Introduction
SGI Electronic Support vs. Remote Support and Remote System Administration
Activation and Licensing Information
Security and Performance Information
Introduction
What is SGI Electronic Support? [Top]
SGI Electronic Support is the industry's most comprehensive electronic support.
No other company offers this level of integration and ease of use. On the front
end, it is a complete integration of three electronic tools:
- SGI® Embedded Support Partner (ESP)
- SGI SupportfolioTM
- SGI Knowledgebase
SGI Electronic Support leverages the unique capabilities of each of these tools
to deliver an end-to-end support solution. It enables customers to:
- Proactively monitor and manage their SGI systems for increased availability
- Easily access vital system performance, configuration, availability, and system event information
- Receive field-tested solutions from SGI that can be applied to potential system problems in a proactive manner
Who is entitled to access this service? What are the prices? [Top]
SGI Electronic Support is free to customers with a valid SGI Warranty,
SGI® FullCare
TM, SGI® FullExpress
TM, SGI®
FullExpressTM 7x24, or Mission-Critical service contract.
What is included in SGI Electronic Support Services? [Top]
Full access to SGI Supportfolio, Knowledgebase, ESP, and System Group Manager
(SGM). Additionally, once ESP is activated and the auto-call-logging feature is
enabled, SGI Customer Support Center can begin monitoring the system(s) on a
7x24 basis to identify potential system problems and alert appropriate
personnel.
What do I need to access this service? [Top]
- IRIX® V. 6.5.7 through V. 6.5.10 with the ESP V. 2.0 patch, or IRIX V. 6.5.11 and later
- IRIX V. 6.5.7 is the minimum recommended operating system level for IRIX environments.
- SGI Advanced Linux™ Environment with SGI ProPack™ 3 SP3 for Linux is the minimum required operating system level for Linux environments. However, SGI ProPack3 SP5 is the recommended minimum operating system level.
If the system is under a Warranty, FullCare, FullExpress,
FullExpress 7x24,
or Mission-Critical service contract, simply activate ESP and its
auto-call-logging feature to enable ESP to send alert e-mail
(plain-text or encrypted) to the SGI Customer Support Center.
The activation process for ESP and auto-call logging is easy.
To quickly register and initiate the program, you should first
access the most up-to-date steps for activation:
- Go to SGI Supportfolio,
and select "SGI Knowledgebase" (in the contents on the left side of the page).
Log on with your user name and password.
- In Knowledgebase, do a Quick Search for the keywords: "activate esp."
Where is this service available? [Top]
SGI Electronic Services is available worldwide.
SGI Electronic Support vs. Remote Support and Remote System Administration
What are the differences between SGI standard support services and SGI Electronic Support? [Top]
SGI Electronic Support is available, at no additional cost, to customers with a
valid SGI Warranty, FullCare, FullExpress, FullExpress 7x24, or Mission-Critical service
contract.
For example, if a customer has a system that is under FullCare support, simply
activate ESP and the auto-call-logging feature of ESP according to the ESP
Basic Activation Instructions. This will enable ESP to send alert notification
via e-mail (plain text or encrypted) to the SGI Customer Support Center.
Note: The e-mail described above contains only low-level system event
information. No customer data concerning users or data file content are
extracted.
What are the differences between SGI Electronic Support and SGI Remote Support? [Top]
Both services require you to have a valid support contract with SGI Global
Services. However, the required contract levels are different:
- SGI Remote Support--Is a separately priced service, but requires either a FullExpress, FullExpress 7x24, or a Mission-Critical service contract
- SGI Electronic Support--Requires a Warranty, FullCare, FullExpress, FullExpress 7x24, or Mission-Critical service contract
For deliverables, the two services are also very different:
- SGI Remote Support--Permits SGI's skilled technical engineers to quickly resolve any system problems via a remote
high-speed connection.
