APC UPS Serial cables

[ChrisH]

Am I going to have to spring for originals or is there a cheap alternative?

 

Cheers

 

Chris

[Guest]

How many you after? I might have some laying about.

[ChrisH]

I need about 10 when im sorted but a couple on my DCs and fileserver would be great for now

[Guest]

Drop me a PM I'll stick some in the post

[ChrisH]

Cheers much appreciated. yhpm

[plexer]

Which particular cable are you after as there are a couple?

 

Ben

[ChrisH]

Just the basic machine to UPS cables to interface with the software to turn the buggers off.

[plexer]

Several listed on the APC site http://www.apcc.com/support/faq.cfm

 

They should have a part number stamped in the plastic hood.

 

Ben

[ChrisH]

I havent got any at all to compare them to and my UPS is compaq branded so I will try and see what it really is. They will be running from a share UPS though so I suppose one of these: Share-UPS 940-0024 940-0020*

[bossman]

You have to have the right ones or they do not register with the ups i found this out just recently when i upgraded our ups and spent hours pratting about until i got in touch with the supplier and he put me straight.

 

Plexer is right they should have a number stamped on them to reflect what role they are.

[sidewinder]

How do you connect multiple server to one UPS then?

Ive got a APC Smart-1000 and it only has one serial port

[plexer]

You can buy an expander which allows one ups to shutdown multiple machines.

 

Or you could use a shutdown command from one server which is plugged in and aware of the power failure to the others being served by the ups.

 

Ben

[Geoff]

Also (at least on Linux) the UPS software can communicate with other 'dumb' machines over TCP/IP (You can use serial cables if you like aswell) and let the UPS software running on those know about the power condition that way.

 

Presumably Powerchute (or whatever UPS software your using) can do this too on Windows?

[smileydman]

From memory (it was along time ago !) I had one with the expander which gave two extra ports. It only fitted on certain UPS models which had the expansion slot.

 

Also there were two basic types of UPS, intelligent and non-intelligent.

The intelligent model used the port as a true serial port and exchanged all sorts of status data, etc. I think they were the SMARTUPS range.

The non-intelligent model simply presented basic on/off signals on certain pins to indicate the power state.

That might explain why the cable used is significant.

 

If you can find a detailed spec for the port for your model you might find that a simple 9-pin to 9-pin null modem cable would suffice.

[plexer]

There are cable diagrams on the net for making your own.

 

Ben

[smileydman]

Looking at this page it looks like the cables are totally proprietry !!

 

http://ups.miem.edu.ru/ups_faq5.html