Network Management Card 2 (AP9630, AP9631, AP9635) - New Features

[BillP]

hi everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone on the apc forum's aware of apc's latest supported features/changes for Network Management Card 2 devices, since I think they are a pretty big milestone.

Network Management Card 2 devices include the AP9630, AP9631 and AP9635 UPS management cards as well as any other devices that have an embedded version of these cards.

New features as of AOS 5.1.1 and APP (sumx, sy, sy3p, sypx) 5.1.0 include:

- IPv6 is now supported
- SMTP authentication - basic (versus SSL)
- Localization and Internationalization with optional language packs - customizable per recipient for email, SNMP, syslog, and web gui
- Support for [AP9810 Dry Contact I/O accessory dongle|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=10741] which include Device Control Policy configurations
- increased username/password length
- ability to reduce the card's visibility on your network - disable the ping response on the card
- ability to configure DNS, SNMP, and NTP via the command line (changed functionality)
- default boot mode is now DHCP onlyand the APC vendor cookie is no longer required by default - (changed functionality)

and as always, there are some minor aesthetic changes and bug fixes, etc Please see the release notes attached to this post

if there are any other feature requests for AP9630, AP9631, AP9635 family of network management cards, please post them here!

please keep in mind that the AP9617, AP9618, and AP9619 cards are not part of this family and are discontinued. new features are not currently being worked on and features cannot be added to that hardware platform.

[BillP]

is that for email authentication? if so, I believe we are working on it.

[Anonymous user]

So another month has gone by.....what's the ETA now?

[BillP]

I would say "better late than never" but APC is so far behind in delivering SMTP auth support it might as well be never. This is really a "DUH" feature and should have been in the network management cards years ago. It's like selling a parachute that only opens when you're standing on the ground.

[BillP]

yeah i hear ya..

[Anonymous user]

One issue that has arisen for the company that I work for is that under Identification you are not able to place special characters. This is a setback from the previous firmware and also on previous cards you are able to put special characters in those fields. So it seems in some places the engineers are going forward, but in others they're going backwards.

[BillP]

i updated this knowledgebase article today: http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=8690

i passed along your request and reasoning for wanting hyphens. they are not allowed due to security ultimately but we can of course edit that in the future.

thanks for the feedback.

[BillP]

this issue was brought to my attention today, presumably from you 😉

i am looking into it to confirming the reasoning behind the characters allowed for these fields and to express your opinion on it.

i'll update this accordingly.

[BillP]

hi everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone on the apc forum's aware of apc's latest supported features/changes for Network Management Card 2 devices, since I think they are a pretty big milestone.

Network Management Card 2 devices include the AP9630, AP9631 and AP9635 UPS management cards as well as any other devices that have an embedded version of these cards.

New features as of AOS 5.1.1 and APP (sumx, sy, sy3p, sypx) 5.1.0 include:

- IPv6 is now supported
- SMTP authentication - basic (versus SSL)
- Localization and Internationalization with optional language packs - customizable per recipient for email, SNMP, syslog, and web gui
- Support for [AP9810 Dry Contact I/O accessory dongle|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=10741] which include Device Control Policy configurations
- increased username/password length
- ability to reduce the card's visibility on your network - disable the ping response on the card
- ability to configure DNS, SNMP, and NTP via the command line (changed functionality)
- default boot mode is now DHCP onlyand the APC vendor cookie is no longer required by default - (changed functionality)

and as always, there are some minor aesthetic changes and bug fixes, etc Please see the release notes attached to this post

if there are any other feature requests for AP9630, AP9631, AP9635 family of network management cards, please post them here!

please keep in mind that the AP9617, AP9618, and AP9619 cards are not part of this family and are discontinued. new features are not currently being worked on and features cannot be added to that hardware platform.

[BillP]

Hi

I used APC's firmware upgrade utility so the firmware upgraded automatically. How did you re-apply the config.ini from 5.0.1?

Thanks

[BillP]

unfortunately not. it only supports basic SMTP authentication but supporting SSL SMTP authentication is on the list of requested features.

