News
Abstract
IBM Storage Insights is getting updated with key performance and availability enhancements to improve your experience and enable even more advanced features in the future. To take advantage of the update, your data collectors must be active and running the current version.
Content
If your data collectors are inactive or down-level when IBM Storage Insights is updated, your device monitoring will be interrupted and additional recovery steps will be required. Don't wait to take action!
Important information about the free version of IBM Storage Insights (users of IBM Storage Insights Pro can ignore): If we discover that you are not using IBM Storage Insights, your service will be cancelled and any metadata that you collected about your devices will be erased. Don't worry though; if you decide that you want to use IBM Storage Insights in the future, you can request it again and start fresh.
How to prepare
This exciting change for IBM Storage Insights is coming up fast and we want to ensure that you're ready. Before the update, verify that the following is true for the data collectors in your environment:
- All data collectors are connected.
- All data collectors are up to date and no errors are displayed. For example, the Upgrade button should not be visible on the Configuration > Data Collectors page.
If these items are true for your data collectors, you're ready for the update! No further actions are required.
If your data collectors don't meet these requirements, you must complete the following steps to get them ready:
Step 1. Check if your data collectors are connected
Your data collectors must be online before the update to IBM Storage Insights. To view the status of your data collectors, go to the Configuration menu, click Data Collector, and check the Status column.
Step 2. Connect your data collectors
If any of your data collectors are not connected or inactive, follow the steps to get them back into action at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=collectors-resolving-connection-issues.
If any of your data collectors are not connected or inactive, follow the steps to get them back into action at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=collectors-resolving-connection-issues.
Step 3. Upgrade your data collectors
To upgrade any down-level data collectors, ensure that you have the Administrator role and simply click the link in the notification message (if it's displayed), or click Upgrade on the Data Collectors page.
To upgrade any down-level data collectors, ensure that you have the Administrator role and simply click the link in the notification message (if it's displayed), or click Upgrade on the Data Collectors page.
If for some reason the upgrade of a data collector fails, you can get help at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=collectors-resolving-upgrading-issues.
Step 4. Configure your firewall
To ensure communication between your data collectors and IBM Storage Insights, complete the following tasks:
- Configure the following your firewall to allow outbound communication on https://insights.ibm.com:443.
- Restart your data collectors. For instructions, see Stopping and starting the data collector service.
Tip: Enabling the Automatic Upgrade option is a great way to ensure that your data collectors are upgraded when needed. It also saves you time from having to manually upgrade them. For more information on enabling automatic upgrades, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=collectors-upgrading-data-automatically.
You're ready!
When all your data collectors are up-to-date and connected, you're good to go. We can take it from here. After the update, just log in as usual and keep monitoring!
When all your data collectors are up-to-date and connected, you're good to go. We can take it from here. After the update, just log in as usual and keep monitoring!
What to do if your data collectors weren't ready for the update
We know that things don't always go as planned. There might be last-minute issues that cause your data collectors to go down right before the IBM Storage Insights update, or maybe you just didn't have the time in your busy schedule to prepare. Don't worry, we've got you covered.
To help get your data collectors back up and monitoring, ensure that you have the Administrator role in IBM Storage Insights and complete these steps:
Step 1. Check the status of your data collectors
In IBM Storage Insights, go to the Configuration menu, click Data Collector, and check the Status column. If any of your data collectors show as "Missing", continue to the next step.
In IBM Storage Insights, go to the Configuration menu, click Data Collector, and check the Status column. If any of your data collectors show as "Missing", continue to the next step.
Step 2. Download and install new data collectors
Download and install data collectors on servers and virtual machines in your environment. They can be the same ones that you used before, or different ones. Ensure that the servers and virtual machines can see the devices that you want to monitor and are able to make an HTTPS connection to https://insights.ibm.com:443.
Download and install data collectors on servers and virtual machines in your environment. They can be the same ones that you used before, or different ones. Ensure that the servers and virtual machines can see the devices that you want to monitor and are able to make an HTTPS connection to https://insights.ibm.com:443.
- For instructions on how to install data collectors, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=started-downloading-installing-data-collectors.
- For a handy checklist that covers what you need to know about installing data collectors such as required ports and firewalls settings, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=started-before-you-begin-checklist.
Step 3. Assign your data collectors
If you previously assigned your data collectors to monitor specific devices, you'll need to do that again with the new data collectors. The good news is that you'll still be able to see the assignments of your original data collectors, so you can quickly use that information to match the assignments for the new data collectors.
If you previously assigned your data collectors to monitor specific devices, you'll need to do that again with the new data collectors. The good news is that you'll still be able to see the assignments of your original data collectors, so you can quickly use that information to match the assignments for the new data collectors.
For instructions and a short video on how to assign data collectors, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=collectors-assigning-data.
Step 4. Restart metadata collection
To start collecting metadata for your devices again, use Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select the devices, right-click the devices, and select Data Collection > Restart Data Collection.
To start collecting metadata for your devices again, use Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select the devices, right-click the devices, and select Data Collection > Restart Data Collection.
Step 5. Verify that metadata is being collected
Go to the list of your devices and check the Data Collection column. If you see the values "Running" or "Successful", your data collection is back on track. For more information about data collectors and troubleshooting tips, check out https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=configuring-managing-data-collectors.
Go to the list of your devices and check the Data Collection column. If you see the values "Running" or "Successful", your data collection is back on track. For more information about data collectors and troubleshooting tips, check out https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=configuring-managing-data-collectors.
Step 6. Clean up
When you're up and running with the new data collectors, it's a good practice to remove the old ones that are no longer active. For instructions on how to remove data collectors, go to https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=collectors-removing-uninstalling-data.
When you're up and running with the new data collectors, it's a good practice to remove the old ones that are no longer active. For instructions on how to remove data collectors, go to https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-insights?topic=collectors-removing-uninstalling-data.
That's it! If all went well, you're up and monitoring again with the enhanced version of IBM Storage Insights. If you encounter any issues during the recovery steps or need help, open a support case for IBM Storage Insights at https://www.ibm.com/support. To help us understand your issue more quickly, include the title of this page in your case.
Related Information
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Document Information
Modified date:
08 February 2022
UID
ibm16454595