IBM will Change Public IP Addresses for their Call Home Functionality
IBM are reminding customers that on 1st March 2024 the Public IP Addresses for esupport.ibm.com and www-945.ibm.com are changing. We recommend that customers check their Firewall settings or proxy servers to ensure that Call Home will continue to work after that date.
Call Home is an automatic, secure method of reporting hardware issues directly to IBM without user intervention. It’s best practice to allow Call Home because it automatically opens an IBM Support Case with all the relevant information for IBM to investigate and fix the issue, including providing replacement parts and organising an IBM Engineer if necessary. For customers whose Power server is managed by an HMC, it is the HMC which performs the Call Home. If the Call Home does not connect to IBM, then the customer will have to manually raise an IBM Support Case, potentially causing a delay in fix time.
How do I ensure Call Home will still work after IBM changes the Public IP Addresses?
You need to check your firewall will allow the DNS name and the new IP addresses as described here.
Does this affect IBM i Electronic Fix Distribution (SNDPTFORD)?
Yes, if you have configured your IBM i partition to allow it to securely download PTFs from IBM, then you will need to check your firewall rules as per the document.
IBM Power Systems Firmware Updates
It’s important to keep your firmware up to date on your Power server. It maximises performance, resilience and security of the platform. Chilli IT can help you update the firmware of your Power server to the IBM recommended level.