Troubleshooting Electronic Service Agent

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Follow these general troubleshooting guidelines when monitoring Electronic Service Agent.

Set the Electronic Service Agent trace level

To set the message severity recorded during Electronic Service Agent activity, adjust the trace level by using the Electronic Service Agent graphical interface. Working with IBM® Support to analyze the messages can help you diagnose problems. If the trace level is set to Severe or Error, you can want to change it to Warning or Information to gather more information about the problem. For more information, see the section Setting the trace level.

View the activity log to see if any problems are recorded

The activity log shows the date and time a problem occurred, along with a description of the problem. See Displaying the activity log.

If a problem occurs when the system attempts to electronically send a problem or service information to IBM Support, there can be many possible reasons why the transmission might not be successful. Electronic Service Agent depends on functions of the operating system to be working correctly. It includes managing the Electronic Service Agent daemon and system connectivity. Normal system problem determination is suggested for this type of problem.

Verifying that service information was sent to IBM Support

Service information collection activity shows the type of service information that is collected, when it was last collected, and when it was last sent.

If service information is being collected or transmitted, the last collected and last sent activity is not shown until the tasks are completed.

The tasks of collecting service information and sending service information take time to run. The time needed to collect and send information is influenced by the size of the system, processing load, and the speed of the connection. The following is the summary of the collection and transmission process.
  1. A collection task collects new service information.
  2. After the collection is complete, a task is started to do the following steps:
    1. Start the connection profile.
    2. Connect to IBM Support.
    3. Send the service information.

To verify that the information was sent to IBM Support, see Displaying service information collection activity.

Problems opening the Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface

If you cannot access the Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface, go through the following steps:

  1. Log on to the system as root for AIX® or padmin for VIOS.
  2. Enter smit in the AIX command line for AIX or cfgassist for VIOS.
  3. Select Electronic Service Agent > Start Electronic Service Agent.
  4. Reconnect to the Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface.

Electronic Service Agent connectivity test fails

Configure the firewall to allow the outbound traffic to all the addresses and ports that are mentioned in the output of /usr/esa/bin/esacli test -c. Following are the list of IP addresses and ports that must be configured.
Host name IP address Port number
esupport.ibm.com 129.42.56.189 443
esupport.ibm.com 129.42.58.189 443
esupport.ibm.com 129.42.60.189 443
esupport.ibm.com 2620:0:6c2:200:129:42:60:189 443
esupport.ibm.com 2620:0:6c2:200:129:42:58:189 443
esupport.ibm.com 2620:0:6c2:200:129:42:56:189 443
Note: If the problem is not still resolved, contact IBM support. For uploading the required information to IBM support for their further analysis, see the section Steps to run esaffdc command.

Electronic Service Agent activation fails

Electronic Service Agent activation might fail due to any of the following reasons:
  1. Connectivity test fails - See section Electronic Service Agent activation fails
  2. Java version that is used - The most common symptom to identify this error is that CLI works and UI display 403 error. Ensure that Java is installed and JAVA_HOME points to the Java version required by ESA.
  3. Multiple Instances of ESA are running -
    1. To check whether there are any instances of ESA that are already running, run this command - ps -aef | grep esa.
    2. To stop the instances of ESA that are already running, run this command -kill -9 <<pid of ESA instance>>.
    3. Always use SMITTY for a smooth shutdown of ESA.
Note: If the problem is not still resolved, contact IBM support. For uploading the required information to IBM support for their further analysis, see the section Steps to run esaffdc command.

Issue with disk space

Use any of the following commands to increase the disk space for a particular file system:
  1. chfs -a size=<Size> <Filesystem path>. For example, to set the space of /var file system to 10 GB, chfs -a size=10GB /var.
  2. chfs -a size=+<Size> <Filesystem path>. For example, to increase the space for /usr file system by 6 GB, use the command - chfs -a size=+6 /usr.

Receiving mails on an inactive profile

Steps to run esaffdc command

Follow these steps to run the esaffdc command:
  1. Change the directory to /usr/esa/bin by using the command cd /usr/esa/bin.
  2. Run esaffdc command. This command generates a tar file in the esaffdc-ESAFFDC-mm-dd-yy.tar format in the folder /usr/esa/bin.
  3. Upload the generated file to IBM. For more information on uploading files to IBM, see section Steps to upload files to IBM.
Note: Root access is required to run these commands.

