General configuration question

[BillP]

I have read the tech documents and watched the youtube videos and I just want to clearify my understanding on how PowerChute in a VMware vCenter enviroment works.  Please correct me if I am wrong.

I have a single Smart-UPS SMT1500RM2UNC.  This will be controlling two host servers that are running VMware.  I am running the PowerChute virtual appliance to control the PowerChute events.

From what it sounds like...when a power issue occurs and the server begin to run off battery power, the UPS immediately begins the shutdown delay counter and then begins the processes of shutting down the VMs on the hosts machines.

Is there a way to say...begin VM shutdown when UPS has 15min of power remaining or to do this...do I have to set the delay time to however many sec I think the battery will last?
I also see the events configuration with a below thresh hold event.  If I set this to 15min remaining...does this just shut down the host machine or will this shutdown the VMs before shutting down the host?

Ideally what I would like to happen is power is lost, battery kicks in, everything runs normally until 15min of battery are left > begin VM shutdown > VMs off, begin host shutdown,,,>,,, power restored > I suspect host will have to be manually powered on > VMware will autostart VMs again when host boots up.

[BillP]

Hi,

Are you running vCenter Server to control the 2 ESXi hosts? 

On 10/11/2018 9:40 AM, Michael said:

Is there a way to say...begin VM shutdown when UPS has 15min of power remaining or to do this...do I have to set the delay time to however many sec I think the battery will last?

Yes. You can set the delay in the PowerChute web interface under Configure Events -  Runtime remaining below threshold If you set that for 900 seconds when the UPS has 15 minutes of runtime remaining the shutdown process will begin. You will also need to configure VM shutdown. 

[BillP]

But what is the proper way (or where do you set the configuration) to configure the VM shutdown to begin when 15min are left on the UPS?

[BillP]

Hi,

You did not answer the question. Are you running vCenter Server. That makes a difference as to how the VMs are powered down. 

[BillP]

Im sorry...I did not notice the question above the quote.

Yes.  I am running vCenter 6.7 with two physical host machines.

[BillP]

Hi,

The recommendation is to install the PowerChute virtual appliance (VM) on one of the hosts and configure it with vCenter Server. See the PCNS installation guide and Application Note 180. The PCNS VM can be downloaded from this link https://www.apc.com/us/en/tools/download/software_comp.cfm?sw_sku=SFPCNS42-V

You should configure PCNS to start the shutdown process when the runtime remaining falls below 15 minutes (900 seconds). That will be found in the PCNS web interface under Configure Events. Under the heading of Virtulization Setting configure VM shutdown and VM start up. Also configure vCenter shutdown. Under the heading of host protection you should add the 2 host to the powered by list. When the process starts the VMs will be commanded down. PCNS will wait the VM shutdown delay and then if vCenter is a VM it will be powered down. After PCNS wait the vCenter shutdown delay the hosts will be powered down. 

As for start up, if the BIOS of the servers are configured properly the hosts will start when AC is restored. PCNS will then be started and it will start the VMs. 

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the reply.  I think I am almost finished setting up, but I have one more questions.

The check box to enable the VM shutdown processes states the following when you hover over it:
"When a critical UPS event occurs select this option to gracefully shutdown the virtual machine".

What is considered the critical event in this scenario....would the critical event be when the unit goes to battery backup OR is the critical even when the run time remaining countdown expires?

All the documentation I seem to read indicates that when the unit switches to battery this is considered a critical event hence this would kick off the shutdown processes even if there is plenty of battery time left.  I just want to make sure the processes is not shutting anything off too soon.

Thanks for all the help.  I created an official ticket trying to get these questions answered and that has been a black hole to nothing-ville.