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This chapter includes the following sections:
Call Home provides an email-based notification for critical system policies. A range of message formats are available for compatibility with pager services or XML-based automated parsing applications. You can use this feature to page a network support engineer, email a Network Operations Center, or use Cisco Smart Call Home services to generate a case with the Technical Assistance Center.
The Call Home feature can deliver alert messages containing information about diagnostics and environmental faults and events.
The Call Home feature can deliver alerts to multiple recipients, referred to as Call Home destination profiles. Each profile includes configurable message formats and content categories. A predefined destination profile is provided for sending alerts to the Cisco TAC, but you also can define your own destination profiles.
When you configure Call Home to send messages, Cisco UCS Manager executes the appropriate CLI show command and attaches the command output to the message.
Cisco UCS delivers Call Home messages in the following formats:
For information about the faults that can trigger Call Home email alerts, see the Cisco UCS Faults and Error Messages Reference.
The following figure shows the flow of events after a Cisco UCS is triggered in a system with Call Home configured:
How you configure Call Home depends on how you intend to use the feature. The information you need to consider before you configure Call Home includes the following:
You must configure at least one destination profile. The destination profile or profiles that you use depend upon whether the receiving entity is a pager, email, or automated service such as Cisco Smart Call Home.
If the destination profile uses email message delivery, you must specify a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server when you configure Call Home.
The contact email, phone, and street address information should be configured so that the receiver can determine the origin of messages received from the Cisco UCS instance.
Cisco Smart Call Home sends the registration email to this email address after you send a system inventory to begin the registration process.
The fabric interconnect must have IP connectivity to an email server or the destination HTTP server. In a cluster configuration, both fabric interconnects must have IP connectivity. This connectivity ensures that the current, active fabric interconnect can send Call Home email messages. The source of these email messages is always the IP address of a fabric interconnect. The virtual IP address assigned Cisco UCS Manager in a cluster configuration is never the source of the email.
If Cisco Smart Call Home is used, the following are required:
Because Call Home is present across several Cisco product lines, Call Home has developed its own standardized severity levels. The following table describes how the underlying Cisco UCS fault levels map to the Call Home severity levels. You need to understand this mapping when you configure the Level setting for Call Home profiles.
Call Home Severity |
Cisco UCS Fault |
Call Home Meaning |
---|---|---|
(9) Catastrophic |
N/A |
Network-wide catastrophic failure. |
(8) Disaster |
N/A |
Significant network impact. |
(7) Fatal |
N/A |
System is unusable. |
(6) Critical |
Critical |
Critical conditions, immediate attention needed. |
(5) Major |
Major |
Major conditions. |
(4) Minor |
Minor |
Minor conditions. |
(3) Warning |
Warning |
Warning conditions. |
(2) Notification |
Info |
Basic notifications and informational messages. Possibly independently insignificant. |
(1) Normal |
Clear |
Normal event, signifying a return to normal state. |
(0) debug |
N/A |
Debugging messages. |
Cisco Smart Call Home is a web application which leverages the Call Home feature of Cisco UCS. Smart Call Home offers proactive diagnostics and real-time email alerts of critical system events, which results in higher network availability and increased operational efficiency. Smart Call Home is a secure connected service offered by Cisco Unified Computing Support Service and Cisco Unified Computing Mission Critical Support Service for Cisco UCS.
You can configure and register Cisco UCS Manager to send Smart Call Home email alerts to either the Smart Call Home System or the secure Transport Gateway. Email alerts sent to the secure Transport Gateway are forwarded to the Smart Call Home System using HTTPS.
