Looking for firmware | AP8941

[M_Hathaway]

Wanting to use a pair of legacy (but largely unused) PDUs at my office. However, the firmware currently on them is over ten years old. 
Since they technically work despite being treated by SE as EOL, I wanted to get them to a more recent firmware - however previous links to said firmware are dead.
Note: I have no budget to replace them with newer models.

[Teken]

I would suggest you contact APC Technical Support directly to see if the latest firmware is available. If it is they will provide you a direct URL link or send the same over email.

You will need the supplied APC serial cable or make one that has the correct pin out. 

If you have never updated firmware before on a APC PDU. Have APC Technical Support guide you over the phone / email.

If not, you better have all of the FAQ, documentation as to *How To* and understand each step along with how to use the CLI. Upgrading firmware on any APC product is a complete crapshoot! 🤦‍♂️

You have more than 50% chance of bricking the PDU during the firmware upgrade process. 🙁

Firmware should only be done when recommended and guided by APC Technical Support. Valid reasons are to address security, bugs, or to receive enhanced features such as TLS / SSL encryption certificates. 

If your PDU is coming from a very old major revision say 3.XX. and the last major revision is 5.XX. You need to upgrade in a staged manner such as 3-> to 4.XX than 5.XX firmware! ☝️

Regardless of all the above you need to understand how to recover the PDU if it’s in a specific state. Keeping in mind formatting the PDU does not always fix a bricked unit.

If you intend to follow through on this endeavour insure you have a clean laptop. Disable any antivirus / firewall applications that are running.

Disable any energy save, sleep, hibernation modes for HDD / SSD, NIC, including screen saver. 

Disable Wifi and only connect to the PDU using the APC Serial cable. Do not use an RJ45 Ethernet connection from the PDU to laptop. 

Good luck and let us know how it turns out along with sharing the firmware (If) provided. 🤟