UPS firmware upgrade: Device Definition File (DDF) transfer failure

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Hi,

after upgrading UPS (Smart-UPS RT 2000 RM XL) firmware from v6.4.0 to v6.4.6 via DCE (7.4.1.5) and after via FW_Upgrade_R2 tool, the DCE shows this error message: " Device status may be inaccurate because an attempt to transfer a device definition file (DDF) failed."

To be noted that via SSH/console the UPS seems to be ok: AOS and APP both upgraded to v6.4.6 and Stat: P+ N+ A+.

If "upgrading firmware files" were transferred properly, than this mean that this DCE error messages does not depend to scp, ssh, snmp, account and password.

Please advice.

Brgds,

Massimo

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Hi Massimo,

K-base FA177004 talks about this issue. If you have used the firmware utility (as you mentioned, FW_Upgrade_R2 tool) for the upgrade, there is nothing here proving that SSH/SCP between DCE and the device are not having issues. DCE may not have the right settings or passwords. The network can also be blocking the correct protocol between the server and device while allowing it from the computer you used the FW_Upgrade_R2 tool on.

If you check the release notes however, you will see the following under known issues on the recent DCE versions

PDF Library:

· APC SNMP Device Configuration File Transfer Using SCP Fails
File transfer using SCP fails on some APC SNMP devices with firmware lower than AOS v6.3.3. For best results, enable FTP on the device, and set the protocol to FTP Only in the “Device File Transfer Settings” display before you select the devices you want to update. Additionally, both SCP and FTP file transfer fails on all v6.x devices with touch screens (apc_hw06_aos_xxx). See the StruxureWare Data Center Expert documentation on http://dcimsupport.apc.com for the most recent information on APC SNMP Device Configuration.

Steve

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Ciao Steven,

just finished to do some test:

upgrading DCE to v7.4.2 did not solve the problem;
everything was fine using DIRECTLY and ONLY the "FW_Upgrade_R2" tool to upgrade the firmware of (another) UPS;

so the cause of problem seems to be the "Apply Firmware Update..." features of DCE using "scp only" as transfer method.

Brgds,

Massimo

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

... Just noted that DCE v7.4.3 should solve DDF problems.

I've just requested this version.

NOTE: After a while also the second UPS showed the same problem.

brgds,

Massimo.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Not sure if this is the case in your scenario but we have a few of our devices Firewalled and in order to get SCP to work we have to allow PING protocol. Looks like it pings the device first and if it gets a response it continues but if it gets no response then it fails. just a thought...

Toby

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Toby Bouzane, of course, is right about the ICMP-protocol, which is used, in particular, for the ping command.

After all, as far as I know, both the FW_Upgrade_R2 tool under MS Windows and the built-in device firmware update tools in the DCE-server operate the above protocol to determine the availability of devices after consecutive reboots (after the apc bootmon, apc aos and apc app components are updated).

With best regards.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

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