Powerchute stops communicating after config.ini upload

[Anonymous user]

I'm currently looking at updating Power Group settings and Battery Low Durations on about 100 UPSs with NMC2 cards in them. I understand the best way to do this in a bulk operation is using the FTP based APC INI Utility?

I've been testing this and after uploading the config.ini to the NMC I've been discovering that PowerChute on the associated server is no longer able to communicate with the NMC. The PowerChute log displays: "PowerChute is not Receiving Data from the Network Management Card"

To fix the issue I have found I needed to uninstall PowerChute on the server and re-register it with the NMC. I'm after clarification on what may be happening here? Is there a key I'm wiping out on the NMC and breaking the association and if so is there a way to still perform the bulk upload without breaking the NMC's association with PowerChute?

Anyone's advise greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

When running the PowerChute Setup wizard PowerChute registers with the NMC. Once registered the NMC send a UDP packet every 25 seconds to the network segment of the registered PowerChute Clients. Example: PowerChute server is on network segment 10.0.0.1. Every 25 seconds the NMC send a UDP packet to 10.0.0.255. 

I would first check to see if the PowerChute Agent IP is still registered with the NMC. You can check via the GUI under Configuration - PowerChute Clients. To check using config.ini the info is saved under [PowerChute]. If still registered the next thing to check is to see if the packets are being sent and that the IP address of the sender matches the NMC address the PowerChute Client is expecting the packet from. To check the registered NMC in the PCNS GUI go to UPS Configuration. To check in the pcnsconfig.ini the NMC IP is save under [NetworkManagementCard]. To check for the packet, I run Wireshark.

As for uninstalling, have you tried to stop the PowerChute service and restart? When the service is started PowerChute will connect to the NMC assuming you have not changed enrolWithNMC = true to enrolWithNMC = false in pcnsconfig.ini.