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Getting Started with the App

This document provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to get the App going and how to use it.

Install the App

To install the App, please follow the instructions detailed in the Installation Guide.

First steps with the App

The fastest way to see the App in action — with no real PDU hardware — is the bundled demo data and the MOCK_CONNECTIONS setting.

Step 1 — Turn on connection mocking. In your Nautobot configuration, enable the setting (the development environment reads it from the PDU_MANAGER_MOCK_CONNECTIONS environment variable):

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "pdu_manager": {"MOCK_CONNECTIONS": True},
}

Step 2 — Load the demo data. This creates two sites, each with an APC PDU (eight named outlets) and several cabled downstream devices, plus Power Off Protection rules — and it enables the PDU Manager jobs:

invoke generate-test-data

The PDU Manager jobs are now registered and enabled under Jobs:

PDU Manager jobs

Step 3 — Open a device and use the PDU Power dropdown. Browse to any of the generated devices (for example dce-acc-01) and open the PDU Power dropdown in the page header.

PDU Power dropdown

Step 4 — Run an action. Choose Status (or On / Off / Reboot). The Job opens in a modal with the device pre-filled; click Run Job Now.

PDU Power Status job modal

Step 5 — Review the result. With mocking on, the action completes immediately and the result shows the (simulated) outlet state — scoped to just the device's outlet:

PDU Power Status job result

What are the next steps?

  • Try Off or Reboot on a protected device (e.g. dce-core-01) and watch the Job finish as a clean Failure — that is Power Off Protection at work.
  • Manage protection rules under Apps → PDU Manager → Power Off Protections, or via the REST API at /api/plugins/pdu-manager/power-off-protections/.
  • When you are ready to talk to real hardware, set MOCK_CONNECTIONS back to False, give each PDU a primary IP, an apc_aos platform, and a Secrets Group, and name each outlet with its APC outlet number (e.g. Power Outlet 5).

You can check out the Use Cases section for more examples.