Login, activation, and configuration of ESA

After ESA is installed, it must be activated by using the /opt/ibm/esa/bin/activator -C command. Then, the ESA portal can be reached by going to the following link.

https://<EMS or ip>:5024/esa

For example:

https://192.168.45.20:5024/esa

ESA uses port 5024 by default. It can be changed by using the ESA CLI if needed. For more information on ESA, see IBM® Electronic Service Agent. On the Welcome page, log in to the IBM Electronic Service Agent GUI. If an untrusted site certificate warning is received, accept the certificate or click Yes to proceed to the IBM Electronic Service Agent GUI. You can get the context sensitive help by selecting the Help option located in the upper right corner.

After you have logged in, go to the Main Activate ESA, to run the activation wizard. The activation wizard requires valid contact, location and connectivity information.

The All Systems menu option shows the node where ESA is installed. For example, ems1. The node where ESA is installed is shown as PrimarySystem in the System Info. The ESA status is shown as Online only on the PrimarySystem node in the System Info tab.

Note: ESA is not activated by default. In case it is not activated, you will get a message similar to the following message:

[root@ems1 tmp]# esscallhomeconf -E ems1 --show
E] IBM Electronic Service Agent (ESA) is not activated.
[I] Activated ESA using /opt/ibm/esa/bin/activator -C and provide customer detail via ESA GUI later and retry.
[I] Alternatively use --esa-config switch and provide all customer details to do ESA activation from here only.
[I] See --esa-config switch for further CLI activation of ESA
Exiting...

The esscallhomeconf has a new switch called --esa-config. Earlier users could activate ESA by using the /opt/ibm/esa/bin/activator -C command and defer the ESA configuration with the ESA GUI (earlier method of activating ESA before 6.x). However, with the introduction of --esa-config and its supporting switch, the activation of ESA and its configuration can also be done by using the esscallhomeconf command.

This switch can be used to activate ESA and configure ESA by using the CLI with the required customer information such as customer name, email ID, server location, etc. The user earlier provided this information when activating ESA by using the ESA GUI.

The usage information of esscallhomeconf is as follows.

usage: esscallhomeconf [-h] -E ESA-AGENT [--prefix PREFIX] [--suffix SUFFIX]
                       [--verbose] [--esa-hostname-fqdn ESA_HOSTNAME_FQDN]
                       [--stop-auto-event-report] [-N NODE-LIST] [--show]
                       [--register {node,all}] [--no-swcallhome] [--icn ICN]
                       [--serial SOLN-SERIAL] [--model SOLN-MODEL]
                       [--esa-config] [-m ESA_CONFIG_M]
                       [-u ESA_CONFIG_U] [-n ESA_CONFIG_N]
                       [-e ESA_CONFIG_E] [-t ESA_CONFIG_T]
                       [-f ESA_CONFIG_F] [-j ESA_CONFIG_J]
                       [-k ESA_CONFIG_K] [-g ESA_CONFIG_G]
                       [-a ESA_CONFIG_A] [-z ESA_CONFIG_Z]
                       [-y ESA_CONFIG_Y] [-r ESA_CONFIG_R]
                       [-b ESA_CONFIG_B] [-s ESA_CONFIG_S]
                       [-i ESA_CONFIG_I] [-p ESA_CONFIG_P] [-w] [-Y]
optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -E ESA-AGENT          Provide nodename for esa agent node
  --prefix PREFIX       Provide hostname prefix. Use = between --prefix and
                        value if the value starts with -.
  --suffix SUFFIX       Provide hostname suffix. Use = between --suffix and
                        value if the value starts with -.
  --verbose             Provide verbose output
  --esa-hostname-fqdn ESA_HOSTNAME_FQDN
                        Fully qualified domain name of ESA server for
                        certificate validation.
  --stop-auto-event-report
                        Stop report of automatic event to ESA in case of any
                        hardware call home event reported to system.
  -N NODE-LIST          Provide a list of nodes to configure.
  --show                Show call home configuration details.
  --register {node,all}
                        Register endpoints(nodes, enclosure or all) with ESA.
  --no-swcallhome       Do not configure software callhome while configuring
                        hardware callhome
  --icn ICN             Provide IBM Customer Number for Software callhome.
  --serial SOLN-SERIAL  Provide ESS solution serial number.
  --model SOLN-MODEL    Provide ESS model. Applicable only for BE (ppc64)
                        models.
  --esa-config          Provide info for configuration of ESA via CLI.
  -m ESA_CONFIG_M       name of organization that owns or is responsible for
                        this system
  -u ESA_CONFIG_U       country or region where the system is located
  -n ESA_CONFIG_N       name of the primary person in your organization who
is responsible for this system
  -e ESA_CONFIG_E       email address for the primary contact person (e.g.
                        myuserid@mycompany.com)
  -t ESA_CONFIG_T       telephone number where the primary contact person can be reached
  -f ESA_CONFIG_F    secondary person in your organization who is
                     responsible for this system
  -j ESA_CONFIG_J    secondary person email address (e.g.
                     myuserid@mycompany.com)
  -k ESA_CONFIG_K    secondary person telephone number where the person can
                     be reached
  -g ESA_CONFIG_G    country or region of the contact person
  -a ESA_CONFIG_A    state or province where the system is located
  -z ESA_CONFIG_Z    postal code where the system is located
  -y ESA_CONFIG_Y    city where the system is located
  -r ESA_CONFIG_R    address where the system is located
  -b ESA_CONFIG_B    building where the system is located
  -s ESA_CONFIG_S    telephone number where the system is located
  -i ESA_CONFIG_I    IBM ID
  -p ESA_CONFIG_P    port number on which the subsystem listens for
                     incoming client requests. Default: 5024
  -w                 Add firewall rules to access ESA UI from remote
                     systems. Default: True
  -Y                 accept license agreement without displaying it.
                     Default: False

