PDU 2G switching on temperature alarm

[lapwing_apc]

Hi All,

I have a small contained APC inrow cooling solution with a few racks. All racks are equipped with multiple outlet switched 2G PDUs which are setup in groups. After searching this forum and googling around I haven't been able to find a proper solution for my problem. The thing is I would like to switch off all outlets of the PDU's in case of an excessive temperature alarm. I was hoping that I could schedule a switch event on the thermal input sensor in the PDU group itself. But unfortunately I'm only able to schedule a timed event and not an event based on an alert which I was expecting. In my opinion this sounds like a reasonable feature of a managed PDU with a thermal sensor input capability. It seems that it might be technically possible with a minor firmware upgrade or even already with config  file  hacking? I've spent quite some time in both the cli and the web interface but I was unable to find this feature. I'm using the latest firmware AOS v6.3.2 and RPDU v6.3.3.

Now it seems that I have to setup a SNMP daemon which collects the temperature alarms from the PDU's and sends the switch-off commands back to them. :-S This is not an ideal solution as I would like to rely on a dedicated appliance for this monitoring.

I also looked into the Netboltz appliances but I cannot get clear from the manuals if my problem can be solved by them. If so which model do I need and I've also read about additional software licenses which seems to be an expensive solution for such a simple problem.

I hope you can help me out here.

Thanks, Martijn

[BillP]

Hi Martijn,

The temperature sensor available on the PDU is an ambient temperature sensor and is limited and originally intended for basic monitoring in the Rack only as to not replace other products we offer that can do this type of thing - like the NetBotz and also the UPS management cards with PowerChute. I did double check and already do see an enhancement request to add this behavior but it has not yet been completed. I will add your details to it to show we received another request.

Before I even finished reading, I was thinking what you already figured out - if you wanted to do it as of today, you'd have to have something external monitor that ambient temperature sensor's reading and then log in and turn outlets off via CLI or SNMP or similar.

To go in a little deeper on what I mentioned, the management cards in UPSs can also do this type of thing with PowerChute Network Shutdown though - when the tempature is too high, the UPS management cards can report that to servers/clients running PowerChute Network Shutdown which see an alarm and can turn off. 

[lapwing_apc]

Hi Angela,

Thank you very much for your informative reply. Unfortunately the setup uses no APC UPSs and I don't want to run any additional shutdown daemons on the hosts.
I'm still not sure if the NetBotz are able to switch the outlets on the 2G PDU's as I've read something about an USB-hub with RS232 bridges (which seems quite a weird configuration: whats wrong with the CAN-bus on both devices)?

I really appreciate it that you've added my details to the request for the PDU-support! I hope it will get a higher development ranking now.
Will this also mean that I get a notification when it will be supported?

I've also noticed other issues with the PDU firmware, what is the right location to file these "bugs"?

Thank you,

Martijn

[BillP]

Hi Martijn,

Do you have a reference for what you're asking on the USB-hub and RS-232 bridges? I am not sure what you mean but I don't have much expertise with the NetBotz offerings. I thought that NetBotz had an A-link port, not CAN like the 2G PDUs also. Plus, there is just no designed integration at this time for NetBotz and Rack PDU 2G.

What I did to add your information to the enhancement request will not provide a notification to you unfortunately. I have no way of having that type of thing for you.

If you have additional bugs/enhancements to report and request, I'd filter them through your local support as they may be able to create a case and also potentially be able to set up a generic notification through a support representative or something. If you'd like to share them here, that's fine too. I can at least look to see if they already exist or if I can give you any further feedback on them.

[lapwing_apc]

Hello Angela,

I found the notice on the switched PDU's here in the Installation and Quick Configuration Manual - NetBotz Rack Monitor 450/550/570, page 27.
But the actual usage is very unclear from all manuals available, especially on the older PDU firmware compatibility (first generation?).

My "love to have" enhancements are two at this moment:

1) when I ssh to the PDU it is not possible to run a cli command directly on logon:

[BillP]

Hi Martijn,

I was randomly talking about PDU and NetBotz compatibility with someone Friday. They told me AP79XX series with like 2.X something (which is really old) is what works.

I have limited availability this week in my schedule to investigate if we can support your enhancements but I will try to get back to you by next week.

[lapwing_apc]

Hello Angela,

I was wondering if you have been able to get more information on the requested enhancement(s), preferably the shutdown on temperature alarm feature?

