Tracking maintenance contracts for storage systems

Track the maintenance contracts of your individual IBM® block storage systems so that you can be aware of when a contract expires or will soon expire. A storage system must have an active maintenance contract to be monitored in IBM Storage Insights. This requirement does not apply to IBM Storage Insights Pro.

About this task

Tracking the maintenance contracts of your IBM storage systems can be a daunting task, especially in large environments. But it's an important task because when a contract expires, so does your ability to monitor that storage system in IBM Storage Insights free version. An active contract also means that you can use the free version of IBM Storage Insights to monitor its status, capacity, and performance.
Important:
  • For IBM Storage Insights free version, if a maintenance contract is expired, you need to take necessary action within 90 days before the storage system is automatically removed from IBM Storage Insights. To help ensure that you are aware of the contract expiration and removal of a storage system, you are notified at the following intervals:
    • 90 days before automatic removal
    • 7 days before automatic removal
    The notifications for automatic removal are delivered through email and as notification messages in IBM Storage Insights.
  • For IBM Storage Insights Pro, the devices with the expired maintenance contract are not removed.

Procedure

  1. Login to IBM Storage Insights and go to Configuration > Manitenance Information. The Storage Systems Maintenance Information page appears.
  2. On the Storage Systems Maintenance Information page, view the maintenance and warranty information of your storage systems.
    For each storage system, the following information is displayed:
    • Name, serial number, and device type.
    • Earliest Service Expiration: Displays the service that has already expired or is about to expire for the node or enclosure of a storage system.
      The Earliest Service Expiration column values for any service are as follows:
      • Expired: The service has already expired.
      • Expiring Soon: The service expires within the next 90 days.
      • Active: The service expiration date is more than 90 days away.
      • No service data available: IBM Entitled Systems Support does not have service details for the serial number.
      • Unknown: The device is in a region where maintenance is not provided directly by IBM. Contact your maintenance provider for more details.
    • Earliest Expiration Date: The date on which the service is expired or about to expire.

    Storage systems maintenance page

  3. If you cannot see the updated maintenance or warranty details about the storage systems, Click Refresh icon. You can select up to 5 devices to refresh the details.
  4. For each storage system, complete one of the following actions:
    • IBM Storage Insights Pro version: Click the specific storage system to view its components and their maintenance details. Click the drop down to view more details. You can also go to Expired Storage Systems tab to view the details of expired storage systems.
    • IBM Storage Insights free version:

      If you no longer need to monitor a storage system with an expired maintenance contract, go to the Expired Storage Systems tab, select the storage system and click Remove Storage System to remove it from IBM Storage Insights. If you don't manually remove the storage system, it's automatically removed on the date shown for Device Removal Date.

      If you want to continue monitoring a storage system with an expired maintenance contract, you must extend its contract or upgrade to IBM Storage Insights Pro. If you encounter any issues with extending maintenance contracts or upgrading to IBM Storage Insights Pro, open a support case at https://www.ibm.com/support.

    Important: Access to certain actions on the Maintenance Information page are role-based:
    • Refreshing the warranty and maintenance details: Admin role only
    • Removing storage systems: Admin role only
    • Customizing warranty or maintenance alert: Admin role only
    • Generating maintenance information report: Available to all roles
    • Contacting IBM Support: Admin and Monitor roles

Results

After reviewing the maintenance information for your storage systems, you can create a detailed report that contains warranty and maintenance details. See Creating storage system maintenance information report.