Note |
For security reasons, we recommend using the Transport Gateway option. The Transport Gateway can be downloaded from Cisco. |
To configure Smart Call Home, you must do the following:
The following example configures Call Home and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring* # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # enable UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set contact "Steve Jones" UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set email admin@MyCompany.com UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set phone-contact +1-001-408-555-1234 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set street-address "123 N. Main Street, Anytown, CA, 99885" UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set customer-id 1234567 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set contract-id 99887766 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set site-id 5432112 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set from-email person@MyCompany.com UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set reply-to-email person@MyCompany.com UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set hostname 192.168.100.12 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set port 25 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set throttling on UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set urgency information UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome #
The following example disables Call Home and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # disable UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome #
The following example enables Call Home and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # enable UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome #
Configuring System Inventory Messages
The following example configures Call Home system inventory messages and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring* # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # scope inventory UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # set send-periodically on UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # set interval-days 15 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # set timeofday-hour 21 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # set timeofday-minute 30 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory #
Use this procedure if you need to manually send a system inventory message outside of the scheduled messages.
Note |
The system inventory message is sent only to those recipients defined in CiscoTAC-1 profile. |
The following example sends the system inventory message to the Call Home database:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # scope inventory UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # send
Configuring Call Home Profiles
Call Home profiles determine which alerts are sent to designated recipients. You can configure the profiles to send email alerts for events and faults at a desired severity level and for specific alert groups that represent categories of alerts. You can also use these profiles to specify the format of the alert for a specific set of recipients and alert groups.
Each alert that Cisco UCS generates fits into a category represented by an alert group, such as the following:
Alert groups and Call Home profiles enable you to filter the alerts and ensure that a specific profile only receives certain categories of alerts. For example, a data center may have a hardware team that handles issues with fans and power supplies. This hardware team does not care about server POST failures or licensing issues. To ensure that the hardware team only receives relevant alerts, create a Call Home profile for the hardware team and check only the "environmental" alert group.
By default, you must configure the Cisco TAC-1 profile. However, you can also create additional profiles to send email alerts to one or more alert groups when events occur at the level that you specify and provide the recipients with the appropriate amount of information about those alerts.
For example, you may want to configure two profiles for faults with a major severity:
The following example configures a Call Home profile and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring* # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # create profile TestProfile UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # set level normal UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # set alertgroups test diagnostic UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # set format xml UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # set maxsize 100000 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # create destination admin@MyCompany.com UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile/destination* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile/destination #
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A# scope monitoring | Enters monitoring mode. |
Step 2 | UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome | Enters monitoring call home mode. |
Step 3 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # delete profile profile-name | Deletes the specified profile. |
Step 4 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # commit-buffer | Commits the transaction to the system configuration. |
The following example deletes the Call Home profile named TestProfile and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # delete profile TestProfile UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome #
Configure Call Home and a Call Home Profile
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A# scope monitoring | Enters monitoring mode. |
Step 2 | UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome | Enters monitoring call home mode. |
Step 3 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # send-test-alert {[alert-group {diagnostic | environmental}] [alert-level {critical | debug | fatal | major | minor | normal | notify | warning}] [alert-message-type {conf | diag | env | inventory | syslog | test}] [alert-message-subtype {delta | full | goldmajor | goldminor | goldnormal | major | minor | nosubtype | test}] [alert-description description]} | Sends a test Call Home alert. The test Call Home alert must specify all alert-* parameters or Cisco UCS Manager cannot generate the test message. The alert-* parameters include the following :
When a test Call Home alert is sent, Call Home responds as it would to any other alert and delivers it to the configured destination email addresses. |
The following example sends a test Call Home alert to the configured destination email address of the environmental alert group:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # send-test-alert alert-description "This is a test alert" alert-group diagnostic alert-level critical alert-message-subtype major alert-message-type diag
Configuring Call Home Policies
Call Home policies determine whether or not Call Home alerts are sent for a specific type of fault or system event. By default, Call Home is enabled to send alerts for certain types of faults and system events. However, you can configure Cisco UCS not to process certain types.
To disable alerts for a type of fault or events, you must create a Call Home policy for that type, and you must first create a policy for that type and then disable the policy.
