Need to monitor APC battery backup in solarwinds

jayesh.khadye

Hello Team,

  I need to monitor APC battery Backup in solarwinds. So how do i configure SNMP string on it.

Also after we add it how can i set up Alert for it.

Thanks,

Jayesh

rschroeder

Some experiences I've had with APC UPS backups solutions:

• Ensure your UPS has a Network card in it.  Several models will likely be available, from plain basics, to ones with environmental monitoring included.
• Read the instructions for configuring it.  If you don't have them on CD or paper, you can access them for free on APC's web site.
• You might find it's as simple as connecting a console cable to the console port of the device, and opening a CLI session to it with something like Putty.  Or your device's instructions may tell you it may have an IP address on it automatically for configuration, and that you can configure your laptop with a static IP address and then connect it to the UPS with an Ethernet cable and open a web browser to the UPS's IP address for configuration.
• Once you've established CLI or web access to it, check its monitoring software version or drivers.  If they're not the latest ones available from APC's web site, save yourself some future grief and download those newer drivers and install them on the UPS and/or it's SNMP card.  (Tip:  always do this for all your network devices before you put them into production.  I've received many switches and routers, brand new out of the box, that are running versions of code that are obsolete or vulnerable to newer hacks.  Fix them before you deploy them and you'll avoid future outages for upgrades.)
• Go through the process of configuring the UPS for remote administration.  Really do spend some time learning the options here, and deciding (or implementing) a corporate policy that ensures all your future UPS's are set up uniformly.  Choosing the right naming convention and security options will ensure NPM can manage it via your standard naming, and will protect your network from someone maliciously shutting down your UPS remotely, thus shutting down your network.
• Use good certificates to secure your HTTP session so it's HTTPS.  Remember that SHA-1 will be broken soon, so use SHA-2 solutions.  And in the same spirit, use SSH and disable Telnet, and use random long passwords for accessing the UPS via SSH or HTTPS.  The passwords should use upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters.
• Set up the UPS to use SNMP-v3 per the manufacturer's guidelines.
• Tell it where to send messages via e-mail, and traps or syslog info to your NPM server.
• Make sure it's using NTP so you have valid time stamps for your records.
• Learn all its options and decide which ones to use, and how to configure them to your benefit.
• Remember that if the UPS had a factory-assigned IP address for initial configuration, you must change that to be compatible with your network where it will attach.  Change it to use DHCP and then Fix or Reserve the address in your DHCP solution, or give it a static address.  Make sure the address uses the appropriate gateway, subnet mask, and any other settings that you wish the UPS to take advantage of (e.g.: DNS entries, etc.).  Also remember to set your laptop's IP address back to using DHCP, if appropriate.
• It's likely the UPS will have the ability to restrict remote access to specific addresses or networks.  Use this so unauthorized folks have less access to your UPS.
• Apply the changes and save or export them for the future deployment of other UPS's.

It would be nice if it were always simple and automatic, but once you get the process down you may find that you can copy and use it over and over, or export it as an initialization file, which can be tweaked and pushed into other UPS's, thus saving you loads of time.

Now start up NPM's interface.

• Add the IP address of the UPS as a node
• Set up monitoring via SNMP-v3
• Enter in the community strings you configured into the UPS.  For future simplicity save this setup in NPM as a template for the next time you add a UPS.
• Test the monitoring solution on NPM.  It must be able to successfully reach and monitor the UPS.
• Apply or save the changes to NPM.  Now NPM will show when the device is down.  If you want additional alerting, configure NPM to send you alert's via e-mail or pager through its syslog service.  Read up on how to set up NPM to react to traps it receives from the UPS.  You'll want some to make it into your Inbox, maybe some should go to your Facilities or Maintenance staff, or to your NOC.  Some may be appropriate to automatically be sent to your Security department.
• Numerous folks have posted some fun APC UPS pollers on Thwack; look them over and if you find some that seem good to you, download & apply them.  One post from a Thwack user that I like, and that I've deployed, is here:  APC SmartUPS Universal Device Pollers

Swift Packets!

Rick S.