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Configuring Call Home Settings

Sara Levy
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The Call Home feature sends non-sensitive data from your VAST Cluster to the VAST support server to enable us to provide proactive analysis and fast response on critical issues. 

The collected data is sent by HTTPS to a VAST Data AWS S3 bucket that we maintain for this purpose. For details, see the VAST Data Security Guidelines.

Call home includes the following data collections:

  • Logs which are collected into compressed bundles at a configurable interval (call home bundles).

  • Metrics data objects that are converted into CSV files and uploaded for analysis.

  • Heartbeats, a small set of metrics collected from the cluster and used to monitor cluster health.

Call home bundles are sent over HTTPS via port 443. There is an option to use a proxy server. If you need to configure firewall rules in order to enable outbound traffic on port 443, see How to allow Vast CallHome through a firewall.

The previous call home bundle file on each node is overwritten when you create a new one, unless you choose the option to create an aggregated call home bundle. Aggregated call home bundles contain all data from all nodes included, are saved on the management CNode and are not overwritten.

Follow these steps to:

  • Complete your call home settings. This is the only way we can ever know that the data we collect from your VAST Cluster is yours! 

  • Run our test to make sure that your VMS can send call home bundles. If needed, set up firewall rules to allow the VMS to send call home bundles.

Making Call Home Settings via VAST Web UI

Making Call Home Settings via CLI

Making Call Home Settings via VAST Web UI

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Settings and then Call Home.

  2. Complete the General Setup fields:

    Customer

    Your customer name. 

    Site

    The name of the site where the cluster is installed.

    Location

    The location of the site.

    Max upload concurrency

    The maximum number of parts of a file to upload simultaneously to the AWS S3 bucket.

    Valid values: A positive integer, 1 or higher

    Default: 1

  3. Complete the Intervals Setup fields:

    Log frequency

    The frequency with which system logs and traces are sent to the support server. If disabled, the data is not sent.

    Bundle frequency

    The frequency with which VMS metadata and metrics are sent to the support server. If disabled, the data is not sent.

    Enabled

    When enabled, VAST Cluster sends alerts to the VAST support server.

  4. Under Proxy Setup, enter proxy server details if you would like the data to be sent through your own proxy server.

  5. Complete the Misc fields:

    Verify SSL

    Enables SSL verification. Disable if, for example, you are sending the call home data through a proxy server that does not have an SSL certificate recognized by VAST Cluster. VAST Cluster recognizes SSL certificates from a large range of widely recognized certificate authorities (CAs). VAST Cluster may not recognize an SSL certificate signed by your own in-house CA.

    Prod mode

    Sets the production support server as the destination for call home bundles. It's essential to enable this setting.

    Support channel

    Enables VAST Data Support to run remote call home bundle collection commands on the cluster.

    Obfuscated

    Obfuscates data in call home bundles, metrics and heartbeats. The following types of information are replaced with a non-reversible hash: file and directory names, IP addresses, host names, user names, passwords, MAC addresses.

    Aggregated

    Saves an aggregated call home bundle file on the management CNode.

    Upload via VMS

    Uploads a non-aggregated call home bundle via VMS. Otherwise, the upload is done from each node.

    Note

    For aggregated call home bundles, the upload is always via VMS.

    Enabling this option requires a proxy to be set up.

    Compress Method

    Sets the compression method used to compress call home bundles:

    • zstd (default)

    • gzip

  6. (Optional) Complete the Cloud fields to register the cluster with VAST Uplink. For more information, see Registering the Cluster with Uplink.

  7. Do either of the following:

    • Click Save to save the settings.

    • Click Save & Test Call Home to save the settings and to send a test call home bundle.

      To check that the test call home bundle was sent successfully:

      1. Go to the Activities page (open the menu again and select Activities). Find a task named send_interactive_callhome. When the task is done, its status should change to Completed and its log should record Callhome bundle sent.

      2. Contact VAST Support and check that the test call home message was received in our #support slack channel.

      If the call home bundle is not sent successfully, you may need to set up firewall rules to allow the call home bundle to be sent.

 

Making Call Home Settings via CLI

To make call home settings via VAST CLI, use the following commands.

Tip

For full CLI command syntax, including VAST arguments, enter the command at the CLI prompt in the <command> <subcommand> format provided in the table, followed by ?.

Task

Command

Display call home settings

callhomeconfig list

callhomeconfig show

Modify call home settings

callhomeconfig modify

Send a test call home bundle

callhomeconfig send
 
 

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