Preparing customer firewalls and proxies for the upcoming infrastructure changes – Call Home, Electronic Fix Distribution

​Affected DomainCall Home and Electronic Fix Distribution
AbstractPublic internet IP addresses are changing for the IBM servers that support Call Home and electronic download of fixes for customer system’s software, hardware, and operating system. This change pertains to all operating systems and applications connecting to IBM for electronic Call Home and fix download.

Customer action might be required to ensure uninterrupted Call Home and fix delivery services.
DescriptionNew network connections between your machine and IBM servers are required to keep your ability to perform Call Home and download fixes. If you have a firewall in your network, you might need to make changes to allow the new connections.

Recommended ActionFirewall
IP addresses for esupport.ibm.com and www-945.ibm.com are changing.
Ensure as soon as possible that the following DNS names, IP addresses, and ports are open on your firewall. If these connections are NOT currently allowed, then you must create new firewall rules that allow them to flow.  Add firewall rules for ALL new IP addresses. Even the IP addresses not enabled until after 2023. Do NOT change or remove existing firewall rules.
Note 1: IP addresses are subject to change. Use DNS names whenever possible.
Note 2: Applies to protocols HTTPS (port 443)

Host name

Old IP addresses
(IPv4 and IPv6)

New IP addresses
(IPv4 and IPv6)

Target date
(New IP is enabled, old IP is disabled)

esupport.ibm.com

129.42.54.189
2620:0:6c4:200:129:42:54:189

129.42.21.70
2607:f0d0:3901:33:129:42:21:70

April 14, 2023

esupport.ibm.com

129.42.56.189
2620:0:6c4:200:129:42:56:189

129.42.18.70
2607:f0d0:1f01:9f:129:42:18:70

May 30, 2023

esupport.ibm.com

129.42.60.189
2620:0:6c4:200:129:42:60:189

129.42.19.70
2607:f0d0:2601:13:129:42:19:70

May 31, 2023

www-945.ibm.com

129.42.50.224
2620:0:6c4:1::1000

TBD
TBD

www-945.ibm.com

129.42.26.224
2620:0:6c0:1::1000

TBD
TBD

www-945.ibm.com
129.42.42.224
2620:0:6c2:1::1000
TBD
TBD

Note: Table will be updated for www-945.ibm.com once new IPs and dates are known.

Proxy server
If your machine does NOT have direct Internet access with your network configuration, then you must make sure that your proxy server is correctly configured to allow these previously mentioned connections to flow.

Questions & Answers
Q1) Am I impacted by this change?
A1: If you are using a IBM client side application or tool, doing electronic Call Home or electronic fix download, then you might be impacted by this change. If this change is not made before April 14, 2023, the ability to do Call Home, and download fixes from IBM might be impacted.

Q2) Which applications can be impacted by this change?
 
A2: IBM client application, operating system, or system tool that is performing Call Home or downloading fixes. Examples are Electronic Service Agent, Send PTF Order (SNDPTFORD), Service Update Management Assistant (SUMA), and TS3000 System Console (TSSC). Users of Fix Central are not affected by this change.

Q3) Which systems can be impacted by this change?
A2: All systems, which connect to IBM for Call Home services or download fixes that use the following hostnames, but, which have firewalls or proxies configured with IP addresses, are impacted:

esupport.ibm.com
www-945.ibm.com Read More 

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