PowerEdge 14G and Datacenter Scalable Solutions servers - How to register the iDRAC 9 embedded SupportAssist?

This article explains how to register the SupportAssist module embedded in the internal Dell Remote Access Controllers version 9 (iDRAC9) of Dell PowerEdge 14G and Datacenter Scalable Solutions servers.

For enabling the automated, proactive and predictive features of SupportAssist for a system, a registration is required. Generating and saving a SupportAssist Collection locally or to a network share for maintenance purpose is possible even without registration.

Find additional information about your iDRAC in the User Manual matching to the installed firmware.

Prerequisites

For starting the registration process, the OS to BMC / iDRAC Pass-through must be enabled in the iDRAC connectivity settings.
 

1. After logging into the iDRAC web interface, go to iDRAC Settings(Fig. 1)
2. Now click on the Connectivity tab (Fig. 1)
3. Expand the OS to iDRAC Pass-through section (Fig. 1) by clicking on it
4. Set the State option to Enabled (Fig. 1)
5. Set the Pass-through Mode to USB NIC (Fig 1)

Fig. 1: Enabling the OS to BMC/iDRAC Pass-Through function

Registration Wizard

The SupportAssist Registration wizard (Fig. 2) will automatically start when you enter the SupportAssist section of the Maintenance tab in the iDRAC web interface.
If you cancel the wizard, the blue Register button in the upper left corner gives you the option to restart it.
 

Fig. 2: iDRAC9 SupportAssist Registration Wizard

To complete the registration, enter the required Contact and Shipping Information.
 

1. Primary Contact Information
   
   The Primary Contact is the first person to be informed when it comes to support related incidents.

   • First Name
   • Last Name
   • Phone Number
   • Alternate Number (if first contact phone number is not available)
   • Email Address
   • Service Address (physical address, where the device will be serviced or where replacement parts should be shipped)
   • Company Name
   • Adress (of Company / Contact)
     
      

    

2. Secondary Contact Information
   
   Enter a Secondary Contact to ensure a proper flow of information in case unavailability of the Primary Contact.

    Note: You can remove or change the secondary contact information at any point of time.
   • First Name
   • Last Name
   • Phone Number
   • Alternate Number (if first contact phone number is not available)
   • Email Address
      

    

After accepting the End User License Agreement (EULA), check the summary if the details are displayed correctly.

To register to use iDRAC-integrated SupportAssist, the network must be able to communicate with the Dell server via the host OS using iSM.

We have observed in past cases that the following servers need to be communicated with.
- apigtwb2c.ins.dell.com
- is.ins.dell.com
- downloads.ins.dell.com

If the customer's network has a firewall or other restrictions on communication with the outside, SupportAssist registration will fail.

In that case, they need to register an exception to allow communication, but the customer does not know the requirement to communicate with the server mentioned above, so they contact technical support because the registration fails.

The only way for the customer to know this is to contact Technical Support, as these are not mentioned in the iDRAC User's Guide or Release Notes.

The Secure Connect Gateway User's Guide lists them as "Network Requirements".
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/secure-connect-gateway-app-edition/scg_5.x_app_ug/network-requirements?guid=guid-401cb94f-61ad-451e-aacd-69d9c203a044&lang=en-us

The local system must be able to connect to the following Enterprise servers through port 443:
esrs3-core.emc.com
esrs3-coredr.emc.com