Subscribing is a smart move!
You can subscribe to this board after you log in or create your free account.
Invite a Co-worker
Send a co-worker an invite to the portal.Just enter their email address and we'll connect them to register. After joining, they will belong to the same company.
Send Invite Cancel
Solved
Go to Solution
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
Accepted Solutions
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
Hi,
On 3/31/2017 3:10 AM, Daryl said:I've noticed that the event gets sent immediately when the UPS goes on battery, but it takes a while before the actual shutdown occurs and even if the power is restored before shutdown occurs, the computers shut down anyway. Is that delay configurable?
No. That delay is not configurable. The delay is 70 seconds as displayed in the graph below and then the OS starts the shutdown.
On 3/31/2017 3:10 AM, Daryl said:Is it possible to cancel the shutdown if the power returns?
No.
On 3/31/2017 3:10 AM, Daryl said:I have the hyper-v server and web server set to shut down when the remaining runtime drops below a threshold. I'm assuming I have to set this to less than what the runtime drops down to while shutting down the other computers to prevent it from triggering. However, after these computers are completely turned off, the runtime jumps back up to well over 30 minutes and there is 85-90% of the battery remaining. From this point, I'd like to operate the servers and the UPS for maybe 10-15 minutes, but no more. I'm not clear how to do this, because of the fluctuation of the runtime. If I could configure it based on percentage of charge remaining, it would be easy, but I'm not clear how to do this based on time, because there is less runtime with the UPS on utility power with all the computers running than there is when the file server and two desktops have been shut down. Is there a way to configure the computers to shutdown without setting a short remaining runtime? I'd like to set 20 minutes, but that will always be triggered.
What I recommend is test to see what runtime is remaining just prior to the first group going down. Then use that time frame minus 2 minutes as a buffer for the second group to go down. If you need greater runtime you will need to remove some of the load or swap out the SMT1000 for a larger model . Another option is a SMX1000 that allows for external battery packs to be attached to increase runtime.
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
Thank you very much for your reply.
On 3/31/2017 9:44 AM, Bill said:On 3/31/2017 3:10 AM, Daryl said:I've noticed that the event gets sent immediately when the UPS goes on battery, but it takes a while before the actual shutdown occurs and even if the power is restored before shutdown occurs, the computers shut down anyway. Is that delay configurable?
No. That delay is not configurable. The delay is 70 seconds as displayed in the graph below and then the OS starts the shutdown.
Is there a particular reason why the delay is 70 seconds? I don't see a point for a fixed 70 second delay when there is a field to enter a shutdown delay in the "configure events" part of powerchute network shutdown. In order to maximize load shedding, it would be beneficial if the shutdown could be immediate, especially if there is no one using the computer.
On 3/31/2017 9:44 AM, Bill said:On 3/31/2017 3:10 AM, Daryl said:Is it possible to cancel the shutdown if the power returns?
No.
That's unfortunate. I get some outages that are only for a minute or two. You would think that since there is an imposed delay before shutdown that if the UPS went back to utility power, it would cancel the shutdown.
On 3/31/2017 9:44 AM, Bill said:On 3/31/2017 3:10 AM, Daryl said:I have the hyper-v server and web server set to shut down when the remaining runtime drops below a threshold. I'm assuming I have to set this to less than what the runtime drops down to while shutting down the other computers to prevent it from triggering. However, after these computers are completely turned off, the runtime jumps back up to well over 30 minutes and there is 85-90% of the battery remaining. From this point, I'd like to operate the servers and the UPS for maybe 10-15 minutes, but no more. I'm not clear how to do this, because of the fluctuation of the runtime. If I could configure it based on percentage of charge remaining, it would be easy, but I'm not clear how to do this based on time, because there is less runtime with the UPS on utility power with all the computers running than there is when the file server and two desktops have been shut down. Is there a way to configure the computers to shutdown without setting a short remaining runtime? I'd like to set 20 minutes, but that will always be triggered.
What I recommend is test to see what runtime is remaining just prior to the first group going down. Then use that time frame minus 2 minutes as a buffer for the second group to go down. If you need greater runtime you will need to remove some of the load or swap out the SMT1000 for a larger model . Another option is a SMX1000 that allows for external battery packs to be attached to increase runtime.
