APC AP7900 Switched and Metered PDUs 100-120V

[Patrick]

I know a lot of us had the BayTech switched PDUs https://www.servethehome.com/baytech-rpc3-deal-remote-switched-8port-pdu-50-windows-app/

Mine have now all been replaced by the APC AP7900's (100-120V only)
A few came accidentally via Amazon and andovercg when I thought I was getting an APC AP7800 via Amazon's used sellers.
Amazon.com: Buying Choices: APC AP7800 Rack PDU Metered 1U 15A/120V Power Distribution

They are 8 port switched and metered PDUs. Unlike the BayTech units, they have a LCD with current power consumption.

A few cool features, they allow switching of one or multiple ports via a web interface, here the ports are not yet labeled, but you can label what is attached:


They have features like power monitoring. This is at a PDU level, not at a device level but can still be handy:

Finally, there are features like RADIUS authentication, logging, and pretty cool bits like being able to schedule power on/ off cycles:

Overall, it was enough to pull out the old BayTech's that were working just fine.

ebay has a bunch of inexpensive ones as well. Here is a search where they are usually around for sub $100 with shipping.

 

[Blinky 42]

Yes they are great units, we have well over 100 of them deployed. All in that series have the same web and console/ssh/telnet UI and a decent and well supported SNMP capability. There are 15A and 20A models in 120 or 208/240V (with C13 plugs's) and 30A models that are 2u with 2 breakers and logical banks. The "ZeroU" vertical ones you can get 20A, 30A and 3-phase. The 208/240 units also work well on 120 to set up just using a normal NEMA to C14 computer power cord to power it up while configuring.
They also have a pretty complex ability to do groups of outlets across multiple devices with multicast when you have have them in A/B feed setups.

The same UI is used for their UPSs with the network mgmt card from the same era.

When buying used from ebay - I recommend resetting them from scratch then doing a firmware upgrade on them, that tends to weed out problems in the communication between the controller board and the relay board. Nothing more annoying than setting up your PDU and then going back in months later to toggle an outlet and have the PDU non-responsive. Set up ebay searches like @Patrick mentioned to get them at a decent price with some patience.

The 2U multi-bank version looks like this in the web UI for comparison with above (the ZeroU looks the same since it has 2 banks)

Top main screen


Load mgmt page - you can adjust the thresholds a lot, and what happens when alarms are crossed (SNMP traps, emails etc)


The control page:



Example serial / network session would look like:


User Name : apc
Password : ***********


American Power Conversion Network Management Card AOS v3.9.0
(c) Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Rack PDU APP v3.7.4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : XXX-apc1 MAIN Date : 09/09/2018
Contact : Blinky Operations Time : 10:29:12
Location : xxx xx.0.X.0.xx User : Administrator
Up Time : 247 Days 18 Hours 28 Minutes Stat : P+ N+ A+

Switched Rack PDU: Communication Established

------- Control Console -------------------------------------------------------

1- Device Manager
2- Network
3- System
4- Logout

<ESC>- Main Menu, <ENTER>- Refresh, <CTRL-L>- Event Log
> 1

------- Device Manager --------------------------------------------------------

1- Bank Management
2- Outlet Management
3- Power Supply Status
4- PDU Configuration

<ESC>- Back, <ENTER>- Refresh, <CTRL-L>- Event Log
> 2

------- Outlet Management -----------------------------------------------------

1- Outlet Control/Configuration
2- Outlet Restriction

<ESC>- Back, <ENTER>- Refresh, <CTRL-L>- Event Log
> 1

------- Outlet Control/Configuration ------------------------------------------

1- xxx-xxxxxx-01 (1/2) ON
2- xxx-r1 (single feed) ON
3- unmanaged pdu ON
4- xxx108 ON
5- xxx107 ON
6- xxx106 ON
7- xxx105 ON
8- xxx104 ON
9- xxx-xxxxxx-01 (2/2) ON
10- xxx-sw1 hp switch ON
11- apc2 ON
12- apc3 ON
13- apc4 ON
14- xxx103 ON
15- xxx102 ON
16- xxx101 ON
17- Master Control/Configuration

