APC AP9617 network management card password reset

the-evaluator

the-evaluator

the-evaluator

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Last week I was given an APC AP9617 network management card. It was believed to be working and when I plugged it in my APC UPS at home and it grabbed an IP address from my DHCP server. I was expecting it to have a static IP address already assigned so that was a nice surprise.

Onto the problem. How the hell do you reset the passwords on these things? I can login using device/apc but that's a limited view only account. I know when they're new out of the box the default credentials are apc/apc but they don't work when I try over HTTP or telnet.

I found some articles on the APC website saying that to do a factory reset you push the reset button, release then push it again when the status LED flashes. I did that, can can see that the card rebooted but still I can't login. I also found another article that said you must connect using a serial cable and that apc/apc only works for a minute or two. Slight snag is that this network management card doesn't have a serial port, just an ethernet.

The UPS itself does have a serial port (RJ45 I believe but I don't ever remember configuring anything network related on a network management card via the UPS itself, it was always done by the web/telnet interface on the card.

Any ideas? I've tried all sorts of combinations of pressing the reset button, waiting, hold it down for various lengths of time. I can see that the card reboots as it stops responding to pings but when it comes back up it still won't accept apc/apc.
 
My UPS really doesn't want me to use the serial port, as soon as I connected the cable the UPS powered off.

I was using my USB - RJ45 Cisco rollover cable. I'll dig out a proper serial cable and see if the UPS behaves any better.
 
the-evaluator said:
My UPS really doesn't want me to use the serial port, as soon as I connected the cable the UPS powered off.

I was using my USB - RJ45 Cisco rollover cable. I'll dig out a proper serial cable and see if the UPS behaves any better.
Click to expand...

I've had that before on a APC management card - something of an :eek: moment. They are very fussy about the serial cable.
 
It came as a surprise that the UPS powered off! The timing wasn't ideal as I was on a call at the time using my SIP phone which is powered from my PoE switch which is itself powered by the UPS.

I read that the pinouts are the same as a Cisco rollover cable so I figured it was worth a try. I've got a genuine Cisco rollover cable somewhere and I think the docking station for my laptop still has a serial port. I'll power a few things off and try again later.
 
You need a certain serial cable, the pin out is different in for APC UPS's.

So using the wrong cable will cause it to instantly power off as the pinout is wrong :P

No idea about Cisco cables though.
 
the-evaluator said:
My UPS really doesn't want me to use the serial port, as soon as I connected the cable the UPS powered off.

I was using my USB - RJ45 Cisco rollover cable. I'll dig out a proper serial cable and see if the UPS behaves any better.
Click to expand...

As already mentioned this is a well known/documented issue, if you use the wrong pin-out, it resets. It’s an APC thing.
 
the-evaluator said:
I don't have a serial cable that the UPS doesn't hate so I either need to buy one or find the pin outs and crack out the soldering iron,
Click to expand...

Unsurprisingly you aren’t the first person to have this issue. The pin-out’s are already documented, though some variation exists based on specific models, this shouldn’t be an significant issue.
 
I think I'll have to admit defeat on this one. I grabbed a genuine APC serial cable from the office but no matter what I do I can't get any form of response from the serial port on the UPS before, during or after pushing the reset button, no matter what baud and port settings I try.
 
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