Dell SupportAssist Version 1.2 for Servers User’s Guide

To enable SupportAssist to monitor devices and automatically create a support case if an issue occurs, you must add the devices in SupportAssist. SupportAssist can monitor a device through the following methods:

• Agent-based monitoring — In this method, an agent acts as an interface between the device and SupportAssist. The agent generates an alert (SNMP trap) whenever a hardware event occurs on the device. For monitoring a device using the agent-based method, SupportAssist depends on the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) agent. The OMSA agent is an application that monitors the health of various components of the device on which it is installed. Whenever a hardware event occurs on the device, the OMSA agent generates an alert. SupportAssist processes the alert to determine if the alert qualifies for creating a support case. For instructions to add a device for agent-based monitoring, see Adding a device (agent-based monitoring) .
  • NOTE: Without OMSA, SupportAssist will not be able to monitor a device through the agent-based monitoring method.
  • NOTE: Installation of OMSA may not be supported on certain operating systems. SupportAssist may be able to monitor devices running such operating systems only through the agent-based monitoring method. For information on the operating system requirements for agent-based monitoring, see the Dell SupportAssist Version 1.2 for Servers Support Matrix at Dell.com/ServiceabilityTools.
• Agentless monitoring — In this method, the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) available on the device acts as an interface between the device and SupportAssist. Whenever a hardware event occurs on the device, the iDRAC generates an alert. SupportAssist processes the alert to determine if the alert qualifies for creating a support case. For instructions to add a device for agentless monitoring, see Adding a device (agentless monitoring) .
  • NOTE: Agentless monitoring is supported only for Dell’s 12th and 13th generation of PowerEdge servers (iDRAC 7 and iDRAC 8).
  • NOTE: The iDRAC can be configured to send alerts through SNMP and IPMI. However, SupportAssist can only receive alerts sent through SNMP. To ensure that SupportAssist receives alerts sent from an iDRAC, you must ensure that all SNMP Trap options are selected in the Alerts and Remote System Log Configuration section of the iDRAC web console.

Benefits of agent-based monitoring

Even though Dell's 12th and 13th generation of PowerEdge servers can be monitored through the agentless (iDRAC) method, agent-based (OMSA) method has the following benefits:

• Alert generation capabilities of OMSA and iDRAC are not the same. In Dell's 13th generation of PowerEdge servers, the alert generation capabilities of OMSA and iDRAC are almost similar. However, alerts from chipset and software RAID are available only through OMSA.
• For devices with a ProSupport Plus service contract, Dell's recommendations for operating system and software component versions are available only if the device is monitored through OMSA.
• OMSA is the only option available for monitoring Dell's 9th to 11th generation of PowerEdge servers.