APC UPS Network Management Card Help

[Zarathustra[H]]

Hey all,

Just received my SUA1500 with AP9617 network management card used from eBay.

Bought and popped a new battery in it, and I am ready to set it up.

Problem is the APC device IP configuration utility does not find it on my network.

I pulled the mac address off of my managed switch for the port it is plugged into, to see if I could find an IP in my routers ARP tables, but no such luck. The MAC isn't in the ARP tables.

My guess is that it is not using DHCP, but is configured to a static IP on a different subnet by the previous user.

I've tried pressing (and holding) the reset button on the back of the back of the network management card, but this does not appear to help.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this?

Much appreciated,
Matt

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Update:

I figured I could manage this by connecting via USB, and using the APC management software, but I can't seem to download it from APC. When I navigate to the downloads section on APC's homepage the download fails.

Maybe I am trying to download the wrong software?

Anyone know what is the appropriate software to manage this thing with?

Much obliged,
Matt

 

[Blue Fox]

Should be easily fixed if you configure the network settings via the serial port on the UPS.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Update:

I figured I could manage this by connecting via USB, and using the APC management software, but I can't seem to download it from APC. When I navigate to the downloads section on APC's homepage the download fails.

Maybe I am trying to download the wrong software?

Anyone know what is the appropriate software to manage this thing with?

Much obliged,
Matt

Never mind. Downloading now. Looks like their crappy website design just didn't like Chrome...

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Should be easily fixed if you configure the network settings via the serial port on the UPS.

It didn't come with APC's special serial cable unfortunately (apparently it's wired differently than a standard 9 pin serial cable)

I'm trying to configure it via USB, but I can't figure out which software to install.

Powerchute Business edition is apparently not it, as it expects to connect to a server over IP.

The APC documentation is surprisingly bad

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Hmm...

And PowerChute Personal Edition does not recognize the UPS connected via USB to my laptop...

Any assistance appreciated!

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Alright,

So I was able to get the business edition of powerchute to find the UPS by installing the agent. It installs a webserver on my laptop where I can partially manage it from. Unfortunately there are no configuration settings related to the network management card

So I am stuck.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

So, just came across an article about Optiion 43 vendor specific cookies, and thought maybe that was my problem.

So I THINK I added it correctly to my DHCP server (pfsense, added it as a string as follows: "01:04:31:41:50:43", but still nothing.

So I am guessing my initial assumption was correct, and this thing is statically set to an IP address outside my subnet.

The reset button on the back appears to be only for temprarily resetting the username and password to "apc,apc" but does not seem to do a complete factory reset.

Is there any way to do a factory reset of the thing, or am I going to have to buy a special APC serial cable, and - crap - try to find a computer that still has a serial port???

This is kind of ridiculous...

 

[deaedius]

Take a laptop or pc and download wireshark. Connect directly to that network port, start wireshark and wait for an ARP request upon boot-up of the APC. You will find its IP address that way.

Good luck.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Take a laptop or pc and download wireshark. Connect directly to that network port, start wireshark and wait for an ARP request upon boot-up of the APC. You will find its IP address that way.

Good luck.

Thank you, that was brilliant! I wasnt aware of that software.

Found the IP address now, but now I am stuck again.

I am able to bring up the web interface, but the reset button on the back apparently ONLY resets the username and password if you are connected via serial cable...

Oh, and in their wisdom, the APC folks used a non-standard serial pinout, so I would have to buy a special APC cable.

AND I'd have to buy a fucking com port adapter of some sort.

I want to murder the entire family of whoever designed this thing. Jesus christ this is the dumbest piece of shit I ahve ever had to deal with.

You have three different interfaces, network, usb and serial, and password reset only works over serial, a DEAD interface, and whats worse, it doesn't even use a standard fucking serial cable...


PLEASE tell me I am wrong here? Does anyone know of ANY other way to reset the password, that DOES NOT involve using the serial interface?

 

[Blue Fox]

Serial is far from dead. Doesn't the HP server you have have it? Pretty much every piece of enterprise hardware these days still has/uses serial.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Serial is far from dead. Doesn't the HP server you have have it? Pretty much every piece of enterprise hardware these days still has/uses serial.

The HP server is a barebones shell right now. I pulled parts from it to build my Norco box. The supermicro board in the Norco box DOES have serial, but I can't have downtime...

Either way, that means I'll need to buy a special APC serial cable...

 

[deaedius]

I'm pretty sure you could create your own custom serial cable, its all about matching the correct pin-out. Then just grab a USB to serial adapter for cheap.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Serial is far from dead. Doesn't the HP server you have have it? Pretty much every piece of enterprise hardware these days still has/uses serial.

Well, I'm a bit of a power user and the last time I used a serial cable was in the 90's some time to connect my external U.S. Robotics Courier modem to computer

There's a generation of computer users who don't even know what a serial cable is at this point

I'm pretty sure you could create your own custom serial cable, its all about matching the correct pin-out. Then just grab a USB to serial adapter for cheap.

I know, I thought about it. Found the pinout drawings online, but took a look at the only serial cable I could find in y house (the rest of them having long since been recycled) and it had overmolded/potted connectors that were going to be a pain to open and rewire, so I decided to just order one of APC's stupid cables. At least I did it on eBay so I didn't wind up giving them any money for their "create custom cable for no reason at all, just to be able to license/charge more for it than a standard serial cable" scheme. This type of behavior is one of the reasons I hate Apple. Abusing and inconveniencing their customers in order to make a few extra bucks... It is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.

Good thing is USB serial adapters are WAY cheaper than I realized. Got one for ~$3 shipped, and now I have to wait again. I hate having my projects delayed by stupidity.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Well, I got my special APC serial cable today, and hooked it up to a serial port on my server, and passed it through to my ubuntu server.

After some playing around with the timing of the reset button presses, I was finally able to get everything reset.

The key is two resent button presses. First press, orange ethernet status light starts blinking, then a second press, and start mashing enter on the serial console until greeted with a login.

2400 baud is a must for the password reset process.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Now I just have to figure out how to have this thing gracefully shut down my ESXi server., which apparently is easier said than done on the free version of ESXi.

Paid version gets functional VMa scripting, which means the premade APC appliance just works.

With free, you have to hack it somehow.