Shutdown multiple devices during power failure

[Anonymous user]

Hi All,

Im looking at getting an  APC  UPS ( APC SUA1000RM1U Smart-UPS 1000VA USB & SERIAL RM 1U 230V #A4 perhaps) to buy sometime to have critical gear shutdown during power outages. Equipment such as Main PC, NAS & DVR.

It needs to be automated so it can occur if Im not home or asleep. Can this be done & what is the best way to achieve this?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous user]

The exact answer depends upon the equipment you have. The PC can definitely be made to shut down automatically if needed. It's the DVR and NAS that are more of a question, and it would help to know more about them.

It is possible for a single UPS to signal multiple computers and let them know that they need to shut down. APC has solutions to support this, and there are third party options (such as Network UPS Tools or apcupsd) available as well.

[Anonymous user]

HOW TO REMOTE SHUTDOWN ALL MACHINES (PC and MAC) ATTACHED TO AN APC UPS

To remotely shutdown any PC on the same network:

CHANGE THE FOLLOWING SETTINGS ON EACH REMOTE COMPUTER:

In CONTROL PANEL

Network and Sharing Center, Change Advanced Sharing settings

"Private" enable "Turn on File and Printer sharing"

In REGEDIT 

RUN regedit.exe

Add a new DWORD

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy  DWORD:00000001

In SECPOL (Windows Pro and Enterprise ONLY)

RUN secpol.msc

Local Security Policy, Security Settings, Local Policies, User Rights Assignment

Add "Everyone" to "Force shutdown from a remote system"

Then set up the event task in TASK SCHEDULER from the PC with the UPS attached to it.

RUN taskschd.msc

TO SHUTDOWN ALL NOMINATED MACHINES

CREATE BASIC TASK

Give the TASK a NAME and a DESCRIPTION [next]

Trigger: “When a specific event is logged” [next]

When an event is logged:

LOG: Application

SOURCE: APC UPS SERVICE

EVENT ID: 174

[next]

ACTION: “Start a program” [next]

START A PROGRAM

c:\scripts\upsshutdown.bat [next]

[finish]

TO CANCEL SHUTDOWN OF ALL NOMINATED MACHINES

CREATE BASIC TASK

Give the TASK a NAME and a DESCRIPTION [next]

Trigger: “When a specific event is logged” [next]

When an event is logged:

LOG: Application

SOURCE: APC UPS SERVICE

EVENT ID: 61455

[next]

ACTION: “Start a program” [next]

START A PROGRAM

c:\scripts\upscancelshutdown.bat [next]

[finish]

BATCH FILES (to be added to c:\scripts\)

upsshutdown.bat

shutdown /s /m \\computer_name /t 120 /c “AC BLACKOUT - ORDERED SHUTDOWN IN PROGRESS”

add one line per PC you want to shutdown.

upscancelshutdown.bat

shutdown /a /m \\computer_name

add one line per PC you want to cancel the shutdown process

END OF PC METHOD

To remotely shutdown any MAC on the same network

Make sure the mac is visible on the PC with the UPS attached to it and the MAC user area is shared.

edit the ups shutdown.bat file and add the following lines for each MAC you want to shut down.

net use x: \\MAC-NAME\username

del x:\shutdown.txt

echo shutdown > x:\shutdown.txt

net use x: /delete

On each MAC

Open Automator (applications -> automator)

Choose “Folder Action” and click  “choose”

Click the “Choose folder” dialog box, select “other” and select the default user folder that corresponds to \\MAC-NAME\username and click “choose”

In “Library -> utilities” select “Run AppleScript” and drag the action into the right hand panel

replace the default AppleScript with the following:

on run {input, parameters}

 tell application "Finder"

   if exists POSIX file "/users/timstevenson/shutdown.txt" then

     say "There has been a power cut. I'm going to shutdown in one minute."

     delay 60

     tell application "System Events"

       set ProcNm_ to name of every application process whose visible is true

       repeat with i_ from 1 to count items of ProcNm_

         set TarProc_ to item i_ of ProcNm_

         try

           tell application TarProc_ to quit

         end try

       end repeat

       repeat with i_ from 1 to count items of ProcNm_

         set TarProc_ to item i_ of ProcNm_

         try

           if TarProc_ does not equal "Finder" then set app_name to TarProc_

           set the_pid to (do shell script "ps ax | grep " & (quoted form of app_name) & " | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'")

           if the_pid is not "" then do shell script ("kill -9 " & the_pid)

         end try

       end repeat

       tell application "finder" to shut down

     end tell

   end if

 end tell

return input

end run

SAVE the Automator file as UPSShutdown

END OF MAC METHOD

[Anonymous user]

Not sure what the DVR will be yet, depends on what I can get. It may in fact be an NVR. 

The NAS is a QNAP TS-419+.

Thanks.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Thanks Tim.