AP9641 Network Management Card - Email Timezone Issue

[Reuben.Farrelly]

I have an NMC 3 card (AP9641) which is configured and periodically sends emails for things like self-tests and any sort of power events.  This card has NMC firmware 2.2.1.1 which is the latest released version.

However despite having the correct timezone configured, and the card having the correct time (sync'd with NTP and has the correct time in the Date/Time mode configuration page), any emails that the card sends out are in this format which is invalid:

Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2022 11:29:17 0000

 This should read:

Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2022 21:29:17 +1000

The two issues with this are:

1. The timezone indicator does not have a required + symbol at the start, and

2. I have the NMC correctly configured with the correct timezone, so it should Date stamp with the current timezone not the GMT time

In fact the very same bug was seen on the NMC 2 cards, in this thread:

https://community.se.com/t5/APC-UPS-Data-Center-Enterprise/Date-format-in-email-alerts-from-Network-...

Can the bug fix for this be forward ported to these newer cards?  It is very annoying to have these emails appear in a mail client way up from the bottom of the list simply because the Date: header in the emails that the NMC sends out are both invalid and in the wrong timezone.

[JonPro]

Hi @Reuben.Farrelly,

Thank you for using the SE Community! I am sorry to hear about the issue that you are having with our network management card, rest assured that we would look into it.

May I know if you have raised a ticket through our support team in your country? If you did, may I please have the case number?

If you haven't raised a ticket yet, let us start by gathering the following information, kindly send them to me through DM.

• Business Name and address
• Contact Details - Name, phone number, and email address
• Serial Number of the NMC
• NMC Debug Files
• SMTP Server Logs
• Emails received including the full headers.

Please follow the FAQ provide below to assist you in gathering the NMC debug file.

How can I download Event, Data, Configuration, and Debug files from my Network Management Card? 

[LarryK]

@Reuben.Farrelly  I already reported similar issue for the firmware:

https://community.se.com/t5/APC-UPS-Data-Center-Enterprise/AP9640-After-upgrade-to-the-2-2-1-1-firmw...

I have an open case, but have received no response from Support since Tuesday, August 16, despite requests for update.

[JonPro]

Hi @LarryK, can you DM me the case number that was given to you?

[JonPro]

Hi @LarryK 

I was able to locate the case number that you have raised with our team and have left a message for them to give you an update.  I appreciate your patience while we are investigating this issue further.

[Reuben.Farrelly]

@JonPro @LarryK  Yes, the issue that LarryK has reported is the same as mine.  Rather than create more cases with the same information on the same problem I have subscribed to his thread.

This really should not be hard to fix as it's a very easily reproducible problem.

[JonPro]

Hi @Reuben.Farrelly 

Our NMC team could not replicate the issues that @LarryK has raised on his ticket.  Our local support team handling his case requests email notifications sent with matching timestamps from NMCs running older firmware.

[Reuben.Farrelly]

@JonPro It's not clear to me if you need anything from me still to progress this case.  Can you please let me know?

I have copied in the full headers from a broken email in case this helps.  Really the problem is so obvious, I can't see what else you could possibly need in order to see and reproduce the problem.

The Date: header as created by the card is simply not standards compliant.

Return-Path: <apc-1@reub.net>
Delivered-To: emailaddress@lightning.reub.net
Received: from lightning.reub.net
by lightning.reub.net with LMTP
id y8X8NCuFFGNwUgAAeUxysg
(envelope-from <apc-1@reub.net>)
for <emailaddress@lightning.reub.net>; Sun, 04 Sep 2022 20:59:55 +1000
Received: from thunderstorm.reub.net (thunderstorm.reub.net [IPv6:2403:5808:50:10::20])
(using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits)
key-exchange X25519 server-signature ECDSA (secp384r1) server-digest SHA384
client-signature ECDSA (secp384r1) client-digest SHA384)
(Client CN "thunderstorm.reub.net", Issuer "E1" (verified OK))
by lightning.reub.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4ML7vv5YWgz609k
for <emailaddress@reub.net>; Sun, 4 Sep 2022 20:59:55 +1000 (AEST)
DMARC-Filter: OpenDMARC Filter v1.4.1 lightning.reub.net 4ML7vv5YWgz609k
Authentication-Results: lightning.reub.net; dmarc=pass (p=reject dis=none) header.from=reub.net
Authentication-Results: lightning.reub.net; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=reub.net
Received: from apc-1 (apc-1.reub.net [192.168.2.26])
by thunderstorm.reub.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id EBD1E60087
for <emailaddress@reub.net>; Sun, 4 Sep 2022 20:59:56 +1000 (AEST)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=reub.net;
s=thunderstorm; t=1662289196;
bh=XWg3rO9QZJaWS9ur6XOLxzFe0hhb+cNrgzKH+cwxNyY=;
h=From:Reply-To:To:Subject:Date;
b=nR4piDYsVFQJOh7gpjdWtd2G5dIDihxMAQV05RaHQH2OodMlYTSUSwU7LCRRO5SrL
z9hOWmquLo+TQGBngjokfkelAe7feRoOX84hfjr0rGitbzHRmzahIxIZhMaCn1buWD
Uuj4TLcNuh3Ux7PGT/mtdX3z8Fic2rCNZ0SyRX1M=
From: <apc-1@reub.net>
Reply-To: <apc-1@reub.net>
To: "" <emailaddress@reub.net>
Subject: APC Network Management Card Email test from: 192.168.2.26
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2022 10:59:57 0000
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="951edf443c714706aebe2b66a56255e0"

