IBM Support

Spectrum Virtualize Remote Support IP addresses are changing

News


Abstract

The Remote Support feature that allows IBM to remotely connect to Spectrum Virtualize products requires the device to initiate a connection back to IBM on a set of fixed IP addresses. The IP addresses used for this feature are changing in 2022.

Important Update: The deadline for making this update is now earlier than previously announced. More details in the content section.

Clients that use Remote Support need to update their product and any firewall, HTTP proxies, or Remote Support proxies to continue to use Remote Support without interruption.

A number of other IBM Storage products are also affected by this change. Links to details about the other products are included at the end of the document.

Content

To continue to allow IBM to provide remote support for your Spectrum Virtualize system, you need to make some changes to your environment before the end of December 2022.
Update: Due to an unexpected infrastructure change there will only be a single, non-redundant, remote support server available to support clients between 1 November 2022 and 31 December 2022.  Clients are advised to update their environments to use the new servers before the end of October.
There are also changes to Fix Central IP addresses that require changes before the next Remote Code Upgrade is scheduled.
The new remote support IP addresses are active and ready to use.  For security reasons they do not respond to ping requests.
Spectrum Virtualize Configuration
The Spectrum Virtualize configuration must be updated to add the new IP addresses.
The simplest way to achieve this change is to download and run the software upgrade test utility v36.0 or higher, which updates the configuration automatically. 
Alternatively, use the mksystemsupportcenter -proxy no -ip X.X.X.X -port 22  command to add the additional IP addresses manually.
The list of currently configured remote support servers can be validated by using the lssystemsupportcenter command.
Note:  It is not possible to delete the default system support center servers (id 0 and 1).
Remote Support Proxy
IBM provides an optional product known as a Remote Support proxy that can be installed in your environment.  This proxy coalesces the remote support traffic for multiple storage devices into a single server and tunnels the traffic through an HTTPS connection.
Any Remote Support Proxy installations must be upgraded to v1.3.2.2 or higher
Note:  The Remote Support proxy was deprecated in Spectrum Virtualize 8.4.2 and higher.  The newer releases of software can use an industry standard HTTP proxy instead of the Remote Support proxy.
Firewall Configuration
Any firewall holes that were created to allow connections to the current IP addresses must be updated with the new IP addresses.
Source Target Port Protocol Direction
Existing Remote Support Servers
These firewall holes can be removed once new servers are configured and running
 The service IP address of every node or node canister 129.33.206.139 204.146.30.139 22 ssh Outbound only
New Remote Support Servers The service IP address of every node or node canister
170.225.126.11
170.225.126.12
170.225.127.11
170.225.127.12
 22 ssh Outbound only
Note - Port 22 is used for direct connections, but any traffic routed through either an HTTP proxy or the dedicated remote support proxy use port 443
HTTP Proxy Configuration
Any HTTP proxies that are used for Remote Support connections might need to update configurations to allow connections to the new IP addresses.
IP address details
The current IP addresses used for remote support are:
  • 129.33.206.139
  • 204.146.30.139
The new IP addresses for remote support are:
  • 170.225.126.11 - xrsc-front-srv-1.southdata.ibm.com
  • 170.225.126.12 - xrsc-front-srv-2.southdata.ibm.com
  • 170.225.127.11 - xrsc-front-srv-3.eastdata.ibm.com
  • 170.225.127.12 - xrsc-front-srv-4.eastdata.ibm.com
Fix Central Code Download - Firewall Configuration
IBM Announced in https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6573219 that there would be a number of changes to some central support infrastructure. 
The only impact of this announcement for Spectrum Virtualize customers is related to downloading code directly from Fix Central as part of the Remote Code Load process.
Systems running V8.4.1 or earlier that have configured their systems to use Remote Code Load might also need to update their firewall rules because the IP addresses of delivery04.dhe.ibm.com are changing. The only change required is to update firewall rules to permit connections to the replacement IP addresses
Direct connection to Fix Central on port 22 was deprecated in V8.4.2.  Systems running V8.4.2 or higher download code via esupport.ibm.com on port 443.
The Fix Central DNS names were updated to point to the new IP addresses on 4 June 2022.  Spectrum Virtualize devices use DNS to connect to Fix Central, therefore all connections will automatically be connecting to the new IP addresses.
Source Target Port Protocol Direction
Existing Fix Central IP addresses
These IP addresses are no longer usable, so the firewall holes should be removed.
 The service IP address of every node or node canister
170.225.15.105
170.225.15.104
170.225.15.107
129.35.224.105
129.35.224.104
129.35.224.107
 22 sftp Outbound only
New Fix Central IP addresses The service IP address of every node or node canister
170.225.126.44
 22 sftp Outbound only
Additional IBM Support IP address changes that do not affect Spectrum Virtualize products.
The following notification was sent out relating to additional IP address changes.  These changes do not affect Spectrum Virtualize products
Other IBM Storage products that are also affected by this change
The following products make use of the same infrastructure for providing remote dial-in capabilities and will be notifying their customers about any changes that might be required soon. This page will be updated with links to related documentation when it is available.

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Document Information

Modified date:
08 November 2023

UID

ibm16556434

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