Assiging DHCP addresses to APC Power Strips

This is certainly a post related to serial consoles. But, you are limited in the amount of useful monitoring data that you can pull via the CLI, so folks often want to use SNMP or SYSLOG to monitor these devices. Usually, that's where they want CLI access.

In my case, we are re-numbering the management subnet, and we've decided to try to make this job easier for the next time a re-number is required. We're telling the devices to use DHCP addressing, and using MAC Address reservations for all of the devices that we care about. Two complications arose; How to connect to the serial CLI, and how to set the device to use DHCP.

The complication with using DHCP addressing on the AP-7868 PDU (and likely many other APC devices), is that their default configuration REQUIRES that your DHCP server set option 43 to a specific vendor code. If you don't do this, the PDU will not accept the DHCP Offer from your server.

APC AP-7868 Smart PDU Serial Pinouts

APC RJ-13 serial console, 4-wire, data-only connection
APC Console     Lantronix TS (Cisco, Opengear with Cisco wiring, etc.)
(RJ-13)         (RJ-45)
1  ---(???) nc            default settings:  9600-8-N-1
2  ---(GND)---  5
3  ---(TxD)-->  6         default username:  apc
4  <--(RxD)---  3         default password:  apc
5  ---(GND)---  
6  ---(???) nc 
( nc = No Connection )

NOTE: You must configure a default gateway for these devices (APC-7868), even if you are only talking on your own subnet!

On your Conserver host

This section includes what you need to type on the CLI console, to configure the PDU to ignore Option 43 and accept the DHCP Offer. I use the spare port on one of my console servers to do this, and I always name my unused ports in my Conserver deployments, so that I can use them at a moments notice. In this case, I'm using port 30, on Console Server 5...

NOTE: the CLI is not good about sanitizing user input, or detecting errors! You can type commas (or TEXT!) in an IP address field, and non-standard TLDs in the domain field! Be very careful about your typing, and visually check your data before accepting the changes!

console unused-cs5-30     (this is the port I picked...)
[Enter]
[Enter]     (twice, to wake-up the CLI interface)
apc [Enter]     (default login name: apc  case-sensitive!)
apc [Enter]     (default password: apc  case-sensitive!)
2 [Enter]     (Network)
1 [Enter]     (TCP/IP)
(If you need the MAC address, you'll find it here)
4 [Enter]     (Boot Mode   only if currently set for Manual...)
2 [Enter]     (DHCP Only)
2 [Enter]     (Advanced)
1 [Enter]     (Device Name)
ps-6.12i [Enter]
2 [Enter>     (Domain Name
garage.com [Enter]
8 [Enter]     (DHCP Cookie Is: ...)
1 [Enter]     (Not Required to accept offer)
9 [Enter]     (Accept the pending changes)
[Esc]      (go to the previous menu)
[Esc]      (go to the previous menu)
[Esc]      (go to the previous menu)
4 [Enter]     (logout)

When you log out of the PDU, the device will reload the TCP stack, and in a few minutes, your PDU should accept the new IP address via DHCP.

Configuring your DHCP Server for Option 43

You need to define you option 43. How (or IF) you can do this will depend on your DHCP server software. But, this section includes the particular HEX characters that the APC PDU expects to see (or it will refuse the DHCP Offer).

These clues are for the Internet Software Consortium (ISC) DHCP server. See the dhcp-options man page - this describes all the standard DHCP options. Look for the section titled "VENDOR ENCAPSULATED OPTIONS", which is option 43. If you already have a class for APC units, then that would be a good place to define option 43 as it will be defined for all devices that match the class. The simplest way to define the value is something like this:

     option vendor-encapsulated-options 01:04:31:41:50:43;

DHCP option names and numbers are listed in RFC1533, and in the ISC DHCPd source file common/tables.c

(Explanation: I forget the first character (01), but I believe that it designates to expect HEX characters. The second says there are (4) characters in the field. The last three characters are ASCII for "APC". I don't know why the "31" is there...)

NOTE: All APC PDU's should be protected by UPS power.

In an unprotected environment, if the utility power flickers off and on quickly, the onboard network card may not power back on. In these instances, the PDU may power on but the LED display will be blank and any type of access (web, telnet, console) to the PDU will be disabled. In this case, you must power cycle the PDU again, by pulling the power cord, waiting at least 5 seconds, and re-applying power.

The on-board network card was not designed for quick off/on scenarios. Customers protecting their PDU with a UPS, as designed, will not have this problem.

There are also some APC UPS clues on my console site, http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Clues/cons-apc.html
 
Regards,

-Zonker-