Call Home and Smart Call Home Configuration

Call Home and Smart Call Home Configuration

Call Home in UCS Overview

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:

  • Short text format which provides a one or two line description of the fault that is suitable for pagers or printed reports.

  • Full text format which provides fully formatted message with detailed information that is suitable for human reading.

  • XML machine-readable format that uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Adaptive Messaging Language (AML) XML Schema Definition (XSD). The AML XSD is published on the Cisco.com website. The XML format enables communication with the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center.

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 fault is triggered in a system with Call Home configured:

Figure 1. Flow of Events after a Fault is Triggered
Flowchart showing events that can occur after a fault is triggered in a Cisco UCS domain

SMTP Authentication

Beginning with release 4.2(3b), UCS Manager supports secured authentication for the transport email with the SMTP server.

You can toggle SMTP Authentication between

  • Off—SMTP Authentication is not used for this Cisco UCS domain.

  • On—SMTP Authentication is used for this Cisco UCS domain.


Note

SMTP server should be capable of supporting STARTTLS, SSL based SMTP communication.

You should also install the server root CA certificate on the SMTP-Client (switch) for succesfull connection between SSL to SMTP-AUTH server.

Call Home Considerations and Guidelines

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:

Destination Profile

You must configure at least one destination profile. The destination profile or profiles that you use depends 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.

Contact Information

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 domain.

Cisco Smart Call Home sends the registration email to this email address after you send a system inventory to begin the registration process.

If an email address includes special characters, such as # (hash), spaces, or & (ampersand), the email server might not be able to deliver email messages to that address. Cisco recommends that you use email addresses which comply with RFC2821 and RFC2822 and include only 7bit ASCII characters.

IP Connectivity to Email Server or HTTP Server

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 to Cisco UCS Manager in a cluster configuration is never the source of the email.


Note

Ensure that you add each fabric interconnect IP in the SMTP server. Call Home email messages cannot be delivered if the fabric interconnect IPs are not configured in the SMTP server.

Smart Call Home

If Cisco Smart Call Home is used, the following are required:

  • An active service contract must cover the device being configured.

  • The customer ID associated with the Smart Call Home configuration in Cisco UCS must be the CCO (Cisco.com) account name associated with a support contract that includes Smart Call Home.

SMTP Authentication

Beginning with release 4.2(3b), UCS Manager supports secured authentication for the transport email with the SMTP server.

You can toggle SMTP Authentication between

  • Off—SMTP Authentication is not used for this Cisco UCS domain.

  • On—SMTP Authentication is used for this Cisco UCS domain.


Note

SMTP server should be capable of supporting STARTTLS, SSL based SMTP communication.

You should also install the server root CA certificate on the SMTP-Client (switch) for succesfull connection between SSL to SMTP-AUTH server.

Cisco UCS Faults and Call Home Severity Levels

Because Call Home is present across several Cisco product lines, Call Home has 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.

Table 1. Mapping of Faults and Call Home Severity Levels

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.

Anonymous Reporting

After you upgrade to the latest release of Cisco UCS Manager, by default, you are prompted with a dialog box to enable anonymous reporting.

To enable anonymous reporting, you need to enter details about the SMTP server and the data file that is stored on the fabric switch. This report is generated every seven days and is compared with the previous version of the same report. When Cisco UCS Manager identifies changes in the report, the report is sent as an e-mail.

Enabling Anonymous Reporting


Note

Anonymous reporting can be enabled even when Call Home is disabled.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Anonymous Reporting tab.

Step 4

In the Actions area, click Anonymous Reporting Data to view the sample or existing report.

Step 5

In the Properties pane, click one of the following radio buttons in the Anonymous Reporting field:

  • On—Enables the server to send anonymous reports.
  • Off—Disables the server to send anonymous reports.

Step 6

In the SMTP Server area, complete the following fields with the information about the SMTP server where anonymous reporting should send email messages:

  • Host (IP Address or Hostname)—The IPv4 or IPv6 address, or the hostname of the SMTP server.
  • Port—The port number that the system should use to talk to the SMTP server.

