APC NetBotz 250 rack-mount temperature, humidity and smoke monitoring appliance

Find out more about our real-time monitoring solutions

What’s included with the APC Netbotz 250 Appliance?

Free Installation Advice
Onsite Installation available
Temperature/Humidity/Access Sensors
6 x Sensor Ports
Relay Output
Wireless Sensor Included

What’s in the box?

Included with the NetBotz Rack Monitor 250 is a wireless sensor starter kit, including a Zigbee wireless network coordinator and wireless temperature sensor, in addition to a wired temperature/humidity cable. This means the NetBotz 250 is ready to start protecting your IT environment within minutes.

1 x NetBotz 250 Rack Mountable Appliance
1 x Wired Temperature & Humidity Sensor
1 x Wireless Co-Ordinator
1 x Wireless Temperature sensor
1 x Mini USB Cable
1 x C14 Power Cable
Mounting Hardware

Contents of the Netbotz 250 package

Find out more about the benefits of the Netbotz 250

The APC NetBotz 250 protects your computing equipment from physical threats such as high temperature, humidity, water damage as well as malicious and unintentional access events. This rapidly deployable device supports Netbotz wireless sensors and is to add to your environmental monitoring solution.

The rack mountable form factor means that the APC NetBotz 250 can be mounted in a rack alongside your other IT equipment or zero-U mounted in the rear of a cabinet. The appliance has 6 on-board sensor ports for NetBotz wired sensors, including temperature, temp/humidity, smoke and spot fluid sensors as well as third party sensors via a dry contact cable. Additional ports include a beacon, voltage output, relay output and Modbus connections for monitoring over Modbus RTU or TCP.

Temperature, humidity and other ports available on the Netbotz 250

Thresholds, alerts and notifications are configured via the web UI or via StruxureWare Data Center Expert. The Data Center Expert integration is especially valuable when you need to manage multiple APC NetBotz appliances in bulk. For environments that do not require surveillance the NetBotz 250 is the most affordable solution to protect IT equipment from physical threats.

Integrates with almost any other APC & NetBotz devices (Rack monitor 250 isn’t compatible with camera pods)
Compatible with wireless sensors which reduces the need for unnecessary cabling
Integrates with APC Rack Access Control Solution
Provides real time notifications, so if something is wrong with your NetBotz rack monitor network, you can be notified straight away as to be able to quickly resolve the problem.
Compatible with StruxureWare Data Center Expert – StruxureWare Data Center Expert is a software / hardware solution that enables you to view information about any of your devices
Data Center Expert also distributes alerts, alarms and notifications thus enabling you to view and protect your physical data centre infrastructure.

Find out more about our real-time monitoring solutions

We have installed Netbotz equipment for

Ecl-ips client logos. AON, EE, BBC, Network Rail, Wychavon Council, JLT, BT

Frequently Asked Questions

What's included with the APC Netbotz 250 Appliance?

Free Installation Advice
Onsite Installation available
Temperature/Humidity/Access Sensors
6 x Sensor Ports
Relay Output
Wireless Sensor Included

What's in the box?

1 x NetBotz 250 Rack Mountable Appliance
1 x Wired Temperature & Humidity Sensor
1 x Wireless Co-Ordinator
1 x Wireless Temperature sensor
1 x Mini USB Cable
1 x C14 Power Cable C14 which powers the NetBotz 250 from either a PDU (Power Distribution Unit) or a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply).
Mounting Hardware

Contents of the Netbotz 250 package

With Ecl-ips continuing to market and sell Netbotz products the firm can offer the expertise of having been there for this development journey. We can install and maintain the appliances and sensors and can remotely monitor company sites as well if this service is required.

How many sensors can I have?

As a rule, you can have six sensors connected direct to the NetBotz 250 via the RJ45 Universal Sensor Port. However, you can additionally add up to a maximum of 47 wireless sensors and also up to 42 wired sensors via the APC NetBotz Rack Sensor Pod 150 (NBPD0150). This connects to a NetBotz appliance and allows you to increase the space monitored by your NetBotz security and environmental monitoring system.

Can I receive SMS alerts?

Unfortunately, you can’t directly from the NetBotz 250 device, however, you can configure the Netbotz appliance to send an email when there is an alert. As an option you could send emails to an email to SMS gateway to relay messages over SMS.

Can I view/add cameras to a NetBotz 250?

This option isn’t available with the Netbotz 250 if you wish to have a camera you will need to purchase a different Netbotz appliance, such as the Netbotz 450, 570 or 750.

Is the NetBotz system cloud based?

This solution is currently not cloud based but is browsable via a web browser. There is a cloud solution available using the Data Center Expert server.

Can I monitor third party equipment via the Netbotz 250?

Yes, if you use the APC NetBotz Dry Contact Cable (NBES0304). With this cable you can now use as many standard dry contact-based sensors (such as motion detectors, moisture detectors, or break glass- detectors) as external NetBotz sensors.

How much data will the device store?

The device will start overwriting data after 10,000 entries.

How many users can I have?

There are no limits.

Can I use more than one wireless coordinator?

