Enabling Call Home with cloud services

Use Call Home with cloud services to collect metadata about your IBM Storage Virtualize storage systems. A data collector is not required to monitor a storage system when you use Call Home with cloud services.

Metadata about the configuration, capacity, and performance of IBM® block storage systems is the key to monitoring and getting actionable insights about your storage environment. In IBM Storage Insights, you can collect metadata by using Call Home with cloud service or with lightweight applications (called data collectors) that you deploy into your environment.

  1. Choose a metadata collection method.
  2. Enable Call Home with cloud services.
  3. Add the storage system for monitoring.
  4. Understand security.
Restriction: The ability to integrate IBM Storage Virtualize storage systems with IBM Storage Insights by using Call Home with cloud services is available for storage systems that are not being monitored. Storage systems that are currently monitored by IBM Storage Insights with data collectors are not yet eligible.

1. Choose a metadata collection method

A number of factors can determine which metadata collection method might work best for you. In IBM Storage Insights, you can use both Call Home with cloud services and data collectors as part of your overall monitoring strategy, but keep in mind the following considerations:
  • You can use only one method to collect metadata for each storage system. You can't use both methods at the same time. For example, if you use a data collector to collect metadata for a storage system, you can't also use Call Home with cloud services for that storage system.
  • If you have more than one IBM Storage Insights, each service can monitor the same storage system by using different collection methods. However, you can use Call Home with cloud services to collect metadata on only one of those services. For example, if you have three services that monitor a storage system, and one service uses Call Home with cloud services, you must use data collectors in the other two services.
To help you decide how to collect metadata for each of your storage systems, keep in mind the following considerations:
Requirements
  • Call Home with cloud services is available for storage systems that run IBM Storage Virtualize 8.5.3 and later and have at least 128GB of system memory. These storage systems include the IBM FlashSystem® family and IBM SAN Volume Controller. For more information about the specific storage systems that are supported for Call Home with cloud services and links to their firmware levels, see Supported devices in IBM Storage Insights.
  • Data collectors can collect metadata for all the storage systems that are supported by IBM Storage Insights, including non-IBM storage systems. However, the server or virtual machine where you deploy a data collector must meet OS and hardware requirements. For more information about the requirements for data collectors, see Before you begin checklist for IBM Storage Insights.
Deployment
  • Call Home with cloud services doesn’t require deploying any applications into your environment. However, you must use the management GUI of a storage system to enable Call Home with cloud services, configure integration with IBM Storage Insights, and add a storage system for monitoring.
  • Data collectors are lightweight applications that you must download and then install on a server or virtual machine within your network. The server or virtual machine must be able to access the storage system that you want to monitor. For more information, see Downloading and installing data collectors.
Key benefits of Call Home with cloud services
  • You don't need to deploy a data collector on a server or virtual machine in your environment. Determining where to deploy the data collector and ensuring that you meet its software and hardware requirements is a thing of the past.
  • Because you don't deploy a data collector, you don't need to administer the regular security and password updates that are typically required for servers or virtual machines.
  • You don't need to manage data collector upgrades or assignments for the storage system.
  • The built-in redundancy features of Call Home with cloud services help to ensure that your metadata collection keeps streaming while your storage systems remain active. You no longer need to deploy assign multiple data collectors to avoid interruptions to metadata collection.
  • By using Call Home with cloud services, you create a more seamless integration with IBM Storage Insights. Your metadata is delivered straight to your dashboards with all the existing security measures of IBM Storage Insights, IBM Cloud, and your IBM Storage Virtualize storage systems.

2. Enable Call Home with cloud services

To integrate an IBM Storage Virtualize storage system with IBM Storage Insights, Call Home with cloud services must be enabled for it. For information about how to enable Call Home with cloud services for a storage system, see the following links:
Tip: If you also enable Call Home with email notifications for a storage system, IBM Storage Insights will receive heartbeats and events about its health and status as they are detected. Your storage is constantly being monitored so that you and IBM Support are notified of hardware failures and potentially serious events. Use Call Home with email notifications to be proactive in the fight against performance slowdown and unexpected downtime. For more information, see Monitoring resources with Call Home.

3. Add the storage system for monitoring

If you did not configure Call Home with cloud services during the system setup for a new IBM Storage Virtualize storage system, see the previous section 2. Enable Call Home with cloud services. If you configured Call Home with cloud services during the system setup for a new IBM Storage Virtualize storage system, you can add it for monitoring by using either its CLI or management GUI:

Using the CLI of the IBM Storage Virtualize storage system
  1. Determine the unique ID of your IBM Storage Insights service. The ID of your service is part of its URL. For example, if the URL of your service is https://insights.ibm.com/gui/01eb027a-8d9b-1dd8-9763-380d31ca56fb#, its unique ID is 01eb027a-8d9b-1dd8-9763-380d31ca56fb.
  2. Open the CLI from the storage system that you want to integrate with IBM Storage Insights.
  3. Issue the following command:
    chcloudcallhome -sitenantid <ID_of_your_IBM Storage_Insights_service>
    where ID_of_your_IBM Storage_Insights_service is the unique ID of your service. For example:
    chcloudcallhome -sitenantid 01eb027a-8d9b-1dd8-9763-380d31ca56fb
  4. Wait a few minutes for the storage system to be processed.
  5. Access IBM Storage Insights, click the notification for the storage system, and approve it for monitoring. The notification is also displayed on the Insights > Advisor page.
Tip: For more information about CLI commands, such as how to review your Call Home with cloud services configuration, see the following links:
Using the management GUI of the IBM Storage Virtualize storage system
  1. In the management GUI of the storage system, select Settings > Support > Call Home.
  2. On the Add this storage system to IBM Storage Insights page, enter your IBMid.
  3. Select the IBM Storage Insights service that you want to use for monitoring the storage system.
  4. Click Save. Wait a few minutes for the storage system to be processed.
  5. Access IBM Storage Insights, click the notification for the storage system, and approve it for monitoring. The notification is also displayed on the Insights > Advisor page.

4. Understand security

The ability of IBM Storage Insights to identify and troubleshoot storage problems before they impact your business includes the responsibility of being a secure part of your organization. The following security measures help protect your metadata and its communication in IBM Storage Insights:
  • ISO/IEC 27001/27017/27018/27701 ISM certified
  • Communication is initiated one way, encrypted and compressed
  • Metadata at rest is AES 256-bit encrypted
  • Metadata streamed to IBM Cloud is 128-bit encrypted
  • Personal, identity, and application data are never accessed
  • Works with IBM Enhanced Secure Support (Blue Diamond) framework for HIPAA compliance
  • Dedicated vulnerability tracking and threat response team (IBM PSIRT)
  • IBM has EU–US Privacy Shield and Swiss-US Privacy Shield Framework certification
  • Integrated Security and Privacy by Design (SPbD)
  • Meets the requirements of GDPR

For more information about security in IBM Storage Insights, see Security.

What's next

After an IBM Storage Virtualize storage system is successfully added to IBM Storage Insights, all the same metadata collection and monitoring features that were available with a data collector are now available through the Call Home with cloud services connection. A collection task called a probe is automatically run to collect status, configuration, and capacity metadata. Additionally, the storage system is added to the default alert policy for the storage system type. For example, if you add a FlashSystem 9100 storage system, it's added to the alert policy called Default FlashSystem Family policy. At any time, you can change which alert policy manages a storage system, or set a storage system to not be managed by any policy.