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Sending a Support Bundle via VAST Web UI

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If your support agent asks you to create a support bundle for troubleshooting purposes, follow this procedure. The bundle creation process extracts information from your VAST Cluster into a compressed file that you can send to us. There is also an option to download support bundle files to your own machine.

You may choose to obfuscate sensitive data.

By default, data is collected from all CNodes and DNodes. Optionally you can restrict it to specific nodes.

Support bundle files are not automatically overwritten when a new bundle file is created.

Creating a Support Bundle

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Support and then Bundles

  2. Click + Create Support Bundle.

  3. In the Create Support Bundle dialog, complete these fields:

    Preset

    Select a category (or categories) that best suits the issue for which you are creating the support bundle.

    Each category includes a predefined set of data objects in the support bundle. Verify with your support engineer which category is suitable for your needs.

    This field is optional. The default is the 'Standard' preset.

    Prefix (required)

    Enter an identifying label to include in the bundle file name.

    The prefix can contain up to 64 characters. Special characters are not allowed (except _ and -). The first character must be a letter or digit.

    The name of the bundle will be bundle-<preset>-<cluster name>-<prefix>-<timestamp>.tar, where <prefix> is the prefix specified here. If the bundle is obfuscated (--obfuscate option, below), <cluster-name> is omitted.

    For example, if the prefix is MyUrgentIssue, a bundle using the mini preset created at exactly 7:45 am UTC on September 3rd, 2020 on a cluster called cluster1 would be named bundle-mini-cluster1-MyUrgentIssue-2020-09-03-074500.tar.

    Start time

    Specify a start time in UTC+0 for the period from which to collect information.

    End time

    Specify an end time in UTC+0 for the period to collect information.

    It's usually advisable to consult with the support engineer on the time frame so that you can make it as short as possible and minimize the size of the bundle.

    Obfuscated

    Converts all bundled objects to text and obfuscates them. Any data that cannot be converted to text is not included in the bundle. The following types of information are replaced with a non-reversible hash: file and directory names, IP addresses, host names, user names, MAC addresses.

    Delete after send

    The bundle is deleted from the cluster after it is sent to VAST.

  4. Optionally, select Advanced to further specify which data to collect, and also configure upload settings:

    CNodes only

    Enable this setting to collect data from CNodes only.

    DNodes only

    Enable this setting to collect data from DNodes only.

    CNode

    Select specific CNodes to collect data from those CNodes and not from the other CNodes. This selection is ignored if DNodes only is selected.

    Note

    If you selected the Metadata preset, you can choose only one CNode.

    DNode

    Select specific DNodes to collect data from those DNodes and not from the other DNodes. This selection is ignored if CNodes only is selected.

    VIPPool

    Select virtual IP pools to collect data only from CNodes that are included in these pools.

    Hubble args

    Enter any arguments to pass to Hubble, per instructions from the support engineer.

    Astron args

    Enter any arguments to pass to Astron, per instructions from the support engineer.

    Max binary trace size (GB)

    Enter a maximum data limit to apply to the collection of binary trace files, in GB.

    Luna

    Select commands for Luna, from the list. Luna is a postprocessing tool that can process data collected in support bundles.

    Maximum bundle size (GiB)

    Set the maximum bundle size (in GiB).

    Split time (in seconds)

    Set the time interval (in seconds) for splitting large bundles. in order to upload them as a set of smaller files.

    If this value is set, Delete after send must also be set.

    Default: 300s.

  5. Do either of the following:

    • Click Create to create a support bundle.

      The bundle is created and listed in the Bundles page, from where you can upload it to VAST Data Support at any time.

    • Click Create & Upload to create a support bundle and upload it immediately to to VAST Data Support.

Uploading a Support Bundle

When bundle creation is completed, the bundle can be uploaded to VAST Data Support.

You can upload the support bundle to VAST Data Support immediately upon bundle creation or at a later time.

To have a support bundle uploaded immediately upon its creation, complete the upload settings in the Advanced pane in the Create Support Bundle dialog.

To upload a created support bundle at a later time:

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Support and then Bundles

  2. Open the Actions menu for the bundle and select Upload.

    The Upload bundle to S3 dialog appears.

  3. Click Upload.

    The upload begins.

  4. While the upload is in process, you'll see the Activities icon at the top of the page. Once upload is complete, it will disappear. The upload task is logged in the Activities page, which you can open from the menu.

Downloading a Support Bundle to Your Local Machine

You can download a support bundle to your local machine.

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Support and then Bundles

  2. Open the Actions menu for the bundle and select Download.

    The bundle file is downloaded to your machine.

Deleting a Support Bundle

When you delete a support bundle, the corresponding bundle files are deleted from the nodes, and the bundle entry is removed from the displayed list.

Caution

Do not try to delete a support bundle before it is completely created. This will cause unexpected behavior. You cannot delete a bundle that is in state CREATING, COMPLETING, UPLOADING or DELETING. You can delete a bundle in QUEUED state.

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Support and then Bundles

  2. Open the Actions menu for the bundle and select Delete.

  3. Click Yes to confirm.

    The bundle is deleted.