The snmp message "The UPS batteries are discharged" meaning?

[Anonymous user]

Hi, I'm brand new here. I'm tasked with monitoring about 500 SUA1000RMU2U's (and some similar 1500's). I commonly see errors like "The UPS batteries are discharged." In my thinking this would mean that they have been run down and had not had a chance to recharge, but it appears to more commonly indicate that the batteries are simply failing and require replacement. After sitting for a week being charged shouldn't it just recharge? Some of these units will toggle back and forth continually every 5 min. from the Discharged message to "The UPS discharge condition has been cleared." Sometimes the vertical row of charge lights are all blinking. They seem to pass the self test but then go right back to the Discharged messages. From your experience is this typically indicating a bad set of batteries, a battery connection/corrosion problem, or a charging circuit problem?  Is there a way I can tell without replacing the batteries if the charging circuit, the battery connections or the batteries are the cause? Thanks, Dennis

[Anonymous user]

Hi, I'm brand new here. I'm tasked with monitoring about 500 SUA1000RMU2U's (and some similar 1500's). I commonly see errors like "The UPS batteries are discharged." In my thinking this would mean that they have been run down and had not had a chance to recharge, but it appears to more commonly indicate that the batteries are simply failing and require replacement. After sitting for a week being charged shouldn't it just recharge? Some of these units will toggle back and forth continually every 5 min. from the Discharged message to "The UPS discharge condition has been cleared." Sometimes the vertical row of charge lights are all blinking. They seem to pass the self test but then go right back to the Discharged messages. From your experience is this typically indicating a bad set of batteries, a battery connection/corrosion problem, or a charging circuit problem?  Is there a way I can tell without replacing the batteries if the charging circuit, the battery connections or the batteries are the cause? Thanks, Dennis

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi Dennis,

I think you're ultimately seeing this -> Why are the battery charge LEDs flashing on a Smart-UPS? | FAQs | Schneider Electric US

Batteries discharged usually means that your reported battery runtime (how long the UPS can last on battery power) is within two minutes of your low battery duration - meaning your runtime is low. This can happen, assuming your low battery duration is at the default of two minutes, when the batteries are older and are in need of replacement because of overall diminished capacity. So if your reported runtime is 3 or 4 minutes, it'd report this basically telling you that you have older batteries and they cannot provide the same capacity they used to. They haven't failed the "self test" yet which would tell you to replace the battery flat out.

This can also happen if users increase their low battery duration to a non default value. Let's say 20 minutes. This means if you have 22 minutes of runtime, you'll see this alarm too. Some users do this for certain configurations since Low Battery is when the UPS starts telling PowerChute clients to shutdown. If all of the clients require 20 minutes to shutdown, it may make sense to do so but then you run into issues like this.

If you're not sure which it is, I can help you determine it if you pick a UPS doing it, let me know the reported runtime it says it can provide, and then provide me the event.txt and config.ini from the Network Management Card (which it seems you are using versus PowerChute). (Instructions here on getting the log files -> How can I download Event, Data, Configuration, and Debug files from my Network Management Card? | FA...) We can start there and I may have more questions.

[david.harfst]

Negetive, Ghostrider.  I'm seeing this message repeatedly followed by a clear event a second later.  Batteries are only 1 year old (including in the attached extended battery pack) and the Output VA is only at 5.1%, 1.3 Amps.

This is a faulty sensor.