Troubleshooting

Find solutions to common problems that you might encounter in IBM® Storage Insights.

Getting started

IBM Storage Insights is an off-premises, IBM Cloud® service and getting started is a snap. However, every environment is different, so check out the following solutions if you get stuck.

Table 1. Troubleshooting at the start
Problems and questions	Answers
I am not sure my environment is ready for IBM Storage Insights. Is any information available for me to prepare?	For a handy checklist on how to get ready for IBM Storage Insights, see Before you begin checklist for IBM Storage Insights.
I don't know the URL of my dashboard and can't find the Welcome email.	Go to https://myibm.ibm.com/dashboard/ and log in with your IBM ID. If you're the owner of the IBM Storage Insights instance, the URL is shown on the page. The dashboard URL is also included in the Welcome email that was sent when you signed up for IBM Storage Insights. To find the Welcome email, go to your email inbox and search for emails that were sent by the following email addresses: IBM Storage Insights: sidevops@de.ibm.com IBM Storage Insights Pro: sistart@us.ibm.com (Storage Insights Welcome/Dallas/IBM)
My organization has security concerns about using a cloud service to monitor and collect metadata about our storage.	Because IBM Storage Insights is an IBM Cloud offering, protecting information about your storage is critical. Key highlights: ISO/IEC 27001 ISM certified Communication is one way, encrypted and compressed Data at rest is AES 256-bit encrypted Only metadata about your storage is collected Personal, identity, and application data are never accessed Need more information about security? See the IBM Storage Insights Security Guide [PDF]. For a 1-page security overview, see the IBM Storage Insights Fact Sheet.
What devices can I monitor with IBM Storage Insights?	IBM Storage Insights can monitor your storage systems, switches, and VMware ESXi hosts and virtual machines. For more information about the support devices, see Supported devices in IBM Storage Insights.
Information about my storage systems isn't showing up in the IBM Storage Insights dashboards.	To connect IBM Storage Insights to your data collectors, your firewall must be configured to allow outbound communication on the default HTTPS port 443 using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is not supported.
I currently use the free version of IBM Storage Insights. Is there a way I can try IBM Storage Insights Pro before I buy?	Yes, if you already have IBM Storage Insights, you can easily activate a 60-day trial of IBM Storage Insights Pro. To start your trial, open IBM Storage Insights and click Unlock the full potential of IBM Storage Insights Pro at the top of the page.
The current owner of the IBM Storage Insights instance left my company and I need to transfer ownership to a different ID. The user ID and the email address of the IBM Storage Insights instance owner does not match. How can I change it so that they match?	If you are a subscriber, you can open an IBM Support case and provide the following information so that the new subscriber can be added: First name and surname Phone number Company name Country IBM ID and email address You can also state whether access to IBM Support and IBM Storage Insights is to be revoked for the original owner of the subscription and whether the IBM ID of the original owner of the subscription is to be removed from the company's account. For instructions on how to open a case, see Getting support.
My IBM Storage Insights service is not working. How can I get help?	For information about how to get help for IBM Storage Insights and the IBM devices that you monitor, see Getting support.

General troubleshooting for everyday use

Get solutions to common problems that you might encounter when you use IBM Storage Insights.

Problems and questions	Answers
I received a notification to upgrade my data collectors, but I am having trouble completing the upgrade.	If you run into issues when you try to upgrade data collectors, you might need to download and install the latest version. For instructions, see Resolving upgrading issues.
What does the "Degraded" status mean for data collection?	A "Degraded" status means that configuration, capacity, or performance metadata is being collected, but that metadata might not be up-to-date or warning messages were generated when it was being collected. In some cases, when you first add storage systems for monitoring, this condition might occur. Wait until the data collection completes and recheck the status. If the Degraded status persists, restart the data collection.
Data is not being collected for my device.	A number of reasons might cause data collection to be interrupted for a device. To view some quick steps about how to start up data collection again, go to Resolving connection issues. Performance metadata can't be collected about a device that includes a forward slash (/) or backslash (\) in its name. Before you add a device for monitoring, remove any slashes in its name.
Log packages that are created for storage systems that run IBM Spectrum Virtualize sometimes not getting added to Enhanced Customer Data Repository (ECuRep).	If the file system is full on a storage system that runs IBM Spectrum Virtualize, the storage system cannot package the individual log files together to create a log package. Delete older state save log files from the storage system so that the log package can be created.
A problem occurred on a storage system that I am monitoring with IBM Storage Insights and I want to report the problem.	If you encounter issues with the IBM block storage systems that you're monitoring, you can create or update tickets and upload an existing log package manually or create a log package automatically inIBM Storage Insights. You can also give IBM Support permission to collect and upload log packages for storage systems without contacting you every time. See Opening, updating, and tracking IBM Support tickets and Giving IBM Support permission to collect log packages.
I am seeing one of the following when I am running performance monitoring on my Hitachi VSP storage systems: Data gaps in my performance charts "Performance monitor status is failed".	When the Hitachi Service Processor is busy with configuration changes or the system that is running the Hitachi Export Tool is slow, you might experience timeouts and performance monitor failures from the data collector server. If possible, try placing the Hitachi Export Tool on a faster machine.
IBM Storage Insights is down for maintenance	IBM is constantly improving the reliability and security of IBM Storage Insights. If an unscheduled update is required to address an urgent situation, a page is displayed that describes the cause of the update and the expected duration of any service interruptions. In cases where IBM Storage Insights becomes temporarily unavailable, rest assured that the IBM team is working hard to bring the service back online quickly. To view information about updates to IBM Storage Insights, see Updates and maintenance for IBM Storage Insights.
HTTP error code 404 (page not found) is shown when I try to access IBM Storage Insights	The 404 error might be caused by one of the following problems: The page cannot be found because of an error in the URL Ensure that the URL is correct for your IBM Storage Insights service. You can check the URL on your IBM products and services page. If you are the original owner of the service, the Welcome email that you received when you signed up includes the link to your service. To find the Welcome email in your email inbox, search for emails that were sent by the following email addresses: IBM Storage Insights: sidevops@de.ibm.com IBM Storage Insights Pro: sistart@us.ibm.com (Storage Insights Welcome/Dallas/IBM) Your IBM Storage Insights service is not ready If you are new to IBM Storage Insights and just received the Welcome email, we might still be busy creating your service. Try again in a few minutes. Your service was canceled because you did not activate it by deploying a data collector You can create another service by registering again for IBM Storage Insights at https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/storage/storage-insights/registration.
After a IBM Storage Insights outage I have gaps in my performance data.	Ensure you have enough space available for data collection. Check that the value of the cacheMaxTotalSpaceMiB property in the custom.properties file is set to a large enough amount to store the performance data that is gathered during the outage. For more information, see Learn more about installing and administering data collectors.
Reports are not being sent to the email addresses that I configured. I'm not receiving emails from no-reply@insights.ibm.com.	IBM Storage Insights uses the email address no-reply@insights.ibm.com to send reports to email recipients. To receive report emails, try the following actions: Ensure that there are no email rules in place to block no-reply@insights.ibm.com. Check your spam and other email folders.
I'm unable to use some special characters when I try to apply a tag to a device, specify the name of an alert policy, or customize the name of a device.	When you define custom tags, specify alert policy names, customize device names, and enter other configurable text, avoid using the following special characters: $ ~ ` \ / [ ] \| ; : ' " < >.