managed shutdown of blade servers and chassis

[Anonymous user]

We had a power outage over the long weekend and basically the servers just stayed up until the battery died, then everything just came down hard.
We have an AP7811 PDU and SmartUPS 5000 (SUA5000rmL5U).

What do I need for software (and hardware?) to allow the blades (Dell M1000 chassis with 4 blades, 2 running Win2K8R2, 2 running XenServer) to be aware of the UPS and to shutdown cleanly during a power outage?

Thanks for any pointers, much appreciated.

[Anonymous user]

Nevermind. it's the PDU that has the network connection, the UPS itself does not. Looks like I need to order a card for it. Which do you recommend? The AP9617, AP9619 or AP9630/AP9631? IIRC some of them are much more difficult to configure than others.

Message was edited by: robr

[BillP]

hi rob

to begin, you'll have to make sure your UPS has a Network Management Card. I believe that model you have ships with one so you'll want to make sure its configured (it will be on the back of the UPS, part number AP9617, AP9619 or AP9630/AP9631). the PDU will not be involved in this solution.

once you have the network management card set up and installed, you then will need to install powerchute network shutdown on each server you want to gracefully shutdown. when you install the powerchute network shutdown software, you will provide it the IP address of the network management card in the UPS so the two can talk over the network and the UPS will report status updates, etc. you can also configure powerchute network shutdown to shutdown based on certain events or when certain events last for X amount of minutes. there are some apc knowledgebases and instructions on how to do that. if you just install software, the powerchute clients will shutdown when the UPS reports a low battery, which is 2 minutes of battery time remaining. thus, you should probably raise that value (called the low battery duration) in the web interface of the UPS network management card since your servers may require longer to shutdown than two minutes.

[here is the compatibility chart for PCNS software|http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/SJHN-7AYQNP_R21_EN.pdf] and here is the main product page with the different versions.

unfortunately, PCNS does not directly support Citrix XenServer just yet but i have been made aware of the following knowledgebase at Citrix's website: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119910

hope that helps. here is a link to APC's knowledgebase by the way: http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/list

lastly, my attachment to the post may help you understand the shutdown timeline. i took it from the PCNS help file. again, the rack pdu does not integrate with the software so you will not be using that for shutting things down gracefully.

[Anonymous user]

thank you very much for the incredibly thorough response. Looks like Network Shutdown won't cut it with Hyper-V, I need to purchase the Hyper-V version for $99, which is fine if it does what I need it to do.
Screenshot: [http://clip2net.com/clip/m46884/1291128062-clip-31kb.png|http://clip2net.com/clip/m46884/1291128062-clip-31kb.png]

Product Link: http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SEPCNSHV&ISOCountryCode=us&segmentID...

[Anonymous user]

sorry about the helpful mark, when i went to mark it as correct, i thought it was telling me to mark it as helpful first, then mark it as correct, but it won't let me do that now that i've marked it as helpful :(.

[BillP]

its ok, not a problem. yes, any system running windows 2008 with hyper-v requires the special PCNS for Hyper-V that you linked to. same goes for VMWare similarly.

let us know if you need anything else.

[Anonymous user]

I just purchased the HyperV Network edition and went to install it and it wants the IP of my UPS. Is there a way to find out what that is short of hooking up a serial cable? It's my understanding I'd have to power off the UPS (taking down all the servers connected to it) in order to do that. For all I know, it's on a different subnet. I suppose I could plug a laptop and the UPS into a standalone switch and set the laptop to a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 and run a sniffer or network scanner to find out. Was just hoping for an APC utility that would 'find' any APC devices on the network.

The UPS was installed by someone else and they left no documentation. It's possible it's on the default IP (which I think I read was 192.168.0.something) as there wasn't even a network cable plugged into it.