Unfortunately, this is not possible, the coordinator for the wireless sensor network on the NetBotz Rack Monitor 250 is located under a plastic cover, connected to the port labelled wireless. This is the only coordinator allowed on the wireless sensor network. If you connect an additional Coordinator to any other USB port on the appliance this disables the Coordinator connected to the Wireless port.

How many doors can I attach/monitor?

You can connect and control 2 handles per NetBotz 250. There are two options available for the Rack Access Kit, 125kHz Handles (HID) and 13.56 MHz Handles (Mifare) both are compatible with Netshelter SX and SV Racks.

You can however monitor up to 42 doors via Door Switch Sensors (NBES0303) per device again utilising the APC NetBotz Rack Sensor Pod 150 devices.

What is the history of the Netbotz appliances?

The company Netbotz was founded in 1999, by a private group of individuals and investors in Austin, Texas. Netbotz Inc. was a privately-held company and was a provider of web-based monitoring solutions that closed the gap between traditional physical security and cyber-security.

Netbotz developed environmental monitoring appliances and its web-based physical infrastructure management platform, Netbotz Central to provide physical and environmental monitoring of data centes, comms and server rooms. The company also developed a range of sensors to detect environmental factors like temperature changes, water leaks, power fluctuations and humidity.

What was different about Netbotz products when they originally came to the UK?

Aaron Kernaghan, Managing Director of Ecl-ips, has been designing and installing Netbotz solutions in the UK and Europe since 2003 when the company had received funding to expand to worldwide markets. While there were other monitoring devices being developed the Netbotz appliance was the only one that incorporated a camera. Aaron said the camera was a unique selling point as two-thirds of IT outages have been found to be due to human error so knowing who has entered the IT or Server room is vital.

At that time companies had very little awareness of the need to monitor comms and server rooms and servers were literally overheating. However, Aaron said there is now more awareness about the need for monitoring critical IT spaces that now incorporate Edge spaces with PoE equipment.

Originally Aaron said they competed with rival firm American Power Conversion (APC) and frequently won business ahead of them. NetBotz was the winner of the Computerworld Network Award 2004 for “Most Innovative Use of Technology”.

Who owns the Netbotz-branded appliances now?

In 2005 APC, which had been founded in 1981 and had developed a range of power management appliances, bought Netbotz for $31 million. At the time of the sale Netbotz said over 2,700 organizations worldwide used its solutions for active monitoring, early detection and instant alerts to protect critical assets from damaging physical and environmental conditions. Just two years later, in 2007, APC itself was taken over by European multinational, Schneider Electric, which had global recognition for its expertise in energy management and automation.

Over the years the main developments have been the expansion of the number of types of Netbotz monitors, the introduction of wireless sensors and the expansion of Netbotz Central to become Schneider Electric’s Data Center Expert software.

Why should I choose a Netbotz appliance for real-time monitoring?

You can group the Netbotz appliances together and offer a completely scalable solution. As the software is installed through a web browser it is easy to set up and use.

Aaron says the APC Netbotz monitoring appliances offer the most flexibility of all of the monitoring products, the alerting mechanism can be escalated in various ways. You can use it to monitor third party devices such as air conditioning units, UPS devices, tank flow levels, leak detention and many other third-party sensors.

The IT equipment in comms rooms work best if they are kept at a constant temperature and ideally you want to increase the set points for that temperature so that the air conditioning units are not working too hard to retain that level. In an inefficient system the air conditioning unit is likely to be switching on and off constantly as it works to maintain a temperature but if the system is working efficiently you save the energy as the air conditioning units can have a higher set point. By monitoring temperature, you will be able to manage your energy use and boost your energy efficiency, which will save you money over time.

The Netbotz 250 is the entry level appliance for businesses, which although it does not have a camera still offers a comprehensive and flexible solution and is ideal for organisations with a single comms room that has a good access control system so that people going in and out are still monitored.

Does my small IT space really need real-time monitoring?

With the development of the cloud for data storage there are now more large data centres filled with servers. Aaron says IT expertise and monitoring are generally concentrated on these sites.

Although Ecl-ips has installed Netbotz devices in data centres, the remote sites and smaller comms rooms are the places that really benefit and should not be ignored. We have been to various sites to install security devices and been able to offer Netbotz devices because we can demonstrate the value that server room monitoring will provide. For example, a server or a critical switch, may have been located in a cupboard that has become used for other purposes, creating a sub-optimal environment.

Which organisations will benefit from Netbotz monitoring?

Netbotz monitoring will benefit organisations in the education, finance, healthcare, banking and insurance sectors as well as businesses with multiple branches such as pharmacies that may have one remote IT team. Ecl-ips has been involved in providing Netbotz systems for several companies including AON, the BBC, Network Rail, the London Underground, Birmingham City Council, JLT, Wychavon District Council and BT.

How quickly can I get my Netbotz 250 from Ecl-ips?

There is free next day delivery available for orders placed in UK mainland before 1pm, Monday to Friday. Please contact us if you are based outside of the UK.

254.5 mm × 195 mm × 44.45 mm

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