Powerchute Client 2.2.3

[Anonymous user]

Hi:

Hope this is the right board for this ?, have a smart ups RT 6000, supporting an EVA 4000, linux and windows servers. Had our first complete power loss where everything went down for an extended period. After much work and replacing a drive, it appears that the UPS did not send out any shutdowns to the clients as I could not find anything in the logs. I installed powerchute 2.2.3 and did as the software required, ran the install, then the config and it went through as expected and I have checked since then and the service is running. I also added the clients under clients on the UPS. Is there a smoke test I can do without running the risk of having a server go down hard again.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[BillP]

did you have the software and installed and running prior to the hard shutdown? the PCNS software would need to be installed to pick up any shutdown commands and yes, the clients would need to be in the client list as well.

if it was installed, you can review the event log on the UPS as well as the PCNS event log located in the web UI of the NMC and PCNS client respectively.

unfortunately, there is no easy way to do a test (which is annoying). i would suggest a few different things - 1.) you can log into the network management card and issue a control command and select the box to gracefully shutdown PCNS clients at the same time - making sure your delays are set accordingly so the PCNS client has enough time to shutdown or 2.) select a configurable event on the PCNS client that you can cause to occur (ambient temp probe event for example) and set the threshold accordingly in order to see if your client shuts down based on that event but does not cause the UPS to turn off. you'd then have to clear that temp violation and then manually turn the server back on afterwards.

let me know if you have any questions or need clarification on any of the steps.

[Anonymous user]

The software was installed about a year ago and was working initially. I reviewed the eventlogs in the clients just this morning, first time since the install most likely and they are all reporting "unable to communicate with the management card", so that explains why there was no shutdown received at the client end. My issue now is what happened with the comms, I had a rebuilt server in the cabinet that did not have pcns installed so I ran it and used the exact same procedure and configs as the original installs, password and auth. phrase and it connected up fine so nothing has changed there. I can connect to the management interface with a browser and have never had a problem. Any ideas on what might be the issue.

Martin

[BillP]

i would double check to make sure the correct firmware APP is on the NMC and you can see the UPS information via the NMC. you can verify this on the administration tab->General->about. also, make sure the subnet information on either end is correct since that can cause the type of symptom you are seeing. also, maybe double check here -> http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7711

also, can you specify if the NMC and PCNS register together and then just don't communicate or do you get a time out while registering?

i would guess that one of the ports is blocked, like 3052, which is disrupting communication or possibly your authentication phase needs to be reset on either side. the default powerchute authentication phase is admin user phrase all lowercase.

forgot to mention too, depending on OS, you might want to look at PCNS 3.0 since 2.2.3 is older.

[Anonymous user]

This is what I have for version info. Maybe some of this can/needs to be upgraded. I did do a reset on the card and uninstalled/reinstalled pcns on one of the systems that had lost comms, it accepted everything and synced up with the NMC in about 10 secs., about the same time as the new install I did this morning. It just seems like the NMC lost its brains with respect to clients only as I could always connect and manage the system with no issues. Will wait for your response on if I should do any upgrades or just do the uninstall/reinstall of pcns on the servers.

**UPS**
Firmware Revision: 452.17.W
----------------------------------------------------
NMC
Model Number: AP9619
Serial Number: NA0811013655
Hardware Revision: A10
Manufacture Date: 03/13/2008
----------------------------------------------------
Application Module
Name: sumx
Version: v3.5.5
----------------------------------------------------
AOS
Name: aos
Version: v3.5.5

Thanks for all your help, much appreciated.

Martin

[Anonymous user]

This is the eventlog from the new install I did earlier yesterday, as you can see it took about 3 hours to start reporting loss of comms. On the initial installs all systems worked flawlessly for several months.

12/19/2011 12:40:18 PowerChute Network Shutdown version 2.2.3 started
12/19/2011 12:40:37 Communication has been established
12/19/2011 15:38:00 PowerChute cannot communicate with the Management Card


I will go ahead with the upgrade and try 3.0 as well. As for the port blocking, that is not happening as both are on the same network segment and switch. Whatever happened though it was across the board with all servers, linux as well as windows. Will do the upgrades in the morning and will let you know how it goes. I would suspect that the UDP port would be used for initial as well as ongoing comms between the client and the host.

Martin

[BillP]

yes, you're right. its not immediate. let's see how the upgrades go and if we get anymore info when installing 3.0.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

I did the upgrade, went well, did an uninstall of 2.4 and installed 3.0, much improvement in the UI, alot of info and ability. Seems to be working well, I might of come up with what happened, am not sure ,but think I might of been using the default user/pwd on the initial setup, but later changed to a more secure password for the admin account. do you know if the clients are required to supply authentication on an ongoing basis, if they are then I suspect this was my issue. Will be upgrading the pcns to 3.0 on all servers this week. Thanks so much for your assistance, and have a very merry XMAS.

Martin