UPS central management options. *Help*

G

guile

n00b
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Jan 29, 2009
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39
All,

Within my company’s server room, we have about 7 different SmartUPS 1500 rack battery backups.
Currently things are a mess, and I am in charge of re-configuring the electric configuration & load of each unit. One area that I am having difficulty with, is controlling each unit from a central point. Some of the units are serial based, some are USB based.

Currently we have several servers attached to each one, so instead of managaing a bunch of different servers & consoles, I wanted to consolidate things.

Could anybody recommend a solution to migrate all UPS units into being managed by one central console? IE would it be possible to use a USB hub, and connect each UPS to one server, or have some type of USB to RS232 adapter, and place one on each unit, and them manage each of them from one console?
If anybody has any suggestions or helpful hints, I would appreciate hearing them.
Thanks!

-SONIC BOOM
 
Schnell,

Thank you for this information, I have that as part of my proposal.
Each card is aprox $230.00, so multiplied by 7, that is about $1600.00 before taxes.

Would you have any suggestions for a cheaper solution?
Thanks!
 
if possible, get a bigger battery backup, put it in a rack, and manage only one

 
we just got a huge battery system in the basement and have blue sockets in the server room to tell you these are on the UPS. Simple. Athough if you think $1600 is too much this may not be what you are looking for
 
APC InfraStruxure Central is the software that will bind all of those management cards together. You've already spent the coin to get the UPSs, these costs are the price to manage them. This software will send alerts, tell you when batteries need to be serviced, etc, etc
 
I've got an AP9606 in one of my SmartUPS 2200's (the old style) at home. You can't beat network functionality built right into the unit. Combined with the PowerChute Network Shutdown utility, it's the way to go.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone, I have some good options now to present to El Jefe.

;)
 
What about the APC Powerchute Business Edition software?
http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=125

You should be able to control (albeit not as well as using the Management cards) each UPS, from shutdown scheduling, to other vital stats. You'd need to install the software on one server to "act" like a central management device. Then install the monitoring software on each server. Then from the one server you can see all of the UPS devices on your servers and control them as you wish.
 
Don't bother with 9606 cards, at least go for the 9617 series if you wanna keep it cheap. The 9607 doesn't support NTP, which is a big deal IMO.

I didn't bother/wasn't impressed with apcixm or whatever it's now called. Was easier and cheaper to just write a script and integrate them into xymon. They're all queried via snmp and I manage the alerts along with the rest of my stuff. The only thing you'll run into is the scheduling of the battery tests. I spent 1 day logging into every UPS and clicking 'every 14 days' to get them to all test on the same schedule.

EDIT:

Are you trying to manage them from a standpoint of shutting servers down or checking loads/other info? You're going to run into inconsistencies when considering the platforms they will be attached to. For example:

You can use a script to shutdown a Server 2.0 machine but it has to be done differently if you're using an ESXi host. Powerchute is of no use in a situation like that.
 
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