Symptoms

In PowerVault Manager, either of the following alerts may be viewed.Connection quality to the Dell SupportAssist backend is poor. Lost connectivity to the Dell SupportAssist backend The event history log may record both failures and success for telemetry data uploads. A524 2023-03-24 11:13:07 655 Informational SupportAssist telemetry send failed. (Payload Type: Test Connectivity)A523 2023-03-24 10:45:15 655 Informational SupportAssist telemetry send failed. (Payload Type: Topology)A522 2023-03-24 09:21:51 655 Informational SupportAssist telemetry send successful. (Payload Type: Test Connectivity)A521 2023-03-24 09:13:15 655 Informational SupportAssist telemetry send failed. (Payload Type: Test Connectivity)

Cause

SupportAssist can be configured to connect directly with Dell endpoints, or the connections can be proxied using Dell Secure Connect Gateway Virtual edition (SCG/VE) as the endpoint. When configured to use a direct connection, SupportAssist application service sends heartbeats every 60 seconds to either of the Dell endpoints (https://esrs3-core.emc.com or https://esrs3-coredr.emc.com). The application uses the responses to calculate quality of service of the connection. Based on a running statistical calculation of over an hour, the array may report the connection as poor should over 50% of heartbeat connections timeout. During periods when network traffic bandwidth consumption is reduced, the alert may be cleared without need of administrator intervention.

Resolution

Network conditions tend to be transient. and usually the alert clears under lower latency or lower bandwidth consumption conditions between management port on controller A and the endpoint. Based on customer feedback, Dell removed the poor connection quality alerts in ME5 controller firmware release ME5.1.2.0.0. This firmware update can be downloaded from dell.com/support. How does SupportAssist work? SupportAssist must be able to establish a secure encrypted (TLS 1.2)) connection to an endpoint to send telemetry data or receive update notifications. SupportAssist direct connections establish a connection to either https://esrs3-core.emc.com or https://esrs3-coredr.emc.com on outbound TCP port 443. SupportAssist gateway connections establish a connection to the Secure Connect Gateway appliance endpoint on port 9443. SCG/VE forwards the telemetry data to the Dell endpoints: https://esrs3-core.emc.com or https://esrs3-coredr.emc.com. If the SCG/VE gateway is unavailable, as a last resort SupportAssist attempts a direct connection to the Dell endpoints. How to test network connectivity to the Dell endpoint from the PowerVault ME5 SupportAssist includes a diagnostic test to check network connectivity to the endpoint. Where the result is success, the connection to the endpoint is ok at the point in time. If the test network connection fails investigation is required to determine why the failure occurred.1. Open an SSH session to the management interface on controller A. 2. Use the command show support-assist to determine if SupportAssist is configured to use a direct or gateway connection. Sample output: show support-assist # show support-assist SupportAssist ------------- SupportAssist State: Enabled Operation Mode: Normal Auto-case Creation: Enabled CloudIQ: Enabled Connection Preference: Direct Gateway Endpoints ----------------- Gateway 1: https://a.b.c.d:9443 Gateway 2: Gateway 3: Proxy Information ----------------- Proxy State: Disabled Protocol: HTTP Host: Ports: User Name: Success: Command completed successfully. 3. Based on whether the connection preference is direct or gateway. Test if SupportAssist can establish a network connection to at least one of the endpoints by using one of the following commands: check support-assist-connection mode direct or check support-assist-connection mode gateway Sample output: check support-assist-connection mode direct # check support-assist-connection mode direct SupportAssist Connection ------------------------ Connection State: Connected Endpoint -------- Mode: direct Endpoint: https://esrs3-core.emc.com Status: success HTTP Status: 200 Message: OK Status Detail: Success Proxy Type: none Endpoint -------- Mode: direct Endpoint: https://esrs3-coredr.emc.com Status: success HTTP Status: 200 Message: OK Status Detail: Success Proxy Type: none Success: Command completed successfully. 4. If check support-assist-connection network test output is successful, check for available updates by typing: check support-assist-updates. It may take 1 or 2 minutes for output to appear indicating the success or failure of this command. Sample output: check support-assist-updates # check support-assist-updates Success: Command completed successfully. - No updates available. # check support-assist-updates Current System Version: ME5.1.1.0.5 Disk Update ----------- User-Friendly Name: A32 ME Series HDD Firmware Release Version: A32 Release Date: 2023-02-16 Criticality: Description: ME Series HDD Firmware Update - Release A32 Release Notes Link: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=xpxt8&oscode=wst14& Download URL: https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER09603522M/1/A32_ME_Series_HDD_Firmware_with_ReadMe.zip Justification: Dell Technologies recommends applying this update during your next scheduled update cycle. The update contains changes to maintain overall system health. It ensures that the system software remains current and compatible with other system modules (firmware, BIOS, drivers, and software) and may include other new features. SHA256 Checksum: 53b82040a1518e3fa33cf646e508f81c7fbb28f13c3a3abac295cd1dc3bbd42a File Size: 77232273 File Name: A32_ME_Series_HDD_Firmware_with_ReadMe.zip Success: Command completed successfully. 5. Check the email alert configuration by typing show email-parameters Sample output: show email-parameters # show email-parameters Email Parameters (SMTP) ----------------------- Email Notification: Enabled Email Address 1: administrator@mycompany.co.uk Email Address 2: Email Address 3: Log Destination: Security Protocol: None Server Port: Email Server: a.b.c.d Email Domain: mycompany.co.uk Email Sender: me5vault Email Sender Password: Not Configured Alert Notification: all Event Notification: none Include Logs: Disabled Success: Command completed successfully. What to do if the test connections are successful? Update the PowerVault ME5 series array to controller firmware ME5.1.2.0.0 or later. The alerts "Connection quality to the Dell SupportAssist backend is poor." are no longer reported and "Lost connectivity to the Dell SupportAssist backend." alerts are classed as informational. Administrators can also consider switching from email on Alert to email on Event notification using the set email-parameters command. # set email-parameters notification-level warn alert-notification-level none What to do if the test connections are consistently failing? For additional SupportAssist troubleshooting see PowerVault ME5: How to use CLI to troubleshoot SupportAssist connectivity Network conditions tend to be transient and the alert usually clears under lower latency or lower bandwidth consumption conditions between management port on controller A and the endpoint. Based on the customer feedback, Dell removed the connection quality alerts in ME5 controller firmware release ME5.1.2.0.0 and later.

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