Symmetra Power Array Simulate Power Failure

[BillP]

We had a power outtage that lasted for 4 hours on the 20th of December from 10:00 pm to 2:00 am. The next day we smelled something at 3:30 pm, checked the batteries and a few cases were very hot, we took those out and found the cases melted. We've since ordered new battery cases for our extended Power Array. I want to put the Symmetra on battery for 2 hours to see if the batteries are ok, and the Symmetra unit itself is ok. How do I go about putting the unit on batteries? From online there is a "Simulate Power Failure", but from what I read that only puts the unit on batteries for about a minute.
Also we used to get a message in qsysopr CPF1816 that would notify of a power outtage, that message no longer shows up there, any idea why it no longer logs in qsysopr? We have the Symmetra cabled to our iSeries through the SYCC symmetra communications card.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[BillP]

hello,

i am not sure what help "simulate power failure" was intended to provide because as you said, it only puts the UPS on battery for a few moments, if that. if it were me, i'd either trip the upstream breaker at the panel feeding the UPS or the input breaker on the UPS itself.

as far as the IBM i-series stuff, i just put this lengthy knowledge base article together as to what behavior to expect with which IBM cables. i hope it helps. (go to http://www.apc.com/site/support/index.cfm/faq/ and search for FA159551). if it doesnt, let me know which cables you have and what IBM server you are using (the model) and then your cabling in use so I can look into it further.

hope that helps you get started.

[BillP]

I looked at the article, didn't find any of our cable numbers though. The cable going from the Symmetra is a light grey cable. I found the following numbers on the cable - E238846 2464 E87647 then the other end had 940-1500A which plugs into a short black IBM cable, that part number is 39J5836 and that plugs into the back of our 9406/525 system. It appears the messages CPF1186 and CPF1187 stopped appearing in qsysopr around October.

Why doesn't someone change the Simulate power failure to give you the ability to choose the length of time to simulate the power failure so that feature is actually relevent? It's kind of goofy there is no way to go on battery for other than a minute.

[BillP]

hmm, this does not sound right. for proper operation with an i5, you should probably have the APC 940-0031 cable which is designed to work with the 39J5836 AKA IBM f/c 1827.

940-1500A is a 15 foot straight through cable.

do you know if anyone made any changes recently since October?

the way i believe this should work is Symmetra->APC 940-0031 in computer interface port on SYCC->IBM f/c 1827 (39J5836)->Port T2 on IBM i5 - the only situation where I could see 940-1500 in here is to extend the 940-0031 we sell somehow. is it possible 940-0031 is in there some place (or even our 940-0274 cable)?

also, i am not sure what has happened with your server recently but we'd also need to make sure the port is set up properly for a UPS (which involves powering it down, removing the power cable, attaching the appropriate UPS cables together properly, and then reapplying AC power so that the proper pins are shorted when you start everything up). it is outlined a bit here -> https://community.se.com/t5/APC-UPS-Data-Center-Enterprise/bd-p/datacenter-forum

[BillP]

Ok, got my flash light and glasses on, went behind the Symmetra we have the SYCC card with a cream colored cable attached that says UPS end on the plug that is attached to the Symmetra, we also have an AP9607 UPS interface extender card which has the same color cable with the same writing as the other cable, but at the top plug that cable is a 940-0031A. So it appears we have the 940-0031a cables plugged into the 940-1500A for extra length. The AP9607 is no longer being used at the moment, it was hooked to a 9407-515 system that we sold.
I re-seated the SYCC card and cable and did a self test to see if the CPF1816 message appears in qsysopr, it didn't. The cable is in slot T1 on the 525.
The only thing that has changed is the 515 was removed from the Symmetra, can't remember when that was exactly earlier this year, may have been October.
I guess next I will take the cable that used to be hooked to the 515 and attach it to the 525, and see if that works, other than that I'm not sure what to do. I configured email to get alerts, but that is only good if the network is up. The message in qsysopr was good because we would know if there was a power failure regardless if the network was up, as we have Robot alert set up to monitor for message CPF1816 and CPF1817.

[BillP]

OK here is what I recommend for best results. Let's use the AP9607. This will provide dedicated simple signaling and that is what we want for your IBM server. i checked the specification for 940-1500 to see if the connectors are male or female so I could understand better.

AP9607 has two female connections. I would do AP9607->940-1500->940-0031->f/c 1827->T2 on server. in all my experience over the past several months, the connection must be in T2 or on a power 7, S2. then you must make sure T2 (or S2) is configured properly as noted in that previous forum thread i referenced. if that server worked at some port, maybe a restart is not required and just switching to T2 will be fine since it worked at some point.

does that look like it will work?

[BillP]

I now know why it's not working. In October we had a cache battery that needed replaced on our 525. An IBM tech came out and unplugged everything from the back of the 525, to pull it forward, as the cables were too short, which he didn't have to do because he replaced the wrong cache battery! Now I realize he plugged the UPS cable into the wrong place on the 525, he has it in T1, not T2 where it initially was! I have to leave early today, but will plug it back into T2 in the morning, then do a UPS self test and see if we get the CPF 1816 message, bet we will!

[BillP · Accepted solution]

hope so 🙂 i also was not 100% sure if the symmetra will say on battery during a self test versus an actual power outage. if it doesn't, you could also trip the input breaker on the UPS for a few seconds.