Data loading, collectors and back-up in IBM Support Insights
IBM Support Insights offers flexible options for populating inventory data in a client profile. Select one of the options available in the right-hand side menu to gain more information about it:
In addition to the different data load options, you may also wish to familiarize yourself with the application's data back-up and recovery process in place.
Contracted Inventory
Key points:
- Get started quickly
- Avoid installing a data collector
- View inventory under contract
- Enable contract expiration alerts and contract reconciliation discussions
The required steps for setting up and IBM Support Insights client account using contracted inventory are the following:
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To have inventory data from the IBM backend contract systems synchronized with an IBM Support Insights client profile, one or more of the following options must be provided:
- Option 1: Global Buying Group (GBG) or Domestic Buying Group (DBG) ID
- Option 2: Customer number (ICN) and Country Code
- Option 3: Contract Number
Additional details provided regarding the geographical scope of inventory would further enrich the users experience with the application.
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Have the contact information and the aforementioned details sent to ibmsi@us.ibm.com.
Cisco Common Services Platform Collector
Key points:
- Automatically discover Cisco inventory, whether under contract or not
- Identify uncovered assets and expiring contracts for potential contract updates and renewals
The Cisco Common Services Platform Collector (CSPC) is developed and supported by Cisco and can be connected to IBM Support Insights in order to collect data concerning Cisco devices.
Assisted IBM support is required for CSPC licensing and setup. Contact us at ibmsi@us.ibm.com to get started.
IBM CMDB Connector for ServiceNow (Beta)
Key points:
- Use ServiceNow data to populate inventory and gain additional insights
- Automatically have additional data collected and receive further details on warranty and contract expirations, end-of-support or life events, and others.
Тhe IBM Support Insights CMDB Connector is an application which runs locally on the client's IT environment. The connector extracts details about the devices from a ServiceNow CMDB instance, which are then transmitted securely to IBM for the inventory data population. The utility is designed to allow full control over the selection, retrieval, and transmission of the collected data.
The output from the CMDB Connector can be exported and saved, and should be submitted along with the request to create or update a client account to ibmsi@us.ibm.com.
Data back-up and recovery
Client data is backed up automatically on a regular basis to enable restoring it in the event of an issue.
Back-ups are made daily and the back-up itself is stored in IBM Cloud. The data contains all application data including inventory, user configurations, custom properties, and personalizations.
The recovery point objective (RPO) of IBM Support Insights is one day. In the event of a data loss, the recovered data will be from the prior day’s back-up.
The recovery time objective (RTO) of IBM Support Insights is two days. In the event of a data loss, the time required to restore the application with the data back-up is two days after the event.
In short, the RPO is the state of the data at a point in time before the data loss occurred, whereas the RTO is the time necessary to bring the application and data back to the previous state.
The aforementioned time frames do not include weekends, public holidays and/or national holidays. Both the RPO and RTO are to be considered extended with the duration of the holidays they include in case an impact event occurs on such.