Heartbeat notifications

Every 24 hours, the system sends a heartbeat notification to support as part of the call home function. Heartbeat notifications are similar to inventory notifications, but are not sent to any local user that is defined on the system. If the system uses call home with cloud services to transmit notifications, the heartbeat notifications are automatically configured and sent to support. If you use call home with email notifications, this notification is automatically sent to support but requires at least one email server is configured, one or more support email users are defined, and the email server is started on the system.

A heartbeat and an inventory notification contain the same information about the system. If you are using call home with cloud services, no additional configuration is necessary for these notifications. However if you are using call home with email notifications, ensure that the following tasks are completed before the system can issue each notification:

An email server must be configured.
Support users must be defined to receive the notification.
Note: If you also want internal email users or servers to receive these notifications, you must also set up email notifications even if call home with cloud services is configured. This transmission method only sends notifications to support.
The email server must be started.

However, the system processes each type of notification differently. Table 1 summarizes the differences.

Table 1. Comparison of heartbeat and inventory notifications processing.
Summary of heartbeat and inventory notifications
Feature	Heartbeat notification	Inventory notifications
Type of recipient	Support users only.	Both support and local users can receive these notifications. Call home with cloud services sends inventory notifications to support users automatically using the default interval of 7 days. However it is only sent to support users if it is configured. If you want local users to receive these notifications as well, you need to configure call home with email notifications. All local users who are listed in the output of the lsemailuser command with the inventory set to on.
Timing of the first notification	If call home with cloud services is configured, the notification is sent automatically after configuration. If call home with email notifications is configured, the first notification is automatically sent when the following conditions are met: At least one email server is defined. At least one support email user is defined. The defined email server is started on the system within the management GUI or with the startemail command.	If call home with cloud services is configured, the notification is sent automatically after configuration. The default interval for these inventory notifications is 7 days, but this value can be changed in the management GUI on the Settings > Support > Call Home page or using the chsystem invemailinterval`interval` command. If call home with email notifications is configured, the first notification is automatically sent when the following conditions are met: At least one email server is defined. At least one support email user is defined. The defined email server is started on the system within the management GUI or with the startemail command. An non-zero interval for inventory notifications is configured. You can set this value either in the management GUI or with chsystem invemailinterval`interval` command.
Notification frequency	Every 24 hours after the first notification is sent.	The period between inventory notifications can be 1 - 15 days; typically, this value is set to 7 days (one week). You can the management GUI to update the interval for inventory notification by selecting Settings > Support > Call Home. You can also use the chsystem -invemailinterval`interval` command to change the interval value. Setting the `interval` value to 0 turns off all inventory notifications. The inventory notification can also be sent immediately by issuing the sendinventoryemail command.