UPS for unraid


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Note that in the latest v6betas apcupsd is built-in so no plugin required.

 

You already linked to the official docs for apcupsd. You will actually be setting it up in the unRAID webGUI so that also guides you somewhat. Just try it and I think you can figure it out.

 

It gets a little more interesting (but not difficult) if you try to link an additional PC to it over the network like some of us have done.

 

I think I found a thread that mentioned that.  However, I'm still using 5.05.  I forget why, but I recall reading something that made me think that an upgrade to 6 was not for me. 

 

As a casual user, I usually just use the normal web GUI but turns out I needed to go to UnMenu to really get to the meat of things.  Not exactly the most friendly of interfaces but I can manage.  Still think this might warrant a blog "how-to" post.  I haven't found things very easy to find.

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Setting up apcupsd does not require the services of a rocket scientist.  Below is the setup screen for the included apcupsd built into version 6.  (No need to install unMENU!)  There is a "help" button in the right right that will provide considerable detail what each setting does.  Most people can simply connect the UPS with an USB cable, 'Start' the service using the defaults, and everything will simply work.

APCUPSD-Setup.JPG.afe6d9aaa51c5c303eb00b6360e0a3d8.JPG

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And if your still on v5 you still don't need unMenu. There is a plugin for apcupsd and its setup is very similar to the v6 screenshot above. When you said plugin I assumed that is what you were talking about. The addons you install through unMenu are more properly referred to as packages.

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I would suggest installing Dynamix for version 5 (It provides a GUI that has the 'look-and-feel' of ver 6). See Here:

 

        http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30939

 

 

For apcupsd for version 5, see here:

 

  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=29605.0

 

 

Dynamix was the first place I went to look when trying to install this.  But it doesn't have the apcupsd as part of it's collection of plugins (unless I'm missing something).  Unless that was just in regards to my comment of using unMenu.

 

So far I tried to install a version of the apcupsd plugin via unMenu but not successful so far.  I'll see where the above thread leads me.

 

 

 

 

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i got the smc1000i model and am attempting to update the firmware. It has been sitting at 43 percent for quite some time now. Should I be worried? :(

 

EDIT: all is well now, turns out it was a faulty usb port. Btw what does this mean? Seems different from the image above? I have also included my setting

ups_info.PNG.37598bbff3ad908389a0366a25383b32.PNG

ups_info_2.PNG.4d868c750c9a7f191fc20f61ed626d48.PNG

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i got the smc1000i model and am attempting to update the firmware. It has been sitting at 43 percent for quite some time now. Should I be worried? :(

 

What firmware? 

 

Apcupsd became a standard  component of unRAID somewhere in the beta program for version 6.  For all versions of 5.X, it has to be installed as a plugin.  It is not a part of any other plugin.  (unMENU does install a earlier version of it. But it is still an stand alone plugin.  unMENU has some plugin management capability built-in. ) 

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i got the smc1000i model and am attempting to update the firmware. It has been sitting at 43 percent for quite some time now. Should I be worried? :(

 

What firmware? 

 

Apcupsd became a standard  component of unRAID somewhere in the beta program for version 6.  For all versions of 5.X, it has to be installed as a plugin.  It is not a part of any other plugin.  (unMENU does install a earlier version of it. But it is still an stand alone plugin.  unMENU has some plugin management capability built-in. )

 

actually i was talking about the apc firmware itself, which went bad, but is all good now :)

 

though I dont understand some stuff from the picture I attached above, hope you can help :)

 

I also tried to simulate a power lost just now. While the NAS did shut down after a minute, the UPS seems to have not shutdown although I ticked yes to shudown the UPS too. Do I have to wait for a while for the UPS to shutdown?

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Basically, the settings indicate that the software will start to initiate a shutdown of the server when (1) the battery reaches 10% of full charge, or (2) the battery has ten minutes of runtime left, or  (3) after the power has been off 60 seconds . 

 

The ups_info.pgn picture is confusing to me.  It should be displaying numbers in all three of the positions.  The fact that it does indicates (to me) that the data coming from the UPS is not be properly interpreted by the software.  Not sure I would be worried about it at this point as long as the server shut down after you plugged the plug.  (Particularly, if you are considering upgrading to ver 6 anytime soon.)

 

By the way, neither of my UPS's will shutdown after the the server has shutdown.  I am not really sure what could really cause the UPS to shutdown in any case.  You sure don't want that shutdown to be triggered as so many seconds after apcupsd has started the server shutdown.  The UPS has no way of really knowing when that event has occurred UNLESS it is monitoring when the power drawn from it reaches some very low level.  If that is the case, what is the level .1w, 1w or 5w? 

