Symmetra LX 8000 RM Fail Over Time

[BillP]

Hello,

   Im trying to limit how long the APC will be on during fail over and not sure how to go about it. Our AC unit is not on the APC so if we lose power and the systems fails over longer than 25 minuets we risk damage to our equipment due to overheating. Have any documentation or advise to restic the fail over going past 25 minuets? 

[BillP]

Hello Robert,

You can limit the amount of time the UPS runs on battery by accessing the network management card installed in the Symmetra. In the network management card you go to the "Configuration" tab and select "Shutdown". From here there will be a few different options to choose from under "Early Shutdown". One of the options is to shut off the UPS after it has been on battery for a specified time the user picks. Keep in mind that if you don't want your severs to just abruptly shut off when the UPS turns off then this may not be the most ideal configuration. The configuration to avoid that is to install and configure PowerChute Network Shutdown on the servers to allow them to perform a graceful shutdown. Once you have determined the last server that will turn off you can log into the PowerChute software on that server and select the option to "Turn UPS off". This will turn the UPS off once that last server finishes shutting down. Below is a link the the PowerChute Network Shutdown software and all documentation if you need it. 

http://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/PowerChute-Network-Shutdown-v4-2/P-SFPCNS42?isCurrentSite=tru...

[BillP]

Our sysadmin doesn't want to use the PowerChute option, so going with early shutdown. I also dont see a specific option called "Early Shutdown" under Configuration>Shutdown, is this because I don't have a specific setting enabled or maybe different firmware?

Is there a way to change the variables in "Low Battery Duration" and "Shutdown Delay"? Currently can only select up to 20 minutes on the "Low Battery Duration" and 960 Seconds on the "Shutdown Delay". 

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Robert,

Which network management card do you have? If you have the AP9630 or AP9631 you may just have to upgrade the FW to get this feature.

That can be found here: http://www.apc.com/us/en/tools/download/index.cfm

If you have the much older cards, AP9617, AP9618, or AP9619 then I do not believe the early shutdown feature is on those cards. 

[BillP]

Looks like the device is using AP9619, if we cant get the Early Shutdown tool is there a script we can run for this? 

[BillP]

Hi Robert.

If you have an AP9619 installed and have access to it.

Select the UPS “TAB” then go to configuration > shutdown

Here you have the option to configure how your UPS will behave.

Regards,

Rich…

[BillP]

Hi Robert,

It may be possible to do scripting if you are programming savvy. The older cards consisted of menu prompt Telnet. The newer cards were made more script friendly by having a command line interface Telnet. 

[voidstar_apc]

If you're interesting in scripting, I recommend either using SNMP or using Expect:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expect

https://core.tcl.tk/expect/index

[BillP]

Awesome, thanks for the resources! 

[BillP]

Found some information on this and looking into it now. Thanks much!