Smart-UPS 1500 on USB port with Vmware Management Assistant and PowerChute Business Edition

[BillP]

Hi,

I'm trying to use an APC Smart UPS 1500 connected on an USB port, in conjunction with Vmware Management Assistant and PoweChute Business Edition in order to protect two Vmware hosts.

vMA detects the UPS at boot time (see the logs bellow) but, following the installation of pbeagent, no matter which port I chose for the communication, the tool reports "UPS communication lost".

The same UPS works just fine with PBE on a Windows 10 on the same Vmware host using the same USB port.

[   13.329154] usb 2-1: new full-speed USB device number 2 using uhci_hcd

[   14.176168] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=051d, idProduct=0003

[   14.176171] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3

[   14.176173] usb 2-1: Product: Smart-UPS 1500 FW:UPS 09.6 / ID=20

[   14.176175] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: American Power Conversion

[   14.176176] usb 2-1: SerialNumber: AS1534137987

[   14.312771] usb 2-2: new full-speed USB device number 3 using uhci_hcd

[   14.368994] generic-usb 0003:051D:0003.0001: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.00 Device [American Power Conversion  Smart-UPS 1500 FW:UPS 09.6 / ID=20] on usb-

0000:02:00.0-1/input0

I tried to specify /dev/usb/seups0, /dev/usb/hiddev0 or /dev/hidraw0 as communication ports but no change. The UPS has a RJ45 port in the back.

Any idea what I'm missing here? 

Thanks,

Daniel

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

PowerChute Business Edition does not support USB comm to UPS while running on VMware vMA. PowerChute does support comm between the vMA and UPS over serial. See the PowerChute 9.5 installation guide and the User's Guide for assistance.