PCNS cannot communicate with NMC when directly connected to host

[BillP]

This question was originally posted by Andre on APC forums on 2/2/2019

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Hi,

I have an AP9631 NMC that I want to use to shutdown an ESXi 6.7 host running on a Dell R440, using the virtual appliance containing PCNS 4.2.

If I connect NMC Ethernet port to one of R400 NICs, Powerchute cannot communicate with NMC. My other virtual machines also cannot ping NMC. If I connect NMC to my laptop, I can access it normally.

However, if I connect NMC to a physical switch and then connect this switch to one of R440 NICs, everything works fine: PCNS finds the NMC and the shutdown feature works as expected.

Why PCNS cannot communicate with NMC when it's directly connected to the host?

I don't think it's an authentication issue, since it works fine when connected to the physical switch.

Some information:

ESXi IP address: 10.0.240.201, manually set.

NMC IP address: 10.0.240.205, manually set.

R440 has 4 NICs, all of them on the same vSwitch, which is also connected to the VM Management network.

The physical switch that do the trick is a Rockwell Stratix 5700, running Cisco IOS.

UPS is a SRC2000XLI.

ESXi host is licensed (Essentials kit).

I have two virtual machines running Windows Server 2012R2 besides PCNS VM, if it matters.

Best regards,