Signal shutdown to multiple devices without the use of an NMC?

[BillP]

Signal shutdown to multiple devices without the use of an NMC?

[Brad_C]

I'm unsure of the new generation (SMT/SMX) but certainly the earlier SUA would not do serial & USB together. I'm also not familiar with windows, but I do use APCUPSD to manage several UPS and several servers. This allows full logging, e-mail alerts and pretty much anything else you want to configure it for. I see APCUPSD does support Windows, so that might be an option for you.

Currently I have 3 servers off one UPS. One talks to the UPS over serial, and the other two talk to the first one using the APCUPSD slave network protocol. It all works like it should. I have a fairly non-standard configuration whereby the first server and network gear stay up as long as I can, so when I get a mains failure the secondary servers shut down after 20 minutes. That gives abut 530 minutes for the main server vs 230 minutes with all running. Enough to ride out most outages or give me time to get the generator out.

APCUPSD is pretty flexible when you get into it.

[BillP]

If APCUPSD provides as much functionality as PowerChute, I'm happy to consider switching!

Annoyingly QNAP servers don't let you change their username or password for network connectivity but I believe that they're compatible with APCUPSD.

The config you described is what I've been hoping to achieve. Keeping the 'master' server on and powering the QNAP servers down to extend runtime would be ideal and I think the NASs support WoL so can be woken back up by the master.

Thanks for the advice!

[Brad_C]

Please let us know how you get on. I honestly don't know much about the interaction with APCUPSD and Windows, and feedback is always good.

[BillP]

Will do, just need to find a suitable period of time for me to take the servers offline whilst I tinker with them!

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Following on from my first message and problem:

I managed to procure a suitable RJ45->Serial cable for the APC UPS. This is now connected to our Windows Server running PowerChute. The UPS is connected via USB to a QNAP NAS. This in turn acts as a master for a second QNAP NAS, which queries the first for UPS state.

I can happily confirm that we have had no problems with this setup; both the Windows machine and NASs can query the UPS simultaneously. Only the Windows Server ever changes any settings on the UPS, so this has worked perfectly.