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M
Monito
oring
g Dell Equa
alLogiic Sto
orage
e Arra
ays
U
Using Dell Supp
S
ortAsssist
Dell Product Grou
up Services
Dec
cember 2013
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Dell Tech
hnical White Paper
THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND
TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
ANY KIND.
© 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express
written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.
Trademarks used in this text:
Dell™, the Dell logo, Dell Boomi™, Dell Precision™ ,OptiPlex™, Latitude™, PowerEdge™, PowerVault™,
PowerConnect™, OpenManage™, EqualLogic™, Compellent™, KACE™, FlexAddress™, Force10™ and Vostro™ are
trademarks of Dell Inc. Other Dell trademarks may be used in this document. Cisco Nexus®, Cisco MDS®, Cisco NX0S®, and other Cisco Catalyst® are registered trademarks of Cisco System Inc. EMC VNX®, and EMC Unisphere® are
registered trademarks of EMC Corporation. Intel®, Pentium®, Xeon®, Core® and Celeron® are registered trademarks of
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Corporation. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming
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interest in the marks and names of others.
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Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using Dell SupportAssist | Version 1.0 | December 2013
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Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using Dell SupportAssist | Version 1.0 | December 2013
Table of contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................5 1 Discovery and inventory .............................................................................................................................................................. 6 1.1 Prerequisites ........................................................................................................................................................................ 6 1.2 Discovery range configuration ........................................................................................................................................ 6 2 Discovering EqualLogic storage arrays .................................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 SNMP configuration ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 3 Configuring the EqualLogic storage array to send alerts to OpenManage Essentials .................................................. 11 4 Alerts in OpenManage Essentials ..............................................................................................................................................12 4.1 Alert threshold ....................................................................................................................................................................12 5 Automatic case creation and execution of the collection tool ........................................................................................14 6 Configuring periodic collection ................................................................................................................................................ 15 7 Sending system logs manually (collection on demand) ......................................................................................................16 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................................16 4
Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using Dell SupportAssist | Version 1.0 | December 2013
Introduction
Dell SupportAssist is a remote support application providing proactive support capabilities that help
identify and resolve issues faster and more accurately. It integrates with Dell OpenManage Essentials and
enables transparent visibility to your server, storage, and networking infrastructure, and proactively
identifies hardware failures in your IT environment.
SupportAssist is designed with automated proactive features to help streamline support process steps,
maintain your systems’ health, and identify hardware failures faster and more accurately.
The key features of SupportAssist include:




Remote monitoring for critical hardware alerts.
Automatic collection of diagnostic logs and configuration information.
Automatic case creation and alert notifications through email.
Proactive support from a ProSupport Engineer, who has the information required to start resolving
your case immediately.
SupportAssist gives you more oversight and control over your environment without the hassle of manual
processes and more time. Equipping your OpenManage Essentials server with SupportAssist is voluntary,
and results in improved support, products, and services designed to meet your needs.
OpenManage Essentials interacts with supported devices that are to be monitored and receives SNMP
traps. The SNMP traps are periodically retrieved as alerts by the SupportAssist client. The alerts are filtered
using various policies to decide if the alerts qualify for creating a new support case or updating an existing
support case.
All qualifying alerts are securely sent to the SupportAssist server hosted by Dell, for creating a new support
case or updating an existing support case. After the support case is created or updated, the SupportAssist
client runs the appropriate collection tools on the devices that generated the alerts, and uploads the log
collection to Dell.
The information in the log collection is used by Dell technical support to troubleshoot the issue and
provide an appropriate solution.
This technical white paper provides information about monitoring Dell EqualLogic storage arrays using
Dell SupportAssist. The following are the high-level areas covered:





5
Steps to perform discovery and inventory
Case creation in SupportAssist for an alert
Execution of the log collection tool
Configuring periodic collection
Sending system logs manually
Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using Dell SupportAssist | Version 1.0 | December 2013
1
Disscovery and invventory
y
Disco
overy and inve
entory aids understanding
g of what harrdware and so
oftware are in
nstalled across your
organ
nization and is the most ba
asic step to effective
e
syste
ems management. Areas such as licen
nse
comp
pliance, health monitoring
g, security and
d upgrades, aand migration
ns all require the networkked hardware
to be available to the
t System Administrator
A
on a single c
console to he
elp ease the p
process. OpenManage
Essen
ntials providess these capab
bilities to initiialize the disc
covery and in
nventory proc
cess and perfform required
d
action
ns on these devices.
d
1.1
Prerequisite
es
The discovery
d
process in Open
nManage Esse
entials comm
municates witth the EqualLogic storage arrays using
SNMP
P protocol. Yo
ou may also be required to
t provide the
e SNMP com
mmunity string
g during the d
discovery
proce
ess.
