[PLUG] UPS for linux

[Tony Schlemmer]

On Saturday 12 November 2005 22:31, Vincent Yau wrote:
> Hi:
>
> I am hoping to get one of those UPS that would not
> only protect against sudden power outage
> but also automatically performs graceful shutdown.
>
> I tried one earlier this year that had a Linux software
> (using SNMP via serial interface to the UPS) but did not
> work very well.  And their tech support was less than helpful.
> I dropped the issue but I need to pick it up
> again since I do really need one that works this time.
>
> Can anyone suggest an UPS  with Linux control software to perform
> graceful shutdown (that you have tried and happy to recommend)?
>
> thanks
>
> --Vincent

I own a number of APC UPS for the many and most of the companies I've done 
work for over the last 10 years have used APC UPS boxes as well. For Linux 
support I like to use "apcupsd" which is monitoring daemon for APC boxes.

It's quite configurable via a configuration file and allows a Linux system to 
be shutdown based on your preferences. You can have it signal your system to 
shutdown based on how long its been running on battery or even better IMHO is 
when the battery level is below a certain point.  I don't know if most 
distros include it precompiled or not but I usually obtain the source code 
and compile it myself. 

"apcupsd" can also be setup in a client/server setup which I find useful in 
cases where I have a large UPS that can support multiple systems. One system 
with the signaling cable monitors the UPS and the other systems are clients 
and receive notifications from the server system. An important point to 
consider when using a network to signal other systems is to ensure that the 
switch the systems are using for their network connection should also be on 
an UPS otherwise signaling will be lost during a power failure.

I've used "apcupsd" with both serial and USB signling cables without any 
issues. Some of the newer APC BackUPS RS-1500 and XS-1500 only support a USB 
signaling cable. I had to specify that I wanted USB support through the 
configuration script that setups up the build environment.

At one time APC had a version of their PowerChute software that ran under 
Linux and I was using that but that was more than 4 years ago and when I 
found myself needing a UPS monitor again sometime later I found "apcupsd". 
There's not fancy GUI or anything but it does the job just for all of the 
systems I've managed over the last few years.

[snip]

-- 
Anthony Schlemmer
aschlemm at comcast.net