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Getting Started with Power and Environmental Monitoring

The Power and Environmental Monitoring Add-ons​

To access the functionality described in this section, you need a Power and Environmental Monitoring license. Visit the Device42 pricing page to request a pricing quote based on your needs.

Power Unit Autodiscovery​

The process of autodiscovering power-enabled PDUs is similar to Device42 Network Autodiscovery. Begin by navigating to the Device42 main menu, Discovery > SNMP. You can then enter an IP address range, a port if not using the default 161, and any SNMP authentication information depending on if you are using v1, v2c, or v3:

Add Power SNMP discovery job

Install and set up a Remote Collector if you have not already done so. See the Remote Collector page for information.

NOTE that the Power (SNMP) discovery options will not be visible if the power module is not licensed, or if no Remote Collector is available to collect data. Once these are registered in Device42, these option will be visible:

Enable power monitoring for discovered PDU devices

You'll see these options towards the bottom of the SNMP discovery job setup screen. Be sure to check enable monitoring for discovered PDUs, and you may also set the polling interval for any PDUs discovered by this job by choosing the appropriate value from the Polling Interval drop-down. This value controls the frequency at which monitoring will poll each PDU.

Viewing Discovered Sensors​

When sensors are discovered, they are created with Asset records in Device42. Navigate to Resources > Assets > All Assets to see a list of all assets. Filter the list by Type="Sensor" to see a list of all PDU attached sensors discovered.

Capacity Considerations​

Monitoring is a fairly resource-intensive process and as a result, each individual monitoring appliance is limited in the number of PDUs, infeeds, and outlets it can handle. When you set up each autodiscovery job, you will choose a polling interval. The primary resource limitation is the number of SNMP polls that can be done in the selected polling. So, if you select a 5-minute polling intervals, you monitor 5x the number of PDUs in one monitoring appliance as you can if you select 1-minute polling intervals.

At 5-minute intervals (default), Device42 recommends that you have one monitoring appliance per 200 PDUs. At 1-minute intervals, assume 40 PDUs. If your network is at all sluggish, reduce the number of PDUs per monitoring appliance. Remember, you can deploy as many monitoring appliances as you need with no additional license cost.