April 8, 201115 yr UnRAID 5.0b2 APCUPSD 3.14.3 (although I've tried 3.14.8 ) UPS: BackUPS 600 Serial cable wired per http://www.nullmodem.com/ups.htm 1:4, 4+9:5 and 2:8 options set to (via UnMENU pkg installer) Use Serial Port: YES Cable type: smart (tried dumb) Syslog attached. DO NOT know if/how the serial port's being seen by O/S. Serial port is on PCI card (no DB9s on M/B) Any advice appreciated! Sooo tired of coming home to find server running parity checks because outage outlasted UPS.
April 8, 201115 yr I'm having a similar problem, and I think I may be closer to a solution, having found this little nugget # UPSCABLE <cable> # Defines the type of cable connecting the UPS to your computer. # # Possible generic choices for <cable> are: # simple, smart, ether, usb # # Or a specific cable model number may be used: # 940-0119A, 940-0127A, 940-0128A, 940-0020B, # 940-0020C, 940-0023A, 940-0024B, 940-0024C, # 940-1524C, 940-0024G, 940-0095A, 940-0095B, # 940-0095C, M-04-02-2000 Notice, it doesn't say "dumb" is an option for cable type. Now, that is documentation for an OLD version of apcupsd, so maybe the newer version has that option, but I couldn't get it to accept it. I am currently running with the option "simple", and it loads apcupsd, but the status never shows power failure, it always shows "OK". I'm going to try actually putting the APC cable number in when I get a chance. Here is another link that discusses cable types. http://www.fatblokeracing.org/ApcupsdCableConfiguration.shtml Jonathan
April 8, 201115 yr One fact, apparently not well known, is that APC do not use standard pinning on their connectors, so a regular null-modem cable will NOT work. I cannot check it myself (my UPS has USB and serial on a 10 way RJ style connector) but the pinout is given here... http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/nut-upsuser/2005-August/000118.html http://www.everythingtech.net/2009/04/apc-smartups-serial-cable-pinout/ Edit: Not sure if this helps having just re-read the original post and link
April 8, 201115 yr One fact, apparently not well known, is that APC do not use standard pinning on their connectors, so a regular null-modem cable will NOT work. If you follow the link the original author posted, he is using the equivalent of the APC 940-0020B cable, NOT a null modem cable. I haven't tested this yet on mine, but I suspect putting 940-0020B in the cable type for apcupsd should work.
April 8, 201115 yr Yeah - just saw that and edited my post as you entered yours. Thanks for the correction.
April 9, 201115 yr Author Changed field to "940-0020B", and upon installation, it did report that it was changing to BackUPS....so it *may* be communicating now. Went into 'UPS Status' in unMenu and see the following: (from /sbin/apcaccess status) APC : 001,013,0353 DATE : Fri Apr 08 19:46:59 EDT 2011 HOSTNAME : Tower RELEASE : 3.14.3 VERSION : 3.14.3 (20 January 2008) slackware UPSNAME : Tower CABLE : APC Cable 940-0020B MODEL : BackUPS UPSMODE : Stand Alone STARTTIME: Fri Apr 08 19:33:32 EDT 2011 LINEFAIL : OK BATTSTAT : OK STATFLAG : 0x07000008 Status Flag END APC : Fri Apr 08 20:00:46 EDT 2011 Additionally, when I go into 'PCI Devices' in unMenu, I see the following: 03:06.0 Serial controller: Systembase Co Ltd Unknown device 4d01 (rev b0) (prog-if 02 [16550]) Subsystem: Systembase Co Ltd Unknown device 4d01 Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 21 I/O ports at e800 I/O ports at e400 Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3 I've currently got the UPS discharging (with server bypassing UPS) just to see if it can trigger a shutdown. (Triggered UPS with outlet strip- to maintain its connection to common ground reference) Not optimistic since I've not seen any entries updating onscreen in unMenu main screen...
April 9, 201115 yr LINEFAIL : OK BATTSTAT : OK That is exactly the result I got when I changed to "simple". It seemed to communicate, but not update status. I'll be interested to know what happens when the UPS battery dies, to see if the status lines ever change. BTW, plugging one of those halogen work lights into the UPS makes a dandy fake load to accelerate the process. Just make sure you have enough watts to run the light. Perhaps a couple table lamps would be a more accurate load.
