linux client to communicate with OS/2 PowerChute Plus 4.2.3 UPSD

[Anonymous user]

I have a SU2200 and a SU1400 providing power protection to my office equipment. Both are connected to OS/2 systems via serial cables running PowerChute Plus 4.2.3 UPSD for OS/2 and can be accessed via the PowerChute Plus GUI on those systems.

This works well, but I am now adding some linux systems and as I spend more time on these systems I would like to be able to access the OS/2 UPSD services with a linux client. I located PowerChutePlus 4.5.3 for linux on the ftp server, but it dates to February, 2001 and is not binary compatible with my linux systems. I also located the 4.2.4 release for Windows 3 and Windows for Workgroups and was able to install it in a virtual windows machine, but found that particular client does not support access to a remote UPSD. I located the 5.x releases for windows and installed them on a virtual windows machine only to find they are not backward compatible with the 4.x releases.

From what I can see it appears that the 4.x release communicates with a remote UPSD via lan server while the later releases use TCP/IP. Is there any software for a current linux release? I am using Linux Mint x64 at 11(Katya) and 13(Maya) at this point. I guess I can always run the OS/2 client in a virtual machine, but a native linux client or a windows client that can run via wine would be a better solution.

Dave

[BillP]

i admittedly know literally nothing about OS/2 unfortunately and apparently we have not supported it in quite some time because i could not track anyone down that is familiar with it or our support for it way back when with PowerChute Plus.

some third party alternatives that i know of would be http://www.apcupsd.org and http://www.networkupstools.org/

if you do find a piece of software referenced that you could use that you cannot find on our FTP, that is something I can probably help with.

[BillP]

PowerChute Plus has been discontinued for some time. The replacement for that is PowerChute Plus is PowerChute Business Edition. The compatibility chart for the latest release is here -> http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/ASTE-6Z5QEV_R34_EN.pdf

if that does not work for you, we can look at earlier versions or you may want to consider the third party software apcupsd as an alternative.

[Anonymous user]

I am willing to try out your current release, provided you can tell me that it will be able to work with the OS/2 UPSD 4.2.3 software already installed and working. These systems are not going to change to another operating system and your chart shows no OS/2 agent, so interoperability is a must.

If there is no interoperability with the current release I will need to look to older releases. I have tried some of your older releases off your ftp site with no success thus far. The only 4.x releases I found were 4.2.4 for W/WfWG, which had no network support, and 4.5.3 for linux which is not binary compatible with current linux. I also tried 5.x releases for windows only to find they could not communicate with the OS/2 UPSD. Some documentation I have seen leads me to believe that the 4.x releases worked with Lan Server for networking while the 5.x releases work with TCP/IP, which would explain the lack of interoperability.

I am doubtful of any third party support, but if you have a recommendation I can look into that as well.

Dave

[Anonymous user]

Per your suggestion I have posted to the apcupsd and nut mailing lists to see if anyone can tell me if they have a compatible release. No response yet.

Regarding your software, I assume that I would need a 4.x release with network support. As I noted in an earlier post, 4.2.4 for Windows as found at:

ftp://ftp.apcc.com/apc/public/software/windows/311/pcplus/424/pcplus424.zip

did not include network support. The W95 release on the FTP server is 5.0.1, which I am able to run under wine but does not see the OS/2 UPSD 4.2.3 servers. If you have a 4.x release for Windows later than 3.11/WfWG perhaps that would work. As the OS/2 4.2.3 release is dated March, 1997 I would expect there to be W95 and maybe NT releases as well for 4.2.x at that time. I would expect them to inter-operate with the OS/2 release, but of course I might be surprised. The 4.5.x releases for linux on the FTP server are not compatible with current linux systems. If source is available for the linux 4.5.x release it might be possible to build it for a current linux.

Dave

[BillP]

i am on the apcupsd mailing list and did not see your message go by. usually the first time you email the list it needs to be approved. did that happen as far as you know? maybe i missed it.

i will have to investigate regarding the software. regarding powerchute plus, i only know of what you've found on the ftp site since it is so obsolete at this point unfortunately.

[Anonymous user]

Yes, I received messages that moderator approval will be needed before the posts reach the list in both cases. I figured it might take a bit of checking for the old software, so I will wait for you to have a chance to look into this.

Dave

[BillP]

i have my connection researching for me 🙂

[Anonymous user]

Someone over on the NUT list just brought up a point I don't know the answer to, is there a later PCP for OS/2 that uses TCP/IP for networking? If so and I can upgrade to that release my networking issues would likely be solved. Looking on the FTP server doesn't even show the release I have for OS/2, so I have no way of answering this question. Maybe your connection can answer this question as well.

Dave

[BillP]

i believe yesterday we found an ancient floppy disk but it only had 4.2.3 on it. nothing else though so far. part of the problem is I am not familiar with OS/2 as mentioned previously.

when you say "is there a later PCP for OS/2 that uses TCP/IP for networking" what is the TCP/IP for networking referring to? is it a version of the software that runs on a client that communicates with the OS/2 server via TCP/IP?

sorry, i feel helpless here 😞

[Anonymous user]

i picKed a winna wrote:
i believe yesterday we found an ancient floppy disk but it only had 4.2.3 on it. nothing else though so far. part of the problem is I am not familiar with OS/2 as mentioned previously.

when you say "is there a later PCP for OS/2 that uses TCP/IP for networking" what is the TCP/IP for networking referring to? is it a version of the software that runs on a client that communicates with the OS/2 server via TCP/IP?

sorry, i feel helpless here 😞

That floppy must be the version I have installed. The OS/2 release consists of two executables, UPSD.EXE which acts as a server communicating wth the UPS via a serial cable and PWRCHUTE.EXE which is the user GUI that communicates with the UPSD.EXE via a network connection. If you were to find a 5.x release for OS/2 I would expect I could install it in place of the 4.2.3 release I am currently running. Assuming that you were using a common source for al platforms I would expect a 5.x OS/2 UPSD to be able to inter-operate with a windows or linux user GUI, but of course at this point that is only an assumption on my part.

Dave

[BillP]

ok, i got it now. basically that is how powerchute business edition can operate today as well. i was only familiar with powerchute plus for windows with the single executable that installs on the system that is connected via serial to the UPS.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

I have posted to the apcupsd and NUT forums and received no useful resutls thus far in this search. I did locate an OS/2 port of an older NUT release, but it lacked the apcsmart driver for access to the UPS, so it is currently useless.

I spent some time looking at the executables for the OS/2 PowerChute Plus and have concluded that the client/server networking is via named pipes. I see references in the executables to "\PIPE\SERVRCON", "\PIPE\ALERTS" and "\PIPE\POPUP" as well as "\MAILSLOT\BINDERY" and "\MAILSLOT\BINDRESP" although without source code I cannot determine what was communicated to the server from the client.

I have determined that I can go no further without documentation of how to interact with the server, as simply opening "\PIPE\SERVRCON' from rexx was sufficient to prevent the OS/2 client from communicating with the server without killing the server and restarting it. Any suggestions?

Dave