OneFS SupportAssist
Mon, 13 Mar 2023 23:31:33 -0000
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Among the myriad of new features included in the OneFS 9.5 release is SupportAssist, Dell’s next-gen remote connectivity system. SupportAssist is included with all support plans (features vary based on service level agreement).
Dell SupportAssist rapidly identifies, diagnoses, and resolves cluster issues and provides the following key benefits:
- Improves productivity by replacing manual routines with automated support
- Accelerates resolution, or avoid issues completely, with predictive issue detection and proactive remediation
Within OneFS, SupportAssist transmits events, logs, and telemetry from PowerScale to Dell support. As such, it provides a full replacement for the legacy ESRS.
Delivering a consistent remote support experience across the Dell storage portfolio, SupportAssist is intended for all sites that can send telemetry off-cluster to Dell over the Internet. SupportAssist integrates the Dell Embedded Service Enabler (ESE) into PowerScale OneFS along with a suite of daemons to allow its use on a distributed system.
SupportAssist | ESRS |
---|---|
Dell’s next-generation remote connectivity solution | Being phased out of service |
Can either connect directly, or through supporting gateways | Can only use gateways for remote connectivity |
Uses Connectivity Hub to coordinate support | Uses ServiceLink to coordinate support |
Using the Dell Connectivity Hub, SupportAssist can either interact directly or through a Secure Connect gateway.
SupportAssist has a variety of components that gather and transmit various pieces of OneFS data and telemetry to Dell Support and backend services through the Embedded Service Enabler (ESE). These workflows include CELOG events; In-product activation (IPA) information; CloudIQ telemetry data; Isi-Gather-info (IGI) logsets; and provisioning, configuration, and authentication data to ESE and the various backend services.
Workflow | Details |
---|---|
CELOG | In OneFS 9.5, SupportAssist can be configured to send CELOG events and attachments through ESE to CLM. CELOG has a “supportassist” channel that, when active, creates an EVENT task for SupportAssist to propagate. |
License Activation | The isi license activation start command uses SupportAssist to connect.
Several pieces of PowerScale and OneFS functionality require licenses, and must communicate with the Dell backend services in order to register and activate those cluster licenses. In OneFS 9.5, SupportAssist is the preferred mechanism to send those license activations through ESE to the Dell backend. License information can be generated through the isi license generate CLI command and then activated with the isi license activation start syntax. |
Provisioning | SupportAssist must register with backend services in a process known as provisioning. This process must be run before the ESE will respond on any of its other available API endpoints. Provisioning can only successfully occur once per installation, and subsequent provisioning tasks will fail. SupportAssist must be configured through the CLI or WebUI before provisioning. The provisioning process uses authentication information that was stored in the key manager upon the first boot. |
Diagnostics | The OneFS isi diagnostics gather and isi_gather_info logfile collation and transmission commands have a --supportassist option. |
Healthchecks | HealthCheck definitions are updated using SupportAssist. |
Telemetry | CloudIQ telemetry data is sent using SupportAssist. |
Remote Support | Remote Support uses SupportAssist and the Connectivity Hub to assist customers with their clusters. |
SupportAssist requires an access key and PIN, or hardware key, to be enabled, with most customers likely using the access key and pin method. Secure keys are held in key manager under the RICE domain.
In addition to the transmission of data from the cluster to Dell, Connectivity Hub also allows inbound remote support sessions to be established for remote cluster troubleshooting.
In the next article in this series, we’ll take a deeper look at the SupportAssist architecture and operation.