Smart UPS 3000xl VMWare ESXi 4.1

[Anonymous user]

Hello everyone,

My current set up is a pair of Dell R710 servers (using ESXi 4.1) running off of an APC Smart UPS 3000XL.  All of my VMs are windows machines and I need to set the environment up so that my VMs will shut down gracefully when the batteries are low after an a/c power failure.  I have found articles that involve setting up a linux machine and installing the Powerchute software but I am wondering if there is a Windows based option.  I have no experience with linux and the few steps I have taken have been frustrating.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hello.

Do you have a Network Management Card installed in your UPS? Everything I am going to talk about will require that since our PowerChute Network Shutdown software is required. I don't see our PowerChute Business Edition software supports ESXi 4.1 per http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/ASTE-6Z5QEV/ASTE-6Z5QEV_R38_EN.pdf

My first suggestion is to review our knowledge base @ http://www.apc.com/site/support/index.cfm/faq/ as there are several articles on ESX/ESXi including articles FA159685 and FA159687 that may be of help.

Our approach to this requires installing PowerChute Network Shutdown on the vMA and then that issues an RCLI command to shutdown the host and then the host shuts down VMs prior to itself. Alternative approaches may allow you to install PCNS directly on the Windows VMs but then you still need your host to shutdown somehow..