    Enter an integer between 1 and 65535. The default is 25.

Step 7

Click Save Changes.

Configuring Call Home

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 4

In the Admin area, complete the following fields to enable Call Home:

Name Description

State field

This can be one of the following:

  • Off—Call Home is not used for this Cisco UCS domain.

  • On—Cisco UCS generates Call Home alerts based on the Call Home policies and profiles defined in the system.

Note

 

If this field is set to On, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the rest of the fields on this tab.

Switch Priority drop-down list

This can be one of the following:

  • Alerts

  • Critical

  • Debugging

  • Emergencies

  • Errors

  • Information

  • Notifications

  • Warnings

Throttling field

Indicates whether the system limits the number of duplicate messages received for the same event. This can be one of the following:

  • On—If the number of duplicate messages sent exceeds 30 messages within a 2-hour timeframe, then the system discards further messages for that alert type.

  • Off—The system sends all duplicate messages, regardless of how many are encountered.

  1. In the State field, click On.

    Note

     

    If this field is set to On, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the rest of the fields on this tab.

  2. From the Switch Priority drop-down list, select one of the following levels:

    • Alerts

    • Critical

    • Debugging

    • Emergencies

    • Errors

    • Information

    • Notifications

    • Warnings

    For a large Cisco UCS deployment with several pairs of fabric interconnects, this field enables you to attach significance to messages from one particular Cisco UCS domain, so that message recipients can gauge the priority of the message. This field may not be as useful for a small Cisco UCS deployment, such as a single Cisco UCS domain.

Step 5

In the Contact Information area, complete the following fields with the required contact information:

Name Description

Contact field

The main Call Home contact person.

Enter up to 255 ASCII characters.

Phone field

The telephone number for the main contact.

Enter the number in international format, starting with a + (plus sign) and a country code. You can use hyphens but not parentheses.

Note

 

On Cisco UCS 6454, UCS 64108, UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects, Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects 9108 100G, and Cisco UCS 6664 Fabric Interconnect, ensure to limit the phone number within 17 characters. Cisco UCS Manager system may raise a fault when the phone number limit exceeds 17 characters.

Email field

The email address for the main contact.

Cisco Smart Call Home sends the registration email to this email address.

Note

 

If an email address includes special characters, such as # (hash), spaces, or & (ampersand), the email server might not be able to deliver email messages to that address. Cisco recommends that you use email addresses which comply with RFC2821 and RFC2822 and include only 7bit ASCII characters.

Address field

The mailing address for the main contact.

Enter up to 255 ASCII characters.

Step 6

In the Ids area, complete the following fields with the identification information that Call Home should use:

Tip

 

If you are not configuring Smart Call Home, this step is optional.

Name Description

Customer Id field

The Cisco.com ID that includes the contract numbers for the support contract in its entitlements.

Enter up to 510 ASCII characters.

Contract Id field

The Call Home contract number for the customer.

Enter up to 510 ASCII characters.

Site Id field

The unique Call Home identification number for the customer site.

Enter up to 510 ASCII characters.

Step 7

In the Email Addresses area, complete the following fields with email information for Call Home alert messages:

Name Description

From field

The email address that should appear in the From field on Call Home alert messages sent by the system.

Reply To field

The return email address that should appear in the To field on Call Home alert messages sent by the system.

Step 8

In the SMTP Server area, complete the following fields with information about the SMTP server where Call Home should send email messages:

Name Description

Host (IP Address or Hostname) field

The IPv4 or IPv6 address, or the hostname of the SMTP server.

Note

 

If you use a hostname rather than an IPv4 or IPv6 address, you must configure a DNS server. If the Cisco UCS domain is not registered with Cisco UCS Central or DNS management is set to local, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager. If the Cisco UCS domain is registered with Cisco UCS Central and DNS management is set to global, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Central.

Port field

The port number the system should use to talk to the SMTP server.

Enter an integer between 1 and 65535. The default is 25.