[Anonymous user]

My ISP requires SMTP SSL authentication over port 465. Does the current firmware support this? I see an entry for username and password in the email setup but nothing for port number. Thanks.

[Anonymous user]

I upgraded from the AP9617 in hopes that the NMC2 would be able to send emails using today's secure standards but of course now I'm disappointed again. I guess I should have researched what was meant by "basic" authentication. In any event, is there a timeline at APC for supporting SSL and releasing new firmware?

[Anonymous user]

How about just adding the ability to enter an SMTP port number?

[BillP]

sorry for the delay..we are looking into it. i don't know of an exact ETA but within the year i'd hope.

[Anonymous user]

Yes, for email auth.

Any time lines you can share as to when the next firmware will be released?

[BillP]

earliest is the first half of next year. the one that offers just the basic email authentication with the ability to change the SMTP port will be the end of this year - december is the current time frame but that can change.

the next big rev will be 5.2.0 but it depends on a lot of things and obviously introduces a lot of new features so that is why it will be available sometime in the first half of 2011 - but again, that could change too.

[BillP]

Anyone have a copy of the •5.0.0-5.0.3 AOS firmware for a AP9630. I received two of these with newer firmware on them our corporate standard SNMP string will not work with the newer firmware but it will with this version

thanks

-Nicholas

[BillP]

the string should work in the 5.1.3 version i posted above, where the problem was corrected. what type of special characters are you trying to use?

i can get you the firmware you need but just want to confirm before i send you 5.0.x since you'll miss out on IPv6, email authentication, etc. also, please indicate if you need for smart ups, single phase symmetra, or 3 phase symmetra.

[BillP]

i actually heard about your issue. i do not want to duplicate efforts here but i'd suggest you start a new thread so we can look into it. i have never seen anything like that before but i'd have to take a look at the config.ini that you pushed.

[Anonymous user]

Hi,







I'm new to networking and was in need of some help. I am configuring a few 9630's Nt Mng Crd. by pushing the .ini file. The problem I am seeing is once the files is pushed thru the command promote ftp, I cant log in the device with any passwords, the default apc or the one installed in the ini. fiel push. not sure what the issue could be. The ini. did work a different 9630. There is one more thing before I pushed the ini. I log in and check the about. tab, and instead of it saying 9630 it has 9617. I have a case open with apc. I just though maybe you ran in to this before.

[BillP]

Hi

After upgrading to v5.1.1 the UPS email notification stopped working. I found the latest firmware v5.1.3 which I upgraded to hoping that it will resolve this fault. No luck. After contacting APC support (apcsatech@apc.com), they said version 5.1.3 does not exist although I can clearly see it installed successfully.

All settings on the UPS remains the same. APC support recommends me to reset the NMC card, and restart the configuration from begining which I really do not want to do....

Any sugesstions?

[BillP]

QuattroTT,

Do you have the exact error message that you are getting? Are you also experiencing the same error when you are sending a test e-mail? Can you send us a screenshot of how did you setup the e-mail settings?

Feel free to use this APC knowledge base article to help you with e-mail troubleshooting -- http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=7957

JonPro

[Anonymous user]

QuattroTT,

I had the same problem when I upgraded from 5.0.1 to 5.1.1. It appeared that the 5.1.1 firmware was trying to use authenticated SMTP by default, and even when I didn't add a user name it was probably passing "user" to the email server.

When I upgraded directly from 5.0.1 to 5.1.3 I did not see the problem.

When I upgraded from 5.1.1 to 5.1.3 I still saw the problem until I cleared the config to default (minus TCP/IP) and then re-applied the config.ini from 5.0.1.

My guess is that the upgrade to 5.1.1 adds something to the config.ini file. Simply upgrading the firmware to 5.1.3 doesn't clear this unknown entry, but resetting to defaults does.

I did not try upgrading to 5.1.1 and then clearing the config to default and re-configuring. I have all my devices at 5.1.3 now, and I'm no longer using the UPS to mail out alerts, I'm doing everything through SNMP traps and pollers. The suppression capability on directly emailing was inadequate. I was getting WAY too many alerts to manage.

