Planning for Call Home

Using Call Home, you can set up the IBM FlashSystem A9000R system to automatically send pre-failure or failure notifications to the IBM® Troubleshooting Ticketing System in the IBM Service Center. You can also configure the storage system to automatically send alerts directly to you.

Note: Call Home is compliant with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) EU 2016/679. For more information, refer to http://ibm.biz/gdpr-storage-paper.

Call Home cannot accept incoming communication, which means that the IBM Service Center cannot contact the FlashSystem A9000R system using Call Home.

When certain events occur in the FlashSystem A9000R system, Call Home sends a notification to the IBM Service Center. After receiving the notification, IBM service personnel analyze the problem promptly and take appropriate action. If the problem requires service, an IBM service representative is sent to your site with any necessary replacement parts. With access to the FlashSystem A9000R system, IBM service personnel can perform service tasks, such as viewing error logs and problem logs or initiating trace and dump retrievals.

Call Home proactively reduces problem handling efforts and provides more efficient self-service solutions. This ensures success when using IBM products and services, reducing critical situation events. This will also help you save time and money while maintaining your IT environment.

Call Home notifications are sent through email from an SMTP server. You must have an SMTP email system available that the FlashSystem A9000R system can use to send outgoing Call Home emails to IBM.

If required, the customer email gateway can be configured to send Call Home information to IBM only via a secured channel. For more information, see Monitoring and Troubleshooting > Encrypting Call Home and heartbeat notifications in IBM FlashSystem A9000 and IBM FlashSystem A9000R: Architecture, Implementation and Usage Redbook, SG24-8345 on the IBM Redbooks® website .

Call Home information is configured by the IBM service representative at the time of storage system installation. This information is communicated through the Technical and Delivery Assessment (TDA) checklist and worksheets.

Customer responsibility

As the customer, it is your responsibility to configure the SMTP email system to enable the FlashSystem A9000R system to send outgoing emails for the Call Home function. The email configuration rules must not inhibit call home emails from being sent in real time. Emails with Importance or X-Priority in the email header must not be delayed.

For example, FlashSystem A9000R emails must not be placed in a queue for later delivery or filtered for priority. The administrator must verify correct configuration and function of the email system before installation. Failure to verify the email system might delay the successful installation or repair of the FlashSystem A9000R system.

Table 1 lists requirements that must be met to configure the Call Home function.

Table 1. Call Home configuration information
Call Home configuration requirement	Value	Comment
Customer SMTP port	25	The customer SMTP server must be reachable on port 25 from the customer-provided management IP address.
Customer SMTP address	IP address	This IP address is supplied by the customer.
Email destination address	xiv-callhome-eastern-hemisphere@ vnet.ibm.com or xiv-callhome-western-hemisphere@ vnet.ibm.com	Customer SMTP server must allow relaying to the following IBM email addresses based on geographical location: East: EMEA, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the rest of the world West: USA, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean Islands
Email source address	xiv@il.ibm.com or customer-defined	The default email address from which the email is sent. This email address can be customer-defined to conform to the customer email relay rules.