Topology

Ensure that you consider your topology when planning for IBM® Electronic Service Agent

Your topology might consist of stand-alone IBM Electronic Service Agent clients independently connecting to the IBM Electronic Support website or IBM Electronic Service Agent clients connecting to the IBM Electronic Support website through a common exit point.

Stand-alone client topology

  1. The Service Agent client gathers the information from the hosts through SSH and transmits it to the IBM Electronic Support portal.

  2. The information is transmitted to the IBM Electronic Support portal in one of the following ways:

    • Through an Internet connection to the IBM Electronic Support portal. Information is protected using existing client firewalls and the IBM firewall.
    • Through a proxy. The proxy can be either a client supplied HTTP proxy or the IBM Service and Support Proxy. Information is protected using existing client firewalls and the IBM firewall.
  3. The information is stored in problem management databases and service information databases and made available to the IBM Support Center and service representative to help them assist you in diagnosing problems

Common exit point topology

The common exit point topology consists of IBM Electronic Service Agent clients connecting through a proxy to the service and support facilities of IBM. The proxy can be either a client supplied HTTP proxy or the IBM Service and Support Proxy. Information is protected using existing client firewalls and the IBM firewall.
Note: IBM Electronic Service Agent provides remote system support to only ESS, and BMC (through IPMI and REST) devices.
In the following diagram, the information transmission proceeds as follows:
  1. Each IBM Electronic Service Agent client gathers the information from the hosts (AIX, Linux, IVM) for that particular client.
    Note: Only for ESS devices, the ESS servers push the data to IBM Electronic Service Agent.
  2. Each client transmits the information to the IBM Electronic Support portal through the exit point proxy.
  3. The IBM Electronic Service Agent exit point transmits the information to the IBM Electronic Support portal though the proxy.
  4. The information is stored in problem management databases and service information databases and made available to the IBM Support Center and service representative to help them assist you in diagnosing problems.
Diagram showing common exit point topology.