[BillP]

i have seen this before actually but was not able to replicate it myself. i was able to have someone else fix it by downloading your config.ini, resetting the card to defaults except TCP/IP, then try reuploading your config.ini file to the card. you can also delete the NetworkEmail section out of the config.ini and reupload the reset of the file to the card and reconfigure the email section.

its a pain but hope that helps. any other information you can give me would be helpful as well since i tried from 5.0.x to 5.1.3 and 5.1.1 to 5.1.3 and wasnt able to replicate it but i know someone that anytime they had 5.1.1 at some point, it would stop working - which sounds like what you are seeing.

by the way, are you using email authentication? it would be really helpful for us to have a copy of your config.ini to compare with the other one to see if there is an issue here so we could pursue a possible fix. you can download it [via these instructions|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=9321]. i am also eager to know what error you are seeing - bad parameter, etc so an event.txt would help before you try to fix it.

also 5.1.3 is not on apc.com yet so all regions may not be familiar with the release since i didnt notify anyone yet but it is an official release.*

[BillP]

Hi

Yes, I agree with the postings. It does seem to be a email authentication problem. Our email server does not use email authentication. When sending a test email, the message" Email sent successfully" appears so all seems ok (no errors in logs) but you never recieve the mail.

Do you have an email address I can send the config file to? Prefer not uploading the files to an public forum. How do I upload the config file to the card after making the changes? I previously used the firmware upgrade utility to upgrade the firmware. Do you have v5.0.3 of the firmware for SURTD3000XLI smart ups that I could reinstall?

Thank you

Regards

null

[BillP]

i will email you to get you the requested info.

[BillP]

QuattroTT,

First you need to make sure that you've backed up the config.ini. To re-upload/apply it to the card you need to use the put command of FTP. To help you out, please check the following knowledge base articles.

* [How can I mass configure an Network Management Card (NMC) or NMC embedded product?|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=8979]
* [What are some features I need to be aware of while manipulating the config.ini file of a APC Network Management Card?|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=9376]
* [How can I download Event logs and Data logs and Config.ini from the Network Management card?|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=9321]
JonPro

[BillP]

Thanks for the info. It was a great help.

[Anonymous user]

Ditto on the SSL SMTP update = asap please!!

[BillP]

working on it! changing ports will be available in a month or so though.

[Anonymous user]

It appears APC may have broken one feature when they came out with the Ver 2 cards: I am unable to get SSH to work on these new AP9631's. After upgrading to Bootmon101/aos511/sumx511 and even regenerating the SSH key my SSH client responds with "Failed to Open a secure Terminal session". Am I missing something ? I'd love to know how to fix this !

Thanks,
Dave (Univ of BC)

[BillP]

it has been tested and works on our end.

are you using 1024 or 2048 bit SSH host keys? i know of an issue with 2048 bit keys not working correctly.

what ssh client are you using?

[Anonymous user]

Why can't you download configuration files via the command line? I see that you can uploaded them via CLI using a TFTP server. We really need to be able to pull them down the same way. Thoughts?

[BillP]

i would have to look into it. the only way currently is to download via FTP or SCP. you can also use the utility [mentioned here|http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8979] called the INI utility to automate uploading and downloading.

do these suit your needs?

may I ask why these other methods don't work for you? just so i can bring it up if you want me to look into this functionality.

[BillP]

Solved. I had COM cables connected to both UPS and NMC during upgrade. After detaching both cables and restarting NMC all goes right.

Message was edited by: sergioru

[BillP]

i have a copy i can give you for testing purposes that is very close to the production copy but something came up so we are fixing it before posting it on the website. it is an SNMP issue though and is very particular so it most likely does not affect you.

if you are interested, please let me know and I will email or PM you my FTP link for download.

I did see that SSL/TLS email authentication is implemented for a future release and is close to being fully functional.

[BillP]

this firmware is now available. it will be on apc.com shortly but if you need a copy now, let me know.

[Anonymous user]

I am using the SSH Secure Shell client, version 3.2.9

Thanks,
Dave

[BillP]

can you update to 5.1.3 that I posted above (choose whatever application you need) and see if the problem still occurs? i still need to know if its 1024 or 2048 bit keys. thanks!