By default, Cisco UCS sends Call Home alerts for each of the following types of faults and system events:
Tip |
By default, email alerts are sent for all critical system events. However, you can optionally configure Call Home policies to enable or disable sending email alerts for other critical system events. |
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A# scope monitoring | Enters monitoring mode. |
Step 2 | UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome | Enters monitoring call home mode. |
Step 3 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # create policy {equipment-inoperable | fru-problem | identity-unestablishable | thermal-problem | voltage-problem} | Creates the specified policy and enters monitoring call home policy mode. |
Step 4 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy # {disabled | enabled} | Disables or enables the sending of email alerts for the specified policy. |
Step 5 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy # commit-buffer | Commits the transaction to the system configuration. |
The following example creates a Call Home policy that disables the sending of email alerts for system events pertaining to voltage problems and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring* # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # create policy voltage-problem UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy* # disabled UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy #
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A# scope monitoring | Enters monitoring mode. |
Step 2 | UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome | Enters monitoring call home mode. |
Step 3 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # scope policy {equipment-inoperable | fru-problem | identity-unestablishable | thermal-problem | voltage-problem} | Enters monitoring call home policy mode for the specified policy. |
Step 4 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy # disable | Disables the specified policy. |
Step 5 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy # commit-buffer | Commits the transaction to the system configuration. |
The following example disables the Call Home policy named voltage-problem and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # scope policy voltage-problem UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy # disable UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy #
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A# scope monitoring | Enters monitoring mode. |
Step 2 | UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome | Enters monitoring call home mode. |
Step 3 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # scope policy {equipment-inoperable | fru-problem | identity-unestablishable | thermal-problem | voltage-problem} | Enters monitoring call home policy mode for the specified policy. |
Step 4 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy # enable | Enables the specified policy. |
Step 5 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy # commit-buffer | Commits the transaction to the system configuration. |
The following example enables the Call Home policy named voltage-problem and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # scope policy voltage-problem UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy # enable UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/policy #
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A# scope monitoring | Enters monitoring mode. |
Step 2 | UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome | Enters monitoring call home mode. |
Step 3 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # delete policy {equipment-inoperable | fru-problem | identity-unestablishable | thermal-problem | voltage-problem} | Deletes the specified policy |
Step 4 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # commit-buffer | Commits the transaction to the system configuration. |
The following example deletes the Call Home policy named voltage-problem and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # delete policy voltage-problems UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome #
Example: Configuring Call Home for Smart Call Home
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A# scope monitoring | Enters monitoring mode. |
Step 2 | UCS-A /monitoring # scope callhome | Enters monitoring call home mode. |
Step 3 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # enable | Enables Call Home. |
Step 4 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set contact name | Specifies the name of the main Call Home contact person. |
Step 5 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set email email-addr | Specifies the email address of the main Call Home contact person. |
Step 6 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set phone-contact phone-num | Specifies the phone number of the main Call Home contact person. The phone number must be in international format, starting with a + (plus sign) and a country code. |
Step 7 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set street-address street-addr | Specifies the street address of the main Call Home contact person. |
Step 8 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set customer-id id-num | Specifies the CCO identification number that includes the contract numbers for the support contract in its entitlements. The number can be up to 255 alphanumeric characters in free format. |
Step 9 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set contract-id id-num | Specifies the contract identification number from the service agreement. The number can be up to 255 alphanumeric characters in free format. |
Step 10 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set site-id id-num | Specifies the site identification number from the service agreement. The number can be up to 255 alphanumeric characters in free format. |
Step 11 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set from-email email-addr | Specifies the email address to use for the From field in Call Home messages. |
Step 12 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set reply-to-email email-addr | Specifies the email address to use for the Reply To field in Call Home messages. |
Step 13 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set hostname {hostname | ip-addr} | Specifies the hostname or IP address of the SMTP server that Call Home uses to send email messages. |
Step 14 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set port port-num | Specifies the SMTP server port that Call Home uses to send email messages. Valid port numbers are 1 to 65535. |
Step 15 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set throttling {off | on} | Enables or disables Call Home throttling. When enabled, throttling prevents too many Call Home email messages from being sent for the same event. By default, throttling is enabled. |
Step 16 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # set urgency {alerts | critical | debugging | emergencies | errors | information | notifications | warnings} | Specifies the urgency level for Call Home email messages. |
Step 17 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # commit-buffer | Commits the transaction to the system configuration. |
The following example configures Call Home and commits the transaction:
UCS-A# scope monitoring UCS-A /monitoring* # scope callhome UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # enable UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set contact "Steve Jones" UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set email admin@MyCompany.com UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set phone-contact +1-001-408-555-1234 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set street-address "123 N. Main Street, Anytown, CA, 99885" UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set customer-id 1234567 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set contract-id 99887766 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set site-id 5432112 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set from-email person@MyCompany.com UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set reply-to-email person@MyCompany.com UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set hostname 192.168.100.12 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set port 25 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set throttling on UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # set urgency information UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome #
Continue to "Configuring the Default Cisco TAC-1 Profile" to configure a Call Home profile for use with Smart Call Home.
