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How to Setup Call Home

By Jerry Slayton posted Fri June 26, 2020 03:17 PM

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How to Setup Call Home

In a previous blog we discussed the the benefits of using Call Home. Faster diagnostics, automatic upload of error logs, Inventory and Performance Management are all designed to make your life easier. IBM support provides customized web tools and functions that display information collected for your systems. In order to view that information you must define one or more IBM IDs at http://www.ibm.com/registration. After you have defined the IBM IDs, you can associate your ID with the system by entering the IDs during the configuration process as defined by the setup wizard. Explore the site; it is full of goodies for a future blog.

Now of course you are wondering how to set it up. Launch your HMC console and select the Electronic Service Agent setup wizard. One thing to note, HMC call home servers can be configured as a proxy to other HMC's. If you find yourself typing in the same information over and over again OR you have a lab setup where a set of HMC's are not internet accessible you should consider going down the proxy route. More to come on that subject. In the mean time let's start the wizard

Call-home setup wizard

This procedure describes how to configure the HMC as a call-home server using direct (LAN-based) and indirect (SSL) connections to the Internet.

Before you begin this task, ensure that:

The network administrator has verified that connectivity is allowed.
If you are configuring Internet support through a proxy server, you must also have the following:
- The IP address and port of the proxy server
- The proxy authentication information

The adapter designated as eth1 (the one that is designated as an open network) is used.
An Ethernet cable physically connects the HMC to the LAN.

To configure the HMC so that it is a call-home server using the call-home wizard, do the following:

In the navigation area, select Service Management.
In the content area, select Call-Home Setup Wizard. The Connectivity and Call-Home Servers wizard opens. Follow the instructions in the wizard to configure call-home.

Occasionally, systems at large companies reside at a different physical location than the primary contact for that system. Use this panel to define where the SYSTEM is located. The phone number should be a land line in that building.

The panel below is a way to tell the rest of the HMCs in your network that they too can be a proxy for call home information from this HMC.

Enter the IBM IDs that will be able to view information about this system in the IBM Support Portal.

Configuring your HMC to send call home via Proxy

Remember for a verity of reasons you may need to have some HMC route call home data through a proxy. Backup and firewall-ed off HMC servers come to mind. From the Service Management panel on the HMC select the "Manage Outbound connectivity" option. Check the box to use discovered call home console servers. Other console servers should auto detect and show up in the panel, if they do not you can select "Add..." to add new ones. The radio button does not select a specific console to be the call home server. If you would like to identify a single server to be the call home server, remove the other server from the list.

Configuring the Events Manager for Call Home

You can monitor and approve any data that is being transmitted from an HMC to IBM® through this task.

The Events Manager for Call Home mode (enabled or disabled) is set by using the HMC command-line interface. Enabling the Events Manager for Call Home task blocks the HMC from automatically calling home events as they occur. To prevent events that are called home without approval, all HMCs running in this environment must have the Events Manager for Call Home enabled.

To enable or disable the Events Manager for Call Home task, run the following command:

chhmc -c emch

-s {enable | disable}

[--callhome {enable | disable}]

[--help]

Note: Enabling the Events Manager for Call Home task results in holding call home events until they have been approved for the call home task. If you disable the Events Manager for Call Home task, it does not automatically enable the call home feature. This setup prevents any unintended call home of data back to IBM. Choose from the following command options to set up the required configuration:

To enable the Events Manager for Call Home task:
- ```
chhmc -c emch -s enable
```
To disable the Events Manager for Call Home task and to re-enable automatic call home:
- ```
chhmc -c emch -s disable --callhome enable
```
To disable the Events Manager for Call Home task and not re-enable automatic call home:
- ```
chhmc -c emch -s disable --callhome disable
```

Ensure that the HMC can communicate with other HMCs deployed in your environment. The Events Manager for Call Home has a test connection function when an HMC is registered.

You can register the HMC with the Events Manager for Call Home. After you register the HMC, the events manager queries the registered HMC for any events that are waiting to be called home to IBM. The Events Manager shows what data is being sent back to IBM and approves these events. After approval, the Event Manager notifies the registered HMC that it can proceed with the call home operation.

The Events Manager for Call Home task can be run from any HMC or from multiple HMCs. To register a management console with the Events Manager for Call Home task, complete the following steps:

In the navigation area, select Service Management.
In the contents area, select Events Manager for Call Home.
From the Events Manager for Call Home window, click Manage Consoles.
From the Manage Registered Consoles window, click Add Console to enter information to register a management console with the Events Manager for Call Home task.
Click OK to commit the changes to the list of registered management console.

Note: The Events Manager for Call Home can be used with the event manager mode disabled. You can still register the HMC and view events in the events manager, but Events Manager does not control when the events are called home.

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