This blog describes the benefits of enabling the AutoSupport feature for sending support-related telemetry to NetApp from your StorageGRID® system. Enabling this feature allows access to NetApp® Active IQ® AI-powered analytics and insight for better monitoring and rapid problem resolution analysis of your StorageGRID system.
NetApp Active IQ has recently been updated with new features and metrics for StorageGRID. This blog post summarizes these features. We are continuously enhancing the analytics and insights available on the StorageGRID Active IQ dashboard.
For background, please read the previous blog about StorageGRID and Active IQ integration, The GRID is coming into view in Active IQ.
StorageGRID AutoSupport feature
NetApp StorageGRID support aims to minimize the problem determination and resolution time through the AutoSupport feature, which enables a StorageGRID system to send health and status messages to technical support. You can enable the AutoSupport feature when you first install StorageGRID, or you can enable it later. Here are the options for sending AutoSupport messages to technical support:
- Weekly. AutoSupport messages are sent weekly.
- Event-Triggered. AutoSupport messages are sent every hour and when a critical system event happens.
- On Demand. Technical support can request AutoSupport messages without any intervention from the StorageGRID administrator.
- Use-Triggered. The StorageGRID administrator can trigger AutoSupport information to be sent at any time.
StorageGRID uses the event-triggered AutoSupport information to automatically open support cases for a variety of major system alerts. The automatic creation of support cases helps the support team to investigate and act quickly on a possible issue. For information about security best practices when enabling this feature, see the StorageGRID documentation.
In addition, enabling the AutoSupport feature allows access to further analytics and insight into your StorageGRID system through NetApp Active IQ.
NetApp Active IQ
Active IQ uses AIOps to simplify the proactive care and optimization of your NetApp environment, reducing risks and improving availability.
Active IQ can help you monitor and proactively act on important alerts and view components within StorageGRID:
- System overall health
- Configuration best practices and risks, such as software and hardware upgrades and contract renewals, and certificate expiration alerts
- View raw AutoSupport information
- View a StorageGRID system inventory containing grid, site, and individual node information
- Capacity forecast planning and breakdown at grid and site levels
- StorageGRID node details such as node type, storage appliance model, drive size, drive type, and RAID mode
Main dashboard
The main dashboard provides an overview of your StorageGRID system.
Each category under Wellness offers insight into the current health status of your StorageGRID system.
Configuration > GRID Viewer
Navigate to GRID Viewer under the Capacity Details tab to view capacity information at the grid and individual site levels. For capacity forecast planning recommendations, read “Capacity Details and Forecast Planning,” later in this blog post.
Navigate to GRID Inventory to view license details information and individual StorageGRID nodes in your system. Node information on this page includes appliance name, node type, appliance model, hardware serial number, shipped location, drive size, drive type, RAID mode, hardware contract end date, and support contract type.
Planning
The Planning section details the actions that need to be acted on soon. For example, you might need to add storage nodes to a StorageGRID system because of low physical capacity or renewal of support contracts when one or more support contracts is coming to an end.
Here is an example of planning actions on upcoming expiring support contracts.
Here is an example of a planning action to add storage nodes to a site because the system will exceed the 70% capacity threshold in 3 months.
Availability and Protection
Availability and Protection provides insight into known risks at the software and hardware levels that could potentially impact the availability and durability of a StorageGRID system. Risk reports also contain a Corrective Action remediation recommendation.
Configuration
Under Configuration, you can access information about risks involved in the software and hardware configuration of your StorageGRID system. The severity of impact of each risk is described.
Capacity
If the StorageGRID system is exceeding capacity usage soon, alerts appear in the Capacity section.
Configuration
Under Configuration, you can access information about risks involved in the software and hardware configuration of your StorageGRID system. The severity of impact of each risk is described.
Security
Under Security, any risks associated with the StorageGRID system that might have an impact on the security of the system appear with a risk factor as well as a corrective step to resolve the issue.
Capacity Details and Forecast Planning
The Capacity dashboard allows you to monitor capacity details and forecast at individual sites in your StorageGRID system.
The Planning section contains recommendations to add capacity to an individual site if the forecast predicts that a given site will exceed the 70% capacity threshold.
Accessing NetApp Active IQ on mobile phones
Don’t have access to a computer? No problem. The NetApp Active IQ interface is optimized for access from mobile phones. Just log in to access the insights and analytics on your StorageGRID system from your cell phone.
Summary
You can access all the analytics and insights about your StorageGRID system on NetApp Active IQ by enabling the StorageGRID AutoSupport feature. In addition, enabling this feature allows rapid problem determination and resolution by technical support in case of a critical event. NetApp Active IQ granular reporting can help prevent problems from becoming even bigger problems. You can be confident that the smallest hiccup in a StorageGRID system can be identified quickly and remediation steps taken to resolve the issue. We are continuously enhancing the analytics and insights available on the StorageGRID Active IQ dashboard.
About NetApp StorageGRID
NetApp StorageGRID is a software-defined object storage solution that can span multiple data centers and provide a single global namespace for Amazon S3 applications. StorageGRID allows you to establish granular data management policies that determine how data is stored and protected. When developing and enforcing policies, the object store examines a wide range of characteristics and needs, including performance, durability, availability, geographic location, longevity, and cost. You can comply with regulations using a variety of features in StorageGRID such as write once, read many (WORM) retention with S3 Object Lock, access control policies, encryption, and audit trails.
