Prevent the TURN OFF POWER of Outlet Groups in case of a 5 minutes power outage when power on comes

[ThomasH_apc]

The following has happened:

During a five minutes power outage a server was shutting down (shutdowntime 120 seconds). The shutdown takes longer as expected because a windows update. The power off timer on UPS display began to countdown from 180 to 160 and the power came on again this period.

I had expected that the power off countdown will interrupted if power is on, but it wasn't.

Is my UPS SMT1000 out of order or is this behaviour by design?

If yes, how can I prevent this?

Thanks

[BillP]

Hi,

On 3/19/2018 5:53 PM, Thomas said:

Is my UPS SMT1000 out of order or is this behaviour by design?

This is works as designed. Once the shut down process has started it must complete before restarting. 

[voidstar_apc]

To add to Bill's answer, if the UPS aborted its shutdown, the server would still shut down and remain off. So the UPS needs to cycle the power so the server can turn back on.

[ThomasH_apc]

thanks all for fast reply. I understand that this behaviour is necessary.

But in my case it isn't wished, because:

One of my attached devices is a big workstation with more than 20 hyper-v VMs.

And it happens that the OS shutdown takes a lot longer as expected because the VMs and in case of a additional update on windows update during OS shutdown.

Normally it takes only 3 minutes. Worst it takes 15 minutes. But then the power is cut off from usv.

[BillP]

Hi,

Are you running PowerChute Business Edition or PowerChute Network Shutdown and which version? If Network Shutdown what is the model of the UPS Network Card and what firmware is on the card. Also, what is the model UPS. You will find the model information on the bar code sticker. 

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[voidstar_apc · Accepted solution]

Hi Thomas,

That makes sense. Are you using a network management card (NMC) and PowerChute Network Shutdown (PCNS), or are you using PowerChute Business Edition (PCBE)?

I don't have a way to abort the shutdown, but some things to think about:

Typically if the worst-case shutdown time is 15 minutes, then the system should be configured to shut down when runtime drops below 15 minutes with a power off delay of 15 minutes. That way the computer will always have enough time for a clean shutdown. To do this, in outlet settings configure the power off delay to be 15 minutes and then you have a few options:

- Configure "load shedding" in the outlet settings to start a shutdown when runtime drops below 15 minutes. Be sure to uncheck "skip outlet off delay".

- Change "low battery duration" to 15 minutes -- this causes PCNS agents attached to any outlet to start shutting down.

- Configure PCNS on the server in question to start shutting down when runtime remaining is less than 15 minutes.

If a significant amount of that 15 minutes is windows update, you might try forcing windows update not to run during an emergency shutdown. Microsoft doesn't seem to make it easy, but it seems like you might be able to make a shutdown script that deletes everything in "%windir%\softwaredistribution\"

You could also avoid having the UPS shut down at all. PCNS has an option to (or not to) send the turn off signal to the UPS.