PowerFlex: General Procedures to Onboard PowerFlex Systems to Dell AIOps

Dell AIOps Overview

Dell AIOps is a cloud-based application that leverages machine learning to proactively monitor and measure the overall health of Dell IT infrastructure systems through intelligent, comprehensive, and predictive analytics.

This article covers Dell AIOps connectivity for:

• PowerFlex appliance, PowerFlex rack, or PowerFlex software (v4.0+) using PowerFlex Manager
• PowerFlex software (v3.6) or Ready node solution using the PowerFlex Gateway

Onboarding - PowerFlex 4.0 and later

• General requirements:
  • Users who log in to Dell AIOps must have Dell Support credentials
    See How to Register for Access to Dell Technologies Online Support or Upgrade an Existing AccountGeneral requirements
  • All devices used with Dell AIOps must be under a ProSupport (or higher) contract to successfully send data to Dell AIOps
    To check for ProSupport coverage, enter the service tag for devices on the Support Services & Warranty page
  • User with admin credentials to PowerFlex
• One of the following:
  • PowerFlex Appliance
  • PowerFlex Rack
  • PowerFlex Software
• Secure connect gateway
• Minimum PowerFlex version - 4.0
• Minimum PowerFlex Manager - 4.0
• Configurations
  • PowerFlex system license is configured
  • The system is registered with a secure connect gateway

Procedure - Using PowerFlex Appliance, PowerFlex Rack, or PowerFlex Software using PowerFlex Manager

1. Enter the IP address of the appliance in a browser and log in to PowerFlex Manager using admin credentials.
2. From PowerFlex Manager, go to Settings > Events and Alerts.

3. Click Notification Policies.

4. Click SupportAssist (for PowerFlex Manager versions under 4.8) or Dell Technologies Connectivity Services (for version 4.8 and later).

5. On the Overview screen, click Next.

6. On the License Agreement screen, accept the License Agreement and Telemetry Agreement and click Next.

7. On the Connection type screen, select Connect Directly if using Embedded Service Enabler (ESE) or Connect using Gateway Server if using centralized secure connect gateway.

When selecting Connect using Gateway Server, enter the secure connect gateway IP address.

8. Ensure that Connect to Dell AIOps is selected, then click Next.

9. On the Authentication screen, enter your Access Key and PIN, and select your device Type. 

Select your configuration from the Type list:

• PowerFlex appliance
• PowerFlex rack
• PowerFlex software

PowerFlex software requires only the Access Key and PIN.

To obtain the information shown:

• Generate an Access Key and PIN. See Generate Access Key and PIN for Dell Products 
• Find your eSWUID:

• Find your Solution Serial Number:
  Look on the back of the PowerFlex rack or appliance. The number appears in this format:
  PowerFlex Appliance = ELMVXFxxx
  PowerFlex Rack = ELMVXRxxx 

10. On the Support Contact screen, enter contact information for the primary support contact.

11. Wait for the changes to apply, then click Finish to complete the configuration. 

Accessing Dell AIOps

1. Log in to Dell AIOps at https://aiops.dell.com/ using your Dell ProSupport credentials.
   New users logging in to Dell AIOps step through the following onboarding screens:

  

2. Dell AIOps retrieves the systems that are associated to the user's site IDs based on their support credentials and displays a success message when the process completes.

3. Upon logging in to Dell AIOps, the user sees all systems that are successfully sending data to Dell AIOps. In situations where the user has not successfully configured systems to send data to Dell AIOps, they are directed to the Connectivity page in the Dell AIOps UI. The Connectivity page is where they see their Dell AIOps-compatible systems.

Onboarding - PowerFlex 3.6.x

Prerequisites - Using PowerFlex software or Ready node using PowerFlex Gateway

• General requirements
  • Users who log in to Dell AIOps must have Dell Support credentials
    See How to Register for Access to Dell Technologies Online Support or Upgrade an Existing Account 
  • All devices used with Dell AIOps must be under a ProSupport (or higher) contract to successfully send data to Dell AIOps
    To check for ProSupport coverage, enter the service tag for devices on the Support Services & Warranty page
  • User with admin credentials for PowerFlex
• Minimum Secure Remote Services version - 3.46.00.04
• Minimum PowerFlex version - 3.6.0
• Operating system packages
  • Same operating system dependencies used by Gateway without Dell AIOps
  • Operating system package to create .zip files
• Required configurations
  • PowerFlex Gateway Lockbox is configured
  • PowerFlex system license is configured
  • The system is registered with Secure Remote Services Gateway
• Support for Upload of Large Files
  • Some older systems use only a single 1 GbE network interface for Gateway management connectivity. Depending on the scale of the system, uploading Dell AIOps data may inhibit or slow down other Gateway operations.
  • A 10 GbE or bonded 1 GbE interface is recommended.

Procedure - Using PowerFlex software or Ready node using PowerFlex Gateway

1. From a web browser, enter the IP address of the PowerFlex Gateway and log in to the PowerFlex Installer.
2. Go to the Maintain tab and enter the following information:

    

   Note: Refer to this page for help.

    

   • Primary metadata manager (MDM) IP address
   • MDM admin username and password
   • LIA authentication type
   • LIA password
3. Click Retrieve the system topology.

4. On the Maintain tab, select System Logs and Analysis.
5. Verify that PowerFlex is registered to Secure Remote Services.

 

Note: Dell user account passwords cannot include special characters. Since this is a one-time event, you can temporarily set a simple password and revert to a secure password after registering the PowerFlex system with Secure Remote Services.

 

Complete this information to register PowerFlex to Secure Remote Services:

6. After PowerFlex is registered with Secure Remote Services, verify the Send data to CloudIQ option is selected. This option is enabled by default.|

7. Continue to the Dell AIOps UI. See "Accessing Dell AIOps," above.