Monitoring: SNMP, syslog, Call Home, remote support

Your bank has a pair of monitoring servers at 10.20.30.40 and 10.20.30.41, plus a storage team mailbox. You’ll switch on the notifications the DS CLI controls, check them and look at the remote support settings, and then see the real commands for the parts the practice shell doesn’t cover.

Practice shell note: the practice shell is our own teaching tool, not IBM software. Real DS CLI output looks very close to this but isn’t identical. The shell supports chsp, showsp and lsaccess, while syslog, offload and the HMC Service Web UI are shown as real commands you’d run on a real system. CMUN03060E is a practice shell message.

1Start clean

You don’t need a setup script for this lab.

Run this:

python ds8sim.py
dscli> simctl reset

✅ Checkpoint: the shell prints SIM0100I.

2Look at the storage complex settings

Run this:

showsp

You should see this:

dscli> showsp
Date/Time: 24 October 2026 11:14:53 UTC IBM DSCLI Version: 7.10.10.348 DS: IBM.2107-78SV001
Name           IbmStoragePlex
desc           -
acct           -
SNMP           Disabled
SNMPadd        -
emailnotify    Disabled
emailaddr      -
emailrelay     Disabled
emailrelayaddr -
emailrelayhost -
numkssupported 4
loginprompt    Disabled
promptmessage  -
guisuggestions show

SNMP and email both show Disabled, which is how most new systems look until somebody does this job.

✅ Checkpoint: SNMP Disabled, SNMPadd -.

3Turn on SNMP traps to two servers

Two addresses, one comma, and no space.

Run these:

chsp -snmp on -snmpaddr 10.20.30.40,10.20.30.41
showsp

You should see this:

dscli> chsp -snmp on -snmpaddr 10.20.30.40,10.20.30.41
CMUC00040I chsp: Storage complex IbmStoragePlex successfully modified.
dscli> showsp
Date/Time: 24 October 2026 11:14:53 UTC IBM DSCLI Version: 7.10.10.348 DS: IBM.2107-78SV001
Name           IbmStoragePlex
desc           -
acct           -
SNMP           Enabled
SNMPadd        10.20.30.40,10.20.30.41
emailnotify    Disabled
emailaddr      -
emailrelay     Disabled
emailrelayaddr -
emailrelayhost -
numkssupported 4
loginprompt    Disabled
promptmessage  -
guisuggestions show

SNMP is now Enabled with both addresses, covering the operational traps (Copy Services, thin provisioning, encryption). Hardware traps (trap 3) are set up separately on each HMC, either by the IBM SSR or by you in the Service Web UI.

✅ Checkpoint: SNMPadd shows 10.20.30.40,10.20.30.41.

4Add email notification

Run this:

chsp -emailnotify on -emailaddr storage-team@saatbank.example

You should see this:

dscli> chsp -emailnotify on -emailaddr storage-team@saatbank.example
CMUC00040I chsp: Storage complex IbmStoragePlex successfully modified.

Use a team mailbox, never one person’s address, because people go on leave and mailboxes don’t.

✅ Checkpoint: chsp prints CMUC00040I.

5Check remote support access

Run this:

lsaccess -l

You should see this:

dscli> lsaccess -l
Date/Time: 24 October 2026 11:14:53 UTC IBM DSCLI Version: 7.10.10.348 DS: IBM.2107-78SV001
hmc  cmdline wui     modem    cim      aos     rsc     vpn
===============================================================
hmc1 enabled enabled disabled disabled enabled enabled disabled
hmc2 enabled enabled disabled disabled enabled enabled disabled

aos and rsc are enabled on both HMCs, which means IBM can be let in through Assist On-site or Remote Support Center, and cmdline and wui are the DS CLI and Service Web UI access. Agree with your security team which of these stay on, and change them with chaccess, for example chaccess -aos enable -hmc 1.

✅ Checkpoint: you can name what aos and rsc control.

6Confirm both HMCs are up

Run this:

lshmc

You should see this:

dscli> lshmc
Date/Time: 24 October 2026 11:14:53 UTC IBM DSCLI Version: 7.10.10.348 DS: IBM.2107-78SV001
Name          State  Role         Release                  Management-IP Location-Code    Machine-Type Machine-Model Memory Disk
================================================================================================================================
DS8A50-1A.LAB Online Primary(1)   R10.1 bundle 10.10.106.0 10.0.0.1      U7063CR2.78SV1DD 7063         CR2           33GB   1TB
DS8A50-1B.LAB Online Secondary(2) R10.1 bundle 10.10.106.0 10.0.0.2      U7063CR2.78SV2DD 7063         CR2           33GB   1TB

Call Home and traps come from the HMCs, so if an HMC is down its notifications stop. That’s why each HMC is configured separately and you need to monitor both.

✅ Checkpoint: both HMCs Online.

7On a real system: send audit and events to syslog

Your security team wants every login and change to show up in their SIEM. On a real DS8000 (not in the practice shell), using IBM’s syntax, the commands look like this:

dscli> mksyslogserver -addr 10.20.30.50 -protocol tls -cacert ca.pem -hmccert hmc.pem -hmckey hmc.key -type all soc-siem1
dscli> lssyslogserver -l

You should see something like this:

CMUC00508I mksyslogserver: The syslog server soc-siem1 has been created.
name      IP address  port state  access protocol type                HMC
=========================================================================
soc-siem1 10.20.30.50 514  active online tls      audit,message,event 1

The default port is 514. Every syslog server has to use the same protocol, and you can’t run this from the embedded DS CLI in the GUI.

✅ Checkpoint: you know the flags: -addr, -protocol, -cacert, -hmccert, -hmckey, -type.

8On a real system: offload data for IBM or an audit

dscli> offloadfile -config c:\dscli_offload
dscli> offloadauditlog -logaddr smc1 c:\temp\audit.txt

You should see something like this:

CMUC00428I offloadfile: The config file has been offloaded to c:\dscli_offload\productSettings.
CMUC00243I offloadauditlog: Audit log was successfully offloaded from smc1 to c:\temp\audit.txt.

offloadfile takes exactly one data set per command, such as -config, -auditlog, -perfdata or -pepackage. The audit log holds about 50 MB and trims the oldest entries first, so if you need a long history, offload it regularly.

✅ Checkpoint: you can name two offloadfile data sets.

9On a real system: test the whole chain

If you’ve never tested a notification, you can’t count on it. On each HMC, go to Manage Serviceable Event Notification in the Service Web UI and send a Test SNMP Trap, which creates reference code BEB20010, then check that your monitoring server shows it.

Ask IBM or your SSR to confirm the last heartbeat came through.

✅ Checkpoint: a test trap from each HMC reached your monitoring server.