AP9617 and Smart-UPS 3000 XL configuration

[Anonymous user]

Hi.

I have just finished upgrading the firmware on one of my AP9617 cards. Kudos to JonPro for all the help and the others that contributed along the way. So the hard part is next... configuring the shutdown of servers in sequence. Ideally, I would first shutdown the application servers (Backup, CRM, Development and ERP systems). Now maybe those should be grouped together? The database (SQL) should be next - in its own group though? Lastly, I would like my domain controllers to shutdown last and am thinking they should either be grouped together or broken out into their own groups. After all that being stated, here is what it would like:

Group A (backup, crm, development, erp) shutdown 1st
Group B (SQL) shutdown 2nd
Group C (Secondary DC) shutdown 3rd
Group D (Primary DC) shutdown 4th

On startup, reverse the order - it's not critical as at the moment, we don't do have them do that. An old legacy Air Conditioning issue lead to 'more control' over the start up. I am not sure the manager wants to change this as of yet.

Some questions I have are:

Which version of Powerchute would I require?
How long do I need to give each group before the next groups starts the shutdown sequence?
Once the shutdown is started can it be aborted or is that not recommended?

Please bear with my lack of knowledge as I am just learning about this kind of configuration.

Thanks in advance for any and all answers or recommendations!

--james

[BillP]

Hi James,


We would be needing more information in order for us to assist you better and hopefully answer your questions. From your post above you've mentioned about grouping, does it mean that groups A, B, C and D are four different computers? I've listed the things that would help us offer a solution below.

Which version of Powerchute would I require?
Typically if a customer is using a Network Management Card on their UPS the recommended software would be PowerChute Network Shutdown(PCNS), there is a free and a fee based PCNS available from APC. Please see the Operating System Compatibility Chart of PCNS by clicking on this link -- [PCNS Compatibility Chart|http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/SJHN-7AYQNP_R13_EN_SRC.zip]. You can also click on this link to know the different PCNS that we are offering -- [https://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=127]. For the paid version of PCNS this is commonly used if the operating system has virtualization on it like VMWare and Hyper-V.

How long do I need to give each group before the next groups starts the shutdown sequence?
This would depend on the runtime available on your UPS and how would you shutdown the computers. Using our software you can perform graceful shutdown either on UPS Low Battery Duration or after the UPS has been On Battery for a certain amount of time. Using any of the two option would still lead us to one thing, do the UPS have an ample amount of runtime to make sure that all computers are off before turning itself off.

Once the shutdown is started can it be aborted or is that not recommended?
Once the Operating System receives a shutdown signal from the UPS and it started it the process could not be aborted.

Let's say that Group A to D are four different computers and then they all have PCNS installed on them. One scenario that we can do is to turn them off after the UPS has run on battery for 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes respectively. Once the UPS runs on battery and it hit the marked timings PCNS would tell the computers to perform a shutdown until all of the machines are all turned off. PCNS can also be set to turn off the UPS once the server shutsdown, you might want to do this on the last computer that would turn off or else it can cause the UPS to shut off unexpectedly.

[Anonymous user]

Hi JonPro.

The groups were based on function of the servers. Application servers should shutdown first, therefore a group containing the application servers made sense to me. SQL supports several of the servers in the group A so I thought a separate group, B, would be best for the SQL server. Now, when it came to the domain controllers I wasn't really sure if I should shut them both down at the same time or put them in separate groups.

Next, I looked at the load on the Smart-UPS 3000 units: 1 has a 60% load and the other a 30% load. The reason for the difference is some things (such as a firewall or PC used for testing, etc) have a single power supply so I wasn't too worried about them. What we have done is to make sure that servers with redundant power supplies are split across the 2 UPS units.

So I guess to start with I need to confirm my thoughts about grouping the servers and then figuring out the shutdown times and events and such.

--james

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Hi.

Has anyone some ideas to share regarding this thread?

Thanks in advance.

--james