April 9, 201115 yr Author Apparently the "info" is useless. The UPS is dead- or at least it's dropped the 100w lamp and is currently continually toning, yet below is the response I get onscreen. (from /sbin/apcaccess status) APC : 001,013,0353 DATE : Fri Apr 08 19:46:59 EDT 2011 HOSTNAME : Tower RELEASE : 3.14.3 VERSION : 3.14.3 (20 January 2008) slackware UPSNAME : Tower CABLE : APC Cable 940-0020B MODEL : BackUPS UPSMODE : Stand Alone STARTTIME: Fri Apr 08 19:33:32 EDT 2011 LINEFAIL : OK BATTSTAT : OK STATFLAG : 0x07000008 Status Flag END APC : Fri Apr 08 21:14:51 EDT 2011
April 9, 201115 yr Great... I was hoping changing the cable type would do something productive. Now I'm wondering if simple mode is broken in the apcupsd build that was prebuilt for unraid. Especially since the "documentation" suggests using "dumb" as the cable type. Is there a list of confirmed working with unRaid APC UPS models somewhere? Jonathan
April 9, 201115 yr I am not aware of a confirmed list. I have Back-UPS 800 which works very well (detects mains fail and restore and will shut down cleanly and restart for longer outages). Status report looks like this... UPS Status (from /sbin/apcaccess status) APC : 001,045,1145 DATE : Sat Apr 09 09:15:56 UTC 2011 HOSTNAME : Tower RELEASE : 3.14.3 VERSION : 3.14.3 (20 January 2008) slackware UPSNAME : Tower CABLE : Custom Cable Smart MODEL : Back-UPS BR 800 UPSMODE : Stand Alone STARTTIME: Sat Mar 26 23:48:13 UTC 2011 STATUS : ONLINE LINEV : 246.0 Volts LOADPCT : 9.0 Percent Load Capacity BCHARGE : 100.0 Percent TIMELEFT : 66.5 Minutes MBATTCHG : 10 Percent MINTIMEL : 5 Minutes MAXTIME : 300 Seconds OUTPUTV : 230.0 Volts SENSE : High DWAKE : 000 Seconds DSHUTD : 000 Seconds LOTRANS : 194.0 Volts HITRANS : 264.0 Volts RETPCT : 000.0 Percent ITEMP : 29.2 C Internal ALARMDEL : Always BATTV : 27.1 Volts LINEFREQ : 50.0 Hz LASTXFER : Low line voltage NUMXFERS : 3 XONBATT : Sat Apr 09 01:23:20 UTC 2011 TONBATT : 0 seconds CUMONBATT: 110 seconds XOFFBATT : Sat Apr 09 01:23:28 UTC 2011 SELFTEST : NO STATFLAG : 0x07000008 Status Flag SERIALNO : 3B0951X24834 BATTDATE : 2001-09-25 NOMOUTV : 230 Volts NOMINV : 230 Volts NOMBATTV : 24.0 Volts NOMPOWER : 540 Watts FIRMWARE : 9.o5 .I USB FW:o5 APCMODEL : Back-UPS BR 800 END APC : Sat Apr 09 09:16:48 UTC 2011
April 9, 201115 yr So far the only APC units I have seen posted to work (including yours) with unRaid are smart signaling units. Which is why I made the comment that perhaps simple mode is broken in our prepackaged distribution.
April 10, 201115 yr I've used a Bak-Ups 725 via Ethernet. And a 750 via USB. I'm sure that the 725 would work via USB as well.
April 11, 201115 yr I've used a Bak-Ups 725 via Ethernet. And a 750 via USB. I'm sure that the 725 would work via USB as well. Are they reported as smart or simple?
April 11, 201115 yr I've solved my issue by bypassing it totally. :'( I hooked my dumb back-ups 500 to a windows machine that also stays on 24-7, and the windows version of apcupsd sees it just fine, and the net option works ok on my unRaid box. I gave up getting the simple signalling option working in unRaid, but I have a suspicion on what the problem could be if others want to continue hammering at it. The installation script only allows very limited editing options of the .conf file for apcupsd, and I suspect manually changing it to the correct cable and ups type might work.
April 12, 201115 yr Author I solved my issue by GIVING UP. Apparently the claim that; Apcupsd can be used for power management and controlling most of APC's UPS models on Unix and Windows machines. Apcupsd works with most of APC's Smart-UPS models as well as most simple signalling models such as Back-UPS and BackUPS-Office. isn't valid for a BackUPS 600 or a SmartUPS 620. NEITHER worked for me. The BackUPS did nothing. The SmartUPS gave me "Error contacting host localhost port 3551: Connection refused" I've lost too much sleep over this thing. This shouldn't be rocket science. I guess my server's power-down routine will be a graceful fall [glow=red,2,300]flat onto its face.[/glow]
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