If you use SMTP Authentication for secure communication, then the standard ports are 465 and 587. You can also configure other ports in your SMTP server.

SMTP Authentication radio button

Beginning with release 4.2(3b), UCS Manager supports secured authentication for the transport email with the SMTP server.

This can be one of the following:

  • Off—SMTP Authentication is not used for this Cisco UCS domain.

  • On—SMTP Authentication is used for this Cisco UCS domain.

Note

 

SMTP server should be capable of supporting STARTTLS, SSL based SMTP communication.

You should also install the server root CA certificate on the SMTP-Client (switch) for succesfull connection between SSL to SMTP-AUTH server.

User Name field

Enter an SMTP username.

Username can be up to 255 characters, including the following:

  • Alphabets, lower and upper case

  • Numbers

  • _(underscore)

  • .(period / dot)

  • -(hyphen)

Password field

Enter a password. Password can be up to 56 characters.

Step 9

Click Save Changes.

Disabling Call Home

This step is optional.

When you upgrade a Cisco UCS domain, Cisco UCS Manager restarts the components to complete the upgrade process. This restart causes events that are identical to service disruptions and component failures that trigger Call Home alerts to be sent. If you do not disable Call Home before you begin the upgrade, you can ignore the alerts generated by the upgrade-related component restarts.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 4

In the Admin area, click Off in the State field.

Note

 

If this field is set to Off, Cisco UCS Manager hides the rest of the fields on this tab.

Step 5

Click Save Changes.

Enabling Call Home

This step is optional. You only need to enable Call Home if you disabled it before you began the firmware upgrades.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 4

In the Admin area, click On in the State field.

Note

 

If this field is set to On, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the rest of the fields on this tab.

Step 5

Click Save Changes.

What to do next

Ensure that Call Home is fully configured.

Configuring System Inventory Messages

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the System Inventory tab.

Step 4

In the Properties area, complete the following fields:

Name Description

Send Periodically field

If this field is set to On, Cisco UCS sends the system inventory to the Call Home database. When the information is sent depends on the other fields in this area.

Send Interval field

The number of days that should pass between automatic system inventory data collection.

Enter an integer between 1 and 30.

Hour of Day to Send field

The hour that the data should be sent using the 24-hour clock format.

Minute of Hour field

The number of minutes after the hour that the data should be sent.

Time Last Sent field

The date and time the information was last sent.

Note

 

This field is displayed after the first inventory has been sent.

Next Scheduled field

The date and time for the upcoming data collection.

Note

 

This field is displayed after the first inventory has been sent.

Step 5

Click Save Changes.

Sending a System Inventory Message

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.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the System Inventory tab.

Step 4

In the Actions area, click Send System Inventory Now.

Cisco UCS Manager immediately sends a system inventory message to the recipient configured for Call Home.

Configuring Call Home Profiles

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.

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. 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:

  • A profile that sends an alert to the Supervisor alert group in the short text format. Members of this group receive a one- or two-line description of the fault that they can use to track the issue.

  • A profile that sends an alert to the CiscoTAC alert group in the XML format. Members of this group receive a detailed message in the machine-readable format preferred by the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center.

Call Home Alert Groups

An alert group is a predefined subset of Call Home alerts. Alert groups allow you to select the set of Call Home alerts that you want to send to a predefined or custom Call Home profile. Cisco UCS Manager sends Call Home alerts to e-mail destinations in a destination profile only under the following conditions:

  • If the Call Home alert belongs to one of the alert groups associated with that destination profile.

  • If the alert has a Call Home message severity at or above the message severity set in the destination profile.

Each alert that Cisco UCS Manager generates fits into a category represented by an alert group. The following table describes those alert groups:

Alert Group Description

Cisco TAC

All critical alerts from the other alert groups destined for Smart Call Home.

Diagnostic

Events generated by diagnostics, such as the POST completion on a server.

Environmental

Events related to power, fan, and environment-sensing elements such as temperature alarms.

Note

 

A Call Home alert is not generated when fans or PSUs are manually removed from the chassis. This is by design.

