Netwacky87 Posted June 25, 2009 Posted June 25, 2009 HI All! Replaced one of our UPS's today, a APC 2200.. It comes with PowerChute Business edition, which from the looks of it only shuts down the server its attached to (via USB)...well i have 11 servers, what do i do with the other ones that are connected but not via USB just only on the power... Am i being thick here? how can i sent the UPS to tell all the servers to shutdown if the power goes off... Cheers Guys! Mart
Oops_my_bad Posted June 25, 2009 Posted June 25, 2009 There are a couple of ways - does the UPS have a network/management card? If so, you will need to install the network edition of powerchute (free iirc) Alternatively, you will need to setup the server that has the USB connection to the UPS as a host - install the powerchute client on all your other servers and point them to your host server. I've no experience with USB connected UPS's but I'm pretty sure this is the sort of thing you'd need to do.
kmount Posted June 25, 2009 Posted June 25, 2009 The last 2200 I used had a serial port which we expanded using the "Serial Expander" which gave us 8 serial ports which we connected to the servers to send the signal through for shut down. (Cost about £100 iirc). Problem is that the supplied 'free' version of Powerchute only allows the use of 5 machines from it. Was a while back mind, things may have changed.
Netwacky87 Posted June 25, 2009 Author Posted June 25, 2009 Is it more or is that a big con lol, I payed about 550ish quid for this and it will only shut down the 1 server attached via USB...crap!... Not like it was cheap, just another way to screw money out of ya isnt it!!!
FN-GM Posted June 25, 2009 Posted June 25, 2009 Server 2008 knows if your on a battery. When it gets to a certain level you can set it to shutdown automatically. Not sure how its done though.
john Posted June 25, 2009 Posted June 25, 2009 Server 2008 knows if your on a battery. When it gets to a certain level you can set it to shutdown automatically. Not sure how its done though. Probably the same way as 2003 use the UPS Service and you can program that to do things depending on the battery level
SYNACK Posted June 25, 2009 Posted June 25, 2009 The idea is that you add a smartslot network managment card which comes with the software to allow multiple machines to talk to it over the network or you can hack the existing software a bit as it allows you to run a script on an event. You can use this to run a remote shutdown on the other servers. The managment cards are good though and you can get them with environmental monitering stuff as well for added benifit.
Tricks Posted June 26, 2009 Posted June 26, 2009 Wouldn't it be easier to just setup a script to shutdown the other servers that is launched by PowerChute. On the section where you set when to shutdown, set the time to run a script.
Butuz Posted June 26, 2009 Posted June 26, 2009 This problem is nothing new and it affects all UPS's. If you want to shut down 11 servers off one UPS you have to buy an add on Network Management card for a couple of hundred bucks. This has a cat 5 connector and plugs into your network, you can then give it an IP address and all your servers can then communicate with it. Butuz
plexer Posted June 26, 2009 Posted June 26, 2009 Maybe have a look at the alternative software, apcupsd or nut Ben 2
3s-gtech Posted June 26, 2009 Posted June 26, 2009 As mentioned, you really should use APCUPSD, it's superb. When I got the new APC UPS here I couldn't believe it was only capable of controlling the one server, so I ditched Powerchute and installed this. All of the other servers look at the USB connected one (in my case, the DC), if that tells them it's running on batteries, they shut down after a specified period. It runs as a small app in the tray, and gives status etc.
maniac Posted June 26, 2009 Posted June 26, 2009 By far the easiest method of doing this (if you don't want to shell out for a network card for your UPS that is) is to set the APC software to launch a batch file before the server is shutdown (it can do this) then just write the shutdown commands in that batchfile shutdown -s -f -m \\servername And it will trigger all your servers to shutdown. Don't forget to power your core switch through the UPS as well, as the machines need to communicate through it in order for this to work. Mike.
Butuz Posted June 26, 2009 Posted June 26, 2009 Oo I did not realise apcupsd existed! Sounds interesting! Too late for me as i've just bought 3 network management cards with environmental monitoring built in! Butuz
plexer Posted June 26, 2009 Posted June 26, 2009 apcupsd also works with the network cards not sure about the enviro monitoring though. Ben
Netwacky87 Posted June 26, 2009 Author Posted June 26, 2009 Hey guys, Thanks for all the replies, they have been most helpful! I think the Apcupsd program is the way farward,does anybody know if that can be set to power up the servers once they have been shutdown... Cheers, Mart
Oops_my_bad Posted June 26, 2009 Posted June 26, 2009 I suppose you could try setting the power state on resume setting (or similar) in the BIOS, so when the power comes back, switch on..
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now