Using the Lenovo XClarity Mobile app

Prerequisites

• iOS tablets are supported at iPhone screen-resolution only. Android tablets are not currently supported.

• The following mobile operating systems are supported:

  • Android 7 – 11

  • iOS 10 and later

    Note:

    • Android 5 is supported only for XClarity Mobile 2.3.0 and earlier.

    • Facial recognition that is used on iPhone X/XR/XS devices is not supported.

• Ensure that a network connection is available from your mobile device to the XClarity Administrator instances. This might require the use of a VPN solution. See your network administrator for assistance.

• Import the CA certificate for each XClarity Administrator instance.

  Important: All connections to XClarity Administrator use HTTPS. However, there must be a valid certificate chain before the connection is considered trusted and data can be passed to the mobile device. To create a trusted certificate chain, you must import the XClarity Administrator self-signed certificate authority (CA) into the mobile device.

  To import the self-signed CA certificate for each XClarity Administrator instance into the mobile device, complete the following steps.

  1. Download the CA certificate to a local system:

     1. Connect to the XClarity Administrator instance using a web browser on your local system.
     2. From the XClarity Administrator menu bar, click Administration > Security to display the Security page.
     3. Click Certificate Authority under the Certificate Management section. The Certificate Authority page is displayed.

     4. Click Download Certificate Authority Root Certificate.

        Attention: Normally, it is not necessary to click Regenerate Certificate Authority Root Certificate to complete this process. Doing so might disrupt communication with managed devices unless the correct procedure is followed. For more information, see Working with security certificates.

     5. Click Save as der or Save as pem to save the CA certificate as a DER or PEM file on your local system. PEM format works in most cases.

  2. Transfer the CA certificate file to your mobile device, for example, by using an accessible storage repository (such as Dropbox™), email, or file transfer through a connected cable.

  3. Import the trusted CA certificate:

     • (Android) Typically this is done by selecting Settings > Security > Install from phone storage, and then selecting the certificate file that you downloaded.

       Important: If your successfully installed CA certificate is not signed by a third party, the Network may be monitored by an unknown third-party message is displayed on Android devices. Because the CA certificate is generated in your trusted environment, this message can be safely ignored. Ensure that the message is for the XClarity Administrator CA certificate before ignoring the message.

     • (iOS) Open the email on your mobile device, and click the document link in the email to import the trusted CA certificate.

     Attention: For iOS 10.3 and later, imported certificates are not trusted by default. To trust the certificates, select Settings > General > About > Certificate Trust Settings, and then enable the certificate trust.

Installing and setting up

1. Download the XClarity Mobile app from iTunes App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store (Android).

   Note: Users in China can also download the Android version from Lenovo app store (乐商城), Baidu app store website (百度手机助手) or Tencent app store website (应用宝). After logging in to the website, search for XClarity.

2. To install the app, follow instructions on the mobile device.

   Important: A mobile OS-level security code to unlock screen access is required to use the XClarity Mobile app. If one is not already set up, you are instructed to set one up during installation.

3. Click Settings to add or edit connections to multiple XClarity Administrator instances using the automatic discovery or by providing an IP address and user credentials, set a PIN code for the app, change the event and audit log settings, and select your preferred language.

Connecting directly to ThinkSystem servers

Lenovo Think System servers include a front panel USB port that you can use to connect to your mobile device to provide similar capabilities that were available on the LCD system-information display panel on other Lenovo servers.

To manage a ThinkSystem server by directly connecting to server, complete these steps.

1. Switch the server front panel USB from host to BMC by performing one of the following steps.

   1. From the management controller CLI, run the usbfp command

   2. From the management controller web interface, click BMC Configuration > Network > Front Panel USB Port Management.

   3. Hold the blue ID location LED on the front panel for at least 3 seconds until the light blinks every couple of seconds.

2. Connect your phone USB cable to the front panel USB port on the ThinkSystem server.

3. On your mobile device, enable USB tethering.

   1. For iOS, click Settings > Cellular > Personal Hotspot.

   2. For Android, click Settings > Mobile hotspot and tethering > USB tethering.

4. On your mobile device, launch the XClarity Mobile app.

5. If automatic discovery is disabled, click Discovery on the USB Discovery page to connect to the server’s management controller and collect information, including inventory, health, firmware, network configuration, and a list of the latest active events.

Using demonstration mode

You can enable Demonstration Mode on the Settings page to populate the XClarity Mobile app with demo data for two XClarity Administrator instances, including racks and chassis. In this mode, you can view the status summary of the XClarity Administrator instances, view detailed status and inventory of devices, and monitor events and alerts. However, management actions, such as powering on and off, are not supported.

Searching

You can use the Search field to display managed devices with a specific name or status (Critical, Warning, or Normal). For example, if you search for crit, only managed devices in the Critical status and with names that include crit are displayed.

Resolving issues

Installation issues:

• The Android mobile app is "signed" with a secure key to enhance security. The secure key size was increased in the new release. Because the signed app does not match the earlier apps signature, the Android installation security process prevents the automatic update.

  To update the mobile app, uninstall the current version of the mobile app, download the latest version of the Android app from the app store, and reinstall the app. On most Android devices, the app can be uninstalled using the Settings > Applications > Application Manager menu item.

Connectivity issues:

• The USB tethering function in iOS 14, 14.0.1, and 14.0.2 is not working correctly, and therefore, the Lenovo XClarity Mobile app tethering function is not available for these iOS versions. This affects only the USB-attached handheld management in the datacenter. Remote management using mobile devices that support cellular and Wi-Fi communications are not affected and can be used to connect and collect data from XClarity Administrator and to perform management actions on managed devices.

  If the USB-attached handheld management function is needed, do not upgrade to iOS 14.

  This notification will be updated when Apple resolves the issue with iOS 14.

• XClarity Mobile requires an available network connection from your mobile device to the XClarity Administrator instances. This might require the use of a VPN solution. See your network administrator for assistance.

• Connections from your mobile device to each XClarity Administrator instance require a trusted certificate chain. See the online documentation for instructions to download and install the trusted CA certificates on your mobile device.

  If your successfully installed CA certificate is not signed by a third party, the Network may be monitored by an unknown third-party message is displayed. Because the CA certificate is generated in your trusted environment, this message can be safely ignored. Ensure that the message is for the XClarity Administrator CA certificate before ignoring the message.

• When switching your mobile device from a virtual private network (VPN) to a local network or vice versa, you might see the message The secure gateway has rejected the connection attempt. A new connection attempt to the same or other secure gateway is needed, which requires reauthentication. Log on to Lenovo XClarity Mobile to continue using the app.

Security issues:

• If you forget your PIN code, uninstall and reinstall the XClarity Mobile app. Then, re-establish all connections.

• If you clear credentials on an Android device, the encryption key is erased. You must re-establish all connections.

Event issues:

• By default, the event log shows hardware and management events that were received in the last 24 hours, and the audit log shows audit events that were received in the last 2 hours. If no events were received during the selected time periods, then the event log and audit log are not shown on the Monitoring page in XClarity Mobile.

• If you set up event forwarding in XClarity Administrator to send events to an email account, links in the email might not work on Android devices. Ensure that your version of Android and your email app support hyperlinks. If hyperlinks are unsupported, use another email app.

Help system issues:

• On some devices, the help system does not scale correctly to the size of the screen. Use the help-system controls to maximize and then minimize the page.