Vcenter, VM Shutdown on Battery Duration Remaining

[Anonymous user]

All,

I'm trying to figure out how to set-up Powerchute with VCenter. I've read Application Note #180, and in it it says the following:

" When a critical UPS event, such as UPS on Battery occurs, the following sequence is triggered:
1.
PowerChute reports that the UPS is on battery.
2.
Shutdown delay for the On Battery event elapses. PowerChute starts a maintenance mode task on each Host. At the same time it sends a command to turn off the UPS or Outlet Group.

3. PowerChute starts VM shutdown followed by vApp shutdown. "

Does this mean that the only event that can trigger VMs and hosts to start shutting down is a "UPS on Battery" event? I was looking to try to set it so that VMs and hosts start to shutdown after the UPS alerts with a low battery event instead.

[BillP]

Hi,

On 8/7/2020 3:38 PM, Sean said:

Does this mean that the only event that can trigger VMs and hosts to start shutting down is a "UPS on Battery" event? I was looking to try to set it so that VMs and hosts start to shutdown after the UPS alerts with a low battery event instead.

No. You will see a list of the configurable events starting on page 144 fo the User's Guide. 

There is also a low battery threshold the is configured on the UPS network card. When PCNS sees the UPS has exceeded the low battery threshold it will start the shutdown process. This setting is automatic and not configurable within PCNS. In other words, when the UPS reaches low battery PCNS start the shutdown process you do not have to configure anything other than the threshold on the network card. See Schneider Electric FAQ FA405707 

More information on the low battery threshold is also available in the network card help files. 

[Anonymous user]

Ok, so even when using virtual machines in VCenter, I can set shutdown to NOT occur at all just because the hosts are on battery, but I configure hosts to shutdown once the battery threshold is met?

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

When the low battery threshold has been met the NMC will send a signal to PCNS and PCNS will start the shutdown process. NOTE: You need to be sure the low battery threshold is great enough to allow sufficient time for the VM/vApps, vCenter, and hosts to power down cleanly. 

In the diagram below the trigger event is "on battery". In your configuration, the trigger would be a critical event "low battery". There would be no event shutdown delay. Once the critical event has been declared the VM/vApp shutdown would begin. Also, the command file delay (step 4) would be skipped. 

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