Question on cables required for AP9225EXP and AP9225

[Anonymous user]

Hello,

I have picked up couple of AP9225EXP and a AP9225 unit and I would like to cascade them while place them between SMART UPS and the servers for Graceful Shutdown and Graceful reboot feature.

As I went through the documentation of the unit

http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/ASTE-6Z6K8H_R0_EN.pdf

and

http://sturgeon.apcc.com/techref.nsf/docID/EFD7C63FD5D9CC74862567D8005FA78E/$FILE/PDUIQ990-6014.pdf

It appears that I require Advance Signaling Cable (940-1000), Basic Signaling Cable (AP9823 for Linux and AP 940-0020 for Windows), and Cascade Signaling Cable (940-0024) in order to use the AP9225EXP with out AP9225 and only Basic Signaling Cable (AP9823 for Linux and AP 940-0020 for Windows), and Cascade Signaling Cable (940-0024) if I choose to use the AP9225 injunction with the Expansion units.

Making the long story short, I would like to know about the Advance Signaling Cable (940-1000), the Basic Signaling Cable (AP9823 for Linux and AP 940-0020 for Windows), and the Cascade Signaling Cable (940-0024). I can see from the AP9225EXP that all the communication ports are 9 pins D-Type connectors. The Advance and the eight Basic Signaling ports are Female type connector while the To UPS is a Male type connector.

Can someone help me out with these required cables? I cannot find any information from the documents that I have mentioned but base on the limited information I have on signaling, if I am not mistaken these cables should be NULL MODEM serial cables and any NULL MODEM cable with the right connector type of Male/Female should do the job.

As always, I appreciate your input and advice.

Thanks,

Avestan

Message was edited by: Avestan

Message was edited by: Avestan

[Anonymous user]

Hello,

In regard with what I am going to monitor with apcupsd, I should say I have no idea yet. Once I get my hardware setup then I am going to give it a try and see what I can get out of it.

This started as I was interested to implement Shoot The Other Node In The Head (STONITH) in addition to turn some of the servers in a cluster and a High Availability OFF (Graceful Shutdown) in order to extend the run time while running on a battery (UPS). Consequently, I started into looking Network Management Cards and I came across AP9606 and AP9617 which none of them appears to add this functionality to my SmartUPS since I have been told the Older SmartUPS can only turn all outlets on or off, here, and that is what I have in my setup. Therefore I looked again for a product which could give me such a capability and that led me to AP9225 and AP9225EXP. Keeping the long story short, I am still interested in implementation of STONITH but as I am researching and reading, I am coming across different products (software and hardware) for doing so which also may offer some other useful functionality which I can take advantage of it.

While we are on the AP9225 and AP9225EXP subject, can you tell me what is the difference between these two products expect the Network Management Card and the right software? My question is, if I use a AP9225EXP with 9617 and MasterSwitch Plus with Network Management Card (AP9617) Firmware v2.6.2 which the LINK offers for download, I am going to get all the functionality that I am offered by AP9225?

Budget is the main limitation on this project and if my choices doesn't include the latest products with all the fancy functionality, the main reason is the $$$ I have to pay to get the functionality I am trying to get.

Thank you for all you advice.

Avestan 😄

Message was edited by: Avestan

[BillP]

i havent looked at a masterswitch in a while.

is this the user's guide you were using -> http://sturgeon.apcc.com/techref.nsf/docID/EFD7C63FD5D9CC74862567D8005FA78E/$FILE/PDUIQ990-6014.pdf

which scenario are you going to plan on use? as far as i know, masterswitch provides simple signaling shutdown to any attached clients via the serial cable using powerchute plus.

i am just confused on which particular scenario you want - just graceful shutdown, versus on demand outlet control only?

[Anonymous user]

Hello again,

Sorry it took me a long time to respond. I was trying to educate myself as I was trying few hypothetical scenarios using an AP9225EXP.

I appreciate if you can help me out with some of my questions.

For now I am trying On-Demand -Only scenario and here is my setup:

1- Connected the power cord of each device (Three Linux Test Boxes) to the outlets on the back panel of the unit.

2- Connected the basic-signaling cable of each server (The three test boxes) to the corresponding Basic port on the front panel of the unit.

3- I am using AP9225EXP without AP9225. Therefore, I connected one end of an advanced-signaling cable (940-0024) to an available serial port on my DTE (Another Linux Box which is used as the control station for the entire system) and connected the other end of the cable to the Advanced port on the expansion unit.

3- Set the communications parameters to 2400 bps, 1 stop bit, no parity, and no flow control.

Using the above setting, I am able to get connected to the Master Switch Plus and control the outlet status (ON/OFF) of the there servers connected to the three outlets of the AP9225EXP. I know in order to use the graceful shutdown and graceful reboot feature, I need to make sure the connected test box is running PowerChute Network Shutdown (PCNS) which I haven't installed it on the three test boxes.

My question is:

1- Can the three test boxes use their connection to AP9225EXP via the basic-signaling cable to shutdown themselves?

2- Can the three test boxes use their connection to AP9225EXP via the basic-signaling cable to shutdown the other two test boxes?

3- If the answer to the above questions is "YES", can this be done by bash scrip or any soft of scripting?

4- If the answer to the above questions is "NO" and the connection to AP9225EXP via basic-signaling cable can only be used for commands issued from the DTE, then how can I achieve the scenario mentioned in question 1 and 2?

Thank you for your help,

Avestan

[BillP]

Sorry, finally had a break to come back to this post.

To begin, I think you meant powerchute plus, not powerchute network shutdown, would need to be installed for an unattended shutdown.

1- Can the three test boxes use their connection to AP9225EXP via the basic-signaling cable to shutdown themselves?

basic signalling means the masterswitch unit can only tell the attached devices that it is on battery or has a low battery/is going to turn off. if running powerchute plus, they should shutdown if you configure the software for basic signalling. keep in mind these units and software are now 10+ years old. it should work but if it doesn't, we don't have much support for it anymore and it'd be recommended to upgrade to powerchute business edition. we may be able to use powerchute business edition in simple signaling mode in this scenario but it was never fully tested.

2- Can the three test boxes use their connection to AP9225EXP via the basic-signaling cable to shutdown the other two test boxes?

the powerchute business edition software, in simple signaling mode, does not support executing scripts or anything. you'd have to come up with something on your own for scripting and where to execute it but it may be difficult because the basic ports will only tell you about/on battery and low battery as i mentioned earlier.

3- If the answer to the above questions is "YES", can this be done by bash scrip or any soft of scripting?

i havent done much scripting myself so i cannot speak from experience.

4- If the answer to the above questions is "NO" and the connection to AP9225EXP via basic-signaling cable can only be used for commands issued from the DTE, then how can I achieve the scenario mentioned in question 1 and 2?

we have UPSs with software nowadays that allow for this type of set up, but not with our current rack PDUs. our software now allows you to run command files based on certain actions if you use a network management card and do it over the network. for devices connected via a serial cable, not much has changed really..

i hope that helps!

[BillP]

these are proprietary cables unfortunately so I am not sure what you are looking for. i cannot provide pinouts.

• 940-0024/940-1524 is an APC smart signaling cable

• 940-1000 is a straight through cable

• 940-0103 is a null modem cable

• 940-0020 is a simple signaling cable

• AP9823 i think is also known as 940-0023 but i am not 100% sure on that cable to be honest with you. it is simple signaling for linux, which is my guess.

this is the info i can provide, not sure if anyone else has anything else or if this helps you.

[Anonymous user]

Hello,

Thank you for taking the time and looking into my question.

The reason that I am asking about these cables is that I am looking into using apcupcd deamon. Base on the apcupcd document, it appears that the cables are available in different flavor and base on the flavor, various functionality is available.

The link to the apcupcd document that I am referring to is Here.

For example in regard with 940-0020 which is a simple signaling cable the said document mentions there are two different options of 940-0020B and 940-0020C. Checking the link provided by Clarkson Here only talks about 940-0020 with no referee to 940-0020B and 940-0020C.

So, the question remains as far as which cable I should use since I am unable to find the cable variation when I search the APC website.

Thank you for all your help.

Avestan

Message was edited by: Avestan

[BillP · Accepted solution]

the letters at the end of the serial cable part numbers are just revision types of we change manufacturers for cable components, etc. we ship the latest available version from apc.com but no matter what revision of the cable you get, the functionality does not change.

what exactly are you going to monitor with apcupsd. i thought that it just did UPSs? looking at the link you posted, it appears you can do other things.

i am not familiar with that software though enough to know about what mode to use, etc