The latest Avamar version at the time of writing this article is 19.10.
Avamar sends data to the Dell backend for two reasons.
- Avamar sends data to the Dell backend about events that occur that trigger the automatic generation of a support request. This is known as a Dialhome.
- Avamar sends some general information about its capacity, nodes, events, and activities to the Dell backend which enable support teams to get an overview of system health and capacity over time for an Avamar server. This is known as Email Home.
Until Avamar version 19.10 (Avamar version * - 19.9), the only way for an Avamar server to perform a
Dialhome was with the
ConnectEMC feature configured.
ConnectEMC is configured in the Avamar Administrator interface (Java GUI).
ConnectEMC is end of life, and no development has been done on it for years.
ConnectEMC connects to a customer-provided mail server in order to relay mail from the Avamar, to the Dell backend for processing.
ConnectEMC only works with the following configuration:
- Only port 25 to connect to mail server is supported, other ports like 465 or 587 are not supported.
- Anonymous relays are required to send mail; SMTP authentication is not supported.
- StartTLS is not supported, or similar SSL configurations.
In Avamar 19.10, ConnectEMC has been removed and replaced by a new feature called
Dell Connectivity.
When you upgrade to the Avamar 19.10, ConnectEMC is removed, and the existing connectivity disconnects. Dell Connectivity is also known as
Embedded Service Enabler (ESE).
Dell Connectivity is used to send data and events to the Dell backend about the Avamar server, which achieves the Dialhome functionality that ConnectEMC had.
Dell Connectivity does not use a customer-provided mail server to relay data from Avamar. Instead, it uses the ESE service running on Avamar to determine a connection type to connect to the Dell backend.
The two connection types are direct or Secure Connect Gateway (SCG).
Both connection types use HTTPS-based services to process requests and responses, which are encrypted by default.
The Avamar administration guide for version 19.10 has more information related to the Dell Connectivity feature configuration.
Email Home is not used to achieve Dialhomes, and instead is more of a way to get reporting about Avamar servers.
Email Home uses a customer-provided mail server to send data to the Dell backend for processing in Avamar support's internal tool called
Avalanche.
Prior to Avamar version 19.10, the supported configuration for Email Home is as follows:
- Configured in the Avamar Administration interface (Java GUI) and Avamar's Management Console Service configuration file:
- Only port 25 to connect to mail server is supported, other ports like 465 or 587 are not supported.
- Anonymous relays are required to send mail, SMTP authentication is not supported.
- StartTLS is not supported, or similar SSL configurations.
In Avamar version 19.10, there were large feature and security improvements made to Email Home.
In Avamar version 19.10, the following configuration for Email Home is supported:
- It is configured in the Avamar HTML5 User Interface (AUI).
- Any port can be specified, for instance port 587 can be configured to connect to the mail server.
- SMTP authentication is supported with a provided username and password.
- StartTLS is supported and used with SMTP authentication.