Test communication to Basic Port Expander

[Anonymous user]

Apart from pulling the power from the UPS how can I test communication is OK between a server and the ups using a Basic Port Expander.

It seems to me that even if I pull the serial lead from the server PowerChute still reports communications between the server and ups as OK. Not even anything in the event log. Even with the lead disconnected, if I restart the service I get the following in the log

25/06/09 11:24:35 Communication Established
25/06/09 11:24:35 Monitoring Started
25/06/09 11:24:33 Monitoring Stopped

Dont see how "Communication Established" is reported with the lead dangling in thin air?

There must be a way around this?

Thanks in advance.

[BillP]

Good evening:

The reason this is happening is because the basic ports are one way communication only. The UPS communicates with the server, but not vice versa. Therefore, as long as you tell it it's attached, it's going to assume it has connectivity. Unplugging the device will not show any "Communication lost" messages. If you would like to confirm communication, you can try pulling the plug on the UPS and seeing if you receive a "UPS on battery" message.

Hope this helps, please let us know if there are more questions!


Thanks

[BillP · Accepted solution]

also to add on to what CMFR said, i happen to have screenshot of what the interface inside of PCBE will look like in simple signaling mode. this is what you see when the UPS is "online." when the UPS is "on battery" the status will change to that and that is it. no additional information is displayed. the easiest way is to do as suggested, and pull the plug on the UPS and refresh the status page to see if it changes to "on battery."