The following are the default settings for the CiscoTAC-1 profile:
Complete the "Configuring Smart Call Home" section.
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # scope profile CiscoTac-1 | Enters monitoring call home profile mode for the default Cisco TAC-1 profile. |
Step 2 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile # set level normal | Specifies the normal event level for the profile. |
Step 3 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile # set alertgroups ciscotac | Specifies the ciscotac alert group for the profile. |
Step 4 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile # set format xml | Specifies the e-mail message format to xml . |
Step 5 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile # set maxsize 5000000 | Specifies the maximum size of 5000000 for email messages. |
Step 6 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile # create destination callhome@cisco.com | Specifies the email recipient to callhome@cisco.com . |
Step 7 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile/destination # exit | Exits to monitoring call home profile mode. |
Step 8 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile # exit | Exits to monitoring call home mode. |
The following example configures the default Cisco TAC-1 profile for use with Smart Call Home:
UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # scope profile CiscoTac-1 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # set level normal UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # set alertgroups ciscotac UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # set format xml UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # set maxsize 5000000 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # create destination callhome@cisco.com UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile/destination* # exit UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/profile* # exit UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* #
Continue to "Configuring a System Inventory Message for Smart Call Home" to configure system inventory messages for use with Smart Call Home.
Complete the "Configuring the Default Cisco TAC-1 Profile" section.
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome # scope inventory | Enters monitoring call home inventory mode. |
Step 2 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory # set send-periodically {off | on} | Enables or disables the sending of inventory messages. When the on keyword is specified, inventory messages are automatically sent to the Call Home database. |
Step 3 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory # set interval-days interval-num | Specifies the the time interval (in days) at which inventory messages will be sent. |
Step 4 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory # set timeofday-hour hour | Specifies the hour (using 24-hour format) that inventory messages are sent. |
Step 5 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory # set timeofday-minute minute | Specifies the number of minutes after the hour that inventory messages are sent. |
Step 6 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory # commit-buffer | Commits the transaction to the system configuration. |
The following example configures Call Home system inventory messages and commits the transaction:
UCS-A /monitoring/callhome* # scope inventory UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # set send-periodically on UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # set interval-days 15 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # set timeofday-hour 21 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # set timeofday-minute 30 UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory* # commit-buffer UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory #
Continue to "Registering Smart Call Home" to send an inventory message that starts the Smart Call Home registration process.
Complete the "Configuring a System Inventory Message for Smart Call Home" section.
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory # send | Sends the system inventory message to the Smart Call Home database. When Cisco receives the system inventory, a Smart Call Home registration email is sent to the email address that you configured as the email address for the main Smart Call Home contact . |
The following example sends the system inventory message to the Smart Call Home database:
UCS-A /monitoring/callhome/inventory # send
When you receive the registration email from Cisco, do the following to complete registration for Smart Call Home: