Overview of service and support

Learn about the service options and the tools available to support your operating environment to ensure that your server and applications are ready when you need them.

The service and support tools described in this topic can help you to keep your server up and running and also save you time.

Some of the capabilities that are provided by the service and support applications include:

Monitoring server and logical partitions
Outgoing communications with your service and support organization (with correct setup and your authorization)
Obtaining updates
Enabling incoming remote support (with correct setup and your authorization)

There are several elements of service and support, including the following service applications:

Electronic Service Agent™: An application that can be configured to monitor your systems.
Service Focal Point: An application on the Hardware Management Console (HMC) that is used by service representatives to help diagnose and repair problems on logically partitioned systems.
Remote Support Facility: An application that runs on the HMC and enables the HMC to call out to the service and support organization.
Inventory Scout: An application that reports system configuration information and facilitates update of system firmware.

These service applications (or tools) can be used on your server or HMC to enable your service environment. As depicted in the following illustration, if you have logical partitions, the service tools run in each logical partition and work with the HMC as part of the service environment.

Figure 1. The elements of service and support and how they fit together.

In this illustration, three logical partitions run on a server. Each logical partition communicates with the HMC. Then, after you authorize the HMC, the HMC connects to your service and support organization. Your system can be configured to automatically handle these tasks for you, or you might choose to review and individually control them. If the system and applications are enabled, your server can report a problem to the service and support organization without your intervention. If a service representative is needed, you can arrange to have the service performed and to recover from a problem as quickly as possible.

Note: If you are using the Integrated Virtualization Manager to manage your server, check Service Focal Point for the Integrated Virtualization Manager to see if you need to contact service and support.

If your system is not managed by an HMC, there are other tools that can be used to enable your service environment.

For example, the Electronic Service Agent application for the operating system can monitor and analyze a problem and contact the service and support organization if configured. Also, if you have a IBM® System p5®, you can configure the Service Processor to monitor the system for problems and to contact service and support when you cannot start the operating system.