Deploying data collectors to get capacity and performance insights and to upload logs

The data collector sends the asset, capacity, configuration, and performance metadata that is collected for your storage systems for analysis. The metadata is used to analyze storage usage, performance and to upload logs when you open or update support tickets. Asset, configuration, and performance information for fabrics, switches, and ESXi hosts is also collected and analyzed.

Get key performance and capacity metadata

You want a holistic view of your storage environment in a single pane. So, you enable Call Home to get the events that are generated when you have hardware and software issues and you deploy the data collector to get a snapshot of the storage usage and the performance of your storage systems. You also get a snapshot of performance information for fabrics, switches, and ESXi hosts.

Tip: If you subscribe to IBM® Storage Insights Pro, you can access all of the metadata that is collected to monitor capacity trends, capacity depletion, track dips and peaks in performance over time, and determine the root causes of performance bottlenecks.

Upload support logs

When you deploy the data collector, you can automatically upload a new log or manually select an existing log for your IBM block storage systems so that IBM Support can efficiently and quickly investigate and close the tickets that you open or update.

When the user has set the log permission as Allow, the IBM support can go ahead and upload the support logs.

When the user has set the log permission as Don't allow, a warning message IBM support is not authorized to get logs is displayed. It is to remind the IBM support that they need to get permission from the user before uploading the support logs.

When the user has set the log permission as Ask me, a warning message Obtain permission to get logs from customer check box is displayed. After selecting the check box, the fields become enabled.

Remember: IBM Storage Insights is part of the IBM Storage Insights Pro offering and although the same metadata, with some exceptions, is collected about your block storage systems and sent for analysis, only a subset of the metadata is available in the GUI for users who don't subscribe to IBM Storage Insights Pro. However, IBM Support can access all of the metadata that is needed to diagnose, investigate, and resolve open tickets. IBM Support has read-only access to the metadata that is needed to investigate and resolve issues.

Security: The information that is collected by data collectors flows in one direction, out of your data center to your instance of IBM Storage Insights Pro or IBM Storage Insights. To secure the outbound data flow, HTTPS connections are used between the data collector and your server and between your server and your instance. From your data center to your instance, the metadata is protected by the physical, technical, and organizational access and security controls that are provided by IBM Cloud data centers. See IBM Storage Insights Security Guide.