Dell PowerVault ME5 Series Administrator's Guide

Configuring SupportAssist

SupportAssist must be enabled to send configuration and diagnostic information from an ME5 Series storage system to technical support. Depending on your service contract, SupportAssist also automates support request creation for issues that are detected on the storage system.

When enabled, you agree to allow the feature to remotely monitor the storage system, collect diagnostic information, and transmit the data to a remote support server. Each time SupportAssist runs, a service tag is sent that includes a unique identifier for your system. This identifier can be used to contact you if your system needs repair.

Table 1. Capabilities by service contract typeThe following table provides a comparison of the secure Connect Gateway capabilities available with the Basic Hardware, ProSupport, and ProSupport Plus service contracts.

Capability	Description	Basic Hardware	ProSupport	ProSupport Plus
Automated collection of system information	The system information that is required for troubleshooting an issue is automatically collected from the monitored device and sent securely to the backend.
Proactive detection of hardware failures	Receives alerts for hardware events that occur in monitored devices and proactively determines if the alerts indicate a hardware failure.
Automated support case creation	When a hardware failure is detected either proactively or predictively, a support case is automatically created with technical support.
Automated email notification	An email notification about the support case or issue is automatically sent to the primary and secondary contacts.
Proactive response from technical support	A technical support agent contacts you proactively about the support case and helps you resolve the issue.
Proactive parts dispatch	After analyzing the collected system information, if the technical support agent determines that a part must be replaced to resolve the issue, a replacement part is dispatched to you based on the dispatch preferences.
Predictive detection of hardware failures	Intelligent analysis of system information that is collected from a monitored device is used to predict hardware failures that may occur in future.