This is unfortunate, because it leaves no way to prevent the battery from being significantly discharged. I'm surprised the software doesn't have a way to handle the situation where the runtime increases after load shedding. An obvious way would be to use percentage of remaining charge as a trigger, rather than runtime. Another way would be to allow shutdown to be cancelled if the runtime increased within a configurable duration of time. That's more convoluted, however. Just using percentage of remaining charge would be simple and logical.
To your last comment, considering how much I paid for the UPS and NMC, I'm not keen on spending more money, so I need to get the equipment I have working as well as I can. If I'm limited by the features of the software, I guess the only recourse is to try and get APC to improve the software. Is there a mechanism to suggest software features to APC? Is it this forum or somewhere else? Do APC employees frequent this forum? (I ask that because many vendor support forums do not have vendor participation.
With regards to the graph that you provided, since I'm not using command files and I'm not shutting down the switched control group, I believe this graph is the one that applies the best.
Above is the closest to what I'm trying to do. Not turning off the switched outlets, not using a command file.
Here is an example of the shutdown settings triggered by the UPS on battery. I have these settings on the file server and desktop computers, to shed the load as soon as possible. I have not enabled the UPS on battery event to turn off the switched outlets because I'm using one of the outlets for the web server or the UPS.
Here are the settings for the hyper-v server for the runtime remaining below threshold. In this case, I want it to turn off the UPS after the server has been shut down.
I'm using apcupsd on the web server because java is insecure.
Here are the shutdown settings on the NMC:
When power returns, is there a way to prevent the UPS from turning on the outlets until it reached a percentage of charge?
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
Daryl,
I guess you did not notice the Schneider Electric insignia next to my avatar but I am a Schneider Electric employee. Schneider Electric purchased America Power Conversion AKA APC in 2007 and in case your interested I was a APC employee prior to the purchase.
On 4/1/2017 9:10 PM, Daryl said:When power returns, is there a way to prevent the UPS from turning on the outlets until it reached a percentage of charge?
You can sent the power on settings under Configuration - Outlet Groups. The setting as with the shutdown time is based on runtime not percentage. The runtime is based on the available battery pack charge percentage. The information is presented as time instead of percent based on end user feedback. With older UPS and NMCs we presented the runtime as a percent however base on end user feedback it was changed to time.
You will also find load shedding on this same page. When running PowerChute Network Shutdown you can set load shedding and it will trigger a power down of the OS. I am not sure if APCUPSD listens load shedding commands.
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
On 4/13/2017 7:23 AM, Bill said:Hi,
On 4/12/2017 10:05 PM, Daryl said:Will the settings I posted above result in the UPS being turned off after hyper-v server is shut down? I need to either turn off the UPS completely or at least turn off the outlets. If the ups and main outlet group is left on, the network equipment connected to the main outlet group will continue to drain the battery.
You need to configure Turn UPS off in PCNS. The screenshot you provided shows Do not turn off UPS. So, when PCNS starts the shutdown process the UPS will be commanded down. You only need to configure this on 1 or 2 of the systems that will be powering down last. You should also change the outlet off delay to be 2 minutes greater than the amount of time needed to power down all system attached to that group.
I showed two configurations.
The first configuration was for the PCs that will be shut down "immediately" when the UPS goes on battery. For those, I selected 0 delay and "Do not turn off the UPS". All three of these PCs are on the switched outlet group. I do not want to shut off the switched outlet group at this time because the web server is also on this outlet group and I want to leave this computer running as long as possible (until just before the hyper-v server shuts down). I'm using apcupsd on this computer, not PCNS.
The second configuration was for the hyper-v server that I want to shut down last. For it, I selected 0 delay and "Turn off the UPS". After this PC is shut down, I want to either turn off both outlet groups or turn off the entire UPS. It doesn't matter which.
On 4/13/2017 7:23 AM, Bill said:On 4/12/2017 10:05 PM, Daryl said:apcupsd is quite primitive but it has some interesting features.
First, it supports battery charge.
So does the NMC. The setting is under Configuration - Outlet Groups.
Here are screen captures of configuration - outlet groups. I don't see anything pertaining to charge, only time and runtime. Are you using a different software version?
