Monitor APC PDUs with SolarWinds NPM

Some time ago, an unfortunate VLANing issue prevented us from accessing the metered power distribution units (PDU) at our data center.  Recently we resolved the original VLAN issue and I decided to take the time to get the PDUs back onto the network.  

Once the PDU were back on the network, it seemed like a good idea to use our monitoring software, Solarwinds NPM, to make sure the units were working correctly, and that they were not overloaded.

Now that the work is complete, we can view the current load (and trend) of a PDU.  Additionally we get email alerts when a PDU exceeds a safe AMP load.

This project had the following components:

   1) Setup the APC PDU on the network

   2) Add the units to SolarWinds for SNMP monitoring (basic task for users of the product)

   3) Establish the "standard" for what constitues an overloaded PDU

   4) Create a custom Universal Device Poller in SolarWinds, and assign to the PDUs

   5) Setup a custom chart (shown above)

   6) Create an alert in SolarWinds that emails when the load PDU load is too high