[JonPro]

Hi @Reuben.Farrelly 

Thank you for your patience while we are dealing with this issue and for all the information that we have shared.

[LarryK]

Here is the response I received from support:

The issue has something to do with the email timestamp set to UTC 0000 from the NMC. Currently, we do not have a workaround to address it, I apologize, but this has been raised with Quality and the issue will hopefully be fixed on future firmware release. 

In other words:  Live with the problem we created by not testing properly until we figure out how to fix it.

[ueber_it]

We have the same issue. Our provider reject the test-mail with a "554-Transaction failed" failure, because the date format is wrong.

I've tried to send a test Mail with the following two NMC Cards and record the traffic with wireshark.

Card 1:

NMC2

Bootmon: bootmon:v1.0.9

AOS: aos:v7.0.8

App: sumx:v7.0.8  

Card 2:

NMC3

Bootmon: boot:v1.4.3.1

AOS: aos:v2.3.1.1

App: su:v2.3.1.1

The date format in the test-mail from Card 1 looks like this:

Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2023 10:05:14 +0100

The date format in the test-mail from Card 2 looks like this:

Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2023 09:01:12 0000

With card 1 there a no problems with the test-mail. The test-mail from card 2 is always rejected.

Could you please correct the time stamp in the next firmware.

Kind regards and have a nice weekend

[JonPro]

Hi @ueber_it 

Apologies for the inconvenience, we are aware of this issue and working towards the firmware that would resolve the issue.  As of today, we do not have any ETA on when this will be made available.

[LarryK]

@JonPro I sent an email to my support contact at the start of this week to find out current status.  Received an autoreply that reads:

Support update: We will no longer be supporting customer cases through email at emailsupport@schneider-electric.com.

Below mailboxes will not be monitored after June 30, 2023:

PS1techsupport@schneider-electric.com

PS2techsupport@schneider-electric.com

PS3techsupport@schneider-electric.com

PS4techsupport@schneider-electric.com 

Thank you for your email. ​

Resolving your issues and answering questions are a top priority for us.​

For a quicker response from our support experts please Chat with us from M-F 8am to 8pm EST. ​

All live chats will be now prioritized over email. Please reference case # 100898193 to begin your chat. ​

Well, I've had an open chat window for 15 minutes now and all I see are three dots blinking in cycle.

There is NO indication that anyone knows I've started this.

There is NO indication of how long I will have to wait until someone "picks up."
There is NO indication of my location in the queue.

So I am left wondering:  How, exactly is this a "quicker response" than an email?

[LarryK]

After 30 minutes, I decided to cancel the chat.  Here's the screen that's presented:

Shame on me for thinking Schneider Electric had some responsibility to provide support.  This is simply awful.

[LarryK]

@Reuben.Farrelly APC issued  apc_hw21_su_2-4-0-11.nmc3 in early April 2023.  So very good to know that my support rep never notified me of this update.  It is documented that it fixes the time offset problem.

Upgraded my fleet using EcoStruxure IT (which made firmware updates incredibly easy) and all the email notifications came in at the proper - current - time.

You can find the files at the bottom of this page: https://www.apc.com/us/en/product/AP9640/apc-ups-network-management-card-3/#