[BillP]

did you at least what model of card came with the UPS? the default boot mode of these is usually DHCP/BootP with a special DHCP option 43 required for a vendor cookie. there is no default IP address.

if you hook it up to the network, you may be able to sniff it. if helpful to search the network or DHCP server, all APC MAC addresses begin with 00 C0 B7.

the IP address is required so that when you install the software, the PCNS software goes out over the network and "registers" with the UPS NMC to make sure that the two devices can talk over the network. if they could not, then the PCNS clients would never know when the UPS is shutting down, etc so they would not gracefully shutdown.

assuming that this is an AP9617, AP9619, or AP9618, the serial cable that is required would be *940-0024* or *940-1524* (engraved on one of the connectors) as it has a proprietary pinout. it seems you didnt want to do that because you thought you need to power down the UPS to do it - which is not true. it is very important to only use the APC cable mentioned above though! this cable comes standard with many APC UPSs. you DO NOT_ need to power down the UPS in order to connect this. you just need to use the APC specific cable because a standard cable could drop the load on the UPS upon connection because of the proprietary. if you have the correct cable, use 2400, 8, N, 1, none for port settings and just press enter till you get a username and password prompt. the default username/password combo is apc/apc - if you need to reset the password, [use these instructions|http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7879].

once you access the card, assuming a AP9617 based card, go to the Network Menu, then TCP/IP and it should show your IP settings in there.

if the card is AP9630 or AP9631, let me know. ill give you instructions for that which are a little different. the model of the card is right below the network jack on the back of the UPS.

i hope that helps. let me know if you need anything else or have any questions before starting.

[BillP]

oh LOL. i believe this UPS ships with one..

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SUA5000RMT5U

is that what you have? if its older, it probably came with AP9617..

if you are going to buy one, the standard card is AP9630 so i'd go with that. if you want environmental monitoring and the ability to use dry contacts or temperature probes or USB ports (for future use, upgrading firmware, etc), go with AP9631. these cards also offer a bunch of firmware features like language packs, email authentication support, IPv6, etc

AP9617 and AP9618 are discontinued so there wont be any more features added to those cards.

both cards are equally as "hard" to configure if you ask me but I deal with them all day. AP9630/31 has a command line interface and AP9617 has a menu driven interface. i would certainly want the newer AP9630/31 and that is what i'd recommend. i can surely help you set it up.

[Anonymous user]

Ok, the ancient emailed receipt I was given had the wrong model number. I just got in there with a flashlight and the model number is an SU5000RMT5U (rather than an SUA). There are two accessory slots on the top right adjacent to each other rather than in the middle.

It looks like this one
http://www.apc.com/products/moreimages.cfm?partnum=SU5000RMT5U&type=Back

with no cards in either slot.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

oh ok. well if you have an AP9617, AP9618, or AP9618 around, you can use those. if you are purchasing, i'd recommend looking at AP9630 or AP9631 based on the info above that I mentioned.

[Anonymous user]

I was just revisiting this thread since I now have the network card installed and powerchute for hyper-v installed on 2 of the 4 blades.
I had asked about xenserver and was pointed here

"unfortunately, PCNS does not directly support Citrix XenServer just yet but i have been made aware of the following knowledgebase at Citrix's website: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119910"

but, after just reading that, it says that one of the requirements is connecting a machine to the UPS via USB. There is no USB port on the UPS, so this is not possible. Just wanted to confirm that there isn't much we can do here at this time.

Also, is there an option to add standard 3 prong 120V outlets to the PDU I've mentioned previously? Or add another PDU that supports 120V machines? Or am I going to need another UPS to address those servers?

Thanks.

[BillP]

yeah, that UPS is older so it did not have USB. you'd have to get a UPS that supports USB - any SUA or SMT or SMX model.

as far as the PDU, i'd start with the selector -> http://www.apc.com/tools/selector/pdu/

if you provide your plug type, etc it will help you. AP7811 is a 208v PDU. only the 3 phase 208v PDUs provide 208v and 120v output. no other PDUs "step down" the voltage - power in is power out.

alternatively, you may want to look into a step down transformer which does do that.

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=AP9626

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=AP9627 - with this one, you could get a PDU with an L5-20 on it and connect it to get some 5-20 or 5-15 NEMA outlets.

http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SURT003 - this does 208/120

just some ideas..