Multiple Powerchute Client PCs to one SU2200XL with Network Management Card

[tireland_apc]

How can I connect 3 server PCs as Powerchute clients of my SU2200XL with Network Management Card? I currently have one server connected to the DB9 data port of the UPS. Is their a way to this with Ethernet?

[tireland_apc]

How can I connect 3 server PCs as Powerchute clients of my SU2200XL with Network Management Card? I currently have one server connected to the DB9 data port of the UPS. Is their a way to this with Ethernet?

[BillP]

Yes, if you have a network management card installed in the unit, remove the serial cable connected to the server and instead make sure everything is connected to the network.

Assuming the network card is configured and you can login to it, you need to download [PowerChute Network Shutdown|http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=127] and install it on each of your servers. It will ask for your login info for the card and the IP address, then will verify communication with the card. If all goes well, this setup will allow you to configure all of your servers to shutdown when needed (i.e. when the low battery duration - by default 2m - is reached on the UPS, or for a variety of other events available for configured in the PCNS interface).

[BillP]

You can try but it probably won't work very well. The NMC will try to take priority comm-wise and may not send info via serial properly.

[tireland_apc]

I was able to create a route between the UPS and the server on the other subnet. Now all three servers can talk to UPS, I've installed the PCNS software on each successfully and registered each server IP with the NMC in the UPS, but I can't seem to configure when each server shuts down. One needs to shutdown right after a powre outage because it takes like 10 mintues, the other two could wait until 5 minutes before the UPS batteries are dead.

[BillP]

For your first server that takes 10m to shutdown, I would configure the shutdown via the PCNS interface on that server:

Configure Events > look for "UPS: On Battery" > click the green circle all the way to the right under the "Shut Down System" column
Check the box for "Yes, I want to shut down the system." and you can enter a duration for how long you want the "on battery" event to last before signaling the server to shutdown. You probably want at least 60-120s in that field since you don't want the server to shutdown for quick power blips.
Apply, and that server is set.

For the others, you can leave PCNS as it is and instead make some changes via the NMC interface:

UPS tab > Configuration > shutdown > Low battery duration
Set this value to 5m (or something close) since you said they take about 5m to shutdown. With this setting, once the battery reaches the low battery duration for remaining runtime, it will signal all of the registered servers to shutdown.

[tireland_apc · Accepted solution]

Thanks very much for you help! Great step-by-step instructions.