Steps to upload files to IBM

Follow these steps to upload files to IBM:
  1. Prepend the file name that is to be uploaded to IBM with pmr and PMRNo. File name must be in the pmr.<<PMR No>>.<<File Name>> format.
  2. FTP to the testcase by using the command ftp testcase.boulder.ibm.com.
  3. Login with user name as anonymous and password as your IBM account email address. For example, abc.xyz@in.ibm.com.
  4. Go to the AIX upload directory by using the command cd toibm/aix.
  5. Enable binary mode for the FTP session by typing binary at the command prompt.
  6. Upload the file by using the command put <<file name>>.
  7. End your FTP session.

Steps to download files from IBM

Follow these steps to download files from IBM:
  1. Log in to the system as a root user, where you must download the files.
  2. Run the command mkdir /<<directory name>>. For example, mkdir /ibm_downloads.
  3. Run the command cd /<<directory name>>. For example, cd /ibm_downloads.
  4. FTP to the testcase by using the command ftp testcase.boulder.ibm.com.
  5. Log in with user name as anonymous and password as your IBM account email address. For example, abc.xyz@in.ibm.com.
  6. Go to the AIX upload directory by using the command cd toibm/aix.
  7. Enable binary mode for the FTP session by typing binary at the command prompt.
  8. Download the necessary files by using the command get <<file name>>.
  9. End your FTP session.

Unable to activate ESA after you apply interim fix for LWI (pconsole CVE-2014-0918)

Error: 0980-014 Unable to send contact information to Electronic Service Agent subsystem. Please ensure the IBM.ESAGENT subsystem is active and try again.

If you are getting the error 0980-014when you are activating ESA after you apply ifix for LWI, run the following commands and activate ESA again.
cd /esa  
chown -R esaadmin *
Note: The issue is seen only when you uninstall ESA after you apply ifix for LWI and install ESA.

Issue in loading Dashboard page

If you logged in to ESA, and later reinstalled and upgraded ESA, you might be able to log in to ESA, but the Dashboard page might take long time or even fail to load. This problem might occur because of the browser’s cache and SSL certificates.

To troubleshoot this problem, clear the browser’s cache and SSL certificates, and then login to ESA again. Complete the following steps to clear the browser’s cache and SSL certificates on various browsers:
  • Google Chrome
    1. Click the Customize and Control Google Chrome more options icon Google Chrome and click Settings.
    2. In the Search settings field, enter Cache, and then click Clear browsing data.
    3. From the Time range list, select All time, and then click Clear Data to clear cache.
    4. To clear SSL, enter proxy in the Search settings field of the Settings page, and then click Open proxy settings.
    5. In the Internet Properties window, click the Content tab, and then click Clear SSL State.
  • Internet Explorer
    1. Click the Settings icon and click Internet options.
    2. In the Internet options window, click the General tab.
    3. In the Browsing history area, select the Delete browsing history on exit option and click Delete to delete the browsing history.
    4. In the Content tab of the Internet options window, click Clear SSL state to clear SSL, and click OK.
  • Mozilla Firefox
    1. Click Tools > Options.
    2. In the Find in Options field, enter Cache. In the Cookies and Site Data section, click Clear Data.

Proxy Issue

If all your ESA transactions are failing, verify that the DNS is resolvable and the DNS is enabled for outbound communication.

Concurrent execution exception

If you are not able to send test email of the SMTP notifications from the Notification Settings page, check whether the host name, DNS server, and domain details are configured properly in the following files:
  • /etc/resolv.conf
  • /etc/hosts
  • /etc/netsvc.conf
If the host name is not configured, complete the following steps to troubleshoot the problem:
  1. Enter search <customer system domain name> in the /etc/resolv.conf file.
  2. Enter the host name in the /etc/hosts file.
  3. Run the following commands:
    1. /usr/esa/bin/esacli stop
    2. /usr/esa/bin/esacli start
  4. Run the nslookup <hostname> command to verify the IP address of the system.

Notification test command failure

An error message similar to the following example might be displayed when you run the notification test command (/usr/esa/bin/esacli test -n) or notification test failure in ESA GUI.

0034: Notification test failed. Reason: java.lang.LinkageError: loading constraint violation: loader "com/ibm/oti/vm/BootstrapClassLoader@602f2e78" previously initiated loading for a different type with name "javax/activation/DataHandler" defined by loader "org/eclipse/osgi/internal/loader/EquinoxClassLoader@d49364bb"

To troubleshoot the problem, run the following commands:
  1. SSH to the system as root and stop ESA by using the following command:

    /usr/esa/bin/esacli stop.

  2. Edit the file /var/esa/data/esa.properties and add org.osgi.framework.bootdelegation=javax.* in a new line at the end of the file.
  3. Start ESA by using the following command:

    /usr/esa/bin/esacli start.

