Dell Unity: General Procedures to Onboard Unity Arrays to APEX AIOps Observability (User Correctable)

What is APEX AIOps Observability?

• APEX AIOps Observability is a no-cost cloud-native application that proactively monitors and measures the overall health of your storage systems through intelligent, comprehensive, and predictive analytics.
• APEX AIOps Observability leverages the SaaS deployment model to add new features and functionality, pushing the upgrades to the cloud and exposing these new features to users regularly with no downtime.
• APEX AIOps Observability supports Unity XT, PowerStore, PowerMax and VMAX, PowerScale and Isilon, PowerFlex, PowerVault, Dell SC Series, XtremIO, PowerSwitch, Connectrix, PowerEdge servers and chassis, VxRail, VxBlock Converged Systems, APEX Block Storage for Public Cloud, APEX Block Storage Services, APEX File Storage Services, APEX Hybrid Cloud Services, and APEX Private Cloud Services. An APEX AIOps Observability Collector, installed as a vApp under VMware, enables the collection of VMware, Connectrix, and PowerSwitch data.
• APEX AIOps Observability also provides a Mobile App for iOS and Android allowing monitoring from anywhere.
• Users must have a valid Dell Customer Support account by registering using Dell Support with a proper corporate email address.
• A paid (active) ProSupport or ProSupport Plus agreement and an accepted End User License Agreement (EULA) for each asset to be viewed within APEX AIOps Observability is required.
• A SupportAssist direct connection or connection through Secure Connect Gateway is also required to send data from the asset to APEX AIOps Observability hosted on Dell infrastructure.
• Users may access the APEX AIOps Observability User Interface with their Dell Customer Support User Name (email) and Password.

Onboarding Procedure

Connecting a Unity XT system to APEX AIOps Observability:

Prerequisites:

• All Flash, Hybrid, or UnityVSA Professional Edition Dell Unity XT arrays are supported running a minimum code version of Unity OE 4.1 and later.
• A Dell user support account is required with full access to manage the site.
• A valid Dell ProSupport or ProSupport Plus contract is required for all assets being onboarded to APEX AIOps Observability
• Dell Unity XT systems leverage SupportAssist that must be enabled and configured within the Element Manger interface before data can be sent to APEX AIOps Observability.

Port requirements:

• Connect through gateway server - SupportAssist connection using an external Secure Connect Gateway VM allows the array to be removed from direct Internet connection. This requires an outbound connection from the Unity array to the gateway over port 9443 and 80, 443, 8443 from the gateway to *.dell.com
• Connect directly - SupportAssist connection directly from the Dell Unity XT array itself. This requires an outbound connection from the Unity XT array to *.dell.com outbound over 80, 443, 8443.

To enable APEX AIOps Observability:

1. Log in to Unisphere using https://<IP> and the default user: Admin and password: Password123!
2. Select System > Service from the left menu
3. Select the Overview tab on the right
4. Under SupportAssist, click the live link to "send data to APEX AIOps Observability"

5. Once connected, the types of data and frequency with which data is updated in APEX AIOps Observability for Dell Unity systems is the following:

For additional information about configuration for SupportAssist, see Dell article 218200: Dell Unity: How to enable and configure SupportAssist (User Correctable)

For additional information about configuration for Secure Remote Services and Unity, see Dell article 504134: Dell Unity: Secure Remote Services and APEX AIOps Observability Primary Checklist (User Correctable) - Only registered Dell Customers can view the article on Dell Support.

As noted above, for additional information about Dell Unity Arrays and other assets supported by APEX AIOps Observability, see APEX AIOps Observability Detailed Review Whitepaper.