Setting up the Call Home service

You specify important contact and service information about your system using the callhome_config.py interactive script.

Before you begin

Cloud Pak for Data System version 1.0.7.8 no longer supports the system web console. Alert management (re)configuration is now handled with the ap config command, and the remaining Call Home configuration is handled with the new callhome_config.py utility.

About this task

To configure the Call Home feature:
  1. Run the script:
    cd /opt/ibm/appliance/storage/platform/ras/callhome/bin
    ./callhome_config.py
  2. The script asks you to select the number of the configuration block that you want to complete. Type the number and hit Enter. You can complete the following configuration blocks (corresponding to the configuration panels that were available on the web console):
    • 1. ALL Configuration - the script guides you through blocks 2-7.
    • 2. System Configuration:
      Provide the following information:
      • Country Code (required): two character standard code that are US or CA or FR
      • Description (optional): text description of the system
      • Location (optional): text location of the system
    • 3. Site Configuration:

      Provide the company name, IBM customer number (required) and site address.

    • 4. Contact Information:

      Provide contact details for designated contact person (or group) that IBM Support will contact when the system opens support cases.

    • 5. Custom Email Subject fields:

      You can provide two custom message strings in the service message sent by Call Home. These fields can help users to filter the notification emails using email rules that they have defined, or to include more easily identifiable information in the email subject, such as a hostname for the source IBM system that reported the problem. These fields also become a part of the case problem description if a case is opened.

      If you do not define custom fields, the email subject includes the first 10 characters of the hostname and system block description field, if defined, from the callHome.json file.

    • 6. Proxy Configuration:

      Use if the customer requires routing of outgoing Call Home requests through a proxy server.

    • 7. Control Configuration:

      Enable Call Home for problem reporting.

    • 8. Help
  3. Once you complete the edits, you are prompted to review and accept the changes. As a result, the callHome.json file used by the Call Home service is backed up, and the changes are written to a new file.
For more information on the script, see callhome_config.py.

In addition to the configuration via the callhome_config.py script, you must also configure mail server (SMTP configuration) and the default notification email recipient for Alert Notification and Call Home to work.