Creating a Call Home Profile

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 specified groups when events occur at the level that you specify.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Profiles tab.

Step 4

On the icon bar to the right of the table, click +.

If the + icon is disabled, click an entry in the table to enable it.

Step 5

In the Create Call Home Profile dialog box, complete the following information fields:

Name Description

Name field

A user-defined name for this profile.

This name can be between 1 and 16 alphanumeric characters. You cannot use spaces or any special characters other than - (hyphen), _ (underscore), : (colon), and . (period), and you cannot change this name after the object is saved.

Level field

Cisco UCS faults that are greater than or equal to this level trigger the profile. This can be one of the following:

  • Critical

  • Debug

  • Disaster

  • Fatal

  • Major

  • Minor

  • Normal

  • Notification

  • Warning

Alert Groups field

The group or groups that are alerted based on this Call Home profile. This can be one or more of the following:

  • Cisco Tac—Cisco TAC recipients

  • Diagnostic—POST completion server failure notification recipients

  • Environmental—Recipients of notifications about problems with PSUs, fans, etc.

Step 6

In the Email Configuration area, complete the following fields to configure the email alerts:

Name Description

Format field

This can be one of the following:

  • Xml—A machine readable format that uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Adaptive Messaging Language (AML) XML schema definition (XSD). This format enables communication with the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center.

  • Full Txt—A fully formatted message with detailed information that is suitable for human reading.

  • Short Txt—A one or two line description of the fault that is suitable for pagers or printed reports.

Max Message Size field

The maximum message size that is sent to the designated Call Home recipients.

Enter an integer between 1 and 5000000. The default is 5000000.

For full text and XML messages, the maximum recommended size is 5000000. For short text messages, the maximum recommended size is 100000. For the Cisco TAC alert group, the maximum message size must be 5000000.

Step 7

In the Recipients area, do the following to add one or more email recipients for the email alerts:

  1. On the icon bar to the right of the table, click +.

  2. In the Add Email Recipients dialog box, enter the email address to which Call Home alerts should be sent in the Email field.

    This email address receives Callhome Alerts/Faults.

    After you save this email address, it can be deleted but it cannot be changed.

  3. Click OK.

Step 8

Click OK.

Deleting a Call Home Profile

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Profiles tab.

Step 4

Right-click the profile you want to delete and choose Delete.

Step 5

Click Save Changes.

Configuring Call Home Policies

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.


Note

You can configure Cisco UCS Manager not to process the default faults and system events.

To disable alerts for a type of fault or event, you must first create a Call Home policy for that type and then disable the policy.

Configuring a Call Home Policy


Tip

By default, all Call Home policies are enabled to ensure that email alerts are sent for all critical system events.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Call Home Policies tab.

Step 4

On the icon bar to the right of the table, click +.

If the + icon is disabled, click an entry in the table to enable it.

Step 5

In the Create Call Home Policy dialog box, complete the following fields:

Name Description

State field

If this field is Enabled, the system uses this policy when an error matching the associated cause is encountered. Otherwise, the system ignores this policy even if a matching error occurs. By default, all policies are enabled.

Cause field

The event that triggers the alert. Each policy defines whether an alert is sent for one type of event.

Step 6

Click OK.

Step 7

Repeat Steps 4 and 5 if you want to configure a Call Home policy for a different type of fault or event.

Disabling a Call Home Policy

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Call Home Policies tab.

Step 4

Click the policy that you want to disable and choose Show Navigator.

Step 5

In the State field, click Disabled.

Step 6

Click OK.

Enabling a Call Home Policy

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Call Home Policies tab.

Step 4

Click the policy that you want to enable and choose Show Navigator.

Step 5

In the State field, click Enabled.

Step 6

Click OK.

Deleting a Call Home Policy

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Call Home Policies tab.

Step 4

Right-click the policy that you want to disable and choose Delete.

Step 5

Click Save Changes.

Cisco Smart Call Home

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.