ESA activation is failing in AIX 6 with 6100-09, VIOS 2.2.6, or AIX 7 with 7100-03

If ESA activation is failing, complete the following steps to troubleshoot the problem:
  1. Run the rmssys -s IBM.ESAGENT command.
  2. Change the permissions of the /usr/esa/runtime/configuration directory recursively by running the chmod -R 775 /usr/esa/runtime/configuration command.
  3. Activate ESA by running the cfgassist command in VIOS or by using SMIT in AIX respectively.

Connectivity verification is failing in AIX 6 with 6100-09, VIOS 2.2.6, or AIX 7 with 7100-03

You might not be able to verify connectivity to the remote systems. However, the discovery of the remote systems will be successful.

Unable to submit a test problem through GUI in AIX 6 with 6100-09, VIOS 2.2.6, or AIX 7 with 7100-03

If you are unable to submit a test problem through ESA GUI, use the /usr/esa/bin/esacli test -p command to submit the test problem.

Unable to provide NPS feedback for multiple systems

In the NPS Survey, after you have provided the feedback for a single system, the Feedback pane might not refresh for you to provide feedback for the other systems.

To troubleshoot this problem, complete the following steps:
  • Mozilla Firefox
    1. Open your browser and go to Options → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
    2. Click Manage Permissions. The Exceptions - Cookies and Site Data window is displayed.
    3. In the Address of Website field, enter https://survey.medallia.eu and click Block.
    4. Click Save Changes to apply the exceptions.
    5. You can now access the Electronic Service Agent UI and provide feedback for multiple systems in the NPS survey window.
  • Google Chrome
    1. Click the Customize and control Google Chrome icon and click Settings.
    2. In the Privacy and security panel, click the Site Settings.
    3. Under Permissions area, click Cookies.
    4. In the Block section, click Add.
    5. In the Add a site, enter https://survey.medallia.eu and click Add.
    6. You can now access the Electronic Service Agent UI and provide feedback for multiple systems in the NPS survey window.
  • Microsoft Edge
    1. Click the Settings and more icon and click Settings.
    2. In the Privacy & security pane, go to the Cookies section and select the Block only third party cookies option.
    3. You can now access the Electronic Service Agent UI and provide feedback for multiple systems in the NPS survey window.

Unable to log in to ESA by using Google Chrome browser

If you are unable to log in to ESA or getting logged out automatically in few seconds by using the Google Chrome browser, complete the following steps to troubleshoot the problem:
  1. Click the Customize and control Google Chrome icon and click Settings.
  2. In the Privacy and security pane, click the Cookies and other site data.
  3. Scroll down and click Add for the Sites that can always use cookies option.
  4. Enter the ESA URL [https://<<ip or hostname>>:5024/esa] in the Add a site window and click Add.
  5. You can now access the Electronic Service Agent UI without any interruption.

IBM Electronic Service Agent instance is not accessible

If ESA is activated on a port other than 5024, ESA user interface might not be accessible and command-line might display an incorrect status: 
/usr/esa/bin/esacli status

0001: IBM Electronic Service Agent instance is not running.
To resolve the issue, upgrade ESA to the latest version and verify the port number in the security.properties file.
In older versions of ESA, update the port number by following these steps:
  1. /usr/esa/bin/esacli stop
  2. echo 'port=<<port_number>>' >> /usr/esa/ecc/data/security.properties
  3. /usr/esa/bin/esacli start
Example
/usr/esa/bin/esacli stop
echo 'port=6060' >> /usr/esa/ecc/data/security.properties
/usr/esa/bin/esacli start

IBM Electronic Service Agent connectivity issues

The ECC common client uses a CA trust list file (TrustList.jks) containing the trusted root certificates to enable SSL/TLS communication with the IBM servers. In AIX ESA 72Q or earlier versions, you may face issues in sending the connectivity verification or in performing the transactions. To resolve the issues, refresh the TrustList.jks that is updated with the new certificates, through the following steps:
  1. Delete the existing file: rm /var/ecc/data/TrustList.jks
  2. Click here and download the Trustlist.jks file and place it in a temporary directory. For example: /tmp
  3. Stop ESA by using the command: stopsrc -s IBM.ESAGENT
  4. Take a backup of the existing Trustlist.jks file by using the command: mv TrustList.jks TrustList.jks.bk
  5. Copy the downloaded file from temporary location to /var/ecc/data/
  6. Make sure the file has root permissions as shown: 
    -rw-rw---- 1 root system TrustList.jks
  7. Start ESA by using the command: startsrc -s IBM.ESAGENT
Note: If you have added your own certificate(s) to your ECC trust list, add them again to the new Trustlist.jks file.