Here's what I'm referring to regarding the shutdown configuration for apcupsd:
#
# Note: BATTERYLEVEL, MINUTES, and TIMEOUT work in conjunction, so
# the first that occurs will cause the initation of a shutdown.
#
# If during a power failure, the remaining battery percentage
# (as reported by the UPS) is below or equal to BATTERYLEVEL,
# apcupsd will initiate a system shutdown.
BATTERYLEVEL 90
# If during a power failure, the remaining runtime in minutes
# (as calculated internally by the UPS) is below or equal to MINUTES,
# apcupsd, will initiate a system shutdown.
MINUTES 10
# If during a power failure, the UPS has run on batteries for TIMEOUT
# many seconds or longer, apcupsd will initiate a system shutdown.
# A value of 0 disables this timer.
#
# Note, if you have a Smart UPS, you will most likely want to disable
# this timer by setting it to zero. That way, you UPS will continue
# on batteries until either the % charge remaing drops to or below BATTERYLEVEL,
# or the remaining battery runtime drops to or below MINUTES. Of course,
# if you are testing, setting this to 60 causes a quick system shutdown
# if you pull the power plug.
# If you have an older dumb UPS, you will want to set this to less than
# the time you know you can run on batteries.
TIMEOUT 0
On 4/13/2017 7:23 AM, Bill said:On 4/12/2017 10:05 PM, Daryl said:Second, it supports a configurable delay before sending the on-battery shutdown command so a brief power outage won't cause everything to go down.
So does PCNS and the NMC. PCNS can be configured to start a shutdown after the UPS has been on battery for x time or when the battery runtime falls below x. As an example the NMC report the UPS is running on battery. PCNS see that but wait x time before starting the shutdown process.
Here is what I'm referring to from apcupsd:
# The ONBATTERYDELAY is the time in seconds from when a power failure
# is detected until we react to it with an onbattery event.
#
# This means that, apccontrol will be called with the powerout argument
# immediately when a power failure is detected. However, the
# onbattery argument is passed to apccontrol only after the
# ONBATTERYDELAY time. If you don't want to be annoyed by short
# powerfailures, make sure that apccontrol powerout does nothing
# i.e. comment out the wall.
ONBATTERYDELAY 6
On 4/13/2017 7:23 AM, Bill said:On 4/12/2017 10:05 PM, Daryl said:Power failure longer than one minute causes two desktop computers and file server to shut down to shed load. Shutting down those computers results in the runtime going from ~15 minutes to 30+ minutes.
In PCNS on these systems go to Configure Events and select UPS on Battery then Shutdown and set the shutdown delay to 1 minute.
If I do this and the power comes back, it will shut everything down. I don't want to shut the UPS down at this time. I'm trying to shed the load from the three computers to extend the runtime and reduce battery draw down as much as possible, then if power doesn't come back, shut down the web server and then finally the hyper-v server.
On 4/13/2017 7:23 AM, Bill said:On 4/12/2017 10:05 PM, Daryl said:If power does not restore after 10-15 minutes, shut down web server and hyper-v, then either power off all outlets or entire UPS.
In PCNS on these systems go to Configure Events and select UPS on Battery then Shutdown and set the shutdown delay to 10 or 15 minute.
Because it's not possible to control based on remaining battery charge, this forces the battery to be drawn down much more than it would otherwise require. After the first three computers are shut down, the remaining charge is over 80% and the runtime extends to more than 30 minutes. Having to trigger based on a 10 minute runtime would result in the battery being drawn down much farther. This is hard on the battery and it also requires longer time to charge before the outlets can be turned on again.
On 4/13/2017 7:23 AM, Bill said:On 4/12/2017 10:05 PM, Daryl said:After power restores, allow ups to recharge to at least 50%, then power on main outlet group followed by other outlet group.
IN the NMC go to Configure - Outlet Groups open the outlet groups and set minimum return runtime. Yes I know this is not a percent so you will need to determine what the runtime wound need to be to meet 50%. Note: the load must be at least 4 amps when the shutdown command is received by the NMC for the return runtime to be accurate. If the load will be less than 4 amp at the time the command is received then you should set power on delay instead.
With all due respect, this is really limiting. If the outlets could be turned off with say, 50% remaining, they could be turned back on immediately upon restoration of power. I wish there was a windows version of apcupsd. Despite the command line interface, it has more flexibility than PCNS + NMC.
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.
Create your free account or log in to subscribe to the board - and gain access to more than 10,000+ support articles along with insights from experts and peers.