Help with making sense of all of this

[jahed_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 5/28/2015

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Hi All

I have read a fair bit if th e PCNS and management card documentation and I am struggling to make sens of a few things. At risk of sounding as if I have had my frontal lobe removed please see my questions below: My environment is pretty simple:

• 2 x Standa Alone VMWARE ESXI servers each running the PCNS OVA.
• 3 x physical servers each running PCNS 4.0
• Smart-UPS SRT 5000 Firmware - UPS 04.1 (ID1013)
• NMC AP9537SUM Hardware Revision 05
• PowerChute Network Shutdown 4.0.0 Build 6078

I am confused with regard to a few things. Please see below:

• Firstly I am trying to configure the runtime levels for triggering shutdown events on my agents.I assume this gets done under /Configuration/Shutdown. But the settings are not making much sense to me. I would like to configure the clients to shut down should the ups reach 20% remaingin runtime, I estimate this to be around 20 minutes. 
• It would be great if I could find an explanation of each of these settings under /Configuration/Shut Down
  • Start of Shutdown
    • Low Battery Duration:
    • Maximum Required Delay:
    • Basic Signaling Shutdown:
    • Basic Low Battery Duration:
  • Duration of Shutdown
    • Sleep Time:
  • Sync Control Shutdown
    • Shutdown Delay:
    • Return Delay:
    • PowerChute Shutdown Parameters
    • Maximum Required Delay:
• I want the UPS to only shut down once all connected servers have been shut down and the UPS has only 5% remaining in order to keep my other devices up and running such as an analogue PABX.
• PCNS Configurations below:
• I also noticed that on each PCNS running you are able to configure events, this is a bit confusing for me as certain configurable items would relate to a UPS event that would be duplicated if configured on each PCNS such as email alert on UPS on battery. Or am I missing somethig here.
• Also under shut down settings the only option is to shut down the UPS, should this not be configured on the UPS NMC itself rather than risking the possibilty of conflicting configurations due to the same setting being conigured on each PCNS?
• Under Configure Events, what is the difference between Runtime Exceeded and Runtime Below Threshold?

I am sorry fo the long winded question and apologies in advance if i missed something in the docs...

Bash

[BillP · Accepted solution]

This reply was originally posted by Bill on APC forums on 5/28/2015

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Bash,

On 5/28/2015 2:59 AM, Bashir said:

Firstly I am trying to configure the runtime levels for triggering shutdown events on my agents.I assume this gets done under /Configuration/Shutdown. But the settings are not making much sense to me. I would like to configure the clients to shut down should the ups reach 20% remaingin runtime, I estimate this to be around 20 minutes. 

You can configure the shutdown of the PCNS Agents using the NMC by using load shedding. Log into the NMC and go to Configure - Outlet Groups - select an outlet group. Set the outlet group to power down after the power failure last for x minutes or when runtime remaining is less than x. You will find a description of these setting in the NMC help file.

On 5/28/2015 2:59 AM, Bashir said:

It would be great if I could find an explanation of each of these settings under /Configuration/Shut Down

• Start of Shutdown
  • Low Battery Duration:
  • Maximum Required Delay:
  • Basic Signaling Shutdown:
  • Basic Low Battery Duration:
• Duration of Shutdown
  • Sleep Time:
• Sync Control Shutdown
  • Shutdown Delay:
  • Return Delay:
  • PowerChute Shutdown Parameters
  • Maximum Required Delay:

The above settings for the NMC are described in the NMC help file.

You should set the low battery setting to be at least 2 minutes longer that the greatest amount of time the servers take to power off. Example: if 4 of the servers take 5 minute to power down and 1 take 10 minutes low battery should be set to 12 minutes. When and if the UPS hits low battery all PCNS agent are sent a shutdown command. This is a failsafe to be sure the servers are shut down safely prior to the UPS running out of battery power.

On 5/28/2015 2:59 AM, Bashir said:

I also noticed that on each PCNS running you are able to configure events, this is a bit confusing for me as certain configurable items would relate to a UPS event that would be duplicated if configured on each PCNS such as email alert on UPS on battery. Or am I missing somethig here.

If you are using load shedding in the NMC and the low battery setting is correct you do not need to configure any events in PCNS. It is your choose as to which way you want to configure your setup.

On 5/28/2015 2:59 AM, Bashir said:

Also under shut down settings the only option is to shut down the UPS, should this not be configured on the UPS NMC itself rather than risking the possibilty of conflicting configurations due to the same setting being conigured on each PCNS?

Using load shedding you can configure different outlet gorups to power down at different times so you can have the servers go down and then the PABX system at a later time.

On 5/28/2015 2:59 AM, Bashir said:

Under Configure Events, what is the difference between Runtime Exceeded and Runtime Below Threshold?

Runtime exceeded and runtime below threshold are described in the PCNS help file.