Check Powernet PDU load

Project Notes

This plugin performs a per bank load check on a Powernet MIB (APC) rack PDU compliant SNMP device and returns load as performance data.

BASICS

Rack PDUs group their outlets in banks and report per bank current load in Amperes. Since PDU reports its nominal line to line voltage and power factor, current load can be managed too as power (watts) load. Notice that current is measured per bank, ie, per group of outlets, and not per outlet. Each bank is identified by a numeric value starting at 1.

Each rack PDU can manage a max. current load, and thus, each bank can manage a max. current load. Rack PDUs manage four different per-current based bank status: load low, load normal, near-overload, and overload. These four status are set based on three thresholds: one load low threshold, one near-overload theshold and one overload threshold.

Summarizing previous info, a rack PDU is able to set, per outlet bank, both current value, in amperes, and the bank status (low, normal, near-overload and overload) based on the load thresholds set.

APPLICATION

check_pwnet_rpdu_load can run in two different modes: test mode and plugin mode.

In test mode it's able to set if a given device is compatible, ie, if it manages Powernet rack PDU data. If compatible, plugin returns a summary of device and bank data. Run check_powernet_rpdu_load --help to check test mode usage examples.

In plugin mode it performs a Nagios 3.x compatible check on a Powerner rack PDU device. Plugin is able to check bank status based both in a current/power threshold or in a status threshold.

For instance, the command line ´check_pwnet_rpdu_load -H 192.168.0.1 -b 1,2 -w n,12 -c 16,o´ performs a check on device with address 192.168.0.1 using SNMP default arguments (SNMP protocol version 1, read community public and SNMP port 161), checking current in banks 1 and 2 (-b 1,2). If bank 1 status is near-overload or bank 2 current is >= 12 plugin returns WARNING (-w n,12). If bank 1 current is >= 16 or bank 2 status is overload plugin returns CRITICAL (-c 16,o).

Notice that both current/power values and load status can be used mixed or separately, ie, you can perform checks based only on current /power values, or perform a check based only on bank load status, or (as in previous example) perform a check mixing check modes.

NOTE

This plugin is mainly intended to check load stating that user is worried by high load and not by low load. By that reason this plugin doesn't manage the load-low status.

This plugin is neither intended to bring high security because programmer assumes that the nature and environment of the info managed info doesn't require it. By that reason this plugin doesn't support SNMP v3 protocol.

If you are looking for a plugin supporting load-low status management and SNMP v3 protocol (and lacking other things), please check Marius Rieder's check_apc_pdu excellent plugin.