Smart UPS with network management card

[stevenanderson_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/22/2010

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Hi



I have a smart UPS 750 with the network management card installed, I have two Windows 2003 servers with the PCNS installed.



I am little confused with the shutdown and where this should happen - on the PCNS or network management card. Can someone please clarify where the shutdown should occur. The runtime on the UPS 18 minutes - how should I setup a graceful shutdown with that runtime available. I have been told that I should set this on PCNS under events, "UPS: On Battery" and set this value - is that true and what should I set it to if runtime is 18 mins.



The Network management card has the following parameters



PowerChute® Shutdown Parameters
Maximum Required Delay 5 minutes
On-Battery Shutdown Behavior: restart when power is restored


Shutdown
Low Battery Duration: 5 minutes
Shutdown Delay: 90 seconds
Maximum Required Delay: 5 minutes

Do I still need to set the shutdown under events in PCNS - if so how many seconds should I set this to.

Thanks in advance

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Laurie on APC forums on 4/22/2010

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This timeline might be helpful too...

[Techie_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/22/2010

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I have found the below useful info when I was look at our discussion forum. I hope that this is useful for you when configuring the NMC and PCNS shutdown configuration queries.

In PCNS, the configure events page can be configured to shutdown or run a command file based on several different types of events. (for example, if you wanted this particular server to shutdown after the UPS had run on battery after 1 minute to preserve battery power, you could do that on the configure events page.) by default, it will always shutdown though based on the low battery duration that you have set in the network management card. For configuration settings based on the low battery duration, this should be configured under Server name->Configure shutdown which states: When Power Chute shuts down your operating system, it will use these settings. Use the Configure Events page to select which events will cause the system to shut down.

So, if you have the low battery duration set to 10 minutes in the management card, the runtime should hit 10 minutes, and then your server with PCNS will receive this notification from the management card. Then it will run the command file and after 3 minutes, proceed to do a graceful shutdown.

if you want to shut something down at a different point other than the low battery duration, i would suggest configuring UPS: On battery event. So you could configure the UPS to shutdown (or even run a command file, notify a user) to happen after the UPS has been on battery for x amount of seconds.

[stevenanderson_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/22/2010

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So you would probably use the PCNS shutdown event tab to say conserve battery life.? So the network management card will control server shutdown, regardless if this is set in PCNS or not. APC technical provided this answer when I asked the same question:

<<*You will need to set up the shutdown in the Power Chute network Shutdown software, you can configure the shutdown accordingly in the Network Shutdown not the Card.>>*

This is what confused me and the follow-up response from them


<<*Basically the Network Card here works with the software and also the Network Card is basically to shutdown more than 1 Server over te network, so Ideally you will need to calculate how many minutes you will need to be on battery, so you can set up the shutdown in such a way for example, once the power is off and the UPS is on battery for say 5 minutes you can configure the shutdown for on battery for 5 minutes, so its entirely how you want to set up the shutdown. This all will have to be configured in the Power Chute Network Shutdown Software.>>*

Their answer conflicts with your answer unless I am reading this wrong

Thanks in advance

[voidstar_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/22/2010

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Hi Steven,

Your question seems to revolve around whether it is PCNS or the NMC that controls the conditions to shutdown. The answer is: both.

When the battery runtime drops below the NMC's low runtime duration setting, the NMC will tell any attached PCNS clients to start a shutdown. But the shutdown options in the PCNS clients allows you to start a shutdown well before that happens based on other conditions, like the runtime (same as the NMC), the amount of time on battery, the temperature being too hot, etc.

[stevenanderson_apc · Accepted solution]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/22/2010

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Hi



I have a smart UPS 750 with the network management card installed, I have two Windows 2003 servers with the PCNS installed.



I am little confused with the shutdown and where this should happen - on the PCNS or network management card. Can someone please clarify where the shutdown should occur. The runtime on the UPS 18 minutes - how should I setup a graceful shutdown with that runtime available. I have been told that I should set this on PCNS under events, "UPS: On Battery" and set this value - is that true and what should I set it to if runtime is 18 mins.



The Network management card has the following parameters



PowerChute® Shutdown Parameters
Maximum Required Delay 5 minutes
On-Battery Shutdown Behavior: restart when power is restored


Shutdown
Low Battery Duration: 5 minutes
Shutdown Delay: 90 seconds
Maximum Required Delay: 5 minutes

Do I still need to set the shutdown under events in PCNS - if so how many seconds should I set this to.

Thanks in advance