NMC v1 vs v2

[BillP]

I have three (3) SmartUPS 700 (230V) units I use in my home network.

The first UPS has an AP9606 NMC while the 2nd one has an AP9617. The 3rd UPS has no NMC.

Seeing that the AP9606 is already way way past EoL, I'm looking to get a couple of AP9617 NMCs for the 2nd and 3rd UPS.

I intend to use the NMC with PCNS to shutdown a Windows Server, an ESXi host, and a Synology NAS (XPEnology running on an HP G7 N40L Microserver) over the network.

The question is, however basic, given that this is for home use only, is there anything on the NMCv2 card (ie. AP9630) that makes it a more worthwhile purchase compared to a v1 card?

I asked because of the costs involved. A used AP9617 costs under $20 each, used. An AP9630/31 costs at least dour times that.

[voidstar_apc · Accepted solution]

In your situation I would go with an AP9617. I'm assuming your third UPS is the same as the one with the AP9617 card and does not have an LCD display (like the one on the SMT750I).

Main advantages of the NMC2 card are support for newer UPSes and encrypted protocols.

[BillP]

The three UPSs are identical. They're actually re-badged APC SU700INET units that's been given a Dell model number (DL700i).

Anyway, I found a couple of AP9617 on eBay for $10 each!

Thank you voidstar.

[DevLinux_apc]

On 5/7/2018 7:51 PM, voidstar said:

Main advantages of the NMC2 card are support for newer UPSes and encrypted protocols.

I have a SU1000RM2U and a SU2200NET for home use just like the other poster.  From my understanding both the AP9617 and AP9630 support SSH and HTTPS.  However, from what I've read the main difference seems to be whether or not the battery is replaceable, the NMC2 cards are faster (helping with encrypted protocols) and still receiving firmware updates (I'm assuming in order to support newer UPS models?).

If I were willing to pay more for the NMC2 cards, would there be any benefit to doing so for these two UPS models?  I'm assuming the main benefit would be bug/exploit fixes?

[voidstar_apc · Accepted solution]

If you have the money NMC2 is a little nicer, faster, (edit) supports multiple logins, hardware-accelerated crypto. Other features NMC2 delivers like switched outlet groups, longer power off delays, and more extensive status reporting require newer UPSes that support those things in hardware. So I'd say AP9617 delivers what the UPS hardware is capable of.

While AP9617 supports SSL and HTTPS, the ciphersuites and TLS implementation are old so they might not work well with modern browsers/OpenSSH (see FA238115). You might consider putting your card behind stunnel or something like ZeroTier if security is a concern.

[DevLinux_apc]

Thank you for the additional explanation and for the link.  Sounds like it'll be worth spending the extra in my case.