1.2
Disc
covery range co
onfigurattion
This section
s
provid
des informatiion about pro
oviding a disc
covery range for discoveriing devices in
n
Open
nManage Esse
entials.
In OpenManage Essenttials, navigate
e to Manage Discoveryy and Invento
ory.
The Disco
overy Range Summary
S
pag
ge is displaye
ed.
2. Under Discovery Ranges, right-click All Ranges,, and click Ad
dd Discovery
y Range.
1.
Figure
e1
6
Discovvery Range Wizard
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3. Specify the
e IP ranges of
o the devicess in the enviro
onment. The following are
e examples o
of valid IP
ranges tha
at you can pro
ovide.
Figure
e2
Samplle IP ranges
Additionally, an Im
mport functionality provide
ed in OpenM anage Essenttials helps with importing a Discovery
Range
e which is de
efined in a .cssv file format, as shown in Figure 3. The
e maximum n
numbers of d
devices that
can be
b imported using
u
this metthod is 500.
Figure
e3
7
Samplle .csv file
Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using
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The fo
ollowing example demonstrates addin
ng a discoveryy range with SNMP protoc
col using the
e Add
Disco
overy Range Wizard.
W
Figure
e4
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
8
Speciffying an IP ran
nge
In the IP address/range
e field, type the
t IP addresss range.
In the Nam
me field, provvide a range name
n
(option
nal).
Click Add.
Repeat ste
ep i to step iii, to add more
e discovery raanges.
Click Nextt to proceed.
Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using
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2
Disscoverin
ng Equa
alLogic storage
e arrayss
To disscover an EqualLogic storrage array:
i.
ii.
iii.
In the IP address/range
e field, type the
t IP addresss range.
me field, provvide a range name
n
(option
nal).
In the Nam
Click Add.
NOT
TE: If required
d, repeat step
p i to step iii to
t add more d
discovery ran
nges.
iv.
Click Nextt to proceed.
NOT
TE: It is recom
mmended tha
at you discovver all membe
er IPs of the E
EqualLogic sttorage array.
Figure
e5
2.1
Speciffying an IP ran
nge
SNM
MP configuration
n
In the
e SNMP Conffiguration scrreen,
Figure
e6
i.
ii.
9
select the Enable SNMP discovery option.
o
Type the community
c
name in the Get
G communiity field.
Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using
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Figure
e7
iii.
iv.
SNMP configuratio
on screen
Click Nextt to proceed with the defa
ault settings u
until the Disc
covery Range
e Action screen.
In the Disc
covery Range
e Action scre
een, select on
ne of the options, and clic
ck Finish.
The discovery
d
rang
ge you provid
ded is added to the Disco
overy Rangess list, and the discovered E
EqualLogic
storag
ge array is dissplayed in Op
penManage Essentials.
E
Figure
e8
10
EqualL
Logic array diiscovered in OpenManage
O
e Essentials
Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using
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3
Configurin
ng the EqualLo
E
ogic sto
orage arrray to ssend ale
erts to
Op
penManage Esssentials
Log in
n to the Equa
alLogic Group
p Manager with the mana gement IP off the EqualLo
ogic storage a
array and
navigate to Group
p Configuratio
on SNMP tab. Provide the SNMP trap d
destination (syystem where
e
Open
nManage Esse
entials is insta
alled) and pro
ovide the com
mmunity strin
ng and click A
Add.
Figure
e9
11
Config
guring the Eq
qualLogic arra
ay to receive alerts
Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using
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Dell Suppo
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4
Alerts in OpenManage Essentials
Dell OpenManage Essentials administrators can monitor the health of discovered assets through a
centralized, easy-to-use dashboard and through automated, custom alerts. The dashboard provides an
at-a-glance view and a scoreboard displaying the health and well-being of the infrastructure.
4.1
Alert threshold
The alert threshold specifies under what conditions the alert should cause a support case to be created (or
appended). The syntax resembles a programming method and optionally may take additional arguments
to refine its behavior.
Currently there are two possible values:
 FirstMatch () – The case should be created/appended each time this alert is detected.
 Occurs (count,duration) – The case should be created/appended only when the alert has occurred
so many times within a specified duration.
The duration argument of the Occurs threshold defines a relative time in days, hours, minutes and
seconds and is formatted as dd-hh:mm:ss. The following are some examples of the Occurs threshold and
their descriptions.
