Server Room monitoring system..recommendations

[fiza]

We have had an outage in the server room and the ups kicked in. All the servers shutdown but the ups battery depleted before the power came back. Usually it would just power back up but it went into an error state so none of the servers came back up. The ups is due for replacement but I have been asked to look at getting an alarm system so that if the power goes in the server room then I get an email or sms so I am aware and can come in early the next day.

 

Are there any tried and tested recommendations for hardware that will do this?

[network41]

Make sure your new UPS are all fitted with NICs , they can be configured to email you if the mains power has gone off. Also easier to monitor

[jmak]

Ours (Dell, but rebadged APC I believe) came with monitoring software which will do this. Obviously you'll need the UPS to cover (at least) the switch and router for it to be able to send you an email:D

[Willott]

What's your current UPS? It may have either USB/Serial/Network which with a combination of things may be able to email you presently.

[fiza]

What's your current UPS? It may have either USB/Serial/Network which with a combination of things may be able to email you presently.

 

Its a borri UPS. It does have network connectivity but currently I cant seem to connect to its IP. It pings ok but the web interface wont come up. It came with ClientMate software which shows that the UPS is online.

[zag]

something like climate cm-2 could monitor light levels or temperature and send an email when that changes.

 

We use that here and its identified powercuts quite well in the past.

 

I've never really got the rubbish APC software to work out our Battery backups reliably.

[Willott]

Looks like clientmate can run a program as part of it's power outage shutdown, so possibly use bmail as a temporary solution. Borri also seem to have some newer software (power guardian) which looks better featured, not sure if that would work with your UPS. Do you know what model UPS as that may give more of an indication of what it's capable of in terms of network.

[fiza]

something like climate cm-2 could monitor light levels or temperature and send an email when that changes.

 

We use that here and its identified powercuts quite well in the past.

 

I've never really got the rubbish APC software to work out our Battery backups reliably.

 

It looks like the power sensor is an additional addon. How does it work? On the website it says it plugs into a standard socket. I would need it to plug into the same power supply as the UPS

[IrritableTech]

We've shoved in a Ubiquiti mFi with a temperature sensor, a door sensor and a home made power sensor (just a 9v power brick and a custom sensor script). Like all ubiquiti stuff it's as cheap as chips but needs a server to run the management side. If I had a bigger budget to play with I'd expand this to a couple of other locations.

[fiza]

Looks like clientmate can run a program as part of it's power outage shutdown, so possibly use bmail as a temporary solution. Borri also seem to have some newer software (power guardian) which looks better featured, not sure if that would work with your UPS. Do you know what model UPS as that may give more of an indication of what it's capable of in terms of network.

 

Its a Borri RT-060-10 6kVA UPS.

RT-060-10 BORRI Rotation 6kVA Rack/Tower

[zag]

It looks like the power sensor is an additional addon. How does it work? On the website it says it plugs into a standard socket. I would need it to plug into the same power supply as the UPS

 

Not sure how the power sensor works, but the light sensor is inbuilt and is activated when there is a power cut here.

 

Our lights go off with the power as does the air conditioning so it triggers that when it warms up too.

 

EDIT: It also has a sound sensor, so you could probably use that for any audible beeping from the UPS's, not tried though!

Edited June 14, 2016 by zag

[ColinP]

Not sure how the power sensor works, but the light sensor is inbuilt and is activated when there is a power cut here.

 

Our lights go off with the power as does the air conditioning so it triggers that when it warms up too.

 

EDIT: It also has a sound sensor, so you could probably use that for any audible beeping from the UPS's, not tried though!

 

the Climate plugs in to the UPS power, the sensor cable plaug into a wall socket, then if the power goes off at the wall the unit is still powered by ups and knows that the power has gone off

[john]

Its a Borri RT-060-10 6kVA UPS.

RT-060-10 BORRI Rotation 6kVA Rack/Tower

 

suggest you take out and put back in the Climate card, I had one do something similar and just needed that hard reset so to speak, if you have bypass on the UPS setup you could just reboot the entire UPS as well but not everyone takes a bypass setup.