MGE PMM SNMP Connection

[yousufco_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 12/9/2012

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Greetings,

I have 150kVA MGE PMM PDUs in the data center and I am planning to have them connected to the monitoring system we have using SNMP protocol. Is there a way to do so?

Basically, I want to have power consumption data log only for capacity planning purposes.

Your expected help is highly appreciated,

http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=PMM150

Thanks

[yousufco_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 12/31/2012

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Do you know any converter in the industry that can do this?

thanks,E

[TerryKennedy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 12/31/2012

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I don't know of any existing units to do this. I'm assuming that the serial interface Angela mentioned uses commands specific to this UPS model. And if APC doesn't know of anyone selling this, there probably isn't one. However, I took a quick look at the link you provided, and there documentation seems to show a number of 3rd-party monitoring interfaces. Perhaps one of those suppliers can help.

It is certainly possible to do this. In fact, before the APC Matrix UPS had slots at all (the very first ones had no slots, the second type had a non-SmartSlot slot, and the third had a standard SmartSlot), they sold a micro-PC which was connected to the UPS's serial port and either an Ethernet (coax) or Token Ring network port. It booted from an internal floppy.

These days it will be a lot easier to do this. You could take something like a Raspberry Pi and a RS-232 adapter (either level shifter or a USB version). Since the Pi runs Linux, you should be able to install a SNMP target package. Then you'll need to write a program to turn SNMP requests into the appropriate serial commands, send them to the UPS, read the UPS responses and convert them into SNMP responses. Note that I said "SNMP target package" - most SNMP packages are the "host" side, which sends commands to a SNMP target. You need the other side.

Having said all that, there's a good possibility that this sort of homemade interface won't satisfy the testing & reliability requirements of the people in your company who asked for SNMP support.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

This reply was originally posted by Angela on APC forums on 12/10/2012

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hello - i am told that this unit only supports RS-485 or RS-232 communications. There may be a device you could look into to convert these communications to SNMP though, its just that the device does not support it onboard.