Electronic Service Agent (Call Home)

The Electronic Service Agent, which is integrated with the IBM Flex System Manager enables the IBM Flex System Manager to securely transmit serviceable hardware problems and associated support files to the Support team.

You can set up and enable Electronic Service Agent from the Start tab of the IBM Flex System Manager home page.

When Electronic Service Agent is enabled and the IBM Flex System Manager receives a serviceable hardware problem from a managed device, the IBM Flex System Manager collects hardware problem data from the managed endpoint and stores this data in the form of a support file. The actual contents of the support file is predetermined based on the type of managed endpoint for which the data is collected.

After the support file has been collected, the IBM Flex System Manager securely transmits any serviceable hardware problems and associated support files to the Support team. The Support team analyzes this data and contacts the customer for problem resolution.

Manually submitting problems

You can manually submit some problems to the Support team using the Electronic Service Agent. The following types of problems can be submitted manually:
  • Problems that are considered serviceable by the IBM Flex System Manager. If you do not have Electronic Service Agent turned on, serviceable problems will not be sent to the Support team automatically. However, you can choose to submit a specific problem manually.
  • Problems that are considered to be serviceable by the customer, but that are not automatically submitted to the Support team. You can choose to submit these problems manually.
  • Perceived problems that do not have a specific event associated with the problem. From the chassis manager, you can select a managed endpoint and click Submit service request in the common actions pane.

Consider manually submitting problems to communicate a problem to the Support team instead of calling the Support team directly because it provides the support files along with the problem itself.

Parent topic: Troubleshooting from the IBM Flex System Manager