NMC and servers not turning on after graceful shutdown

[ragdolladmin_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/13/2011

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Hi folks,

This hopefully isn't your standard PCNS server shutdown question!

I currently have many NMC cards within my environment managing many servers. I've been doing some tests today as although the shutdown of the servers when the power fails works really well and if the UPS turns off, all the servers come back; there is an issue when the power only goes off for a short amount of time (and here it is)......

1) My servers are set to turn off after five minutes on battery with a two minute delay (they turn off after seven minutes)
2) Power is restored in the ninth minute (example)
3) The Smart UPS waits approximately two to three minutes and then does it's restart action
4) The only server that powers on is a Dell PowerEdge 1850 that does NOT have a hot plug redundant power supply

All my other Dell servers - 1800, 1950, 2950 etc all have hot plug redundant power supplies and they do not register the UPS reboot and so do not power on!

All the BIOS settings are correct and the system works if the UPS turns off, but in my example above, it does not work!!

I have put the issue down to the UPS restart not being long enough (it only takes about a second) and I believe that the residual power in the redundant power supplies in the servers mean they do not register the UPS reset/power reset and hence do not power on.

Is there any way to configure the UPS reset to last 5 seconds, or 10 seconds, or even power itself off for a minute and then come on. This would resolve the issue.

I cannot see any other way of doing this but would appreciate any input. One other 'unclean' solution is to use the Power off UPS settings on the client, but I cannot guarantee all servers are shut down in time, so this really isn't an option!

Thanks for all your help
Rob

P.S I'm running the lastest firmware and PCNS software and this makes no difference

[R2_apc · Accepted solution]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/18/2011

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Hi ragdolladmin, in the NMC interface you should be able to delay the start up of the ups be either a charging percentage or a timed delay. (see attached below)