Setting up UPS to shut down "servers"

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dashpuppy

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Can any one guide me or show me some information on how to setup a APC 1500 to shut down 1 or more servers.

Does the apc need usb OR does it need the ethernet card ?

Id like to setup my apc to shut down my 2 windows servers when there is a long power outage..
 
You need the APC powerchute software installed on the target machine you want to shut down.
You can accomplish it using just USB.
 
cyr0n_k0r said:
You need the APC powerchute software installed on the target machine you want to shut down.
You can accomplish it using just USB.
Click to expand...

will that shut down 1 or more machines or do i need the network module in the APC for that ?
 
I use PowerChute on my desktop syste,. For servers, I'm a big fan of NUT. http://www.networkupstools.org/ It's traditionally a UNIX tool, but there's now a Windows beta available apparently.

The awesome thing about it is the network aspect. You can use a simple consumer UPS on a machine running NUT as a server. It'll monitor the power status, etc. You can then point other servers at it with NUT set up as a client pointing at the server. That way all machines can know power status and can opt to immediately shut down, or shut down when remaining battery power falls below x minutes if your UPS reports that information. I have 3 servers in my basement with an older APC BP1100 that just has a simple serial port. Works damned well.
 
damacus said:
I use PowerChute on my desktop syste,. For servers, I'm a big fan of NUT. http://www.networkupstools.org/ It's traditionally a UNIX tool, but there's now a Windows beta available apparently.

The awesome thing about it is the network aspect. You can use a simple consumer UPS on a machine running NUT as a server. It'll monitor the power status, etc. You can then point other servers at it with NUT set up as a client pointing at the server. That way all machines can know power status and can opt to immediately shut down, or shut down when remaining battery power falls below x minutes if your UPS reports that information. I have 3 servers in my basement with an older APC BP1100 that just has a simple serial port. Works damned well.
Click to expand...

Looks neat will have to read their site some more, What i need to be able to do is shut down my 2008r2 hyper server and my storage server when power is getting low, then when power comes back on the servers turn on.
 
dashpuppy said:
Looks neat will have to read their site some more, What i need to be able to do is shut down my 2008r2 hyper server and my storage server when power is getting low, then when power comes back on the servers turn on.
Click to expand...

Just remember to have your network gear on the UPS as well so they can still talk to each other after the power goes out :D

Personally I just have my storage controlled by the UPS, but other stuff just plugged in. I don't care if my hypervisor doesn't shut down cleanly, just my data.
 
dashpuppy said:
Looks neat will have to read their site some more, What i need to be able to do is shut down my 2008r2 hyper server and my storage server when power is getting low, then when power comes back on the servers turn on.
Click to expand...

First part should be pretty easy to accomplish with NUT. As for the 'servers back on' part, that has a few challenges and reasons why it's uncommon. I can't think of anything that will do that, short of some pieces that have really clever LOM to do that automatically.

While servers can come back on after power cut to the PSU, when the server is shut down gracefully, that feature doesn't trip -- as far as the computer knows, it was willfully turned off and stays off. Secondly, when power comes back online, your battery is probably discharged or very low and if your power is unstable you risk crashing during bootup or whatever else, eg, Cisco UCM, Oracle databases, can take 5-10 minutes to start depending.. even with NUT, the power monitoring system might not be ready or able to catch the "oh crap power's out again" signal, and even if it did, if the shutdown then takes another 5 minutes, you're probably screwed.

So, best practice is that if the server had to shut down, that you bring it back up only once you're sure the power situation is good, and the battery/batteries have had time to recharge to an acceptable level. If you need to do this remotely, get servers with LOM, and then tell the LOMs to go ahead and bring up the systems.
 
adi said:
Just remember to have your network gear on the UPS as well so they can still talk to each other after the power goes out :D

Personally I just have my storage controlled by the UPS, but other stuff just plugged in. I don't care if my hypervisor doesn't shut down cleanly, just my data.
Click to expand...

LOL, good point. I almost always assume people keep their core servers/switches/routers on UPSes... but I guess you never know.
 
Use the USB cable to connect to your server. Then install http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SFPCBE901. The full software suite gets installed on the main server. An agent only gets installed on the 2nd server, which communicates over the network to the main server. Then the main server tells the 2nd server to shutdown when needed.

Free for 5 nodes (aka physical servers or guest VMs).
 
I tried my best to get apcupsd to work with some consumer end back-ups 1200 units, via the USB cable in Windows SBS 2008 64-bit. I couldn't get apcupsd to see the ups, no matter what I tried. Used the supplied driver too. I use apcupsd on my linux boxes without any issue however.
 
adi said:
Just remember to have your network gear on the UPS as well so they can still talk to each other after the power goes out :D

Personally I just have my storage controlled by the UPS, but other stuff just plugged in. I don't care if my hypervisor doesn't shut down cleanly, just my data.
Click to expand...

everything in my rack is on the ups, i could pull the plug out of the wall right now and my network woulden't cripple :)

I have seen it where people plug their switches into the ( non battery side ) of the ups LOL face palm.
 
same here, my entire rack is on battery backup, and since my VoIP phones are on PoE i still have phone service as well.
 
moose517 said:
same here, my entire rack is on battery backup, and since my VoIP phones are on PoE i still have phone service as well.
Click to expand...

same with my poe phone & wap.


So i installed it, little do you think :

server means server software, WRONG server means CLIENT, and agent means install on server LOL wtf..


Got it working looks nice,
 
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