Locating PDUs

Anonymous user · ‎2021-07-09

So I've taken over a position where I need to get an inventory, including our PDU's. Not all are labeled but I can see there are dozens of them via nmap. I can of course access the WebUI and that works fine. But I'm looking for a way to physically match IP's to PDU's that could be in 5 different data centers. All I need is some kind of visual indication on the PDU, so I can see which I'm logged into.

We have several different models, AP7901, AP7902, AP7930, AP7932, and AP8941. Maybe more, I haven't come across all of them yet. But I'd still like some way of making something light up or blink or give a pattern so I know which PDU I'm standing in front of while looking at it's WebUI.

Anonymous user · ‎2021-07-09

It kind of makes sense of how it is displayed, but it took me a while to figure out what it was showing. I kind of figured the - would be the separator, but then had trouble figuring out why it would sometimes show a #- or -#. I think the speed at which it goes was part of the issue, just when I thought I had the first few numbers figured out it would seem to not make sense after a few more numbers.

Making a video helped as well, I was able to slow it down and then wrote down what was on each change of the screen. That's how I was able to post the sequence in my previous post. I deleted the video once I had it though, sorry. Try to imagine each line being a change of the display and there being only half a second between changes.

First it says IP, then half a second later: 10, then half a second later: 0-, then -1... Was that 100 or 10 or is 0- the delimiter? It takes 2 changes of the display to show a 10, but 4 changes to show 133, 3 changes for 19 and 4 changes for 201. Again, I got it now, but it was quite confusing at the time. At least now I can get the IP of the PDU.

See Answer In Context

BillP · ‎2021-07-09

Hi Zack,

I can't think of a way to do this on the AP7XXX series models besides turning outlets on/off since there are LEDs next to each outlet indicating if it is on or off (don't know how realistic that is) but on the AP8XXX 2G PDUs, like AP8941 you mentioned, we implemented both an LCD blink (it will flash the blue backlight on the PDU display) and then LED blink just for this purpose. A LED blink blinks the status LED on the Ethernet port. Both of those options allow you to specify a time for it to happen. ll Network Management Card 2 enabled products have the LED blink and 2G PDU devices have the LCD backlight blink. Both options are available on v6.X.X firmware and are under the Tests menu in the web UI.

Anonymous user · ‎2021-07-09

Ok, thank you. So far most of them are the 7xxx series. So those might just have to look up via MAC address, if I can get to it. Some of these are mounted so well that I can't get to the back of them to get the MAC address.

Anonymous user · ‎2021-07-09

I was hoping that's what that was. But I'm not sure I can make sense of what it's showing.

10

0-

-1

13

33

3-

-1

19

9-

-2

20

01

1

Does that work out to 10.133.19.201? Whoever came up with that display, I'd like to have some words with them.

BillP · ‎2021-07-09

Hmm, that does not seem right. And plus, we are past these displays thankfully.. the most modern PDU display is what the AP8XXX have.

You should see: IP-10-133-19-201 pretty straight forward scroll by twice. Each octet is separated by a hyphen on this display and as I mentioned, it goes by twice.

I don't know if you have the capability to do a video so I could see. I might be bias in thinking it is straight forward to understand since I have been dealing with it so long. Not sure if there is a problem with the display either but it could be possible.

Does that IP scheme make sense to you? if it is 10.133.19.201? I can't figure that out from the numbers you displayed.

The other issue you could be having I just remembered is the way the PDU is mounted and if the 7-segment display is inverted. Maybe consider reading it upside down too. You can invert the display if you hold down the gray button until you see AA but when you see AA, don't let go. Wait for the AA to flip itself and then let go.

Anonymous user · ‎2021-07-09

It kind of makes sense of how it is displayed, but it took me a while to figure out what it was showing. I kind of figured the - would be the separator, but then had trouble figuring out why it would sometimes show a #- or -#. I think the speed at which it goes was part of the issue, just when I thought I had the first few numbers figured out it would seem to not make sense after a few more numbers.

Making a video helped as well, I was able to slow it down and then wrote down what was on each change of the screen. That's how I was able to post the sequence in my previous post. I deleted the video once I had it though, sorry. Try to imagine each line being a change of the display and there being only half a second between changes.

First it says IP, then half a second later: 10, then half a second later: 0-, then -1... Was that 100 or 10 or is 0- the delimiter? It takes 2 changes of the display to show a 10, but 4 changes to show 133, 3 changes for 19 and 4 changes for 201. Again, I got it now, but it was quite confusing at the time. At least now I can get the IP of the PDU.