[Anonymous user]

Good news:

I just tried a different SSH Client called PuTTY and its working now. PuTTY is free / open source and can be found at:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

I used the file putty-0.60-installer.exe for my Windows XP machine.

...Dave

[BillP]

After upgrading to 5.1.5 firmware NMC AP9630 lost comm to UPS ("UPS: The local network management interface-to-UPS communication not established."). Initial firmware was aos 5.0.1 sumx 5.0.0 bootmon 1.0.0. After upgrade - aos 5.1.5 sumx 5.1.5 bootmon 1.0.2. UPS Smart RT 3000 XL

Any suggestions? May be some one has old firmware bundle?

Thank you in advance.

[Anonymous user]

Can you advise what will be some of the new features in the upcoming 5.1.5 firmware? SSL SMTP I hope...

[BillP]

SSL SMTP is on the roadmap for 5.2.x system - don't quote me there but it is definitely coming.

5.1.5 is a minor release but as far as i know, will support changing the SMTP port to something other than 25 for security. the other fixes are bug fixes i think.

5.2.x is the major release due out next year.

[Anonymous user]

picked a winna, any update on this one?

[BillP]

h3. For the upcoming AOS 5.1.5 APP 5.1.4 (sumx, sy, sy3p), it will be out shortly. next week i am told but that can change!

Here is a quick list of bullet points I made for this mid-release. more features due in a major release 5.2.x due out later this year..

• In regards to Network Management Cards Warmstarts and Coldstarts - these random warmstart issues issues are addressed but may also require a firmware update of your SMX or SMT Smart UPS (if you had this issue) - warmstarts are also renamed to Network Interface Restarted and severity is changed to informational.

• A new way of configuring the NMC2 "out of the box" is available - i already updated APC knowledgebase 3061 but we now support DHCP option 12!

• Ability to change the SMTP (email) port from the default of 25 - It is now an option to change the outbound email (SMTP) port to something other than 25. This is available in the same location as the email authentication credentials, which is under the recipient configuration section. The valid range is 1-65535.

• Web UI - UPS Tab Layout Reorganized - Some items have been reorganized on the UPS tab and new features added on supported UPSs, such as outlet group scheduling with SMT/SMX units.

• All Control Policy & Relay I/O issues with the AP9631 and AP9810 should be resolved. - Knowledgebase 11048 should be resolved as well.

• The ability to view kWh, configure and calculate CO2 emissions, as well as cost of electricity is now supported on SMX/SMT units. This is now something that you'll see under the UPS tab for UPSs that support the feature in their own firmware. Not all UPSs will support this, only "green" models. Currently, only SMT and SMX units.

• The ability to upgrade UPS firmware on SMX models is now supported via the NMC2. - You can FTP or SCP the UPS firmware file to the /upsfw folder on the NMC and then upgrade the UPS via issuing a command/request on the NMC. This will be a big help to folks that cannot use hyperterminal and need to update their UPS.

• Support for outlet group scheduling - Prior to this release, scheduling supported UPS control actions was not available on the outlet group level.

• The ability to update the NMC2 firmware (AP9631) via USB is now officially supported. - Knowledgebase 768 has been updated. This can be used on AP9631 as well as 2G Rack PDUs.

• Support for PCNS client to know which Switched Outlet Group (SOG) its plugged into. - This would allow a PCNS client to shutdown individual switchable outlet groups. In addition, Outlet Group Scheduling is now available.


Release notes will be available when the release is posted to the web but these are the highlights. Again, we're looking at the week of the 17th and then released on the web shortly after.

[Anonymous user]

That's good to hear that SSL and port configuration are in the works - this will bring the NMCs into the 21st century! 😉

Please ask the development team to make sure that STARTTLS is supported.

Thanks!

[Anonymous user]

Is SSL SMTP running? Still hoping to put my expensive NMC to use.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

it will be in v6.0 of NMC - for Smart UPS or Symmetra single phase, we might see this around November/December 2012 which I know is quite a bit ways away..