- SGI Electronic Support--The activated ESP on the customer's machine will be able to send e-mail (plain text or
encrypted) to an SGI Customer Support Center after the auto-call-logging feature of ESP is enabled. Thereafter, the SGI
Customer Support Center will provide proactive system monitoring, notification of potential system problems and the
associated high-probability resolutions, and system configuration, performance, and system event reports. However, no
dedicated high-speed connection is required.
What are the differences between SGI Electronic Support and SGI Remote System
Administration (RSA)? [Top]
SGI Remote System Administration
(PDF 539K) is an SGI Managed Services offering. SGI Electronic Support
is bundled with general maintenance service contracts.
RSA delivers a service that is equivalent to that of an on-site system
administrator and may include services such as system environment
configurations, corrective actions, periodic reports, etc. RSA must be
purchased and requires the supported system(s) to have at least a FullCare
support contract in addition to the RSA contract itself.
SGI Electronic Support is available at no additional cost for IRIX systems
under Warranty, FullCare, FullExpress, FullExpress 7x24,
and Mission-Critical service contracts.
It is an automated, electronic support environment.
Activation and Licensing Information
How can I start to receive SGI Electronic Support [Top]
Activate ESP and its auto-call-logging feature by following the steps listed in
the ESP Basic Activation Guide or contact your local service sales
representative.
How can I get a System Group Manager (SGM) license? [Top]
The SGM enables customers to monitor and manage a group of systems. The license
is available to authorized customers with a valid Warranty, FullCare, FullExpress,
FullExpress 7x24, or Mission-Critical support contract and is renewable on a yearly basis.
What are the interfaces like for SGI Electronic Support? [Top]
The three Electronic Support tools (ESP, Supportfolio, and Knowledgebase) use a
Web interface. For ESP, a command-line interface is also available.
What are the operating system requirements? [Top]
- IRIX V. 6.5.7 through V. 6.5.10 with the ESP V. 2.0 patch, or IRIX V. 6.5.11 and later.
- IRIX V. 6.5.7 is the minimum recommended operating system level for IRIX environments.
- SGI Advanced Linux™ Environment with SGI ProPack™ 3 SP3 for Linux is the minimum required operating system level for Linux environments. However, SGI ProPack3 SP5 is the recommended minimum operating system level.
How do I activate ESP? [Top]
The activation process for ESP and auto-call logging is easy. To quickly
register and initiate the program, you should first access the most
up-to-date steps for activation:
- Go to SGI Supportfolio,
and select "SGI Knowledgebase" (under the contents on the left side of
the page). Log on with your user name and password.
- In Knowledgebase, do a Quick Search for the keywords: "activate esp."
Security and Performance Information
How does ESP handle security? [Top]
While no system can offer absolute security, SGI has implemented a high-level
of protection, in accordance to recommendations from an RSA Security
evaluation:
- Validates user permissions of process for proactive actions and disabling actions by root
- Implements ReverseDNS lookup for both the Web server and the ESP SGM
- HMAC/MD5 digital signature of all data transfers to the ESP SGM
- Disables login attempts with time-out periods
- Features a full CLI for all ESP configuration/reports and disabling use of the Web server
- Restricts all ESP database transactions locally
Additionally, the e-mail alert that the auto-call-logging feature of ESP sends
to the SGI Customer Support Center contains only system-level event
information; no customer's proprietary data file content is included.
Customers can opt to send the alert e-mail in plain text or encrypted mode.
How much does ESP impact system performance? [Top]
ESP's two daemons, eventmond and espdbd, are event-driven and thereby consume
CPU resources only when an incident is seen by ESP. However, when ESP receives
an event, the time taken to process the event is less than 2 milliseconds of
CPU time. This time includes the complete processing and storing of the event
in the ESP database.
The memory utilization by eventmond and espdbd are ~200KB and ~500KB,
respectively. Most utilization comes from storing system configuration data and
may therefore vary based on the configuration of the system. Disk utilization
is less than 30MB for 64-processor systems with 75 to 125 boards.
An archiving facility of ESP (esparchive) can also be run to compress the
database. Compression is between 40% and 60% of the original size of the
database.
For in-depth technical information, please see the ESP white paper (PDF 361K).
