Hot Topics - Messmer The Brain House

The more systems the merrier
zSeries Electronic Service Agent
BY IVICA VARDIC AND MIKE EDWARDS
Back in z/OS Hot Topics Newsletter Issue
12, February 2005, GA22-7501-08, you
learned that IBM Electronic Service Agent
for zSeries helps you monitor your I/O
environment. To enjoy the full benefits of
Electronic Service Agent (program product
5655-F17), you should activate it across
your entire system complex. This article
offers some hints and tips to help you.
Installing on the first system and
enabling connection to IBM
To set-up Electronic Service Agent on the
first system in your system complex, follow
these steps:
1. Learn the system requirements for
installing Electronic Service Agent.
Read Section 5 of Electronic Service
Agent User’s Guide, SC38-7104.
2. Select a suitable z/OS system in your
system complex for the initial install.
The system should have catalog
access to the SMP/E global CSI data
sets, which have information on the
installed products and services in your
system complex.
The system must satisfy the
following software prerequisites:
• z/OS or z/OS.e V1R5 or later
• TCP/IP with FTP enabled
• IBM Security Server or an
equivalent product
• z/OS UNIX System Services
enabled and activated
Figure 1 - Main menu for Electronic Service Agent
42 February 2006 z/OS HOT TOPICS Newsletter, Issue 14
To use the software
inventory collection and
HIPER/PE reporting
functions, you need
either IBM Developer
Kit for S/390, Java 2
Technology Edition
(5655-D35) SDK1.3.1, or
IBM SDK for z/OS, Java 2
Technology Edition, V1.4
(5655-I56), SDK1.4.2.
3. Enable the Electronic Service
Agent task, which is a Hardware
Management Console (HMC)
component on the initial system. This
step allows Electronic Service Agent
to send service data to IBM.
4. Install and configure Electronic
Service Agent on the system, as
described in the program directory
and Electronic Service Agent User’s
Guide, SC38-7104.
Usually, your IBM customer representative
performs the job of enabling the Electronic
Service Agent task. This work requires
selecting a suitable HMC, based on these
requirements:
• The HMC is at the most current level.
• A local area network (LAN)
connection exists between the HMC
and all z/OS systems in the system
complex for which Electronic Service
Agent is to be used.
• The HMC is configured to
communicate with IBM.
To keep LAN access to the
HMC separate from the
CPU connections, configure a
secondary LAN adapter on your
HMC with a different IP submask
for Electronic Service Agent use. As an
alternative, you could assign one HMC
exclusively for Electronic Service Agent
use.
As part of the enablement process, you
must determine which data you want to
collect and send to IBM:
• IBM I/O device error data
• IBM software inventory and PTF level.
We recommend that you select both data
collection options if you have zSeries or
S/390 hardware that is under warranty
or covered under an IBM maintenance
agreement. If not, enable data collection
for IBM software inventory and PTF level.
With this option, you enable sending all
Electronic Service Agent data, with the
exception of I/O device errors.
During the enablement process, you
are prompted to define an FTP password
to be used by Electronic Service Agents
for transferring data through FTP to the
HMC.
For more information about enabling
the HMC Electronic Service Agent
task, see the “Console Actions” section
in Hardware Management Console
Operations Guide, SC28-6830.
Enabling and activating Electronic
Service Agent reporting
You can activate Electronic Service Agent
reporting in a phased approach; see the
recommendations provided in Electronic
Service Agent User’s Guide, SC38-7104.
Which Electronic Service Agent
reporting functions should you enable?