Configuring support assistance
You can configure support assistance with the management GUI or the command-line interface.
Support assistance enables support personnel to access the system to complete troubleshooting and maintenance tasks. You can configure either local support assistance, where support personnel visit your site to fix problems with the system, or local and remote support assistance. Remote support assistance allows support personnel to access the system remotely from the support center. Both local and remote support assistance uses secure connections to protect data exchange between the support center and system. All actions that are completed with support assistance are recorded for auditing purposes. Local support assistance must be configured before remote support assistance is enabled.
Prerequisites
- Call home must be configured and functioning with a valid email server. To configure call home, select in the management GUI or through system setup.
- Service IP addresses must be configured on each node on the system. To configure service IP addresses, select in the management GUI.
- A DNS server must be
configured on your system. To configure a DNS server, select in the management GUI.
Note: DNS of your local system should allow for local and remote servers. It should not be configured to allow only a single external DNS server like Google 8.8.8.8.
- You can configure your firewall to allow traffic to pass directly from the system or you can route traffic through an HTTP proxy server within your environment. For more information, see Defining an HTTP proxy server.
- With the addition of the HTTP proxy support, Remote Support Proxy servers are no longer necessary, but they are still fully supported for existing configurations. Optionally, a Remote Support Proxy can be configured to consolidate firewall traffic from a number of storage systems. Remote upgrades cannot be completed through the Remote Support Proxy server.
Using the management GUI
- In the management GUI, select .
- Select one of these options.
- I want support personnel to work onsite only
- Select this option to configure local support assistance. Use this option if your system has certain restrictions that require onsite maintenance. If you select this option, click Finish to set up local support assistance.
- I want support personnel to access my system both onsite and remotely
- Select this option to configure remote support assistance. Use this option to allow support
personnel to access your system through a secure connection from the support center. Secure remote
assistance requires a valid service IP address, call home, and an optional Remote Support Proxy
server if a firewall is used to protect your internal network. If you select this option, click
Next to specify IP addresses or domain
names for the support center and optional Remote Support Proxy server. If a Remote Support Proxy server is not configured, the system uses an internal
proxy to connect to support. Note: If you specify domain names, a DNS server must be configured on your system. To configure a DNS server for the system, select You can use the mkdnsserver command to configure DNS servers. .
- If you selected to configure both local and remote support assistance, verify the pre-configured support centers. Optionally, enter the name, IP address or domain names, and port for the Remote Support Proxy server on the Remote Support Centers page. A Remote Support Proxy server is used by systems that do not directly access the internet or if traffic is routed from multiple storage systems to the same place.
- On the Remote Support Access Settings page, select one of these options
to control when support personnel can access your system to conduct maintenance and fix problems.
- At Any Time
- Support personnel can access the system at any time. For this option, remote support session does not need to be started manually and sessions remain open continuously.
- On Permission Only
- The system administrator must grant permission to support personnel before they can access the system. For this option, remote support sessions need to be started manually and you can specify a maximum time that a session can be idle before the session is automatically closed.
- Click Finish.
- After you configure remote support assistance with permission only, you can start sessions between the support center and the system. On the Support Assistance page, select Start New Session and specify the number of minutes the session can be idle after the support user is logged off the system.
Using the command-line interface
chsra -enable
chsra -remotesupport enable