Discovering systems

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You can configure or discover multiple hosts that can be monitored by IBM® Electronic Service Agent.

The IBM Electronic Service Agent remotely manages multiple hosts (such as AIX, Linux, PowerKVM, IVM, IBM ESS, OpenBMC, or BMC), from an AIX server, which is on the same network. The Electronic Service Agent communicates with all the remote hosts through various protocols. For example, the Electronic Service Agent sends SNMP traps to KVM systems, uses rest services such as data, event, and endpoint services for OpenBMC and ESS systems, and uses IPMI for BMC systems.
Note: To discover BMC devices, you must install the IPMI tool on the system that has an ESA installation.
Note: The PowerKVM host must have Serviceable Event Provider that is installed on it, which can detect problems and produce events when necessary. If SEP is not installed on the PowerKVM system, you must install SEP before you discover systems. For more information, see Installing IBM Serviceable Event Provider. When you discover KVM hosts, the IBM Electronic Service Agent makes sure that the SEP is installed and activated on the KVM host. If SEP is not started already, ESA activates the SEP. IBM Electronic Service Agent runs the subscribe command on SEP, with the port number to which the SNMP traps must be sent and the name of the community to be used by the trap. ESA listens the SNMP traps at the default public community and 5028 port.
When the problems are received, ESA processes them and sends to IBM support, if it is a call home problem. The serviceable events include the hardware problems that require IBM service in resolving the problems. ESA also identifies if it is a test or a real problem. For more information, see Displaying problem information.
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To discover the hosts, follow these steps:

  1. Access and log in to the IBM Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface.
  2. Click Main menu from left navigation.
  3. Click Discovery. You can discover BMC, OpenBMC, PowerKVM, single or multiple remote systems in a single instance.
    Note: The ESA discovers only the BMC, Open BMC, or PowerKVM hosts. No other types of systems are supported.
    1. BMC

      You can discover and add a BMC system (through IPMI), and also enable extended error data (EED) collection.

      Problem reporting through IPMI

      Discover a remote system:

      1. In the Host Name field, enter the host name or the IP address of the BMC system.
      2. In the User ID field, enter the user ID of the BMC user.
      3. In the Password field, enter the password of the BMC user.

      Diagnostics data through SSH

      You can enable extended error data (EED) collection for the BMC device by specifying the sysadmin credentials.

      1. In the Admin User field, enter the user ID of the BMC system administrator.
      2. In the Admin Password field, enter the password of the system administrator user.

      Click Verify Connectivity to test the connectivity to the BMC system.

      Click Discover Now to discover the BMC system and add the corresponding system to the discovery log table. You can check the discovery log table for the discovery status of the BMC system.
      Note: The user IDs (esaXXXXXX, where XXXXXX are the last six digits of the hostname) are used to create a new user on the BMC, and the credentials are stored in an encrypted format. The password for the new user ID (esaXXXXX) is updated periodically by ESA.

      Click Clear to clear the Host Name, User ID, and Password fields.

    2. PowerKVM / OpenBMC

      Discover a remote system:

      1. In the Host Name field, enter the host name or the IP address of the PowerKVM / OpenBMC system.
      2. In the User ID and Password fields, enter the user ID and password of the PowerKVM / OpenBMC system.
      3. Click Discover Now to discover the corresponding system. You can view the discovery status in the discovery log table. Alternatively, click Verify Connectivity to test the connectivity to the remote systems.
      4. Click Clear to clear the Host Name, User ID, and Password fields.
    For PowerKVM devices, ESA performs the following actions during discovery -
    1. Logs in to the host by using the entered credentials.
    2. Creates ESA-specific user name on the host - esaadmin
      Note: The esaadmin user ID has limited administrator privileges to run all the commands that are required by ESA.
    3. Generates public-private key pairs that are stored in the ESA and are used to access the new user IDs in the remote host. These keys are configured on hosts, such that only the ESA system can log in without using a password. Hence, the root credentials for any host system are not stored / saved in this process.
    4. ESA uses the esaadmin user ID for any further communication with the remote host.
  4. Advanced
    1. Discover multiple remote systems:
      1. Discover from local file: Browse the data file from the local system.
        Note: Click Data Format File to download the template and make sure that your data is in the format specified.
      2. Discover from remote file: Enter the remote file name and path.
      3. Click Discover Now to add the respective system to the discovery log table and discovery. You can check the discovery log for details.
      4. Click Clear to clear the Host Name, User ID, and Password fields.
      5. Click Verify Connectivity to test the connectivity to the remote systems.
  5. Discover Logs
    After you discover a system, the discovery log table is updated with the following system information:
    • Host Name - Displays the name of the system that is discovered. To filter or search for a particular system that you require, enter the initial letters or digits of the respective system in the Search field. A list of filtered systems is displayed.
    • User Id - Displays the user ID to log in to the system.
    • Start Time - Displays the time at which the discovery was started.
    • Updated Time - Displays the time at which the status is last updated.
    • Status - Displays the status of the discovery of a system.
      • Running - If the system is in discovery process.
      • Success - If ESA discovers the system successfully.
      • Failed - If ESA is unable to discover the system.
    • Status Details - Displays the details or reason for failure. For example,
      • If the discovery fails, the Status Details column displays - Discovery Action Failed.
      • If the discovery is successful, the Status Details column displays - Discovery Completed Successfully.
    • Click Refresh Log to update the discovery log details with the most recent discovery operations.
    Note: The discovery log details persist for 24 hours only, after which, the log details are deleted.
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On successful discovery of KVM hosts, you can view the problems that are reported by each discovered system. For information on problem details, Displaying problem information