AutoSupport transport protocols

AutoSupport supports HTTPS, HTTP, and SMTP as the transport protocols for delivering AutoSupport messages to NetApp technical support. All of these protocols run on IPv4 or IPv6 based on the address family the name resolves to. If you enable AutoSupport messages to your internal support organization, those messages are sent by SMTP.

Protocol availability varies with the destination of the AutoSupport messages:

•	If you enable AutoSupport to send messages to NetApp technical support, you can use any of the following transport protocols:

Protocol and port	Description
HTTPS on port 443	This is the default protocol. You should use this whenever possible. 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 left off. 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. The delivery uses an HTTP PUT request. With PUT, if the request fails during transmission, the request restarts where it left off. If the server receiving the request does not support PUT, the delivery uses an HTTP POST request.
SMTP on port 25	You should use this protocol only if the network connection does not allow HTTPS or HTTP, because SMTP can introduce limitations on message length and line length.

•	If you configure AutoSupport with specific e-mail addresses for your internal support organization, those messages are always sent by SMTP.

For example, if you use the recommended protocol to send messages to NetApp technical support and you also want to send messages your internal support organization, your messages would be transported via both HTTPS and SMTP, respectively.

The protocols require the following additional configuration:

•

If you use HTTP or HTTPS to send AutoSupport messages to NetApp technical support and you have a proxy, you must identify the proxy's URL. If the proxy uses a port other than the default port, which is 3128, you can specify the proxy's port. You can also specify a username and password for proxy authentication.

•

If you use SMTP to send AutoSupport messages either to your internal support organization or to NetApp technical support, you must have 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), 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 NT server running the Microsoft Exchange server. You can have one or more mail hosts.

No matter what transport protocol you use, you can use IPv4 or IPv6 addresses based on the address family that the name resolves to.