Today, VMware is very pleased to announce that VMware vCenter Support Assistant 5.1 is now generally available to the public.

VMware vCenter Support Assistant 5.1 is a free, downloadable plug-in for VMware vCenter Server. It provides an easy-to-use, secure, one-stop shop both for creating and managing support requests and generating and uploading logs. It is deployed as a virtual appliance and integrates with VMware vCenter Server as a plug-in that can be accessed using either the VMware vSphere Client or the VMware vSphere Web Client.

Check out this short Demo!

OK you say? Where are the goods? Jump right in with these links, or read on for a more in-depth introduction.

Figure 1: VMware vCenter Support Assistant Conceptual View.

Easily open or view the status of any existing support request, add comments, reply to support engineer queries, and attach diagnostic information or other files such as screenshots. It also includes a VMware Knowledge Base search capability, which enables you to resolve common issues more rapidly. The vCenter Support Assistant plug-in helps you gather diagnostic information up front from your vSphere environment that VMware Technical Support finds most useful.

You can also use VMware vCenter Support Assistant to file support requests for any product that you already have support entitlement for whether that entitlement is by subscription, or paid for incident packs. With just a few clicks, VMware vCenter Support Assistant can directly generate log support bundles from the following products:

VMware vCenter Server

5.1*

5.0*

4.1

* Includes both VMware vCenter Server for Windows and the VMware vCenter Server Appliance.



VMware vSphere (ESX or ESXi)

5.1

5.0

4.1

NOTES: Access to public Internet is not required for the VMware vCenter Server, but is required for the VMware vCenter Support Assistant virtual appliance and the vSphere Client. Refer to the System Requirements.

All files are sent securely using SSL.

Since log files may contain sensitive, confidential, and/or personal information, the VMware vCenter Support Assistant provides the optional capability to scrub logs prior to submission.

Technical Guide

The following guide is depicted using the VMware vSphere Client; however, VMware vCenter Support Assistant plugin-in also works with VMware vSphere Web Client introduced in VMware vSphere 5.1

Accessing VMware vCenter Support Assistant

Once deployed and registered, VMware vCenter Support Assistant will appear under the Solutions and Applications in the Home tab in the vSphere Client. The Support Assistant plug-in will also appear under “Classic Solutions” in the VMware Web Client.

Figure 2: VMware vCenter Support Assistant in Solutions and Applications.

Once VMware vCenter Support Assistant is selected, the solution will present a login screen. This login screen allows you the user to access My VMware directly from the solution, create a case, review or update a case, and attach diagnostics or other attachments.

Figure 3: Login to My VMware.

Once logged in, the user will have the option to View or Create a Technical Support Request through VMware vCenter Support Assistant.

Creating a New Technical Support Request

Let’s take moment to create a new Technical Support Request by selecting “Create a New SR.” Once you login, you will be checked against your entitlements and allowed to open a Service Request against all the eligible products. You can also review and update a Support Request and attach log support bundles or other attachments.

Figure 4: View or Create a Technical Support Request.

After selecting the option “Create a New SR”, the user is prompted to select the account associated with their My VMware account as well as the product related to the issue.

Figure 5: Select Account and Product.

Once the account and product are selected, the user is prompted to describe the problem. Knowledgebase Articles will appear for the user as they do on My VMware.

Figure 6: Describe the Problem and Suggested Resources.

Next, the user is prompted to provide the severity level based on business impact, category, detailed description, etc in the Contact and Support Request Details.

Figure 7: Contact and Support Request Details.

Once the creation of the Technical Support Request is completed the user receives a on-screen confirmation with the support request number.

Figure 8: Create Support Request Confirmation

Uploading Diagnostics

After the new Technical Support Request is created, the user is prompted to either upload or finish the task. It is highly recommended that the user collect and upload the diagnostics immediately and attaches them to the support request to expedite support. So, let’s select “Yes – Upload” from the Create Support Request Confirmation to initiate the collection from the desired hosts.

Figure 9: Select Hosts.

Next, the user is prompted to select the System Logs desired for the diagnostics bundle as well as the option to collect performance data.

Figure 10: Select System Logs and Performance Data Option.

Once the user has selected the hosts and system logs, they are asked to confirm and initiate the upload procedure. This upload is run in the background and all transfers are sent via HTTPS to VMware from the VMware vCenter Support Assistant virtual appliance.

Figure 11: Confirm and Initiate Upload.

Once the user selects to start the collection and upload, the following dialog is presented. This dialog presents the status of the log collection progress for the support request. This dialog can be closed with the “X” and the collection and upload will continue as a background process, which we will show in a moment. Please note, the vSphere Client / vSphere Web Client should be open till the logs are fully downloaded and upload starts. Uploading of logs is handled in the background and the user does not need to be logged into vSphere Client / vSphere Web Client. If the dialog remains open and collection and upload completes, the user will be prompted with a completion status dialog.

Figure 12: Log Collection Progress.

The collection and upload progress can also be checked by selecting “Upload Activity” in the top right navigation. This will display the status, start and end date/time on all recorded uploads.

Figure 13: Upload Activity.

Viewing Technical Support Requests

Let’s take a moment to view and update an existing Technical Support Request by selecting “View / Modify Existing SR” from VMware vCenter Support Assistant solution home screen.

Figure 14: View or Create a Technical Support Request.

After selecting “View / Modify Existing SR” the user is displayed a list of technical support requests linked to their My VMware account. Notice that support request 12217135709 created earlier is listed and highlighted. The user is able to view the details of the request, initiate diagnostics collection, and add attachments with ease.

Figure 15: Select Support Request. Get Details, Collect/Upload Diagnostics and Add Attachments.

By selecting “Details” the user is able to view the details of the support request as well as add additional comments.

Cool Feature – Notice that VMware vCenter Support Assistant adds a comment to the support request notes confirming the upload of diagnostics to VMware.

Figure 16: Support Request Details.

By selecting “Upload Attachment” after selecting a case from the Select Support Case screen, the user can provide additional information to the engineers, such as screenshots, diagrams or other logs.

Figure 17: Add Attachments.

Ryan Johnson is a Senior Technical Account Manager in Professional Services at VMware. Ryan is a member of the VMware Technical Account Manager Program and provides cross-functional advisory and customer advocacy services, backed by the full resources of the VMware organization. He and other members of the team partner with customers to help realize their success with VMware solutions, accelerate their return on VMware investments and mitigate risk. Find out more about the VMware Technical Account Manager Program at vmware.com/go/tam/.

Follow the VMware Technical Account Manager Program on Twitter as @VMwareTAM and follow Ryan @tenthirtyam