<ESC>- Back, <ENTER>- Refresh, <CTRL-L>- Event Log
> 1

------- xxx-xxxxxx-01 (1/2) ---------------------------------------------------

Name : xxx-xxxxxx-01 (1/2)
Outlet : 1
State : ON
Bank : 1

1- Control Outlet
2- Configure Outlet

?- Help, <ESC>- Back, <ENTER>- Refresh, <CTRL-L>- Event Log
> 1

------- Control Outlet --------------------------------------------------------

Name : xxx-xxxxxx-01 (1/2)
Outlet : 1
State : ON
Bank : 1

1- Immediate On
2- Immediate Off
3- Immediate Reboot
4- Delayed On
5- Delayed Off
6- Delayed Reboot
7- Cancel



I also do recommend that you set the auto-logout timer on web and serial/network sessions - the UI will lock you out if you have too many sessions open at once.

 

[nthu9280]

I did not know the 220v versions work on 110v. I have a AP7800 (metered only) which is fine for my use. Need to find cheap rack mounting brackets. The eBay listings are all $20+ Kit. Wondering if the Cisco 1u brackets holes lineup. They can be had for $5.

 

[Blinky 42]

The brackets are a pain to find in my experience, make sure they come with the unit or there is a significant discount.
I have not yet found something that lines up with the holes, but all the 1U 7[89]xx APC's are the same steel chassis and kit, just different outlets and guts. I tend to buy larger lots of them and just swap the brackets around as needed when I encounter one with problems to a good one.

Yeah check the back panel on them for other voltage support, the 1U ones I have say 100-240V. Never had to try with the 2u or Zero U ones.

 

[nerdalertdk]

They need an watt usage, min just says 0 amp since I’m only pulling 300w

 

[Patrick]

They need an watt usage, min just says 0 amp since I’m only pulling 300w

0 AMP at 300W? Perhaps broken. If you were on 240 that is over 1A and these generally do one tenth of an amp increments on the web UI side.

 

[Blinky 42]

You can get the more granular Watt values from SNMP with something like:

[blinky@bloo]$ snmpget -v 1 -c public 192.168.33.65 PowerNet-MIB::rPDUIdentDevicePowerWatts.0
PowerNet-MIB::rPDUIdentDevicePowerWatts.0 = INTEGER: 180

 

[nerdalertdk]

Will test when i get of work, the sad part is i can't firmware upgrade over ftp since the mgmt restarte as sone as there is trafic on the ftp :/

 

[Terry Kennedy]

ebay has a bunch of inexpensive ones as well. Here is a search where they are usually around for sub $100 with shipping.

The latest firmware is 3.9.2 which doesn't have a SSL that works with modern(ish) web browsers. The design is well over 10 years old and APC stopped updating the firmware a while ago. 3.9.x was a heroic effort by APC (after prodding by me) to resurrect an obsolete OEM toolchain, get a more modern SSL implementation, and build new kits. Unfortunately, Firefox made a change less than 2 weeks after that firmware was released which broke SSL interoperability (see my blog post titled "Is no crypto always better than bad crypto?"

I've also had an unfortunate percentage of these older units fail with a variety of issues on the management processor (which is not really replaceable) in them.

Whatever you do, AVOID the older AP9210 and AP9211 units (beige cases). They have a well-known backdoor password that cannot be disabled (the "tenman" vulnerability was disclosed long after those units were end-of-sale). People are still buying them on eBay for up to $100 (checking sales from the last month) for some inexplicable reason. There's a listing there now for one that's 19 years old for $99. I believe I finally got APC support to start telling people these units are insecure and obsolete when people contact them for password recovery.

 

[epicurean]

Is there a 220V rated equivalent of the AP79xx?

 

[Blinky 42]

Is there a 220V rated equivalent of the AP79xx?

AP7921 or the newer AP7921b should work fine, the "20A" version with a C20 input
Rack PDU, Switched, 1U, 16A, 208/230V, (8)C13 - APC Malaysia

the 7920 is the "15A" version w a C14 input
Rack PDU, Switched, 1U, 12A/208V, 10A/230V, (8)C13 - APC United Kingdom

At work they are the go-to 1U version for outside the USA where "normal" power is 200V+ and it is easy to get local computer power cords to work with them.