Configure 3000 XL UPS Network Shutdown

[Anonymous user]

Hi,

   I'm new here. I'm the process learning how to configure the network shutdown for all my servers. Need some guidance from the expert here.

Sign

Mel

[BillP]

how are you trying to configure it? meaning what is your ideal set up for graceful shutdown of your clients and UPS?

[Anonymous user]

in total i have about 9 server per rack and total i have 3 racks. The following i need to configure.

1.Configure alerts

2. On battery mode, server should be down when battery drain to percentage (max)

3.Schedule down of UPS. (e.g During building power maintenance from Saturday 11pm to next morning 7am) All server should be graceful shutdown via network. And power up again the following day 8am. All server should be power up by itself via the UPS wake on LAN.

4. A Tempreature Alarm

5. In case a false alarm the UPS will not shut down the server instate will have a grace period of 15 to 20 mins before it shut down, unless a abort shutdown is given. (understand is script can be written to be added on to the power chute)

That was my whole ideal of doing the graceful shutdown. I did some reading via the UPS guide and did some reseach on the web. I still don't really get the ideal or concept of the whole process. I did a test using the agent which was using power chute it did shut down the trail server which i did a test but configure if running on UPS on battery mode. Need your guidance or advise on this.

Sign
Mel

[BillP]

Hello. What you've asked for is fairly involved. I will try to explain the best I can here but keep in mind, you could talk it over with our support team too if this does not work.

1.) Configure alerts - what types of alerts? All notifications about UPS status, emails, etc are configured on the management card itself. PowerChute Network Shutdown (PCNS) itself does not provide any notifications. PCNS is the software that is being used with a network management card in the UPS. You mentioned "powerchute" but I am not sure what version you actually installed and tested.

2.) Once you install PowerChute network shutdown, this is the default - run until "low battery" and then issue a shutdown. The default value for this is when 2 minutes of runtime is remaining but it can be raised if your server(s) takes longer than 2 minutes to shutdown completely.

3.) This can be done via the scheduling option in the network management card. I forget what the max "sleep" time is though because you may need to schedule a shutdown and then schedule a separate turn on event. If your server's BIOS is set correctly for power state, the servers can come back on when the UPS turns on. We do not support "wake on LAN" on our products.

4.) You need to enable ambient temperature alarms on your network management card and if you want them to trigger a shutdown on your attached devices, you need to manually configure each powerchute client to shutdown based on this condition.

5.) You indicated earlier you want the UPS to run as long as possible before it shuts down. I am not sure how much total runtime you have here but i don't know if this is possible or even necessary if you configure it properly. As far as I know, if the low battery or shutdown signal has been sent from the network management card, it will keep sending that out. If the power comes back on after the client has shutdown but BEFORE the UPS has turned off, i believe you will have to manually turn the servers back on. I am not sure what the timing of the script would be and what it would be to abort a shutdown or if it has already shutdown.

How many UPSs do you have total? Each needs to have a network management card preferably. You'll need to start with that and configure that card before you proceed. Then you install PowerChute Network Shutdown on each device you want to gracefully shutdown and register the software with the management card in the UPS it is plugged into. If you start there, then the rest is specific configuration that we can walk through.

[Anonymous user]

Dear Angela,

                  It was great to received your reply. I downloaded the latest power chute from apc website. Currently we have 4 unit of 3000XL with additional battery unit attached to it. Problem encounter.

1. Must I enter all the server ip to the Powerchute Network Shutdown Client in the admin login to the UPS? Please refer to attached pic.

Already assign the IP for my UPS

2. Must I change the authentication phrase or leave as default?

3. I have disable the HTTPS and pointing just http and port 80.NMC IP address is 10.65.101.5

4. Single UPS Connection

5. There is an error message appear after i completed the installation.

6. Must all my server to be installed with powerchute. Some of my server is running on server 2000, server 2003 and server2008 R2.

Looking forward to your advise.

sign

Mel

[BillP]

• Question 1: When you install PowerChute Network Shutdown (PCNS) and register it with the management card, the IP addresses should be added here automatically. You can add them manually but that does not fix a 'no communication problem' as it seems you are experiencing. So for the most part, this should be done automatically during PCNS -> NMC registration during PCNS install.

• Question 2: Changing the authentication phrase is up to you but no matter what, it needs to be the same on the Network Management Card and PCNS. the default is admin user phrase. Under the NMC, I believe it is configured under UPS tab->Configuration->Shutdown on the NMC and you found the location in PCNS.

• Question 3, 4, 5: Can you provide me the config.ini from your management card please (instructions on downloading config.ini are located in the knowledge base in article FA156131 @ www.apc.com/site/support/index.cfm/faq/ )? Also, have you been accessing the NMC successfully from the computer that you are trying to install PowerChute on? Also, the administrator username you use for PCNS must match the administrator username on the management card. So you're using apc/apc for both the management card and PCNS? Have you verified the subnet settings are the same for both the management card and PCNS client? Even if you can ping the NMC from the PCNS client, an incorrect subnet setting can cause this issue. PCNS is telling you it cannot reach the NMC IP address over the network. Make sure port 80 is open, which I imagine it is, as well as TCP/UDP 3052, 6547.

• Question 6: Any server you want to gracefully shutdown must have PCNS installed OR be shutdown gracefully somehow or else it will do a hard shutdown. You should be able to run PCNS on all the operating systems you mentioned but if they don't work properly for some reason (like server 2000 cause its older and I am not 100% sure if its even tested with anymore), then you could pursue executing a command file from another PCNS client to remotely shutdown other servers that are unsupported by PCNS. PCNS supports executing command files based on certain actions or shutdowns in general. Dry contacts might be an option too if the server happened to have dry contact capability but i imagine it might not if its a typical 1U or 2U server.

[Anonymous user]

Hi Angle,

              Please refer to the link which you can download the config.ini file http://we.tl/XsuPowTFDm. A quick check with you i wanted to add this script to the PCNS. Please refer to the script below.

Date /T>> d:\batch\ups-stop.txt

Time /T>> d:\batch\ups-stop.txt

shutdown /f /s /t 300

Advise from you i try to re-configure the ups again. But don't seem to be able to get it up. A quick can server 2003 PCNS installer use in server 2000 enviroment?

Regards

Mel

[BillP · Accepted solution]

After checking your config.ini file, I see your authentication phrase for PowerChute is nyksmsingaporehf - is that what you typed into the network management card's field for the authentication phrase?

Did you look into every single question I had mentioned earlier? (subnet settings, etc)?

On scripting, I don't know much about it but you can review article FA159586 for some assistance on what is required syntax-wise for a command file or script in PCNS.

Windows 2000 is not officially tested but you can try the installer for the newer Windows operating systems.