How To Use This Manual
This is the manual for apcupsd, a daemon for communicating with UPSes
(Uninterruptible Power Supplies) made by American Power Corporation
(APC). If you have an APC-made UPS, whether sold under the APC name-
plate or OEMed (The HP PowerTrust 2997A UPS has been tested as a
“smartups” with cable Hewlett Packard part number 5061-2575 equivalent
to a custom-smart cable), and you wantyou get it working with a computer
running Linux, Unix, or Windows NT, youare reading the right do cument.
This manual is divided into parts which increase in technical depth as they
go. If you have just bought a state-of-the-art smart UPS with a USB or
Ethernet interface, and you are running a current version of Red Hat or
SUSE Linux (8.0 or later), then apcupsd is very nearly plug-and-play and
you will have to read only the Basic User’s Guide(see Basic User’s Guide).
If your operating system is older, or if you have an old-fashioned
serial-line UPS, you’ll have to read about serial installation (see
Installation on Serial-Line UPSes). Ifyou need more details about adminis-
tration for unusual situations (such as a master/slave or multi-UPSsetup)
you’ll need to read the section on advanced topics (see Advanced topics). Fi-
nally,there is a Technical Reference (see Technical Reference) section which
gives full details onthings like configuration file directives and event-logging
formats.
Youshould begin by reading the Quick Start (see Quick Start for Beginners)
instructions.
Basic User’s GuidePlanning Your InstallationQuick Start for Beginners
apcupsd is a complex piece of software, but most of its complexities are
meant for dealing with older hardware and operating systems. On current
hardware and software getting it running should not be very complicated.
The following is a help guide to the steps needed to get apcupsd set up and
running as painlessly as possible.
14