PowerChute Business Agent and VMware ESXi issues

[Anonymous user]

Hi!

We own a Dell Smart-UPS 1500VA LCD RM 2U 230V and we are trying to communicate it to a VMware ESXi host through the DB9/RJ-45 cable.

I have deployed the vMA in the ESXi, using vSphere Client, added the serial port device and installed/configured PowerChute Bussiness Agent as explained in your documentation.

After that, I'm able to connect and log in to the PowerChute Agent web interface. Everything seems to work right but the info displayed by the interface is not right.

The UPS status appears as "on battery" when the UPS is actually on-line. It seems that the communication between UPS and host is not working. After several unsuccessful checks in vMA,

I attached a PC to the UPS (running Windows 7), used the very same DB9/RJ-45 cable, installed PowerChute Business Agent and everything works fine. The connection to the UPS

is automatically detected and, when the serial port speed is configured to 2400 bauds, I'm able to check the UPS status while plugging/unplugging it from the power network, configure and test shutdown options, etc. I tried the same

in a Windows 8 virtual machine hosted in the ESXi hypervisor but I'm not able to make it work either.

Do I have to configure the serial port properties? Something I have missed?

Please, any advice to make it work would be appreciated.

Another less important issue I've seen in the vMA is that the web interface stops working (or it doesn't even work when vMA boots) until I manually stop the PBEAgent and start it again.

Marcos V.

[BillP]

Hi,

If the connection is DB9 to RJ45 then the baud rate should be 9600. 2400 baud rate is for the older UPS that used a DB9 to DB9 cable. Also, be sure when asked if using a Share UPS, Interface Expander or in Simple Signalling mode to answer No.

To installed on Windows 8 VM you do need to configure the VM with a Serial Port and you should disable the Serial Port on the vMA so that only 1 VM is attempting to access the port.

NOTE: installing PCBE on a VM is not officially supported.

[Anonymous user]

Thank you so much, Bill.

First, when asked about Share UPS, Interface Expander or in Simple Signalling, I had answered "Yes". After reinstalling and reconfiguring answering "No", I notice that the web interface is a little different: it's the same I saw when made it work in a Windows 7 real PC. The bad news: it can't communicate. In UPS Status appears "UPS Communication Lost". I have tried with both serial ports detected. Anymore ideas?

Second, when installed in a Windows 8 VM, I had shutdown the vMA to release the serial port, but it didn't work either.

Thanks!

[BillP]

Hi,

How many serial ports are on the host? if the drop down shows uart0 and uart1 you will need to test with both and with both ttys0 and ttys1. If you only have uart0 then check to be sure no other VM is configured to use the port. I suggest removing the serial port from the Windows 8 VM as a test.

[Anonymous user]

Hi Bill,

Thank you so much!

There are two serial ports detected on the host, although I only see one physically.

I've just made it work for while in the vMA! When changed to the second serial port in the VM settings, the communication was established. Then I was able to make some tests, plugging/unplugging the SAI power, some actions, and it even issued a shutdown of the ESXi and VMs after certain time "on battery" but, when ESXi and the vMA started again, couldn't communicate anymore. I have tried several configurations, reinstalled PowerChute several times, choosing a different serial port every time, deploying another vMA and starting over but it never worked again. I even turned the UPS OFF and ON again with no success. I'm puzzled!

Any ideas of why did it work once and not anymore???

Any known bugs and solutions?

Thanks a lot!

[BillP]

Hi,

There are not any know bugs for this issue. I was able to reproduce the issue on my host by configuring the serial port on a Windows XP VM and selecting for it to start on power on. When I restarted the host both the vMA and XP system started and PCBE could not communicate with the UPS. I had to disable the serial port on the XP system and then reboot the vMA to establish communications. After restarting the your host and vMA did any other VMs restart and are any of them attempting to access the serial port?

[Anonymous user]

Hi Bill,

no, I was very careful  to make sure that all VMs had no serial port configured nor started automatically with the ESXi host, but the vMA, of course.

In addition, and just in case... I issued a vMA reboot after any big change like configuring the other serial port, in the VM settings or in the PowerChute configuration, reinstalling the PowerChute,...

Deploying the vMA from scratch several times didn't solve the problem either.

I'm out of ideas to try... Maybe testing the serial port communication with any other device.

Thanks a lot!

[Anonymous user]

Hi to all,

This is my experience with APC UPS SUA3000XL (Smart-UPS) and ESXi5.5u2 on a Dell PowerEdge T620 and R720 (both DELL 12^th generation).

When I bought the APC UPS it came with two cables, a 940-0024E (serial port to serial port) and a 940-0127E (RJ45 to USB), and a CD with PowerChute Business Edition 5 Node v9.1

I follow the steps from the PDF I found online (Configuring ESXi Rev 2 Aug 2013) rather than the one inside the CD.

Everything went well to deploy the vMA and to pass-through the serial port to the vMA, then configure the vma with new network settings and new password.

After that I started the installation of the PowerChute Business Edition that I downloaded online (v9.1.1).

First copying the pcbe911_linux.tar.gz file using WinSCP to the vMA, then I did:

vi-admin@vmao~> gunzip pcbe911_linux.tar.gz

vi-admin@vmao~> tar –xvf pcbe911_linux.tar

vi-admin@vmao~> sudo ./install_pbeagent_linux.sh

I had to use the DB9 to DB9 cable because the RJ45 to USB cable is detected by the ESXi and the vMA, but NOT by the PowerChute software (according to this pdf SJHN-956H4K_R0_EN.pdf the PowerChute Business Edition Virtualization Platform in VMware ESXi do NOT support USB connection)

In this last part I chose (q) to skip and when the installation was finish I did a Fastpass Target:

sudo vifp addserver and enter root password for that ESXi host.

After that I enter into the web to access the PowerChute and find out that the communication is not established.

https://community.se.com/t5/APC-UPS-Critical-Power-Cooling/ct-p/critical-power-cooling-racks:6547

After hours of reading online, I found out the solution, since I’m using DELL Servers it seems that the ESXi detects two serial ports:

I shutdown the vMA and edit the serial port to /dev/char/serial/uart1.

When I power on the vMA and got access to the powerchute web, the communication was established and showing me the model of my APC UPS (Smart-UPS 3000 XL in my case).

Now there is another option, if you don’t edit the serial port and leave it as /uart0, you could go to the BIOS settings and change some options, by default my Dell Servers came with this config:

So you can go and change the Serial Device1 to =COM1 and Serial Device2=COM2.

Save it and restart the server and when the vMA is up you will have established communication with your APC UPS.

OR

You can go and just change the External Serial Connector to Serial Device 2, save and restart the server.

References:

http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/326488-help-running-powerchute-install-script-in-esxi-vma

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=25984.0

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Thanks a lot, Hector!

I own a Dell Smart-UPS 1500VA LCD RM 2U 230. The only cable inside the package was a RJ45 to DB9 cable.

I'll review carefully all the steps you give just in case there is something different to what I did.

Bye!