PowerChute network shutdown timing

[BillP]

This question was originally posted by Marcus on APC forums on 4/18/2013

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Greetings,

I've set up a few test sites with the PowerChute network shutdown, but I'd like some clarification on some of the timing. None of the documentation I've read seems to exactly answer my question, hopefully you can help.

On my monitored UPS, I have set the Configuration -> Shutdown -> Low Battery Duration to 17 minutes. This bumps my Maximum Required Delay to 17 minutes.

On the vMA PowerChute Network Shutdown, I've set up the "Configure Shutdown" section with a value of 600 for the "The command file needs this much time to complete". I have not set up any events in "Configure Events" to cause the shutdown script to run, I'm relying on the PowerChute shutdown signal to come from the UPS.

Am I correct that as soon as the UPS reaches 17 minutes of run time it will send the PowerChute shutdown to all PowerChute clients?

This would give vMA 10 minutes to run the VM shutdown script, and then it would shut down the hosts after, is that correct?

Is there any reason to make the vMA PowerChute run the shutdown script if the UPS goes to battery since it's already going to receive a shutdown from the UPS once the "Low Battery Duration" threshold is reached?

Just want to make sure I have the timings correct and that I'm understanding the relationships between these values, thanks for the help.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

This reply was originally posted by Angela on APC forums on 4/19/2013

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You're understanding is correct. PCNS will tell the vMA to execute a RCLI event to shutdown your ESX box.

The low battery duration is when everything is forced to shutdown by the UPS if it hasn't been specifically configured to turn off earlier based on other actions.

Instead of running a script too, another VM shutdown instruction are in article FA159688 in our knowledge base @ http://www.apc.com/site/support/index.cfm/faq/ . Not sure if one is quicker than the other though.

This general timeline might also help too. It is in your PCNS help file.

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Marcus on APC forums on 4/22/2013

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Thank you for the clarification.