PDU - No network connection

[BillP]

I have an AP7852 that is not connecting to the network.

The activity light is static and amber, and no link is shown on the switch when plugged into any port.

Logging into it via the serial port shows everything apparently normal, but obviously this can not be right.

I've tried resetting both via hardware and console, but nothing changes.

It's a perfectly useful piece of hardware otherwise, but I'd like to fix this if possible.

Message was edited by: mblive

[BillP]

Thanks for the suggestions, and I upgraded the firmware/application to 3.7.4 just to see if it helped, but no change.

I didn't really expect it would, as the link activity light goes static amber as soon as the unit is powered on, with no network cable plugged in, and that simply shouldn't happen.

Pretty sure that the only fix is going to be replacing the management module card(s) but I don't believe that these are available as spare parts.

I'll start trying some APC service agents, to see if they can get access to the required parts, but I'm not going to hold my breath. 😞

[BillP]

can you clarify the LEDs please. the status LED is the on with the checkmark next to it and the link LED says 10/100 next to it. I was unclear on if the link or status LED was the one with solid orange. if you can log into it, I am assuming it was actually the link LED and i'd tend to agree with Terry. Or try a different network cable/switch port just incase after trying to adjust the port speed.

[Anonymous user]

It is possible that the unit is hard-coded to a network speed that your Ethernet switch doesn't like - autonegotiation only works properly when both sides are doing it.

I'm not familiar with your model, but on mine, once you log in on the serial port it is 2-Network / 1-TCP/IP / 5-Advanced to get to the Ethernet speed / duplex settings menu.

I've had a couple recycled units where the network interface wouldn't come up. I'm not sure if the connector pins were damaged or if there was an actual failure on the card.

If it is under warranty (either from APC or from a seller of used equipment), I'd ask them to exchange it. Troubleshooting internal components is outside the scope of this forum.

[BillP]

Hi,

Sorry about the confusion, of course you are correct - I meant that the link activity light is static amber. The status light is flashing amber - which I seem to recall is nothing of concern.

The activity light is static amber even with no cable plugged in, and obviously, the link activity light should not be on when there is no cable plugged in.

FWIW, I've already tried multiple ports, switches, cables, etc, to eliminate those possibilities, and experimenting with the auto-negotiation makes no difference.

The unit is well out of warranty, but my suspicions are either/both the mother-daughter cards that form the network management module, and replacing these would be child's play, if I could get hold of the parts from somewhere.

The company has a policy requiring this to be functional (even though I personally doubt the value of it) and the ex hardware technician in me has a real issue with failing an otherwise perfectly good PDU for something that would be so easy to repair.

Message was edited by: mblive

[BillP]

hm yes, that does not sound right. flashing amber status LED indicates BOOTP requests.

it does sound like there is a problem with the network management card and i agree with your line of thinking. not sure what you'll end up doing since technically these NMC's are not field replaceable but since its out of warranty, you can try what you'd like.

[Anonymous user]

One other thing is that the AOS software could have been corrupted and it isn't initializing the network controller properly. There's a procedure to download the software via Xmodem on the console port for cases where the network is non-responsive. Angela can tell us what KB article the instructions are filed under.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

you can try it but if you can log in properly, i am not so sure that is the cause. certainly worth a try at this point. updating the network management via any method, including XMODEM is located in FA156047 @ www.apc.com/site/support/index.cfm/faq/ . for reference, your PDU has an NMC1.