APC PDUs showing as a generic "SNMP Device" in Struxureware

[DCIM_Support]

Hello,

I've recently installed two new APC AP8853 PDUs in our data centre. I added the devices via SNMP v1 discovery in Struxureware, and they're only being picked up as a generic SNMP device. Here's a screenshot of an existing one that's correct next to one that's not:

As it is not being automatically recognised correctly as an APC AP8853, all of the useful sensor and alerting information is missing.

I've tried deleting and re-adding the PDU, and also checking that all of the SNMP usernames etc are correct (default) on the PDU itself, but no joy.

Even more concerning is that if I delete an existing one and then rediscover it, that too just shows as an 'SNMP Device'.

Am I missing some configuration steps, or is this a fault somewhere? Any ideas to resolve would be greatly appreciated.

(CID:106892394)

[DCIM_Support]

Hi Russ,

The first thing I would suggest is make sure you're up to date on the version of DDF files but if one is working and another is not, that is not the issue. There would seem to be something specific about the device or the network / subnet on which it is installed.

It's likely that it's an SNMP issue. This k-base document should help troubleshoot that type of issue. There are a lot of things to try in that doc. I would focus on what, if anything, is different between the one that is working and the one that is failing. This could be anything from device firmware to SNMP config, to firewalls, etc.

Steve

(CID:106892471)

[DCIM_Support]

Hi Russ, 

Could  you console through RPDU web view? Could you compare with other RPDU, and look some thing wrong & different. I just worried you have problem with RPDU firmware.

(CID:106892476)

[DCIM_Support]

Thank you both for your responses.

heri diyanto - I've opened Telnet windows to both an existing (fully working) and new (shows as standard SNMP) AP8853 to compare the SNMP and even the user security access and both of these areas are identical. I've even left the SNMP details as default to keep things simple.

Steven Marchetti - Thanks for linking to this comprehensive document. I think I've covered all of the SNMP advice (as per my response to heri, above).

I've had a look in device definition files in StruxureWare Central, and run through the add/update definitions wizard, selecting the check APC website option, and the version number (34) for APC PDU remained the same. Whilst I suspect there probably is something weird going on with DDF, it is strange how previously added PDUs worked, but new ones (or existing ones we delete, then re-add) just show as 'snmp device'.

We have no internal firewalls in place between the StruxureWare server and the PDUs, so can rule out any trouble these might cause, too.

Any further thoughts?

(CID:107448129)

[DCIM_Support]

Hi Russ, As Heri mentioned, check the units to see what is different. Perhaps download the config.ini and check to see what may be different there. If you have the same firmware on the same model units, I don't know why one would work and the other not but I would think the DDF would be the cause. If you have any non-standard DDFs, they may cause this kind of issue. I would also think that if it was the standard DDF that everybody trying to discover the device would have the same issue. I'm also curious as to what version of DCE you're using. I'm running the current 7.3.1 version and my PDU DDF is version 42. Because I'm at what I believe is the most recent, checking the APC site for DFs in the console app does not show me a version PDU DDF to which I can update. I do have access to a newer one off-line and have attached it below. I know of no issues using it with an older version of DCE but I have not tested nor do I know just how old your system is. Steve

apcpower.xml

(CID:107448180)

[DCIM_Support]

Hello Steve, Thank you for attaching the file, that's really helpful of you. Before I load it, just to confirm that we're running 7.0.0.284 - that's quite a few increments older than what you're running, but hopefully as we're both v7 base, that should be OK?

(CID:107448560)

[DCIM_Support]

Hi Russ, I know of no issues using that DDF with version 7.0 but I have also not tested it on a version that old. These APC DDFs can not be removed through the UI so if there were an issue, you'd want to restore the system and bring in a backup. You could also contact tech support and if they were allowed to remote into your systems, they could manually remove. I suggest the 1st option but I also doubt there will be an issue. Steve

(CID:107448584)

[DCIM_Support]

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