Table 1
Examples of Occurs threshold
Example
Description
Occurs (5,1-00:00:00)
Create/append case if the alert occurs 5 or more times within the previous 1
day
Occurs (3,0-05:00:00)
Create/append case if the alert occurs 3 or more times within the previous 5
hours
Occurs (8,1-12:00:00)
Create/append case if the alert occurs 8 or more times within the previous
day and a half
Valid duration values – Days: 0 to 365, Hours: 0 to 23, Minutes: 0 to 59, Seconds: 0 to 59
Policies which specify the Occurs () threshold instruct the SupportAssist server to retain the timestamps of
each alert. With each new alert occurrence, the SupportAssist server evaluates if the number of alerts
within the duration exceeds the count, and if so, creates/appends the case. The timestamps are discarded
to ensure the Occurs () threshold will not append the case until an entirely new set of alerts are received
which fulfills the criteria.
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Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using Dell SupportAssist | Version 1.0 | December 2013
Table
e2
Examplle of policy file details
Polic
cy Property
Description
Examp
ple
clien
ntType
The type of client reporting the ale
ert
“OME”
even
ntSourceType
e
The source of the alert
“.1.3.6.11.4.1.12740.2.2.1”
trapId
The trap identifier
“16”
even
ntId
The even
nt identifier
(null)
severity
Severity of
o the alert
“MINOR”
desc
cription
Description of the ale
ert
“Sent w
when a critica
al hardware c
component has
failed”
auto
oCase
Indicatess if the alert should be
processe
ed
true
alertThreshold
Policy filtter when the case is creatted
“Occurrs(2,1-00:00:00)”
delta
aSeverity
Severity code
c
passed to delta
“3”
Suppo
ortAssist proc
cesses all alerts with Equa
alLogic OIDs, but only som
me specified a
alerts which have Auto
Case as “Yes” are considered
c
fo
or creating a support case
e (Service Req
quests or SR).
Figure
e 10
13
Alert details
d
in Ope
enManage Esssentials
Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using
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Dell Suppo
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5
Auttomatic
c case creation
c
n and exxecution of the
e
colllection tool
Suppo
ortAssist proc
cesses all alerts from Ope
enManage Esssentials, but a support casse is created only if:
 The policies qualify the alert for a support case crreation.
 SupportAsssist is configu
ured to autom
matically gene
erate supportt cases.
Once
e the support case is created for an Equ
ualLogic storrage array, the
e correspond
ding collectio
on tool (Dell
Lasso
o) is invoked, and the syste
em log collec
ction is generrated and uplloaded to De
ell.
NOT
TE: For device
es covered under Basic Su
upport servic
ce contract tyype, the supp
port case is no
ot created,
but the
t collection
n tools are in
nvoked.
Figure
e 11
14
Suppo
ort case creatted for an Equ
ualLogic storrage array
Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using
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Dell Suppo
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on 1.0 | December 2013
6
Configurin
ng perio
odic collection
n
By de
efault, SupporrtAssist generrates the systtem log colle
ection from EqualLogic sto
orage arrays e
every week,
and uploads
u
the sy
ystem log co
ollection to De
ell. You can m
modify the fre
equency at w
which the system log
collec
ction is generrated as requ
uired.
To co
onfigure the periodic
p
colle
ection:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Click the Settings
S
tab.
Under Edit Device Type Credentials, select Devvice Type as S
Storage and C
Credential Ty
ype as
EqualLogiic.
Under Sysstem Log Colllection Sche
edule, select tthe frequenc
cy, date, and ttime as required.
Click Save
e Changes.
Figure
e 12
15
Config
guring period
dic collection
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Dell Suppo
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7
Sen
nding sy
ystem lo
ogs ma
anually ((collecttion on deman
nd)
When
n a support ca
ase is opened
d or updated, the SupporttAssist client runs the appropriate colle
ection tool
on the devices tha
at generated the alerts, an
nd then uploaads the system
m logs to Dell. In certain c
conditions, if
requirred by Dell te
echnical supp
port, you may
y be required
d to manuallyy collect the ssystem logs a
and send it to
o
Dell.
To send the system
m logs manually:
i.
ii.
iii.
Click the Devices
D
tab.
Select a de
evice in the Device
D
Inventtory table.
Click Send
d System logss.
The collection
c
too
ol (Dell Lasso)) is invoked and the generrated system log collectio
on is uploaded to Dell.
Figure
e 13
Sendin
ng system log
gs manually
onclusio
on
Co
Dell SupportAssist
S
identifies hardware failures on supporrted devices quickly and m
more accurattely. It
autom
mates and strreamlines the
e support process steps w
without much interaction ffrom your side. With
Suppo
ortAssist integrated with OpenManage
O
e Essentials, yyou have a sin
ngle systems managemen
nt console to
remotely monitor and manage
e your environ
nment, giving
g you instant insight into h
how your sysstems are
performing at all times.
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Monitoring Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays Using
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