APC 5000's and VMware Hosts

[Anonymous user]

Hi,
I have been doing some research and reading and think I have figured things out but what to make sure or see if anyone has a similiar setup and see what the best practices and/or what others are doing. I have 3 APC 5000's with PDU's and Network Managment Cards. I have 6 ESXi 4.1 hosts with two PS in each. I am thinking of plugging one PS into different 5000's.

What I need to know (or make sure) is that I can have it so if the power drops or something fails I can attempt to shut down all VMs on the host(s) and then proceed with gracefully shutting down the host. I have read that you can do this with the Powerchute software and have downloaded 3.0. I also think I read it can be done through VMware Tools but haven't found much info on that.

So let me ask, what is the preferred method? I assume from my research that this is possible? And also how easy is it to setup? Can you set it so that the battery has to be a certain % before it starts the shutdowns (we have a lot of quick "blips" around here)

Any help would be much appreciated as our office has been having a lot of power issues lately. And this is high priority for us.

Thanks in advance!!!!

[Anonymous user]

The model is SURTD5000RMXL

[Anonymous user]

So I am a little confused. Will I not need to install Powerchute on all of the Guests? Will I just need to install it on the hosts and use that "Guest Shutdown"?

Thanks.

[Anonymous user]

Ok, according to VMware they want me to follow APC directions.

My last question is how does the vMA know to shutdown all the hosts when both APCs (redundant configuration) are in a power down state?

Thanks.

[BillP]

"APC 5000's+" - we have several 5000's, can you get us the exact model off of the sticker? they have different options for shutdown and we need to know as far as the shutdown battery percentage question.

here is some help on installation of PCNS 3.0-> http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11398

also, in regards to shutting down VM hosts, we have a kbase. you can start here -> http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10380

ultimately, i think reading these kbases can give you an idea of what you are in for but we have several walk throughs which should help you achieve what you want.

[Anonymous user]

The powerchute network shutdown software will need to be installed only on the Host OS (or in the case of ESXI the ViMa). You will then need to configure your host that it knows to shut down it's Guest OS's when it (the Host OS) receives the shutdown signal from the UPS's network card. Hope this helps

[BillP]

also, SURTD5000 is a "microlink" unit. it has a setting called return runtime duration (versus minimum % capacity). you can set this to a specific runtime so when the UPS has charged up so with your particular load it has X amount of runtime available, the UPS will turn on. the UPS takes a snapshot of the load percentage and charge and all that to be able to calculate this correctly.

hope that helps.

[Anonymous user]

Also by following that KB article does that prevent the guest vms from starting up automatically?

Thanks.

[Anonymous user]

I am a little confused at this process. I have followed the instructions to install the PNCS software on my vMA VM. I have added all of my ESXi hosts (6) to this vMA. I have gone through the configuration wizard and added all 3 Network Management interface IPs (we have 3 5000's) and am using a redundant configuration.

What I don't see is where you set the individual settings for each VM - or how to set when to start the shutdown of the VMs when the batteries reach a certain % or the runtime like noted below.

Any help would be much appreciated. I think I am pretty close here!

[BillP]

are you referring to the information and help configuring everything that is referred to at the end of this guide? -> http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11398

if not, what would you like like to happen specifically? most configuration will be done via what was at the end of the power point based on the event "UPS: On battery" after it has lasted X amount of seconds or in the network management card under the UPS tab -> shutdown to manage settings globally if everything will shutoff at the same time. it really depends how you configured your guests and hosts to begin with though so let us know what you did so far.

[Anonymous user]

Actually I am referring to the directions specified in this KB - http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10380 I don't quite understand why it tells you to put things back into manual mode. Wouldnt you want things into Automatic mode or any order so they startup/shutdown with the hosts? I think that is where i am confused right now. I am trying to make it so all of my VMs that are attached to the hosts shutdown gracefully when a host is going to shutdown because of an APC event.

My assumption is it works like this:
1. APC event happens where both APC that the power supplies are plugged into fails to battery
2. After set time (5 minutes I set it) the powerchute software will tell the vMA to start shutting down hosts
3. The hosts will then go into shutdown and subsequently issue a shut down command to all VMs.
4. Hosts will power off.
5. Once APC come back online and restore the battery power hosts will power up
6. VMs will power up after hosts are back up.

This is what I am looking for. Like I said before I have the vMA installed and have the powerchute software installed on it. I have added all my hosts to it. I ran the configuration wizard and plugged in the network managment card ips that these hosts are redundatly plugged into. Now it is just tweaking it so that hopefully the above can happen. That is what i need some help / guidance on.

Thanks!!

[BillP]

well, we just know that it has to be done like this, relating to this VMWare knowledgbase article -> http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1008182

is this what you need help tweaking?

[BillP]

yes i believe it does but unfortunately, we are now dealing with VMWare software so I am not sure on what the best way to proceed is personally. the APC software just tells the host to shutdown and we are providing some assistance and recommendations from VMWare on how to shut the guests down before the host is shutdown by the PCNS software. if it were me, i might want to research a little bit with VMWare or with what other people have done with this type of installation to workaround the manual turn on or what is recommended here. i don't want to tell you the wrong thing because i just dont know.

if anyone else has done this before or has any recommendations, please let us know.

[BillP]

relating to just PCNS in general, VMWare or not, if two out of the three UPSs send a low battery or shutdown signal that PCNS is configured to act upon, then the Host OS will begin to shutdown and then start this whole sequence of what we have configured with the VMs shutting down and then the host OS.

thus, your host OS will shutdown when at least two of your UPSs are starting their power down/shutdown sequence.

here is some more info too when things will shutdown when it receives a message from only one UPS -> http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3143

hope that helps.

[Anonymous user]

The only experience I have with VMware is with this application (as I am also an APC employee, but do not have a full setup at my disposal). Once the UPS reaches it's low battery duration it wills end out its shutdown signal to the PCNS client (which is running on the host). When the host receives this shutdown signal it will (given the settings are correct) shut down its guest OS's first before powering itself off. Hope this helps

[Anonymous user]

Yes, this is what I am stuck on.

Thanks.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

@R2 - have you done this before or are currently running this setup?

Thanks.