Configuring Shutdown Delay with PowerChute

[Anonymous user]

Hello,

I am new to PowerChute and UPS units in a VMWare environemnt, so forgive my lack of knowledge.

I have PowerChute set up on a VM and it is connected to the IP address of the APC that is running the hosts and SAN for our VM environment.

I think things are going well, but I have 2 questions:

1. Where do I go to configure SMTP settings so that alerts that I have set up will notify me by email?

2. If it is not set by default, how do I delay the shutdown process of VMs when power is lost? I am thinking that if the power goes out for 10 minutes, our UPS should be able to carry the load for that period of time, and I don't want the VMs to start shutting down right away. Is this the default or do VMs start shutting down as soon as power is lost? Where do I find or see these settings?

I have logged into the PowerChute web interface as well as the APC interface and I don't see it anywhere.

Thanks!

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

On 10/21/2015 10:07 AM, Tyler said:

1. Where do I go to configure SMTP settings so that alerts that I have set up will notify me by email?

E-mail is configured on the UPS Network Management Card not in PowerChute. Help with configuring the Network Card can be found in the User's Guide. http://www.apc.com/prod_docs/results.cfm?DocType=User%20Manual&Query_Type=3&Value=98

On 10/21/2015 10:07 AM, Tyler said:

2. If it is not set by default, how do I delay the shutdown process of VMs when power is lost? I am thinking that if the power goes out for 10 minutes, our UPS should be able to carry the load for that period of time, and I don't want the VMs to start shutting down right away. Is this the default or do VMs start shutting down as soon as power is lost? Where do I find or see these settings?

PowerChute will automatically start a shutdown when the UPS reaches low battery. The low battery setting is found on the Network Management Care (see User's Guide link above). If you would like the shutdown to start after the UPS has been on battery for x minutes in the PCNS web interface go to Configure Events - UPS on Battery and select Shutdown, Then click on Enable Shutdown and enter a delay. 

Assuming your configuration is a single ESXi host and not part of a cluster the shutdown settings for the VMs are configured on the ESXi host. See Kbase FA159688 for assistance. 

[Anonymous user]

Thank you for that information. I was able to find and test the SMTP settings so thank you for that.

My VM environment is a dual host environment with HA turned on. Can you be more specific on where the low battery settings are found? I actually prefer that option over a timed shutdown, so thank you for explaining the default settings. By default, what is the low battery setting set to?

[BillP]

Hi,

The default low battery setting is 2 minutes. The setting is on the NMC and is found under Configure - Shutdown for  NMC firmware version 6.x or under UPS - Shutdown for NMC firmware version 5.x. 

[Anonymous user]

Bill,

So this means that when there is 2 min of power left on battery, the UPS will start sending shut down commands to PowerChute to start shutting down VMs? Am I understanding that correctly?

[BillP]

Yes, that is correct. The default setting is 2 minutes. You should increase the delay to match the needed time it takes for the VMs and host to power down correctly plus an additional 2 minutes for safety. Example: VMs take 2 minutes to power down, the host take 2 minutes to power down so low battery should be set to 6 minutes.

[Anonymous user]

Thank you for all your help! I appreciate it.