Help! Configure PCNS for power outage and temperature?

[Anonymous user]

We have two APC UPS Units: UPS A and UPS B. We installed APC9619 NIC on UPS A, and installed APC9716 NIC on UPS B. We configured PCNS software on all our servers (win 2003), and it seems that all our servers are communicating with UPS B. UPS A has power vaults, spam filters, tape drives hooked up to it.

My primary goal is to shutdown the servers after a power failure (10 minutes seems right, considering the UPS claim to last 1 hour). Secondary goal is to shutdown the servers if environment temperature goes over 95F. Third goal is to restart the servers when power is up.

Here are my questions:

1) I configured each server's PCNS software to shutdown 10 minutes after being on UPS Battery Power and configured it not to shutdown the UPS after it finishes shutting down the server. Is this the proper way to set this up for graceful shutdown? Also any other recommended settings?

2) How do I configure PCNS software or NCMS to shutdown servers if temperature exceeds a certain temperature? Does both NIC need to be APC9619 for this happen? Or can the NIC cards communicate with each other?

3) How do I tell UPS A to shut off other items after all the servers are shutdown properly?

4) How do I tell both UPS A and B to bring back up all servers and devices automatically once power is restored?

Thanks.

-Mo

[Anonymous user]

We have two APC UPS Units: UPS A and UPS B. We installed APC9619 NIC on UPS A, and installed APC9716 NIC on UPS B. We configured PCNS software on all our servers (win 2003), and it seems that all our servers are communicating with UPS B. UPS A has power vaults, spam filters, tape drives hooked up to it.

My primary goal is to shutdown the servers after a power failure (10 minutes seems right, considering the UPS claim to last 1 hour). Secondary goal is to shutdown the servers if environment temperature goes over 95F. Third goal is to restart the servers when power is up.

Here are my questions:

1) I configured each server's PCNS software to shutdown 10 minutes after being on UPS Battery Power and configured it not to shutdown the UPS after it finishes shutting down the server. Is this the proper way to set this up for graceful shutdown? Also any other recommended settings?

2) How do I configure PCNS software or NCMS to shutdown servers if temperature exceeds a certain temperature? Does both NIC need to be APC9619 for this happen? Or can the NIC cards communicate with each other?

3) How do I tell UPS A to shut off other items after all the servers are shutdown properly?

4) How do I tell both UPS A and B to bring back up all servers and devices automatically once power is restored?

Thanks.

-Mo

[Anonymous user]

+1) Is there a reason you want the UPS to continue running after the servers have shutdown? This configuration seems fine to me besides that question (only thing I can think of is that you have other random items connected to it).+

Yes I do have other random stuff connected to it. I guess I could tell the last server standing to cut off the UPS?

+2) To configure this, you need to configure the thresholds in the management card under the environmental tab. In PCNS, log in, then on the left hand side click on configure events.You should see Environment events. Then, under the shutdown column, you can click on the green circle and configure it.+

I don't see the option for enviornment events in the PCNS on any of the servers. Is this because it seems to be favoring UPS B? Now am I confused.

Can the network managment card on UPS B, cut off multiple servers even though they are not plugged into it (power wise) ? If it can than how do I configure all the servers to point to UPS A (which has the managment card with the temperature probe?) so I can have enviornment control and power outage control?

+3) You can configure how long the UPS runs on battery in the management card.+

I don't see this option? Could you please tell me specifically where it is? I can theoretically tell everything to cut off at 20 minutes?




Thanks for all the answers so far!

[BillP · Accepted solution]

1) Is there a reason you want the UPS to continue running after the servers have shutdown? This configuration seems fine to me besides that question (only thing I can think of is that you have other random items connected to it).

Yes I do have other random stuff connected to it. I guess I could tell the last server standing to cut off the UPS?

Yes you could do that, if not it will just power down from low battery then cut the power to the other items.

2) To configure this, you need to configure the thresholds in the management card under the environmental tab. In PCNS, log in, then on the left hand side click on configure events.You should see Environment events. Then, under the shutdown column, you can click on the green circle and configure it.

I don't see the option for enviornment events in the PCNS on any of the servers. Is this because it seems to be favoring UPS B? Now am I confused.

You want to make sure the PCNS clients are configured to point to the IP address of the AP9619 or this wont work. It sounds like maybe they are pointed to the AP9617 which has no environmental options.

Can the network managment card on UPS B, cut off multiple servers even though they are not plugged into it (power wise) ? If it can than how do I configure all the servers to point to UPS A (which has the managment card with the temperature probe?) so I can have enviornment control and power outage control?

Yes, you can do that. You can associate PCNS clients with a different UPS than they are plugged into which will work fine for environmental events (which affects the entire room) but may not be best for other situations. For instance, if the UPS that they are plugged into has an issue, such as an outage, and the other one does not. Then the PCNS client wont know. Even if you do a multiple UPS configuration through the software, PCNS waits for an on battery event from each UPS so if they arent plugged in for power, you can run into issues like that.

3) You can configure how long the UPS runs on battery in the management card.

I don't see this option? Could you please tell me specifically where it is? I can theoretically tell everything to cut off at 20 minutes?

Sorry, I am not sure what I meant here haha. You can configure how long PCNS waits for each client by configuring the on battery event to last for xx seconds. This is under configure events->UPS: on battery, "only when this lasts xx seconds"