Upgrade to SupportAssist in Isilon

After upgrade to OneFS 9.7.1.4, there is a feature enable to use Support Assist for dial in and alerting EMC.  It will be mandatory in the future release of OneFS.  

We have latest version of SCG to monitor the Isilon.  So, we decide to enable Support Assist via Gateway topology.  

Links below give you the info about Support Assist for Isilon and how to enable Support Assist in Isilon.

https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/sv-se/p/onefs-supportassist-provisioning-part-1/

https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/sv-se/p/onefs-supportassist-provisioning-part-2/

For CLI to migrate to Support Assist, see EMC Article Number: 000225888.  

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000225888/powerscale-how-to-migrate-from-secure-remote-support-srs-to-supportassist

Since there is existing SCG monitoring Isilon, the only thing I have to add is a firewall rule to allow traffic from all Isilon nodes to both SCG GW port 9443. 

It will take up to 24 hours for the provisioning to complete.  See EMC KB Article Number: 000232371

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000232371/powerscale-support-assist-provision-gets-stuck-in-incoming

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Support Assist is not sending alerts back to EMC.  

Check from SCG and see connectivity is bad but CLI is ok.  Have Dell dial in without issue.  After going back and forth, it is actually a bug.  The connection will stay up for few days to few weeks then it will not dial back to EMC.  See EMC KB Article Number: 000348244

PowerScale: SupportAssist Disconnects SCG and CIQ - APEX AIOps Due to Crispies Lock on Node

We decide not to upgrade and stay in 9.7.1.4.  So, support has to follow the kb to apply the workaround.  

The other bug is email alert once a month to remind you the cluster is not connected back to EMC via eSRS like below.  After migrating to SupportAssist, it looks like eSRS is now shutdown in Isilon.  Check with support and this can be ignored since Isilon is now monitored by SupportAssist.  Wonder if this will be fixed in future release.  

"This cluster is not connected back to EMC via ESRS.

Configuring connectivity to EMC via ESRS is a secure method to improve the overall reliability of your cluster and reduce the time it takes to resolve any issues the cluster may develop."

NDFC upgrade / deploy part 3 - deploy new NDFC one node setup in ESX

 As mentioned in previous post, we choose 1 node setup with App OVA with 16vCPU and 64GB memory.  It will be run in ESX cluster.  

Pls review the link below 

Deploying Nexus Dashboard Using VMware vCenter

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller 12 

For SAN, you still need the following ready before deployment.

1) 2 NICs: one for management IP and one for data IP and both can be in the same subnet.  

2) DNS and NTP are required

3) Cluster name and VM name should be different but it is a one node setup.  So, it does not really matter.

4) Pool IP: 2 are required in our setup (2 IPs for data network)  Ask for an additional IP if you plan to use  SAN Insight).  All pool IP should be whitelisted for SMTP traffic in additional to Management and Data IP.  

5) Internal subnets settings (these subnets are used internally and will not leave cluster.  Just in case, confirm the subnets are not in use and subnet mask has to be 255.255.0.0)

App subnet and Service subnet

6) May want extra space for HDD depends on the number of switches to manage.

The steps are very straight forward.  However, depending on the environment, do not specify VLAN in step 18 for data network.  Otherwise, the data network will not be able to communicate with the switches even they are in the same subnet.  In our environment, VLAN info is already present at the switch and ESX level.  

For initial setup, you can follow the document below 

Initial setup

Feature Management will be set to SAN Controller with Performance Monitoring and SAN Web Device Manager for my environment.  

Server settings are self explanatory.  For SMTP, make sure all pool IPs are added to SMTP allowed list.  

If you want to confirm SMTP alert, go to Event -> Event setup -> Forwarding -> Add Rule (same as DCNM).  Multiple recipients allowed and event email will be sent thru pool IP.  

Below link provided detail steps on how to add event email.

How to Configure Event Forwarding using Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller - Cisco

I include a blog post below for bugs we faced for NDFC appliance.  See 

NDFC bugs since deployed