Setting up call home with cloud services

Call home with cloud services sends notifications directly to a centralized file repository that contains troubleshooting information that is gathered from customers. Support personnel can access this repository and be assigned issues automatically as problem reports. This method of transmitting notifications from the system to support removes the need for customers to create problem reports manually.

Call home with cloud services also eliminates email filters dropping notifications to and from support which can delay resolution of problems on the system. Call home with cloud services use Representational State Transfer (RESTful) APIs, which are a standard for transmitting data through web services. For new system installations, call home with cloud services is configured as the default method to transmit notifications to support. When you update the system software, call home with cloud services is also set up automatically.You need to ensure that network settings are configured to allow connections to the support center. This method only send notifications to the predefined support center.

Prerequisites

If you are using call home with cloud services to send notifications to the support center, you need to ensure that the system can connect to the support.

Before configuring call home with cloud services, ensure that the following prerequisites are configured on the system:

Ensure that all of the nodes on the system have internet access.
Ensure that a valid service IP address is configured on each node on the system.

In addition to these network requirements, you need to configure appropriate routing to the support center through a domain name service (DNS) or by updating your firewall configuration so it includes connections to the support center. If you plan to use DNS, ensure that at least one DNS server is configured on the system. The system supports up to 6 DNS servers. To configure a DNS server on the system, select Settings > System > DNS and specify valid IP addresses and names for one or more DNS servers. You can also use the mkdnsservercommand to configure DNS servers. After a DNS is configured, update your network firewall settings to allow outbound traffic to esupport.ibm.com on port 443.

If not using DNS but you have a firewall to protect your internal network from outside traffic, you need to enable certain IP addresses and ports to establish a connection to the support center. Ensure that your network firewall allows outbound traffic to the following IP addresses on port 443: 129.42.56.189, 129.42.54.189, and 129.42.60.189.

You can configure either of these methods or configure both for redundancy. DNS is the preferred method since it ensures that if the underlying IP addresses to the support center change the system can still connect to the support center.

Using the management GUI

If you did not configure call home during system setup, you can configure this function in the management GUI. You can also change or update current settings on the Call Home page. To configure or update call home with cloud services, complete these steps:

In the management GUI, select Settings > Support > Call Home.
On the Call Home page, select Send data with call home cloud services and click Edit.
Verify that the connection status is active and a message displays that indicates the connection was successful. If the connection status displays Error, select Monitoring > Events to determine the cause of the problem.
Under Additional Settings, enter your preferences for inventory intervals and configuration reporting. Inventory reports can be configured with call home and provide additional information to support personnel. An inventory report summarizes the hardware components and configuration of a system. Support personnel can use this information to contact you when relevant updates are available or when an issue that can affect your configuration is discovered. By default, these reports include configuration data that support personnel can use to automatically generate recommendations that are based on your actual configuration. You can have sensitive data removed from these reports if necessary.
Click Save.

Using the command-line interface

To configure call home with cloud services in the command-line interface, complete these steps:

To enable call home with cloud services, enter the following command :
```
chcloudcallhome -enable
```
To verify that the connection was established between the system and support center through cloud services, enter the following command:
```
lscloudcallhome
```
In the results that display, verify that the status is enabled and the connection is active. These values indicate that the system is enabled for call home with cloud services and that a valid connection between the system and the support center is established. If the value in the connection parameter is error, the error_sequence_number parameter indicates the event code that was created. Check the event log for more details on the error.