SupportAssist is enabled however the secure connection to the Dell Secure Remote Servers cannot be established.
PowerVault ME5 SupportAssist implementation requires a two factor authentication to permit the initial key exchange between the PowerVault ME5 and Dell Secure Remote Servers. Administrators must generate an access key and PIN on Dell.com/support to configure connectivity securely.
Procedure:
- Register a business account on Dell Support by following Dell article 21768, How to register for access to Dell Technologies Online Support or Upgrade an Existing Account.
When creating an account registration, follow the above registration link and select the option, I am an employee of an organization that has purchased Dell Technologies enterprise products in the Additional Access Rights Required page.
- When the account is validated, login to Dell Support to generate the Access key and PIN outlined in Dell article 198043, ME5: How to generate an Access Key and Pin to enable SupportAssist
- Ensure that both controller modules are configured to connect to a DNS server that can resolve *.EMC.com host names. See the Network Settings section of PowerVault ME5 Series Administrator's Guide available on the Product page at Dell Support.
- A SupportAssist connection to the secure connection can either be a direct connection or administrators can choose Secure Connect Gateway V5 Virtual Edition (SCG VE) appliance if configured in their organization.
- For organizations using a direct connection that also uses a proxy server, administrator may have to specify the IP address or hostname or proxy login credentials to allow SupportAssist establish a connection with the Dell Secure Remote Servers.
- For direct connections, SupportAssist on PowerVault ME5 uses outgoing TCP port 443 to either esrs3-core.emc.com or esrs3-coredr.emc.com hosts.
- If your organization uses SCG VE to proxy connections between the PowerVault ME5 and Dell Secure Remote Servers, the default port that is used is TCP 9443 (for example https://secure.connect.gateway.ip:9443).
- For assistance troubleshooting connectivity, see Dell article 202868, PowerVault ME5: How to use CLI to troubleshoot SupportAssist connectivity
NOTE: To ensure connection integrity, proxy servers and devices external to your demilitarized zone (DMZ) must not perform any method of SSL decryption on outbound, or inbound traffic for the Dell secure remote servers.
SSL decryption that is performed on outbound communication causes a loss of connectivity to the backend. SSL decryption includes decryption by your firewall, proxies, web traffic filtering appliances or cloud services, web traffic shaping or load balancing, certificate verification, certificate proxy, or Intrusion Detection Services (IDS). If the SSL decryption is enabled on the proxy servers and other devices, ensure that esrs3-core.emc.com and esrs3-coredr.emc.com are added to the SSL decryption exclusion list on the proxy servers and devices.
NOTE: Dell Secure Connect Gateway has two editions.
- Secure Connect Gateway Application edition (SCG AE) cannot be used to monitor PowerVault ME5 device status.
- Secure Connect Gateway Virtual edition (SCG VE) appliance must be deployed in hypervisor environments and this discovers the PowerVault ME5 when SupportAssist is configured to use the gateway instead of a direct connection. See Dell article 200129, PowerVault ME5: How to configure SupportAssist to Connect using Gateway Server.
- For more information about Secure Connect Gateway, see Secure Connect Gateway User's Guides available on Secure Connect Gateway Product Page at Dell Support.
- In PowerVault Manager, enable SupportAssist using the Maintenance > Support panel. Enter your connection details along with your Access key and PIN. See the Maintenance section of PowerVault ME5 Series Administrator's Guide available on the Product page at Dell Support.
- Administrators who have checked the option to Enable CloudIQ must log in to https://cloudiq.dellemc.com and add their PowerVault ME5. For instructions see Dell article 22224, CloudIQ: General procedures to onboard PowerVault Series arrays to CloudIQ
Dell CloudIQ service is available to customers with active ProSupport or ProSupport+ service contracts.