There are several switches which start with ESA_CONFIG that can be used with the --esa-config switch of the esscallhomeconf command to activate ESA by using the CLI instead of using the ESA GUI and activating it.

Entities or systems that can generate events are called endpoints. The EMS, I/O server nodes, and attached enclosures can be endpoints in ESS. Servers and enclosure endpoints can generate events. Server can generate hardware events which could be CPU, DIMM, OS Disk, etc. Typically, these events are also logged in the OPAL log. Enclosure generated call home is mostly during the disk replacement event.

In ESS, ESA is only installed on the EMS node, and it automatically discovers the EMS as PrimarySystem. The EMS node and I/O server nodes must be registered to ESA as endpoints.

The esscallhomeconf command is used to perform the registration task. The command also registers enclosures attached to the I/O servers by default.

Software call home can also be registered based on the customer information given while configuring the ESA agent. A software call home group auto is configured by default and the EMS node acts as the software call home server. The weekly and daily software call home data collection configuration is also activated by default. The software call home uses the ESA network connection settings to upload the data to IBM. The ESA agent network setup must be complete and working for the software call home to work.

Attention: Start of change

You can configure software call home without running the esscallhomeconf command on the ESS system by using the mmcallhome command. However, it is recommended to not enable software call home with mmcallhome on any of the ESS systems including ESS 3000, ESS 5000, and ESS Legacy 5.x systems. End of change

A sample output of the esscallhomeconf command is as follows.

# esscallhomeconf -E essems1 -N essems1,essio1,essio2 --esa-config 
--register all --icn 123456789 -m IBMTEST -u INDIA -n UserName -e username@example.com  
-t ContactNum -f UserName -j username@example.com -k ContactNum -g INDIA -a State 
-z PostalCode -y Location -r Address -b Building -s ContactNum -i IBMTest -Y --crvpd --serial 212867A  
--model 8247-21L

[I] ESA is activated but the configuration was not done.
[I] Activating ESA via CLI using information provided by --esa-config switch
[I] Successfully activated the ESA with customer detail...
2021-02-18T09:41:18.190176 Generating node list...
2021-02-18T09:41:35.966228 nodelist:  essems1   essio1  essio2
Existing vpd file found. --crvpd option is ignored.
End point essems1 registered successfully with systemid 1dab83cc3b9409d5bbf6e657c7e312c8
End point essio1 registered successfully with systemid f7e01a43e9a7464da6cfbe757ca9a669
End point essio2 registered successfully with systemid 1438fddb414738cf60dcade90570059
Skipping node gssems1 as it's not an IO node. Only IO nodes are attached to enclosures. Thus only IO nodes are eligible to be registered their enclosures here.
End point enclosure G51704M registered successfully with systemid e2b14722f6940b1c410c6ec4452ded9d
End point enclosure G517022 registered successfully with systemid 506794d52b9fd5f7c580ca8e48a051cc
ESA configuration for ESS Call home is complete.
Started configuring software callhome
Checking for ESA is activated or not before continuing.
Fetching customer detail from ESA.
Customer detail has been successfully fetched from ESA.
Setting software callhome customer detail.
Successfully set the customer detail for software callhome.
Enabled daily schedule for software callhome.
Enabled weekly schedule for software callhome.
Direct connection will be used for software calhome.
Successfully set the direct connection settings for software callhome.
Enabled software callhome capability.
Creating callhome automatic group
Created auto group for software call home and enabled it.
Software callhome configuration completed.

After running this single command, ESA is activated and configured, and the nodes are registered along with the enclosures. Software call home is also set up with the same command.