Setting up Electronic Service Agent (ESA)

Enable and configure Electronic Service Agent™ (ESA) on the Additional Setup page.

About this task

IBM® Service and Support Manager monitors, tracks, and captures system hardware errors and service information and reports serviceable problems directly to IBM Support by using the IBM Electronic Service Agent (ESA) tool. ESA is the Flex System Enterprise Chassis feature that automatically reports hardware problems and collects system service information for monitored systems. If ESA is activated on the management software, the software can monitor managed chassis, X-Architecture compute nodes, Power Systems™ compute nodes, and Flex System V7000 storage nodes. If a problem occurs and the application is enabled, ESA can report the problem to IBM Support. If your configuration has virtual servers, ESA reports serviceable events and associated data for service and support, either automatically or manually, under your authorization.

You must enable and configure ESA by using the Setting up Electronic Service Agent (ESA) wizard on the Additional Setup page. The management software disables ESA from the Chassis Management Modules (CMMs) that are configured for ESA, so that duplicate messages are not generated. When an ESA event is received, the management software collects Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) information from the managed node, and the applicable service data is sent to IBM Support. If the DSA information cannot be obtained, service data from the service processor will be collected. A service request number (or ticket number) is provided to you for future reference, and IBM Support calls you to work through the problem for the failing component or node. For secure sites that do not have internet access, the data for the ESA can be collected manually.

The switches in the Flex System Enterprise Chassis also provide ESA service data. The management software automatically configures the switches to send SNMP traps to the management software. A common IBM management information base (MIB) supports configuration and retrieval of service data. When ESA is enabled, ESA and the management software allow inventory to be sent to IBM periodically.

After you set up ESA, consider taking the following actions to ensure that you provide the best possible problem information to IBM Support:

Be sure to add the External Service Request and External Service Request Status columns to the Active Status (Problems) view in the management software web interface. To add these columns, click Actions > Columns on the Active Status page; then, select the column names and click Add.
In the Electronic Service Agent settings, select the Software quality data check box. This ensures that your system will send the best available information about the management software to help with problem resolution.

You can change ESA settings through Service and Support Manager. To access the settings, click Service and Support Manager on the Plug-ins page. Then, click Manage settings.

For more information about Service and Support Manager and ESA, see Service and Support Manager.

For educational information about Service and Support Manager, see Service and support.