PowerChute with Macs

[BillP]

I've installed PowerChute on a couple Mac Pros, one running OS 10.12 and the other 10.11. I still need to do the configuration however and am having trouble. Can the configuration only be done by accessing the machines over the network (not locally)?

I'm having trouble accessing the machines over the network. I add TCP port 6547 to the end of the IP address but no luck.

Anyone know the procedure for a Mac?

Thanks a lot.

[BillP]

Hi,

Open web browser on the Mac and enter https://system ip:6547 Example https://192.168.1.10:6547. If you do not want to configure using the web interface you can stop the PowerChute service and edit pcnsconfig.ini that will be found in the folder PowerChute was installed to. The default install path is /Users/Shared/Applications/APC/PowerChute Then restart the service.

See Schneider Electric FAQ FA159757 for assistance with the ini file. 

[BillP]

Thanks, Bill. The directions were spot on and I had no trouble configuring one of the Macs. I had been using http instead of https- that was the problem.

Unfortunately I can't get the other Mac to register. It seems to get stuck at this stage: "Please wait while PowerChute registers with the Network Management Card(s). This may take a few minutes." There is no error message.

I've enabled Java in the browser and also pop ups are allowed. Any other ideas?

Thanks for your help.

[BillP]

Hi,

Does the software hang at the point of registering or does ot fail with no error message? If it fails with no error and you proceed what is reported in the error.log file. The error log will be found in the PowerChute install directory. Another thing to check is to see if the computers IP address is being added to the PowerChute client list on the NMC.

The 2 main reasons for failure to register are

1 - Mismatched subnet mask between he NMC and computer.

2 - Blocked port. PCNS will contact the NMC via http port 80 or https 443 and once communication has been established the NMC communicates with PCNS on UDP port 3052

[BillP]

It hangs at the point of registering. I'm able to enter all the credentials okay but it just doesn't register. Here is the error message from the log:

03-05-18 03:16:14,452 ERROR pool-2-thread-22 com.apcc.m11.components.WebServer.CfgWizard.SessionManager - applySettings Exception
java.lang.NullPointerException

I'm using Java 9.0.4 on the machine that won't register. On the machine that did register Java 8 update 161 is being used. By chance should I go back a version of Java? The machine having trouble is running OS 10.12.6.

The subnet mask looks fine and the ports appear to be open. The Mac's IP is listed in NMC. I did that in advance.

I greatly appreciate your help.

[BillP]

Do you think the Java version could be the problem? Thanks.

[BillP]

Hi,

It could be the Java. PCNS 4.2 was tested on OSX 10.3.3 with JDK version 8.162. I have installed on OSX 10.3.4 with JDK 8.171 with no issues. I also installed JDK 10.0.1 on High Sierra and PCNS installed but hung during the NMC connection phase. I was not able to test JDK 9.0.4 as Oracle removed it from their site. 

[BillP]

Okay, so I found a solution for the second Mac. I uninstalled the 9.0 JDK (using Terminal and not easy to do because directions were not clear) and installed Java 8 Update 171. Then I installed PowerChute 4.1. This combo registered without a problem. I used the older PowerChute version because that's what I installed on the other Mac that had successfully registered.

Perhaps I had a bad install of Java 9.0 but it's also possible that this version of Java isn't always compatible with a particular OS and version of PowerChute.

Btw, the JDK (not just the JRE) must be installed on Macs according to APC instructions for PowerChute version 4.2:

Note: For Mac OS® X, JDK 8 or greater must be installed as the JRE does not contain the required files to run PowerChute.

Installing on Macs was certainly not as easy as Windows.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi Bill,

Looks like JDK 8.171 is the overall winner.

I had trouble when I was using JDK 9.0.4 on OS 10.12.6. It hung as you describe.

It would be helpful if APC update the installation guide as it does say that Java version 8 or greater should be installed on Macs.

Thanks again.