unable to register NMC with PowerChute appliance

[scottmlew_apc]

I have an AP9631 running the latest firmware (AOS 7.0.8 and bootmon 1.0.9) and am trying to setup the PowerChute appliance with my vCenter server. The appliance is also the latest (v4.4.3). When the registration process occurs, it just displays a waiting cursor, then eventually times out. When I click the "fix issues" button, it brings me to the login screen, and then my login never completes and I get a 500. Both the NMC and the PC VM are on the same subnet, and I do see the UDP port 3052 broadcasts. I have tried deploying the appliance multiple times and even format'd the NMC to start over. I am sure I have matching credentials on both. I even tried the manual registration process mentioned in a forum post, but when I log in to the appliance, I just get a spinning cursor and the page never loads. I've also tried disabling firewalld on the appliance. I've attached the 2 config files. I'd appreciate any suggestions as to what may be wrong.

[BillP]

@scottmlew_apc 

The PCNS VM and vCenter are on network segment 10.0.60.x

pcns_host = 10.0.60.10
vCenter Server = 10.0.60.200

The NMC is on segment 10.0.40.x with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

[NetworkTCP/IP]
SystemIP=10.0.40.150
SubnetMask=255.255.255.0
DefaultGateway=10.0.40.1

The current registered PCNS clients are

[PowerChute]
CurrentPCNSClientIP1=10.0.40.10

 So the NMC will UDP packets to 10.0.40.255

To register the PCNS VM I recommend you change it and vCenter to the 10.0.40.x segment and verify the subnet mask and gateway match. 

[scottmlew_apc]

@BillP 

Thanks very much for your reply. That is a good catch about the PCNS IP -- I admit I had missed that in the config file.

However, that IP is not correct. It is not the IP of the appliance per the OS, nor is it the IP of the appliance according to the setup process. I just re-ran the setup process to confirm. See attached screenshots. But I still get the wrong IP in the config file.

I wonder if the appliance is listening on the wrong address, and hence not receiving the broadcasts?

Moving the devices around is not really a practical solution at this point. 

[BillP]

@scottmlew_apc 

Strange that the IP was incorrect for both PCNS and vCenter. I wonder if there is a DNS issue happening.

After reviewing tyour pcnsconfig.ini again I also noticed the localHostAddress =  blank

Since you re-ran the setup wizard stop the PowerChute service and then restart it. PCNS will recheck the accuracy of the VM IP, reconnect with vCenter, and attempt to register with the NMC since you have left the default of enrolWithNMC - true. 

To stop the service enter the command systemctl stop PowerChute (using capital P and C) 

To restart enter systemctl start PowerChute

[scottmlew_apc]

@BillP 

Thank you for your continued engagement on this.

The vCenter IP is correct. It should be at 10.0.60.200, whereas the NMC and PCNS are both on 10.0.40.x, 150 and 10 respectively. I entered everything by IP address and just confirmed the only one of these 3 items with a DNS entry is vCenter, so even if PCNS is trying to reverse DNS itself for some reason it shouldn't come up with a bad IP address.

I tried restarting the service, and after that I can't connect to it at all, although the service is running. lsof shows nothing listening on any ports.

[scottmlew_apc]

@BillP I modified the file to fix the pcns_host and also to add localHostAddress under [Networking]. When I do that and restart the service, I get a login screen, but it never advances past that screen after I enter credentials. I eventually get a 500, and I can't connect again even though it is still listening on 6547. I do note that when I get the 500, it has redirected me to /cfgwizard. I wonder if there are other things I need to fix in the file? I tried changing enrolWithNMC to false but same result.

[BillP]

@scottmlew_apc 

A 500 error indicates corruption. It could be a corrupted pcnsconf.ini, the M11.cfg file, the Keystore, or possibly one of the java scripts. I recommend you watch the video PCNS442-vCenter7x.mp4 attached to https://www.se.com/ww/en/faqs/FA296461/ and then redeploy the PCNS VM.

If you are deploying a static IP address, use a different one, and use another hostname. I recommended this to prevent any DNS issues.

[scottmlew_apc]

@BillP I will watch the video and try redeploying as soon as I can, but I've already redeployed a few times. I can't see how changing the IP address and hostname would be of relevance since there are no DNS entries for PCNS, but I will try that nonetheless.

[scottmlew_apc]

@BillP I was finally able to get the appliance registered. I changed the name and IP and that seems to have fixed the issue -- which honestly makes no sense (IP was on the same subnet, and there were never any DNS entries) but I will take the win 🙂