Powerchute Network Shutdown not writing to Windows event log

[BillP]

We were running PowerChute 2.2.4 and found it wasn't writing events to the WINDOWS event log (Such as one server that wasn't communicating with the UPS, and we weren't aware of it.) We did have all events in the PCNS webpage set to write to the event log, but I assume this is the PCNS log.

In past versions, I know PCNS used to write to the Windows event log. What changed? We upgraded to v3 and it still doesn't write to the Windows event log. Since we can't email from PCNS, and it won't write to the Windows event log, how are we supposed to monitor it?

[BillP]

PCNS has its own event log and does not do any writing to windows event log. only powerchute personal edition does that.

within PCNS 3.0, if you click on your server name on the navigation pane to the left (after you login), i believe the page defaults to View Event Log.

to get to PCNS 3.0, I think a shortcut is installed on the start menu but if not, use a web browser to go to http://:3052 or I think https://:6547 will work too. this is how you manage and configure PCNS. if the web page doesnt come up, ensure the PCNS service is started within Administrative Tools->Services and also, you might need to add those URLs to your Trusted Sites, especially if this is a server OS like windows server 2003/2008.

hope that helps.

[BillP]

Yes - understood that PCNS has it's own event log. After a power outage, we were looking at it and wondering why we never received an alert that we weren't communicating with the UPS when all of our other servers were.

The issue is - at one time, PCNS communicated with the Windows event log. We query the event log for certain events, and this is how we normally know if anything is broken. We can't query the PCNS log, so we're stuck. Why would APC take this feature away? Yet another reason to look to another UPS vendor. . .

[BillP · Accepted solution]

i am not sure - i was told only powerchute plus, powerchute business edition and powerchute personal edition did this. i wasn't aware PCNS did this at any point in its release history.

within PCNS, when you are setting it up, there is an event that you can configure to log an event (which is enabled by default), notify users (via Messenger service if supported), run a command file, or shut the system down. you can do the same type of configurations if the communication is lost while on battery. this might be something you'd like to configure or perhaps write a command file to do some other type of action in order to notify you. other than that, there isnt really an option that i can see.