Issue
Discovering APC Devices into Data Center Expert using SNMPv1 and troubleshooting SNMPv1 discovery issues.

Product Line
StruxureWare Data Center Expert (DCE)
     - Basic Appliance (AP9465)
     - Standard Appliance (AP9470)
     - Enterprise Appliance (AP9475)
     - Virtual Appliance (AP94VMACT)
StruxureWare Central (SWC)
InfraStruXure Central (ISXC)

Environment
StruxureWare Data Center Expert (all versions)
StruxureWare Central (all versions)
InfraStruXure Central (all versions)
APC Devices with NMC supporting SNMPv1

Resolution

See additional knowledge bases for discovering different other types of devices:
     - APC Device: SNMPv3
     - NetBotz 200 Series
     - NetBotz 300-500 Series
     - NetBotz 700 Series
     - Modbus TCP Devices
     - Third Party devices using SNMP
     - BACnet is currently not supported

Requirements to discover an SNMPv1 Device
     - IP Address of device, or subnet device(s) are located on.
     - SNMPv1 Read community string.
     - SNMPv1 Write community string (used for APC Device Priority Scanning).
     - Any restrictions to SNMPv1 community strings.



1) Log into the web interface of the APC Network Management Card (NMC).

2) Navigate to the SNMP settings to determine if SNMPv1 is set to enabled.
     - Application Version 6.X: Configuration menu > Network > SNMPv1 > Access > Enabled [checked]
     - Application Version 3.X-5.X: Administration tab > Network sub-tab > SNMPv1 > Access > Enable SNMPv1 access [checked]

3) Navigate to the SNMP community string settings within the APC NMC.
     - Application Version 6.X: Configuration menu > Network > SNMPv1 > Access Control
     - Application Version 3.X-5.X: Administration tab > Network sub-tab > SNMPv1 > Access Control

4) Data Center Expert requires the ability to be able to read and write data via SNMP to the APC NMC.  If only Read access is provided, Priority Scanning will not function.  Ensure that there is an entry for Read and another for Write and that both are set to enabled.  Take note of the community string(s) as they will be needed in a later step.
NOTE: Instead of two entries, one entry with the Access Type will work for both Read (Get) and Write (Set) requests.

5) Ensure that the NMC IP/Host Name fields for the applicable entries apply to DCE.  For a description of what your entry within this field means, click on Help in the upper-right corner of the NMC while on the SNMP Access page or while editing a specific SNMP Access line.

6) DCE Desktop Client > Device menu > Add Devices.

7) Device Discovery Type > SNMPv1 > Next.

8) Enter the IP or the IP Range. IP Range can be expressed using wildcards (10.10.10.*) or dashes (10.10.10.1-99).
NOTE: It is recommended to limit the number of IPs that are scanned.  The larger the number of IPs that need to be scanned will lead to longer device discovery times.

9) Enter the Read and Write community String Names as recorded within step 4.
NOTE: If at any point you are using copy and paste, ensure to paste into Notepad first to remove any formatting.  Copying from other programs may alter the true values or add spaces to the strings.

10) Alter the Port number if the device is configured to use a different port.

11) Verify that the correct authentication credentials have been entered in the Device File Transfer Settings.  If the correct settings are not entered, you will not be able to upgrade device firmware, perform mass configurations for the device(s), and some devices may not discover properly.
NOTE: It is recommended to limit the number of entries within the Device File Transfer Settings that can apply to more than one device.  For example, limit the number of entries that have all wildcards for the IP Range field.

12) Click Next to navigate to the Choose Device Group screen.

13) Choose the device group that you wish the device to be part of and click Next.
NOTE: Only one group may be chosen. If the discovery will be for multiple devices that need to be within different groups, it is recommended to discover them into the Unassigned group.  You can then drag and drop them into the desired device group (Monitoring perspective > Device View pane / Device Groups pane).

STOP!  It is important to not click Finish if you wish to run the discovery at this point in time.  If you have already clicked finish, navigate to: Monitoring Perspective > Saved Discoveries Pane. Locate the created discovery, right-click on it, and select Run.

14) Enable the discovery scheduling, if desired.  Check the Box for Run Discovery Now and click Finish.

15) Discovered devices should start to show within the device group that they were selected to be discovered into. If the device(s) discovered, you do not need to proceed to additional steps.  If the device(s) you attempted to discover are not listed within the device group you selected, proceed to APC NMC SNMPv1 Device Discovery Troubleshooting
NOTE: Activity Progress can be seen within the Saved Discoveries pan within the Monitoring perspective.
 

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APC NMC SNMPv1 Device Discovery Troubleshooting
1) Navigate to the Monitoring Perspective.

2) Within the Device Groups pane, select All Devices.

3) Within the Device View pane, search for the IP Address of a device in question.  If the device shows, the device was either successfully discovered in the previous steps, or was discovered at some point in the past.  You can drag and drop the device into the desired device group to keep your devices organized.  If there are no results, proceed to step 19.

4) Verify the community strings and ports within the saved discovery and within the APC NMC.  Within the Saved Discovery pane, right-click on the discovery and select edit to view the settings.  If the settings are not correct, make the necessary changes and run the discovery again.  If the settings all match, proceed to step 20.

5) Edit the Saved Discovery and increase the timeouts to 10 seconds and retries to 5.  This will allow the device more time to communicate with Data Center Expert.  Run the discovery again and wait until the Activity status goes to idle.  If the device still does not show, proceed to step 21.

6) Check the APC NMC Event log on the NMC web interface for any information.  Error Messages, along with possible resolution:
- Detected an unauthorized user attempting to access SNMP interface from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
     - If the IP address listed is DCE, the community string that is listed within DCE for the discovery is not correct, or the APC NMC Access Control Settings are blocking the SNMP requests.
- No errors (2 scenarios)
     - All settings within DCE are correct.  SNMP traffic may be blocked on the network from the NMC to DCE, meaning that DCE will not receive any SNMP packets back with the necessary data for discovery.
     - SNMP traffic may be blocked from the DCE server to the NMC, not allowing any SNMP traffic to ever reach the NMC to be able to get a response.

To test if the settings are correct and that SNMP traffic is reaching the APC NMC, change the community string setting within the DCE Device Discovery and then run the discovery again.  If traffic is reaching the APC NMC, there will be an event within the APC NMC event log for, "Unauthorized user attempting o access SNMP interface from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX"  The setting within the Saved Discovery can now be changed back to match the APC NMC community string.  This would indicate that SNMP communications are able to be received by the APC NMC, but responses are not being received by DCE.  Please reach out to your network team to ensure that SNMPv1 is not blocked on the network between APC NMC and DCE.

If the device discovery issue is still present after verifying the information above, including verification through your network team that traffic is not blocked, reach out to your local technical support.