IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa Hardware
Announcement ZG10-0214
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
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The customer is responsible for evaluation, selection, and implementation of security
features, administrative procedures, and appropriate controls in application systems
and communications facilities.
Global Technology Services
Contact your IBM representative for the list of selected services available in your
country, either as standard or customized offerings, for the efficient installation,
implementation, or integration of this product.
IBM Electronic Services
Electronic Service Agent and the IBM Electronic Support Web portal are dedicated to
providing fast, exceptional support to IBM Systems customers. The IBM Electronic
Service Agent tool is a no-additional-charge tool that proactively monitors and
reports hardware events, such as system errors, performance issues, and inventory.
The Electronic Service Agent tool can help you stay focused on your company's
strategic business initiatives, save time, and spend less effort managing day-to-day
IT maintenance issues. Servers enabled with this tool can be monitored remotely
around the clock by IBM Support all at no additional cost to you.
Now integrated into the base operating system of AIX 5.3, AIX 6.1, and AIX 7.1,
Electronic Service Agent is designed to automatically and electronically report
system failures and utilization issues to IBM, which can result in faster problem
resolution and increased availability. System configuration and inventory information
collected by the Electronic Service Agent tool also can be viewed on the secure
Electronic Support Web portal, and used to improve problem determination and
resolution by you and the IBM support team. To access the tool main menu,
simply type "smitty esa_main", and select "Configure Electronic Service Agent." In
addition, ESA now includes a powerful Web user interface, giving the administrator
easy access to status, tool settings, problem information, and filters. For more
information and documentation on how to configure and use Electronic Service
Agent, refer to
http://www.ibm.com/support/electronic
The IBM Electronic Support portal is a single Internet entry point that replaces the
multiple entry points traditionally used to access IBM Internet services and support.
This portal enables you to gain easier access to IBM resources for assistance in
resolving technical problems. The My Systems and Premium Search functions make
it even easier for Electronic Service Agent tool-enabled customers to track system
inventory and find pertinent fixes.
Benefits
Increased uptime:
The Electronic Service Agent tool is designed to enhance the
Warranty or Maintenance Agreement by providing faster hardware error reporting
and uploading system information to IBM Support. This can translate to less wasted
time monitoring the "symptoms," diagnosing the error, and manually calling IBM
Support to open a problem record. Its 24 x 7 monitoring and reporting mean no
more dependence on human intervention or off-hours customer personnel when
errors are encountered in the middle of the night.
Security:
The Electronic Service Agent tool is designed to be secure in monitoring,
reporting, and storing the data at IBM. The Electronic Service Agent tool securely
transmits either via the Internet (HTTPS or VPN) or modem, and can be configured
to communicate securely through gateways to provide customers a single point of
exit from their site. Communication is one way. Activating Electronic Service Agent
does not enable IBM to call into a customer's system. System inventory information
is stored in a secure database, which is protected behind IBM firewalls. It is viewable
only by the customer and IBM. The customer's business applications or business
data is never transmitted to IBM.
