Black Box 1101, Secure Device Servers Controlling UPS Powered Computers, UPS Alerts, UPS Status

Chapter 8: Power Management

Enter the IP Address or DNS name of the remote console server* that is managing the remote UPS. (*This may be another Black Box console server or it may be a generic Linux server running Network UPS Tools.)

NOTE: An example where centrally monitor remotely distributed UPSes is useful is a campus or large business site where there’s a multitude of computer and other equipment sites spread afar, each with their own UPS supply … and many of these (particularly the smaller sites) will be USB or serially connected.

Having a console server at these remote sites would enable the system manager to centrally monitor the status of the power supplies at all sites, and centralize alarms. So he/she can be warned to initiate a call-out or shut-down.

Check Log Status and specify the Log Rate (minutes between samples) if you want the status from this UPS to be logged. You can view these logs from the Status: UPS Status screen.

Check Enable Shutdown Script if this remote UPS is the UPS providing power to the console server itself. If the UPS reaches critical battery status, the custom script in /etc/config/scripts/ups-shutdownruns, enabling you to perform any “last gasp” actions.

Click Apply.

8.2.3 Controlling UPS Powered Computers

One of the advantages of having a Managed UPS is that you can configure computers that draw power through that UPS to shut down gracefully if you have UPS problems.

For Linux computers, set up upsmon on each computer and direct them to monitor the console server that is managing their UPS. This will set the specific conditions that will be used to initiate a power down of the computer. Non-critical servers may be powered down some seconds after the UPS starts running on battery. In contrast, more critical servers may not be shut down until a low battery warning is received). Refer to the online NUT documentation for details on how to do this:

http://eu1.networkupstools.org/doc/2.2.0/INSTALL.html

  
   

http://linux.die.net/man/8/upsmon

An example upsmon.conf entry might look like:

MONITOR managedups@192.168.0.1 1 username password slave

-managedups is the UPS Name of the Managed UPS

-192.168.0.1 is the IP address of the Black Box console server

-1 indicates the server has a single power supply attached to this UPS

-username is the Username of the Managed UPS

-password is the Password of the Manager UPS

There are NUT monitoring clients available for Windows computers (WinNUT).

If you have an RPC (PDU), you can shut down UPS powered computers and other equipment if if the they don’t have a client running (for example, communications, and surveillance gear). Set up a UPS alert and using this to trigger a script that controls a PDU to shut off the power (refer to Chapter 15).

8.2.4 UPS Alerts

You can set UPS alerts using Alerts & Logging: Alerts (refer to Chapter 7— Alerts & Logging).

8.2.5 UPS Status

You can monitor the current status of your network, serially or USB connected Managed UPSes, and any configured Remote UPSes.

Select the Status: UPS Status menu and a table with the summary status of all connected UPS hardware displays.

Click on any particular UPS System name in the table and more detailed graphical information on the selected UPS System appears.

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