APC UPS

This is not a promotion for APC. We just installed over a dozen UPS in our MDFs this week. While I am still recovering from sour back, I would like to share some basics about the product and hope this will be useful to someone out there.

To keep our core networking devices up for certain amount of time in the event of power outage, we purchased APC Smart-UPS 2200XL and additional battery pack. The purchase is based on the power consumption of the core devices and the desired up time. Power consumption can be found from your networking device vendor site. This run time chart will help you pick the size and model of UPS unit.

2200XL UPS uses NEMA5-20P input plug. The NEMA5 is for the plug type. The 20 is for the AMP and the P is for plug. This plug will require a matching receptacle - NEMA5-20R.

You will need to take the batteries out of the UPS before mounting it to the rack. See following two diagrams from the user manual for detailed installation procedure:

Diagram 1



Diagram 2



One thing to note here is the first battery I pulled out, is not connected to the main unit and the connector is sealed.

In addition to the serial/management port, the UPS comes with a network management card and allow you mange the device remotely. Here is a diagram for the card:

This AP9361 has a special console port. It looks like a mini headphone jack - marked as item 6 in the picture above. The default baud rate of the port is 9600. There is another built-in regular RS232/serial port on the UPS, which can also be used to manage the device and its baud rate is 2400. The unit shipped with both types of console cables.

By default, it might get an IP via DHCP. I prefer to assign a static IP so that I know exactly where to locate the device. To do so, I use the regular console cable comes with the device and configure Hyper Terminal port as shown below. If you use the special console port on the AP9631 card, you can use any terminal program with default baut rate of 9600:

The default user name and password is "apc" & "apc". Here is a list of command available after you logged in and enter question mark:

You will need to use "tcpip" for ip version 4 assignment and "reboot" to apply setting.

You can change other settings from console port, but it is much easier to do it from Web interface. Enter the IP address in a browser and once again, use "apc" as user name and password.

The first thing I did is enable HTTPS as shown. There should be a build-in cert on the device. You can also import your own cert.

Next, change default admin login name and password:

You might need to recover a lost password in the future. Here is instruction from user guide:

Please note, if you the RS232 port on the UPS, your baud rate will be 2400..

Here are a few screenshots of the features you can configure on the device:

The Port 1 Temp 1 in the above picture is the temperature sensor. It can monitor the MDF room temperature and it is plugged into the first sensor port. Here is a picture of the sensor: