How to troubleshoot "Available runtime has been exceeded" on Linux

[BillP]

My actual runtime  on my SMT1500 w/AP9630 is over an hour but I'm receiving "Available runtime has been exceeded" on both my Linux boxes (one CentOS 7 and the other LnuxMint 18.1 using PCNS 4.2).  My two other Windows machines that are configured to the same UPS do not show this error message.  

I'm looking to troubleshoot this somehow...  Is there a way I can view what the data that these Linux machines are receiving?  Where is the shutdown time requirement configured? etc.

[Brad_C]

What software are you running on the Linux boxes, how is it configured and how does it connect to the UPS?

[BillP]

Hi,

Available runtime has been exceeded is discussed in the PCNS help files and in Schneider Electric FAQ FA241713

The leading cause of the alarm is the Low Battery threshold set on the NMC is not sufficient to cover the amount of time the PCNS client need to power down the OS safely.

[BillP]

Bill,  As I said at the beginning there is more than an hour of runtime  available and the battery is at 100%.  If it takes PCNS  more than an hour to complete a shutdown then there is a real problem.  Both these Linux boxes can shutdown in less than 2 minutes.  Also, why do the Linux machines show this condition BUT the two Windows boxes on the same UPS don not?  

How about answering the questions in the original post...  The help files and FAQ don't address what I'm asking.  Where is the runtime  required configured in the PCNS  configuration files in the Linux implementation?  How can I read what the UPS runtime  is being reported to the PCNS  software? etc.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Tim,

I am sorry the documentation did not help. I suggested you review it because 90 percent of the time the available runtime warning is not caused by the amount of runtime of the battery and the documentation discusses all of the possible causes. 

On 7/25/2017 1:33 PM, Tim said:

Where is the runtime  required configured in the PCNS  configuration files in the Linux implementation?

The configuration of PCNS is the same for all OS. The configuration can be access via the web interface or by editing the pcnsconfig.ini file. Assuming you installed to the default path the .ini file will be in /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1 To access the web interface you would enter in your browser https://:6537 Example https://192.2168.10.11:6547

On 7/25/2017 1:33 PM, Tim said:

 How can I read what the UPS runtime  is being reported to the PCNS  software?

The runtime is available via the NMC and as you wrote it is 1 hour plus. To see what PCNS is receiving you could put PCNS into debug mode and the runtime will be recorded in the error.log file. You could the open the error.log file to see what has been recorded.

26-07-17 08:47:01,559 DEBUG Thread-2 com.apcc.m11.components.RunTimeVerifier.RunTimeVerifierThread - Checking Runtime

26-07-17 08:47:01,559 DEBUG Thread-2 com.apcc.m11.components.RunTimeVerifier.Verifier - runtime_exceeded()

26-07-17 08:47:01,559 DEBUG Thread-2 com.apcc.m11.components.RunTimeVerifier.Verifier - Battery.RuntimeRemaining=9060 seconds

26-07-17 08:47:01,575 DEBUG Thread-2 com.apcc.m11.components.RunTimeVerifier.Verifier - Total shutdown time = =70

26-07-17 08:47:01,575 DEBUG Thread-2 com.apcc.m11.components.RunTimeVerifier.Verifier - Low Battery Duration: 120

26-07-17 08:47:01,575 DEBUG Thread-2 com.apcc.m11.components.RunTimeVerifier.Verifier - runtime_is_not_enough=true

26-07-17 08:47:01,575 DEBUG Thread-2 com.apcc.m11.components.RunTimeVerifier.Verifier - Rounded delay to: 120

In the example above the runtime exceeded was recorded because the low battery threshold set on the NMC was the default 2 minutes and PCNS needed 2 minutes to power down the OS. 

If you are interested in putting PCNS into debut mode the instruction will be found in FAQ FA230514 You will need to stop the PCNS service, edit log4j2.xml and then restart the service. To stop the server the command on LInux is sudo service PowerChute stop. 

Have you made any configuration changes to PCNS e.g. configured a script to run before OS shutdown begins? If so that is taken into account so you would need to adjust the low battery threshold on the NMC to reflect the needed extra time. PowerChute required a minimum of 2 minutes to start the OS shutdown (60 seconds plus 10 seconds rounded to 2 minutes). The NMC low battery duration default is 2 minutes so when PCNS is first installed it will see that the low battery duration is 2 minutes if it has not been adjusted and PCNS will log a warning that the available runtime has been exceeded. If you increase the low battery threshold to 4 minutes the warning will clear. 

If you have configured a script to run prior to OS shutdown and set a delay of 10 minutes for the script to run you would need to increase the low battery threshold on the NMC to 12 minutes or available runtime warning will be log in PCNS.