Category: Uncategorized

Wide Area Network Support (Remote Network Maintenance)

Epicor strives to provide you with the best solutions on the market and the highest quality support. In order to do this we must differentiate between customers who want the service from us versus those who do not. Epicor customers who subscribe to this service will get the highest quality service.   If you do not subscribe to this optional service any Wide Area Network Support, consulting and or network support requests that are placed (online or by phone) are subject to be billed at a time material on a case-by-case basis.

Customers have four options with any network support issue or network consulting:

  • Self-Support (local IT staff)
  • Outsource to IT consultant
  • Contract Epicor Wide Area Network support with the fixed annual rate
  • Epicor assistance on case-by-case basis for time and materials

Epicor Wide Area Network Support (RNM) includes such benefits as:

  • Assist with connectivity issues to your servers
  • Diagnose network performance issues
  • Apply firewall software upgrades
  • Assist with provider and or vendor changes
  • Monitor hardware
  • Firewall troubleshooting and configuration
  • Assistance with VPN client troubleshooting and remotely accessing your network
  • Assist with LAN issues
  • Conference calling third parties to resolve your issues
  • Consulting
  • And much more

For more information about Epicor Wide Area Network Support or to receive a quote, please e-mail or call us at 1-800-776-7438, press 2.

FAQ

Q: Why do I have to pay for network support?
A: We have traditionally offered a level of free technical network support for Eclipse customers on a case by case basis, but increases in the volume of support requests have forced the company to start charging for these services. By establishing a clear support policy and charging a reasonable fee for these services, the Network team can deliver focused technical support for issues surrounding the Eclipse platform in a manner not previously possible.

Q: Is “Wide Area Network (RNM)” mandatory?
A: No. You may choose to perform your own network administration, or you may hire a 3rd party. You may also pay for network support outside of a support contract at normal hourly rates, subject to resource availability.

Q: What are your hours of operation?
A: We are available 24/7. However if you are outside the hours of 8 AM – 5 PM in your timezone this is considered emergency support and is subject to our normal emergency billing procedures.

Q: What is your policy on hardware replacement under this support contract?
A:  Network equipment (in stock hardware) under this agreement that is found to be defective or faulty will be replaced at the discretion of a network engineer. Equipment that has reached End of Life or End of Sale as determined by the manufacturer and/or Epicor will not be replaced.  Epicor will troubleshoot End of Life equipment and End of Sale equipment, however since the product is not sold, manufactured or supported it will not be replaced. 

Q: Do you have a list of End of Life or End of Sale products?
A: Cisco regularly publishes and updates a list available here http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/prod_end_of_life.html. 

Some common EOL/EOS hardware or software that Epicor customers may have are:

Q: Can I purchase WAN/RNM on a device I purchased myself?
A: Sure.  If the model is an “in stock item”, hardware replacement would be covered.  If it is not you’d have access to all other services under this support contract. Please contact your inside sales rep to review the hardware you have or would like coverage on.

Q: If I purchased new hardware will coverage transfer to my new hardware?
A: Yes please consult an Epicor support engineer prior to purchasing any hardware.   The coverage will be extended to that device, howerver it will not cover hardware replacement.

Configure DNS on AIX

Configure DNS

To configure DNS on an AIX server:

Add the DNS server(s) to the /etc/resolv.conf configuration file:

vi /etc/resolv.conf

Add or update line(s) for each DNS server, one per line, as shown in the example below:

nameserver 192.168.1.100
nameserver 192.168.1.101

Enable DNS in the /etc/netsvc.conf configuration file:

vi /etc/netsvc.conf

At the bottom of the file, comment out the existing hosts entry, and add one that enables name lookups via DNS (aka bind), as shown in the example below:

#hosts=local
hosts=local,bind

Disabling DNS

If DNS is enabled but not working properly, you may see issues such as delayed OS logins or JBoss not starting correctly. To troubleshoot these and similar issues, we recommend that you temporarily disable DNS and try recreating the problem.

First, comment out any entries in the /etc/resolv.conf file:

vi /etc/resolv.conf

#nameserver 192.168.1.1

Then, change the hosts line in the /etc/netsvc.conf back to use only the local /etc/hosts file for lookups, as shown in the example below:

vi /etc/netsvc.conf

hosts=local
#hosts=local,bind

Troubleshooting DNS

To test whether or not DNS is working, you can try pinging an Internet address or looking up names, as shown in the examples below:

ping epicor.com
nslookup epicor.com

You should also verify that your Eclipse server is configured with a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) that can be looked up via both its name and IP address. For example, a server with the hostname eclipse.customername.com and an IP address of 192.168.1.100 should show now errors when running nslookups on both entries:

nslookup eclipse
nslookup eclipse.customername.com
nslookup 192.168.1.100

Enable Access to CUPS Web Interface

To enable access  the CUPS web interface from the network:

Edit the cups configuration file by first running the following command on your server:

vim /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

Find the section that looks like this:

# Only listen for connections from the local machine.
Listen localhost:631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock

Modify it to look like this:

# Only listen for connections from the local machine.
Port 631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock

Next, find the section that looks like this:

< Location / >
# Restrict access to the server...
Order allow,deny
< /Location >
< Location /admin >
# Restrict access to the admin pages...
Order allow,deny
< /Location >
< Location /admin/conf >
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
# Restrict access to the configuration files...
Order allow,deny
< /Location >

Modify it to look like this:

< Location / >
# Restrict access to the server...
Order allow,deny
Allow all
< /Location >
< Location /admin >
# Restrict access to the admin pages...
Order allow,deny
Allow all
< /Location >
< Location /admin/conf >
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
# Restrict access to the configuration files...
Order allow,deny
Allow all
< /Location >

Restart the service:

service cups restart

You should now be able to log into cups on your server with:
http://YOURSERVERIPADDRESS:631/

Creating a New Red Hat Account

Note: if you have an existing Red Hat account for your company, you should not create a new account. If you need to create an additional username for your account, do so from the Red Hat User Management website (https://www.redhat.com/wapps/ugc/protected/usermgt/userList.html).

To create a new Red Hat account for your company:

A screencast of this process is included below:

To activate a RHEL subscription and locate the Red Hat account number for your company: