Self-Test Schedule - "Every 7th Day"

[SomeITGuy]

I will start by saying we have a lot of (more than 75) APC UPSs of various sizes

Over the years we have had various times where we've come across a UPS that is not keeping devices up during an outage.

Come to find out the batteries are bad and the UPS had not run a self-test in months.

We've since added all of our UPSs to monitoring (PRTG), with a sensor to monitor the last self-test result.

This has been working well, however every time we have a power outage we have several of those sensors that are "yellow".

What's happening is the UPS battery runs out, then when the UPS starts up the selt-test is "Refused" because the charge is not sufficient.

This is understandable as it's hard to test the battery when it has little to no charge.

Last time we had a (major) power outage 20+ of these sensors went "yellow". As a test I decided to ignore them for 2 weeks (default self-test schedule "UPS Startup and every 14 Days since last test")

Most of the UPSs ran a self-test as expected and the sensor when back to "green".

However we had a handful of UPSs that stayed "yellow", upon inspection they had not run a self-test in 3-4 weeks.

I then manually ran a self-test on these UPSs, self-test passed and sensors are "green" again.

So now my thought is to have the UPSs NOT run a self-test at startup
So I log into the first UPS looking for options and see "Every 7th Day" for the Selt-Test Schedule.

So I then proceed to make this change on all our other UPSs, until I get to the 3rd or 4th one...the option is not there, so I check another, and I have the option, ah, must be firmware...nope

After checking dozens of UPSs, I've noticed a pattern, all of our "C" models (the newer ones) do not have this option.

I've brought up the interface of 2 UPSs side by side (a "SMT1500RM2UC" and a "SMT1500RM2U") both have the latest firmware, both have more or less the same configuration. The only difference is, on the "C" model I do not have the option for "Every 7th Day" (or "Every 14th Day) under Self-Test Schedule.
I even when so far as downloading the config file for both, finding the setting for that option, changing it for the "C" model and reuploading, no change, the UPS just ignores it.

So, my questions...

Am I just missing something here? Why would this functionality be taken away? I could see if it was not available on the old model.

Is there some way we can delay the self-test until the charge is sufficient?

Really looking for some help here. Unfortunately the power in our area is really terrible, so I know this is going to be an ongoing issue for me.

That you all in advance for your help on this!

[Teken]

If the option isn’t present than it’s not available for use. ☹️

This is simply an option in the firmware that someone decided to remove. 🤦‍♂️ You could try to submit a feature enhancement request with APC to see if they will add it back in.

You may also consider asking APC Technical Support to see if the Self Test can be invoked manually via SNMP, SSH through a scripted command.

If so, please do share this information as I’m sure it will help out the next person asking the same! 👍

[SomeITGuy]

I think I will submit a feature enhancement request with APC but I won't hold my breath

I know a self-test can be ran via SSH as I have done this in the past

I'll have to check into SNMP, if so maybe I could setup PRTG to automatically run the self-test if the sensor has been 'yellow" for an amount of time

Either way, it's quite sad that an enterprise grade device has to be reliant on 3rd party services.

I know there is the EcoStruxure product, but honestly $5k/year is a bit out there, plus who knows if it would even help with our issues.

[Teken]

If you find a solution using SNMP please do update this thread and outline the steps.

Im sure this will help out the next person asking the same! 👍