Figure 2. Cisco Smart Call Home Features



Note

Using Smart Call Home requires the following:

  • A Cisco.com ID associated with a corresponding Cisco Unified Computing Support Service or Cisco Unified Computing Mission Critical Support Service contract for your company.

  • Cisco Unified Computing Support Service or Cisco Unified Computing Mission Critical Support Service for the device to be registered.

  • Beginning with release 4.2(3b), UCS Manager supports secured authentication for the transport email with the SMTP server. You require SMTP server, which is capable of supporting STARTTLS, SSL based SMTP communication.

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.com.

To configure Smart Call Home, do the following:

  • Enable the Smart Call Home feature.

  • Configure the contact information.

  • Configure the email information.

  • Configure the SMTP server information.

  • Configure the default CiscoTAC-1 profile.


    Note

    In order to apply Callhome sendtestAlert functionality at least one of the email destination should be set for profiles other than CiscoTAC-1.

  • Send a Smart Call Home inventory message to start the registration process.

  • Ensure that the Cisco.com ID you plan to use as the Call Home Customer ID for the Cisco UCS domain has the contract numbers from the registration added to its entitlements. You can update the ID in the Account Propertiesunder Additional Access in the Profile Manager on Cisco.com.

SMTP Authentication

Beginning with release 4.2(3b), UCS Manager supports secured authentication for the transport email with the SMTP server.

You can toggle SMTP Authentication between

  • Off—SMTP Authentication is not used for this Cisco UCS domain.

  • On—SMTP Authentication is used for this Cisco UCS domain.


Note

SMTP server should be capable of supporting STARTTLS, SSL based SMTP communication.

You should also install the server root CA certificate on the SMTP-Client (switch) for succesfull connection between SSL to SMTP-AUTH server.

Configuring Smart Call Home

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 4

In the Admin area, do the following to enable Call Home:

  1. In the State field, click On.

    Note

     

    If this field is set to On, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the rest of the fields on this tab.

  2. From the Switch Priority drop-down list, select one of the following urgency levels:

    • Alerts

    • Critical

    • Debugging

    • Emergencies

    • Errors

    • Information

    • Notifications

    • Warnings

Step 5

Indicates whether the system limits the number of duplicate messages received for the same event. This can be one of the following:

  • On—If the number of duplicate messages sent exceeds 30 messages within a 2-hour timeframe, then the system discards further messages for that alert type.

  • Off—The system sends all duplicate messages, regardless of how many are encountered.

Step 6

In the Contact Information area, complete the following fields with the required contact information:

Name Description

Contact field

The main Call Home contact person.

Enter up to 255 ASCII characters.

Phone field

The telephone number for the main contact.

Enter the number in international format, starting with a + (plus sign) and a country code. You can use hyphens but not parentheses.

Note

 

On Cisco UCS 6454, UCS 64108, UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects, Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects 9108 100G, and Cisco UCS 6664 Fabric Interconnect, ensure to limit the phone number within 17 characters. Cisco UCS Manager system may raise a fault when the phone number limit exceeds 17 characters.

Email field

The email address for the main contact.

Cisco Smart Call Home sends the registration email to this email address.

Note

 

If an email address includes special characters, such as # (hash), spaces, or & (ampersand), the email server might not be able to deliver email messages to that address. Cisco recommends that you use email addresses which comply with RFC2821 and RFC2822 and include only 7bit ASCII characters.

Address field

The mailing address for the main contact.

Enter up to 255 ASCII characters.

Step 7

In the Ids area, complete the following fields with the Smart Call Home identification information:

Name Description

Customer Id field

The Cisco.com ID that includes the contract numbers for the support contract in its entitlements.

Enter up to 510 ASCII characters.

Contract Id field

The Call Home contract number for the customer.

Enter up to 510 ASCII characters.

Site Id field

The unique Call Home identification number for the customer site.

Enter up to 510 ASCII characters.

Step 8

In the Email Addresses area, complete the following fields with the email information for Smart Call Home alert messages:

Name Description

From field

The email address that should appear in the From field on Call Home alert messages sent by the system.

