"Lost communication on server" + USB

[Anonymous user]

I've seen this problem reported on here quitre recently, but I thought I'd post my issue.

I installed an APC Smart UPS 1500 to protect my server 2 weeks ago. All went well with the install and I was up and running very quickly. I'm remote to this server, so stuff going wrong is a pain in the backside. 1 week ago, I received an email stating:

PowerChute Business Edition has detected the following event:
Communication Lost on Agent srv1

This is my setup:

Server: Dell PE1900
OS: Windows SBS 2003 R2 fully patched
Powerchute Agent: 7.0.5. 108
Communication: using the supplied USB cable (no serial ports involved at all).

To resolve it, I tried restarting the agent service to no avail, and then got someone in the office to unplug the USB cable and plug it back in to a different socket and voila, communication back.

Tonight this has happened again, about a week since the last time it happenend.

Any ideas...? The server is showing as running on batteries, but I assume it will be protected in the event of surge/spike, but won't auto shutdown won't work.

[BillP]

is there any type of antivirus/security suite that is possibly interfering? i am hesitant to blame that since it took a week to come back and you plugged it into another port and it came back immediately. also, since its a server, you may not have a usb hub or anything but make sure its directly plugged into a usb port directly on the server versus a hub. also, you could try serial communication if thats an option and see what happens instead ( *If you want to try and use serial communications, you have to braindead the UPS as mentioned below to get the serial port to work after using/plugging in USB.* ) you'd have to reinstall the agent portion to do that though I believe.

another idea to reset the UPS, incase theres anything strange going on, is to braindead it and reconnect the USB cable and see how that goes. so you could do that before switching to serial as well but would have to do it again if you decide to try serial.

To braindead the UPS: You will need to power down any load attached and disconnect it. Unplug the communication cable. Next, turn the Smart-UPS off and unplug it from AC power. Now hold the off button in for 5 to 10 seconds until you hear the unit click and the sensitivity LED in the back of the UPS goes out. The UPS can now be reconnected and turned on and everything reconnected.

hope this helps.

and also - yes, even if communication is lost, the UPS will continue to protect your server from surges and spikes. it just cannot communicate to perform a graceful shutdown and monitor runtime, etc

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Thanks very much indeed for your quick reply.

AV is ESET NOD32 (v.2.7). Not sure if this would affect things - real-time scanning exclusions are set up for SBS.

First error occurred 10 days after install, tonight's error is 5 days after the first. And yes, communication came back instantly when my guy at the office swapped the USB cable to a different socket the first time around. Yup, no USB hub is involved - it's plugged straight into the back of the server into one of the 6 USB sockets available. I have a USB drive in one of the other sockets and this has never dropped off, so I'm kind of ruling out the USB sockets.

I also posted the problem in the SBS newsgroup and it was suggested I contact APC support, and also check the BIOS to eliminate any USB power saving.settings. but as the time between errors seems random, I can't think it would be that either.

So, my plan of action is:

1) In the morning get someone to unplug it and plug it back in and re-establish communication

When I'm next on-site (Monday 7th):

2) Try a new USB cable
3) "Braindead" the unit and re-try with USB
4) "Braindead and retry with Serial.

Thanks for your advice again and good to know I am still protected for brief cuts and spikes (the UPS was only running at 18% load, so it had a long runtime, so hopefully should be enought if something happens tonight).

Message was edited by: jameshurrell