You should use HTTPS for delivery of AutoSupport messages to provide the best security and to support all of the latest AutoSupport features. Although AutoSupport supports HTTP and SMTP for delivery of AutoSupport messages, HTTPS is recommended.

Supported protocols

All of these protocols run on IPv4 or IPv6, based on the address family to which the name resolves.

Protocol and port	Description
HTTPS on port 443	This is the default protocol. You should use this whenever possible. This protocol supports uploads of large files. The certificate from the remote server is validated against the root certificate, unless you disable validation. The delivery uses an HTTP PUT request. With PUT, if the request fails during transmission, the request restarts where it stopped. If the server receiving the request does not support PUT, the delivery uses an HTTP POST request.
HTTP on port 80	This protocol is preferred over SMTP. This protocol supports uploads of large files. The delivery uses an HTTP PUT request. With PUT, if the request fails during transmission, the request restarts where it stopped. If the server receiving the request does not support PUT, the delivery uses an HTTP POST request.
SMTP on port 25 or another port	You should use this protocol only if the network connection does not allow HTTPS or HTTP. The default port value is 25, but you can configure AutoSupport to use a different port. Keep the following limitations in mind when using SMTP: Uploads of large files are not supported. Data is not encrypted. SMTP sends data in clear text, making text in the AutoSupport message easy to intercept and read. Limitations on message length and line length can be introduced.

Protocol and port

Description

HTTPS on port 443

This is the default protocol. You should use this whenever possible.

This protocol supports uploads of large files.

The certificate from the remote server is validated against the root certificate, unless you disable validation.

The delivery uses an HTTP PUT request. With PUT, if the request fails during transmission, the request restarts where it stopped. If the server receiving the request does not support PUT, the delivery uses an HTTP POST request.

HTTP on port 80

This protocol is preferred over SMTP.

This protocol supports uploads of large files.

SMTP on port 25 or another port

You should use this protocol only if the network connection does not allow HTTPS or HTTP.

The default port value is 25, but you can configure AutoSupport to use a different port.

Keep the following limitations in mind when using SMTP:

Uploads of large files are not supported.
Data is not encrypted.

SMTP sends data in clear text, making text in the AutoSupport message easy to intercept and read.
Limitations on message length and line length can be introduced.

If you configure AutoSupport with specific email addresses for your internal support organization, or a support partner organization, those messages are always sent by SMTP.

For example, if you use the recommended protocol to send messages to Fujitsu Support and you also want to send messages to your internal support organization, your messages will be transported using both HTTPS and SMTP, respectively.

AutoSupport limits the maximum file size for each protocol. The default setting for HTTP and HTTPS transfers is 25 MB. The default setting for SMTP transfers is 5 MB. If the size of the AutoSupport message exceeds the configured limit, AutoSupport delivers as much of the message as possible. You can edit the maximum size by modifying AutoSupport configuration. See the system node autosupport modify man page for more information.

AutoSupport automatically overrides the maximum file size limit for the HTTPS and HTTP protocols when you generate and send AutoSupport messages that upload core dump or performance archive files to the Fujitsu support site or a specified URI. The automatic override applies only when you upload files by using the system node autosupport invoke-core-upload or the system node autosupport invoke-performance-archive commands.

Configuration requirements

Depending on your network configuration, use of HTTP or HTTPS protocols may require additional configuration of a proxy URL. If you use HTTP or HTTPS to send AutoSupport messages to Fujitsu Support and you have a proxy, you must identify the URL for that proxy. If the proxy uses a port other than the default port, which is 3128, you can specify the port for that proxy. You can also specify a user name and password for proxy authentication.

If you use SMTP to send AutoSupport messages either to your internal support organization or to Fujitsu Support, you must configure an external mail server. The storage system does not function as a mail server; it requires an external mail server at your site to send mail. The mail server must be a host that listens on the SMTP port (25) or another port, and it must be configured to send and receive 8-bit Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) encoding. Example mail hosts include a UNIX host running an SMTP server such as the sendmail program and a Windows server running the Microsoft Exchange server. You can have one or more mail hosts.