Managing PoE Switch with Node-RED

General
1

Hey all!
I am pretty new to this whole Dashboard thing and want to know if its possible to manage a PoE-Switch, in particular the ports of it, through Node-RED. So as an example simply turning on and off the PoE-Supply on certain ports when a button is pressed on the Dashboard.
I got a Aruba 1830 PoE-Switch. The PoE-supply is manageable through its web interface but I couldn't find a way to integrate that into my dashboard.

Furthermore I would like to display the current wattage from the switch. In the web Interface of that switch is exactly this displayed, so I just need to transfer that on to my dashboard.

I really hope there is a solution for my problems!

2

First thing you need to do is see whether:

  • It has a command line interface (e.g. via SSH)?
  • It can be controlled via SNMP?

Either of those might be easier than trying to manipulate the web interface.

If you do look at the web interface, you need to start by looking at its construction using your browser's developer tools (generally F12 will bring them up). You need to look to see whether any JavaScript libraries are used to dynamically construct the data in the UI. If they are, you will need to understand what security is needed in order to call them directly.

Bottom line is that Node-RED provides the tools all right but unfortunately there is no way round having to dig through the UI code for clues.

3

Thanks for the comment!

So unfortunately it does not have a line interface but it seems so that I can controll it via SNMP!

I am not really a expert in this whole protocoll world but I will try it!
If its not working I will know where to ask :slight_smile:

4

Well, it is a pain in the you-know-where to be honest but simple things can be easy enough.

5

Yeah, I found out yesterday... it can be really painfull. But okay, I guess that is the best way for managing the switch.

The only concern I have is that in the Specsheet of my switch SNMP is listed as an option but only with a read authorization. So I guess I cant turn off the PoE on specific ports, right?
Cause when I want to do that I need to change the value of some lines in the table. Or am I wrong?

1 Like
6

Hmm, it may not support SNMP write then.

So that would leave you back to plan A.

Start by doing an http-request to the appropriate URL and start working out what authentication you need.

7

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