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Basically, the settings indicate that the software will start to initiate a shutdown of the server when (1) the battery reaches 10% of full charge, or (2) the battery has ten minutes of runtime left, or  (3) after the power has been off 60 seconds . 

 

The ups_info.pgn picture is confusing to me.  It should be displaying numbers in all three of the positions.  The fact that it does indicates (to me) that the data coming from the UPS is not be properly interpreted by the software.  Not sure I would be worried about it at this point as long as the server shut down after you plugged the plug.  (Particularly, if you are considering upgrading to ver 6 anytime soon.)

 

By the way, neither of my UPS's will shutdown after the the server has shutdown.  I am not really sure what could really cause the UPS to shutdown in any case.  You sure don't want that shutdown to be triggered as so many seconds after apcupsd has started the server shutdown.  The UPS has no way of really knowing when that event has occurred UNLESS it is monitoring when the power drawn from it reaches some very low level.  If that is the case, what is the level .1w, 1w or 5w?

 

Im worried that the reason its not showing those data is because of a new microlink interface which apc uses for some of their new product which isnt linux friendly. I dont think this ups supports modbus like some other models so thats out too. But yeah it does work well(the auto shutdown of unraid feature)

 

about the auto shutdown of the ups, i just thought that the function would work as the option is there lol. I guess its not really critical as the power should come back on quite fast actually, and if all connected equipment are already turned off, it wont really lose much power too while connected to the battery.

 

One thing i dont like about this model is that all plugs are battery plugs, there are no surge only ports, so I cant plug in my tv, routers and other stuff to it...doing so might risk the battery running out before the server even shuts down lol

 

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... I am not really sure what could really cause the UPS to shutdown in any case.  You sure don't want that shutdown to be triggered as so many seconds after apcupsd has started the server shutdown.

 

Actually that's exactly how the UPS shuts itself down => part of the communications protocol is a "shut down in xx seconds" command that the monitoring software can send the UPS.    So that's exactly what it does.    Clearly you DO want to be sure "xx" is a long enough time for the actual shutdown to occur ... but that's reasonably predictable.    The APCUPSD package doesn't send that command until the array is already stopped, so there's not a lot of variability in how long it's going to then take.

 

Note that if a UPS is shutdown with this command, it will then auto-power-on when power is restored.  So if you have your server's BIOS power mode set to "always on", then it will automatically boot when the UPS comes back on.    This works very well and allows your servers to always be available except when they've been shut down for a power outage and the power has not yet been restored.

 

 

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Even MORE important!  I believe this unit is rated at 600W/1000VA.  When it switches to battery if the power draw is (or changes to) only a few watts or volt-amperes over the maximum rating, the inverter turns off INSTANTLY.  You want to be very careful about this...

Hmm, gonna have to look at this and see just what I end up connecting to the ups. Luckily there is a power draw monitor which shows how many watts is being pulled. Like for example, the NAS seems to be using about 40 watts on average, which is pretty ok considering I don't spin down my 4 hdds.

 

Thx for the warning though!

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... I am not really sure what could really cause the UPS to shutdown in any case.  You sure don't want that shutdown to be triggered as so many seconds after apcupsd has started the server shutdown.

 

Actually that's exactly how the UPS shuts itself down => part of the communications protocol is a "shut down in xx seconds" command that the monitoring software can send the UPS.    So that's exactly what it does.    Clearly you DO want to be sure "xx" is a long enough time for the actual shutdown to occur ... but that's reasonably predictable.    The APCUPSD package doesn't send that command until the array is already stopped, so there's not a lot of variability in how long it's going to then take.

 

Note that if a UPS is shutdown with this command, it will then auto-power-on when power is restored.  So if you have your server's BIOS power mode set to "always on", then it will automatically boot when the UPS comes back on.    This works very well and allows your servers to always be available except when they've been shut down for a power outage and the power has not yet been restored.

Wow that's really cool if the server and NAS could power back up when the power comes back.  Gotta test again if the shutdown ups feature works with this model. Maybe I just gotta wait for a few minutes?

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I believe the APC standard default "turn off delay" is 90 seconds ... and I don't think APCUPSD changes that.

 

So basically the UPS should turn off about 90 seconds after the system shuts down.  [Actually a bit less than that, since the "turn off" command is sent just before the final phase of the shutdown.

 

ALL of my UPS's work this way -- but my UnRAID servers all have APC units, so I don't know for a fact that the command protocol is identical for other brands.    I have both CyberPower and Belkin units on my other PCs, but they all use the Windows-based control software that came with the UPS -- so there could be some difference in the communications protocols.

 

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I believe the APC standard default "turn off delay" is 90 seconds ... and I don't think APCUPSD changes that.

 

So basically the UPS should turn off about 90 seconds after the system shuts down.  [Actually a bit less than that, since the "turn off" command is sent just before the final phase of the shutdown.

