Avoiding blind faith with Powerchute Network Shutdown

[Anonymous user]

HI. I want to prove that I will get a clean shutdown with the settings I have configured. Can someone confirm if telling the Symettra UPS to switch to bypass with the "Signal PowerChute® Server Shutdown" box ticked should initiate a shutdown of the servers. My servers are set to shutdown on Battery Discharged and Bypass for maintenance (for purposes of this experiement.

I've tried it without success initiating the bypass from software. Should I do it from the UPS front panel and throw the bypass switches ?
Thanks
Martin

[Erasmus_apc · Accepted solution]

It will not signal a shutdown when used with a Bypass command, per the following documentation under the Network Card help:

Signal PowerChute® Server Shutdown.

Select this option to notify all servers configured as "PowerChute® Network Shutdown clients" that are in communication with this UPS to shut down according to the values configured for "PowerChute® Network Shutdown Parameters". This option will not notify servers when performing any Bypass control actions.

You may want to use one of the other options such as UPS turn off, or UPS Reboot. Additionally, if you wanted a more "realistic" test, you could flip the input circuit breaker on the symmetra unit, which would force the UPS to battery, therefore starting an "on battery" notification on the NMC and and the on batt "countdown" on your PCNS clients. Once the computers have shut down based on your parameters, you can then flip the input circuit breaker on the UPS back on, and the UPS will go back to being online again. This test is nice because it not only tests your PCNS client settings, but the entire process from going to on battery, to NMC notification, to PCNS shutdown as if you actually had a power loss.