[KLUG Members] Experience with UPS management, please?

[Bruce Smith]

I haven't messed with it for a long time, but the last I knew APC had
their own proprietary software for Linux, plus there is a OSS package
that supports APC packages.  The software is configurable to run
shutdown "x" number of minutes after power outage and/or "x" minutes
before the expected time the battery gives out.  The software also
monitors UPS events and logs them.  Don't know about scripts.

This of course assumes you purchase an APC model smart enough to
communicate with the software.

 - BS


> Folks,
>   I'm looking at linking some UPS devices with various Linux
> machines with several goals....
> 
>    1. Smooth shutdown: When there's an outage and the battery
>       is getting really low, the system should be informed so it
>       can go through an orderly shutdown procedure.
> 
>    2. Monitoring: We should be able to see some information about
>       the UPS, such as charge state, perhaps power consumption
>       stats, and so on.
> 
>    3. Script support: We should be able to write some scripts
>       that inhibit premature system startup (requiring the UPS
>       to reach a given charge level before allowing startup to
>       proceed), and perform similar functions, and logging.
> 
>   I have a couple of types of UPS units to support, primarily some 
> units from Powercom and APC. Most UPS units on sale now have a USB 
> interface; these are somewhat older, with either RS-232 or custom 
> cables that connect the UPS to a computer.
> 
>   Now, there are some proprietary software packages that support at 
> least some of the above activity, and I may resort to them to solve 
> some immediate problems. However, I am actually more interested in 
> seeing how to use one of several F/OSS packages for this purpose, 
> such as acpid, apmd, and so on.
> 
>    If you have experience with setting up and configuring UPS moni-
> toring and control as I've described above (or more, of course), 
> especially with freely available software, I would be most interested 
> in reading what you have to say about this topic.
> 
> 							Regards,
> 							---> RGB <---