 

ALL of my UPS's work this way -- but my UnRAID servers all have APC units, so I don't know for a fact that the command protocol is identical for other brands.    I have both CyberPower and Belkin units on my other PCs, but they all use the Windows-based control software that came with the UPS -- so there could be some difference in the communications protocols.

Yup, tested it again, and it did turn off after the NAS had turned off its just that it took about a minute or so.

 

And I also just enabled the restore power state after AC loss, and that seems to work well too!! Thought I'm gonna have to set up wake on land to wake it up in case of a blackout, but this is so much better. Thx again

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Hey!

 

I'd like to buy an ups for my 12 bay unraid 6 server. It would be great if the ups could also protect my iMac, router and 24 port gigabit switch from power outage, overvoltage, etc. and keep all devices alive for 5-10min before they have to shutdown.

Would the CyberPower CP1300EPFCLCD be a good choice for my intention or do I need a unit with more power? :) Will the CP1300EPFCLCD work with the build in unraid upc daemon?

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Hey!

 

I'd like to buy an ups for my 12 bay unraid 6 server. It would be great if the ups could also protect my iMac, router and 24 port gigabit switch from power outage, overvoltage, etc. and keep all devices alive for 5-10min before they have to shutdown.

Would the CyberPower CP1300EPFCLCD be a good choice for my intention or do I need a unit with more power? :) Will the CP1300EPFCLCD work with the build in unraid upc daemon?

 

Can't say for certain that it works perfectly with APCUPSD, but based on other comments in this thread I'd certainly expect it to.    What I CAN say is it's an excellent unit (I have 2 of them) and certainly has sufficient capacity to power both your server and the iMac, plus your router and switch.    You'll need to install a Mac version of APCUPSD on the iMac to communicate across your network with the UnRAID server's version so it can be "told" when to shut down.

 

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You'll need to install a Mac version of APCUPSD on the iMac to communicate across your network with the UnRAID server's version so it can be "told" when to shut down.

Oh, I didn't know that this is possible, excellent. Thank you very much for your reply. I'm glad to know that the ups is an excellent choice  :)

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  • 7 months later...

I am thinking of buying this UPS "APC Power-Saving Back-UPS Pro 550" http://www.apc.com/shop/gb/en/products/APC-Power-Saving-Back-UPS-Pro-550/P-BR550GI?_requestid=15170

 

Can anyone confirm that this will work with unraid?

 

Unfortunately, the model is not available in the USA so the number of people who can respond are going to be limited to those areas of the world that run on 220-240VAC.  (The BR700 is the smallest one available here.)  Apparently the BR series has been around since about 2011 and I don't recall seeing anyone reporting incompatibility issues with them.  (Remember that APC wrote the basic Linux software package that unRAID uses to control UPS's!) My biggest concern that I see with your choice is the size.  330W seems a bit low for a server application.  It might be large enough now but if you decide to increase the number of HD's you could run into problems. 

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I am thinking of buying this UPS "APC Power-Saving Back-UPS Pro 550" http://www.apc.com/shop/gb/en/products/APC-Power-Saving-Back-UPS-Pro-550/P-BR550GI?_requestid=15170

 

Can anyone confirm that this will work with unraid?

 

Unfortunately, the model is not available in the USA so the number of people who can respond are going to be limited to those areas of the world that run on 220-240VAC.  (The BR700 is the smallest one available here.)  Apparently the BR series has been around since about 2011 and I don't recall seeing anyone reporting incompatibility issues with them.  (Remember that APC wrote the basic Linux software package that unRAID uses to control UPS's!) My biggest concern that I see with your choice is the size.  330W seems a bit low for a server application.  It might be large enough now but if you decide to increase the number of HD's you could run into problems.

 

Awe, okey... Thanks anyhow! So if I buy a UPS from APC that should mean that they are compatible with unraid?

I am complete new to UPS's, but I read that AVR is like a necessity.

I am planning on running both my main PC and Unraid on the UPS, but perhaps I will reconsider only a UPS for the Unraid computer then due to pricing.

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  • 3 months later...

APC 1500VA UPS Battery Backup (BX1500G-CA) 

 

1500VA/865-Watt output power capacity

 

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/apc-apc-1500va-ups-battery-backup-bx1500g-ca-bx1500g-ca/10406812.aspx?path=0c3bea9e58a64cd1fa6e0f3c9d29ef73en02

 

Based on the online calculator this appears to be adequate for my unraid + 2nd computer but the price makes me have doubts -- is this adequate?

 

My unraid is the dual E5-2670 with 4 drives.

 

I also don't see anything about being able to connect a USB cable to the UPS to have it communicate with Unraid but I assume all APC UPS devices have that?

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