM Electronic Services solution, which is dedicated to providing fast, exceptional
support to IBM customers. IBM Electronic Service Agent is a no-charge tool
that proactively monitors and reports hardware events such as system errors,
performance issues, and inventory. Electronic Service Agent can help focus on the
customer's company business initiatives, save time, and spend less effort managing
day-to-day IT maintenance issues.
System configuration and inventory information collected by Electronic Service
Agent also can be viewed on the secure Electronic Services web portal and used
to improve problem determination and resolution between the customer and the
IBM support team. As part of an increased focus to provide even better service to
IBM customers, Electronic Service Agent tool configuration and activation comes
standard with the system. In support of this effort, a new HMC External Connectivity
security whitepaper has been published, which describes data exchanges between
the HMC and the IBM Service Delivery Center (SDC) and the methods and protocols
for this exchange. To read the whitepaper and prepare for Electronic Service Agent
installation, go to the "Security" section at
http://www.ibm.com/support/esa
Select your country. Click " IBM Electronic Service Agent Connectivity Guide."
Benefits: increased uptime
Electronic Service Agent is designed to enhance the warranty and maintenance
service by providing faster hardware error reporting and uploading system
information to IBM Support. This can optimize the time monitoring the symptoms,
diagnosing the error, and manually calling IBM Support to open a problem record.
And 24x7 monitoring and reporting means no more dependency on human
intervention or off-hours customer personnel when errors are encountered in the
middle of the night.
Security: The Electronic Service Agent tool is designed to be secure in monitoring,
reporting, and storing the data at IBM. The Electronic Service Agent tool is designed
to securely transmit either via the Internet (HTTPS or VPN) or modem to provide
customers a single point of exit from their site. Communication is one way.
Activating Electronic Service Agent does not enable IBM to call into a customer's
system.
For additional information, refer to IBM Electronic Service Agent
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/esa/