APC SmartUPS Setup


SavellM

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There is a special section of the Forum for Bug Reports:    Home    >   Unraid OS 6 Support   >   Bug Reports 

 

There are two subsections under that sub-forum:  One for Stable Releases and one for Prereleases.   Obviously, you make your report in the appropriate section for the version that you are seeing the problem in.  You should note that this section of the forum is much different from the rest. The threads that are in there are not queries about problems that people have encountered asking for help.  They should be a statement of careful research into a problem that indicates the underlining Unraid System has an issue.   It seems to have tracking mechanisms to make sure that things don't get lost.  You should also realize that the developers do not read and track every post in the forum. 

 

By the way, 'Race' condition issues are always difficult problems to address as they often 'edge cases' and are difficult to check in normal testing. 

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Thanks again @Frank1940, I created a new report in, hopefully, the right section of the forum (as I have installed the UPS when I was already  in 6.9.0 beta 30) :

 

I hope my third attempt will be the successful one !

 

@MXS, please reply on the new report above (Bug Reports > Prereleases), so that developers are aware I'm not alone in the dark 😉

Edited by Gnomuz
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  • 1 month later...

Somewhat related to this thread since this is all about APC SmartUPS and Unraid :)

 

Anyone figured out how to update the firmware from command line without connecting the UPS to a windows box? I don't have a windows PC in my house at all. I've tried to pass through the device connected to my mac into a windows VM, but it's not working.  The APC Firmware updater doesn't see the device.

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Sorry, I've upgraded the firmware when the UPS arrived, but I used a Windows laptop directly connected to the UPS to do so. I never tried to use the firmware upgrade tool from a Windows VM in Unraid with the UPS passed through. It may work, but you'll have to test yourself. And I'm not aware of any linux CLI option to upgrade the firmware, as the APC tool is Windows only iirc.

 

I take the opportunity of your APC UPS-related question to bump this thread as the situation is still the same for me in 6.9-beta 35. Who knows, a Christmas or @limetech miracle may happen, even if it's a bit late 😉

Edited by Gnomuz
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7 hours ago, tmchow said:

Anyone figured out how to update the firmware from command line without connecting the UPS to a windows box? I don't have a windows PC in my house at all. I've tried to pass through the device connected to my mac into a windows VM, but it's not working.  The APC Firmware updater doesn't see the device.

Did you contact Support at APC?

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  • 2 months later...
On 4/10/2019 at 10:44 PM, Aegisnir said:

1. Enable advanced config options on your UPS via the on screen display
2. Open configuration options and scroll down until you find ModBus

3. Change ModBus to Enabled.  It is disabled by default on all APC UPS units.

...


In my case, I got an old 2012 APC SMT1500I HWID=18 model for free, just needed to replace the battery. The firmware on there was 8.3, which has no ModBus option. However, APC added it with firmware 9.1 so I had to disconnect the ups from my server, attach it to my Windows PC via the USB A->B cable and run the APC firmware upgrade wizard:
Smart-UPS Firmware Upgrade Wizard v4.2.0 - APC USA

(you could also this this via a VM if needed)

Running the wizard will automatically detect your ups firmware & model and will ask you to select a firmware file to upload. Clicking the browse/select button will take you to the "FirmwareFiles" subfolder of the wizard which has all of the latest firmwares for all compatible devices. The only file that is visible will be the one you need, so it's pretty idiot proof.

After updating it will reboot a bunch and you should now be able to select & enable the modbus option in the configuration submenu AFTER you have set the menu display type to advanced, otherwise the option will be hidden.

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I’m having weird behavior when trying to update this.

When I start the update process, My SMx1500 powers off, then back on. The display says something about firmware being updated for a few seconds then it powers off immediately.

My windows laptop app is showing the progress at 7% with no additional progress even after waiting 5 mins. UPS still isn’t turning on.

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  • 3 weeks later...

@i-B4se, according to http://apcupsd.org/manual/manual.html#connecting-apcupsd-to-a-snmp-ups , you may try to populate the "Device" setting with "IPAddr:161:APC", in case the autodetection of the "vendor" qualifier fails with our UPS.

