Power Off Delay

[mmzxz_apc]

Hi folks,

I have some questions and hope any of you can provide some clarification.

Setup:

• vCenter on physical machine connected to outlet group 2. Powerchute Network Shutdown also runs on this machine.
• vSphere/ESXi host with a bunch of VM's connected to outlet group 1.
• Network Management Card 2 on a SMX3000.
• Communication with vCenter, PNS and NMC2 configured and working.

Where do I define at what moment the UPS sents a signal to PNS indicating that it should start a shutdown procedure? Do I configure that on the NMC2 in Outlet Group Configuration>Power Off Delay? Suppose I want PNS to start shutting down VM's after 30 secs. of power outage, do I configure that on the NMC2>Outlet Group Configuration>Group 1>Power Off Delay>30seconds ?

Also, I have set VM Prioritization and VM Shutdown Duration in Powerchute Network Shutdown software. The total VM shutdown duration given in PNS is 8minutes. After shutting down VM's, PWS goes shutting down the vSphere/ESXi host.....correct? Next PWS goes shutting down the vCenter server.....correct?

Thanks in advance

[BillP]

Hi,

If you want the shutdown to start when the UPS has been on battery for x amount of time you can do that in PCNS. Go to Configure Events - UPS on Battery. Select shutdown, then select Enable shutdown and add the delay. The delay is the amount of time the UPS will run on battery before PCNS start the shut down process. 

On 4/4/2018 8:14 AM, First said:

PWS goes shutting down the vSphere/ESXi host.....correct? Next PWS goes shutting down the vCenter server.....correct?

Correct. After the VMs and the host have been powered down the PCNS service and vCenter service will be stopped and the system PCNS and vCenter are running on will power off. 

[mmzxz_apc]

Thanks for your reply, this mostly answers my question. Though I would like to know a bit more on NMC2>Outlet Groups Configuration>Power Off Delay

I have read this about Power Off Delay:

"When this outlet group is on, it waits this delay before turning off when "Off with Delay," "Reboot with Delay," or "Shutdown with Delay, AC Restart" is selected as the action for this outlet group. (During a delayed reboot, the outlet group then waits the number of seconds configured as Reboot Duration and Power On Delay before it turns on.)"

Does this mean this setting only works in conjunction with Control > Outlet Groups > *action* ? Does this also mean that whenever I have a power failure, this setting does not relate to anything that happens because of the power failure? For example, suppose I have a power failure and Power Off Delay is set to 120 secs, the UPS doesn't Power Off after 120 secs because the Power Off Delay setting is only applicable to manual actions in Control > Outlet Groups > *action*  ..........correct?

[voidstar_apc · Accepted solution]

So, by default the UPS will not shut down on power failure. It continues to run on battery until depleted.

You can set up software to command a UPS shutdown during a power failure. Generally this will use delays. One exception is the "Load Shedding" settings where "Skip outlet delays"  is the default, but you can and should unset that. Load shedding is disabled by default.

PowerChute uses the off delay to ensure it has enough time to safely power off the load before the UPS de-energizes the outlets.

[mmzxz_apc]

So if I understand this correctly: the total VM shutdown duration I have set in PNS is set to 1260 seconds (which works fine). I also have set Turn off the UPS Outlet Group in PNS. In NMC2 I have set Power Off Delay to 1500 seconds (1260 + 4 minutes). This will result in NMC receiving a Turn off Outlet group signal at the begin/end (??) of the PNS shutdown procedure and then NMC waits 1500 seconds to turn off the outlet groups.....correct?

This doesn't seem to work in my setup. The outlet groups won't switch off while I have set the Power Off Delay and unchecked Skip outlet off delay. Can I see pending/scheduled Outlet Group shutdowns initiated by PNS somewhere in NMC?

edit:
Also, the Power Off Delay in NMC2 for group 2 seems to reset from 1500 to 3180 (happenend multiple times). I would find this logical when the VM shutdown time set in PNS would exceed the Power Off Delay, but this doesn't seem to be the case:

(PNS)
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NMC2

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PNS

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[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The shutdown process is explained and diagrammed on page 87 of the users guide http://www.apc.com/salestools/PMAR-9DNLQK/PMAR-9DNLQK_R3_EN.pdf?sdirect=true When the UPS switches to battery depending on the PCNS configuration a delay will happen and then the shut down process starts. When the process starts the shutdown signal is sent to the outlet group. The outlet group will wait the delay specified in the NMC and then power down. 

On 4/7/2018 11:10 AM, First said:

So if I understand this correctly: the total VM shutdown duration I have set in PNS is set to 1260 seconds (which works fine). I also have set Turn off the UPS Outlet Group in PNS. In NMC2 I have set Power Off Delay to 1500 seconds (1260 + 4 minutes). This will result in NMC receiving a Turn off Outlet group signal at the begin/end (??)

The shut down is triggered at the beginning as listed in the diagram.

On 4/7/2018 11:10 AM, First said:

of the PNS shutdown procedure and then NMC waits 1500 seconds to turn off the outlet groups.....correct?

Correct.

On 4/7/2018 11:10 AM, First said:

Can I see pending/scheduled Outlet Group shutdowns initiated by PNS somewhere in NMC?

The shutdown signal is logged in the NMC event log and you can see the remaining time left of the delay under Status - Outlet Groups

On 4/7/2018 11:10 AM, First said:

Also, the Power Off Delay in NMC2 for group 2 seems to reset from 1500 to 3180 (happened multiple times).

That is as designed. When you configured PCNS to power down the outlet group the VM shut down delays are added to the outlet group power off delay. As an example sent VM power off delays to 840 second and the outlet off delay on the NMC had been set to 120 seconds. The outlet off delay will be increased to 920 seconds. If you want 15 minute delay set the VM shut down delays to equal 1260 and set the outlet off delay on the NMC to 240.  

[mmzxz_apc]

Thank you very much for your reply. This greatly clarifies things!