Reply To field

The return email address that should appear in the To field on Call Home alert messages sent by the system.

Step 9

In the SMTP Server area, complete the following fields with information about the SMTP server that Call Home should use to send email messages:

Name Description

Host (IP Address or Hostname) field

The IPv4 or IPv6 address, or the hostname of the SMTP server.

Note

 

If you use a hostname rather than an IPv4 or IPv6 address, you must configure a DNS server. If the Cisco UCS domain is not registered with Cisco UCS Central or DNS management is set to local, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager. If the Cisco UCS domain is registered with Cisco UCS Central and DNS management is set to global, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Central.

Port field

The port number the system should use to talk to the SMTP server.

Enter an integer between 1 and 65535. The default is 25.

If you use SMTP Authentication for secure communication, then the standard ports are 465 and 587. You can also configure other ports in your SMTP server.

SMTP Authentication radio button

Beginning with release 4.2(3b), UCS Manager supports secured authentication for the transport email with the SMTP server.

This can be one of the following:

  • Off—SMTP Authentication is not used for this Cisco UCS domain.

  • On—SMTP Authentication is used for this Cisco UCS domain.

Note

 

SMTP server should be capable of supporting STARTTLS, SSL based SMTP communication.

You should also install the server root CA certificate on the SMTP-Client (switch) for succesfull connection between SSL to SMTP-AUTH server.

User Name field

Enter an SMTP username.

Username can be up to 255 characters, including the following:

  • Alphabets, lower and upper case

  • Numbers

  • _(underscore)

  • .(period / dot)

  • -(hyphen)

Password field

Enter a password. Password can be up to 56 characters.

Step 10

Click Save Changes.

Configuring the Default Cisco TAC-1 Profile

The following are the default settings for the CiscoTAC-1 profile:


Note

In order to apply Callhome sendtestAlert functionality at least one of the email destination should be set for profiles other than CiscoTAC-1.

  • Level is normal

  • Only the CiscoTAC alert group is selected

  • Format is xml

  • Maximum message size is 5000000

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Profiles tab.

Step 4

Right-click the Cisco TAC-1 profile and choose Recipient.

Step 5

In the Add Email Recipients dialog box, do the following:

  1. In the Email field, enter the email address to which Call Home alerts should be sent.

    For example, enter callhome@cisco.com.

    After you save this email address, it can be deleted but it cannot be changed.

  2. Click OK.

Configuring System Inventory Messages for Smart Call Home

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the System Inventory tab.

Step 4

In the Properties area, complete the following fields to specify how system inventory messages will be sent to Smart Call Home:

Name Description

Send Periodically field

If this field is set to On, Cisco UCS sends the system inventory to the Call Home database. When the information is sent depends on the other fields in this area.

Send Interval field

The number of days that should pass between automatic system inventory data collection.

Enter an integer between 1 and 30.

Hour of Day to Send field

The hour that the data should be sent using the 24-hour clock format.

Minute of Hour field

The number of minutes after the hour that the data should be sent.

Time Last Sent field

The date and time the information was last sent.

Note

 

This field is displayed after the first inventory has been sent.

Next Scheduled field

The date and time for the upcoming data collection.

Note

 

This field is displayed after the first inventory has been sent.

Step 5

Click Save Changes.

Registering Smart Call Home

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management > Call Home.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the System Inventory tab.

Step 4

In the Actions area, click Send System Inventory Now to start the registration process.

When Cisco receives the system inventory, a Smart Call Home registration email is sent to the email address that you configured in the Contact Information area on the General tab.

Step 5

When you receive the registration email from Cisco, do the following to complete registration for Smart Call Home:

  1. Click the link in the email.

    The link opens the Cisco Smart Call Home portal in your web browser.

  2. Log into the Cisco Smart Call Home portal.

  3. Follow the steps provided by Cisco Smart Call Home.

    After you agree to the terms and conditions, the Cisco Smart Call Home registration for the Cisco UCS domain is complete.