Another option seems to switch from SNMP to PCNET protocol, see http://apcupsd.org/manual/manual.html#powerchute-network-shutdown-driver-pcnet  , if your UPS/Network management card support it.

But it's pure guess, I have no practical experience with Network Card / SNMP APC UPSes.

Good luck, from my painful personal experience, getting apcupsd to work properly with an APC UPS with USB connection can be a long story ...

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  • 1 year later...

Anybody found a solution? I'm trying with a Smart-UPS C 1500 and afer upgrading to ver.14 no Load is reported neither with NUT Settings nor  UPS settings. Modbus is not available in that model and would like to enable load reporting.

 

Thanx!

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  • 3 months later...

Below is what worked for me. Thanks to everyone getting me this far.

image.png.7441dc1702a63fe7ae9d3492b0d6b973.png

 

I am using a Smart-UPS 750 in which the UPS load was not showing but everything else seemed to work (auto shutdown). BE SURE TO SHUT DOWN UNRAID as the UPS will cut power.

 

1. Download the Smart-UPS Firmware Upgrade Wizard v4.3.1 via https://www.apc.com/us/en/download/document/APC_SUWIZ_431_EN/. Because this is a wizard, it should work for many different models. Double check your model #.

2. Install the utility on a separate Windows laptop and connect the UPS via USB.

3. Run the Firmware Upgrade Wizard, following all default prompts.

4. Select the Firmware that came with the utility. In my case it was UPS 09.8.

5. Allow the UPS and utility to complete (took roughly 8-10 minutes). I believe you can disconnect the USB after the UPS comes back online but I waited for the utility to confirm the version.

6. Plug the USB back into Unraid and turn everything back on.

After that, I followed Aegisnir's instructions located below:

On 4/10/2019 at 4:44 PM, Aegisnir said:

1. Enable advanced config options on your UPS via the on screen display
2. Open configuration options and scroll down until you find ModBus

3. Change ModBus to Enabled.  It is disabled by default on all APC UPS units.

4. In unRAID UPS Setting menu, set the "UPS Cable" to USB and set "UPS Type" to ModBus.  No additional settings like /dev/tty** are required.  It may take a minute or two for the info to load but it will.

 

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  • 3 months later...
On 3/25/2021 at 12:03 PM, Zerreth said:


In my case, I got an old 2012 APC SMT1500I HWID=18 model for free, just needed to replace the battery. The firmware on there was 8.3, which has no ModBus option. However, APC added it with firmware 9.1 so I had to disconnect the ups from my server, attach it to my Windows PC via the USB A->B cable and run the APC firmware upgrade wizard:
Smart-UPS Firmware Upgrade Wizard v4.2.0 - APC USA

(you could also this this via a VM if needed)

Running the wizard will automatically detect your ups firmware & model and will ask you to select a firmware file to upload. Clicking the browse/select button will take you to the "FirmwareFiles" subfolder of the wizard which has all of the latest firmwares for all compatible devices. The only file that is visible will be the one you need, so it's pretty idiot proof.

After updating it will reboot a bunch and you should now be able to select & enable the modbus option in the configuration submenu AFTER you have set the menu display type to advanced, otherwise the option will be hidden.


I recently purchased a used DLA1500RMI2U and I would like to try to update the FW. The most recent wizard does not support this model, and I wanted to try with the 4.2 - but that has been discontinued and is not available for download.
Do you still have the files?

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  • 4 months later...
On 11/29/2022 at 6:33 PM, Smith said:

Below is what worked for me. Thanks to everyone getting me this far.

image.png.7441dc1702a63fe7ae9d3492b0d6b973.png

 

I am using a Smart-UPS 750 in which the UPS load was not showing but everything else seemed to work (auto shutdown). BE SURE TO SHUT DOWN UNRAID as the UPS will cut power.

