PowerChute Business Ed'n 9.5 - what's with the changes to SNMP?

[sthomson-nr_apc]

Hi there,

We have reviewed v9.5 and are curious as to what drove the changes to the long standing SNMP behaviour for Windows installs. Prior to this release, PCBE tied in to the built-in Windows SNMP service, allowing once consistent interface to poll SNMP data from Windows Servers (Server Vendor data, Windows data, APC UPS Data). With the new v9.5, you have split the SNMP off - and now we are left with the following situation:

- allow PCBE to take over the default/expected UDP161 port and therefore block polling of anything exposed via WinSNMP.

- change PCBE to use a non-standard SNMP port and then have to deal with discovery and audit issues with existing NMS software. 

Please tell me there is a technical reason you couldn't continue to leverage the built-in Windows SNMP and that this change in behaviour wasn't some arbitrary convenience for your developers. 

[BillP]

Hi,

The change was made at the request of end user's who wanted SNMP communication available for all supported OS and the ability to select SNMP port. 

Edit: Along with added SNMP availability to all supported OS security has been enhance with the addition of SNMP v3. Also, when Microsoft released Windows server 2012 they announced the depreciation of SNMP

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-R2-and-2012/hh... 

Based on user's requests, the need to enhance security and Microsoft's depreciation of SNMP SNMP was added as a feature to the PowerChute Agent. 

[Anonymous user]

Hi APC Support,

I have a big port problem with this and I am sure a whole lot of others are going to have the issue too. All my Dell servers use the built in snmp Windows service on port 161 to monitor via Open Manage and PRTG. When I try to set the Powercute software to that port, it says the port is being used. None of my monitoring software allows me to set snmp to more than one port. Please advise - is there a work around?

Thanks,

Ken

[sthomson-nr_apc]

Hear, hear Ken!

Our NMS is our RMM software; so I'm used to certain restrictions on its functionality given its not a 'full bore' NMS like dedicated tools like PRTG are. Our vendor doesn't give us any option to alter the SNMP port; its default or bust.

PRTG on the other hand is pretty major in the monitoring space; and it looks like it can't gracefully handle this situation either. Don't know how current this is, but it appears the best you can do is have two objects representing the same physical device:

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/3843-prtg-and-snmp-monitoring:-same-device-two-snmp-ports

So, that leads to the next question - now that APC has moved back to the 'agent-only, no more console/server' model which is marketed as being a boon to us as their are no longer any arbitrary restrictions on monitoring multiple devices* (*as long as you have your own NMS already); what NMS tools out there can gracefully handle polling SNMP from two different ports on the same device?

[Anonymous user]

Thanks Scott - didn't think of creating a different device for the different snmp settings. It's not grouped well, but works. I will probable leave most my UPS on the previous version for now and hope that APC adds an option to use the Windows default.  -Ken

[BillP]

I agree, fail on SNMP in version 9.5, reverting to version 9.2 so i can use SNMP with Windows. and get data using powershell Invoke-SnmpGet

[BillP]

Does anyone have a link to 9.2.1 or 9.0.4 download until the application is reworked?

Brian

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The version 9.2.1 and 9.0.4 installer is attached to Schneider Electric FAQ http://www.apc.com/us/en/faqs/FA304446