Kind Regards,

Martijn

[BillP]

Hi Martijn,

Sorry I did not respond back. It was logged as an enhancement request and I appended your individual feedback and situation to it. Thus, I can't make any promises as to "when" it makes it into AP8XXX series Rack PDUs as a function but it is logged as an enhancement and the product team is aware of it.

[BillP]

On 8/18/2015 2:30 PM, Angela said:

Hi Martijn,

Sorry I did not respond back. It was logged as an enhancement request and I appended your individual feedback and situation to it. Thus, I can't make any promises as to "when" it makes it into AP8XXX series Rack PDUs as a function but it is logged as an enhancement and the product team is aware of it.

Hello,

Few years after, I'm in the same situation : I have few AP8953s and I need to switched outlet in case of high temperature.

Do you have a low cost solution ?

Do I need a NetBotz appliance?

Romain

[BillP]

Hi Romain,

This feature is still logged as an open enhancement request and I added your comments. It has been reviewed by our product team but not actually implemented yet. Your additional comments could very well bring further attention to this which is why I added them to the original enhancement request.

Today, here are some ways you can do this:

• Similar to original poster with some sort of homemade SNMP scripting to monitor the temperature and execute a script that can control the PDU outlets
• Use the APC NetBotz Rack Monitor 250 which itself has a single switched outlet that can be controlled based on a temperature violation (this would be totally separate from your PDU)
• Use a more expensive NetBotz like 355 or 450 appliance which can send shutdown commands to Rack PDUs based on temperature violation over SNMP but this solution does not allow the user to select individual outlets. The only option is to send a shutdown command that turns off ALL of the outlets on a given PDU over SNMPv1 or SNMPv3. This would work with your AP8953 but I would not consider this low cost at all and may not meet your expectations if you only want to control a single outlet in case of temperature violation.

[BillP]

Thank you for your answer Angela.

Bad news... It should be a nice feature to add in the pdu.

1) low cost but not integrated in the apc ecosystem. Do you have any script sources ?

2) One outlet is too restricted.

3) The third solution for me is the nicest but the general shutdown is not possible .... Any way to select or create a group of outlet ?

Thank you

Romain

[BillP]

Hello,  apologies for the delay but we have implemented some changes in our most recent firmware that may address the request for switching on temperature alarms.  I have attached the Release Notes for versions 674 and 680.  Version 674 should have this change implemented.  Version 680 should also have this change but also includes required changes we are implementing related to California Senate Bill SB-327, specifically we are being required to disable insecure protocols and enforce password changes on initial configuration.  The changes related to Senate Bill SB-327 should not affect existing installations, meaning if you upgrade to version 680, your devices should retain your existing configuration.  However, if you reset your device to default with version 680 installed, the changes will take effect.  I would recommend upgrading to version 674 first, if you are okay with the changes related to SB-327, then to version 680.  I do not have an upgrade link from the software downloads page to provide for each and the files are too large to attach to this thread, so I have set up a Box folder where you should be able to download these files from.  I am going to auto-delete this Box folder after 1 week.  If the Box folder does not allow you to download these files please let me know.

Please let me know of any feedback you have on the changes being implemented.

https://schneider-electric.box.com/s/60r4jupnaxmrcyogo5qvlzhk0if103h3

[lapwing_apc]

Dear Joshua,

Awesome news! For our infrastructure this feature is still very high on the wish list!
I would like to test the new firmware but I'm out of the office for the next two weeks therefore I'm unable to do some testing promptly. I did download the supplied versions.
I will report back a.s.a.p. I hope this won't interfere with a release schedule?

Again thank you for the effort, really appreciated!

Martijn

[BillP]

Hi Martijn,  thank you for your reply.  I will look forward to your feedback once you have had a chance to test the new firmware.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to reply to this thread.

The firmware is released so please do not feel that you are holding up a release.  Any feedback that you have we can discuss for a future revision.

Thank you!

[BillP]

Hello,

I upgrade the firmware to 6.7.4 of my AP8953s without problem because I'm looking for this feature too.

I can't find the way to configure this feature

Thank you

[B-DoubleE_apc · Accepted solution]

Hi Romain,

Temp threshold actions are located in the web interface, under Configuration --> RPDU --> Switched Outlet --> Outlet Alarm Actions