 

1. Download the Smart-UPS Firmware Upgrade Wizard v4.3.1 via https://www.apc.com/us/en/download/document/APC_SUWIZ_431_EN/. Because this is a wizard, it should work for many different models. Double check your model #.

2. Install the utility on a separate Windows laptop and connect the UPS via USB.

3. Run the Firmware Upgrade Wizard, following all default prompts.

4. Select the Firmware that came with the utility. In my case it was UPS 09.8.

5. Allow the UPS and utility to complete (took roughly 8-10 minutes). I believe you can disconnect the USB after the UPS comes back online but I waited for the utility to confirm the version.

6. Plug the USB back into Unraid and turn everything back on.

After that, I followed Aegisnir's instructions located below:

Thanks for this, just got a APC 1500 and enabled modbus but didnt show the load in unraid, what worked was upgrading the firmware using the latest tool: https://www.apc.com/us/en/product/SFSUWIZ433/smartups-firmware-upgrade-wizard-v4-3-3/

 

after this, connected via usb to unraid and all stats working!

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/19/2020 at 6:48 AM, Gnomuz said:

After many attempts stopping and starting the daemon, with the UPS plugged or unplugged, I finally reached a stable behaviour :

- when the server boots with the UPS plugged in, the daemon gets fanciful information, and the workaround is to unplug the UPS, restart the daemon, plug the UPS back, and everything is back to normal

- when the server boots with the UPS unplugged, and I plug it after the boot process is over, communication with the UPS is established, and all information are correct at first sight

 

This worked for me. Thank you!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/10/2019 at 3:44 PM, Aegisnir said:

So I had the same issue but the solution made me feel like an absolute idiot....spent a good 20-30 minutes trying to figure this out but eventually got it:

1. Enable advanced config options on your UPS via the on screen display
2. Open configuration options and scroll down until you find ModBus

3. Change ModBus to Enabled.  It is disabled by default on all APC UPS units.

4. In unRAID UPS Setting menu, set the "UPS Cable" to USB and set "UPS Type" to ModBus.  No additional settings like /dev/tty** are required.  It may take a minute or two for the info to load but it will.

***Make sure you use the USB-A to USB-B cable to connect your UPS to the server, not the RJ-45 to USB-A.  ModBus does not seem to work with the RJ-45 port on the UPS***

Screen Shot 2019-04-10 at 4.42.25 PM.png

Confirming that this worked for me with a Smart-UPS X 1500.

 

At some point in the past I updated it to firmware UPS 15.0 (ID20) -- not sure if that's relevant.

Edited by scud133b
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5 hours ago, scud133b said:

Confirming that this worked for me with a Smart-UPS X 1500.

 

At some point in the past I updated it to firmware UPS 15.0 (ID20) -- not sure if that's relevant.

Hmm. I don’t see this option at all in my configuration.  
 

https://imgur.com/a/OzZLKl6

 

I'm not sure how to update the firmware on my unit (I've also got a APC Smart-UPS X 1500).  I recall trying to do this connecting the USB cable to a windows laptop but the software couldn't find it.

 

According to the menus I’m currently on:

 

firmware 09.8 ID:20

My date code is 2003 so it should be updated according to this page here:

 

Quote

SMX750, SMX1000, SMX1500 with ID 11 and firmware UPS 02.x or lower. These units are 120 V devices built prior to date code 1037. Date code is the first 4 numbers in your serial number. (e.g. Serial Number AS1036123456 would not be supported.)

 

According to that page my firmware update should work but when I previously tried this it didn't work.  I got to 7% and it power cycles with no update successful:

 

Edited by tmchow
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  • 3 months later...
On 10/19/2020 at 4:48 PM, Gnomuz said:

Hi all,

 

I wanted to report an issue I have with my brand new APC UPS SMC1000IC (tower model) on my DIY Unraid server (6.9.0 beta 30).

...

 

After many attempts stopping and starting the daemon, with the UPS plugged or unplugged, I finally reached a stable behaviour :

- when the server boots with the UPS plugged in, the daemon gets fanciful information, and the workaround is to unplug the UPS, restart the daemon, plug the UPS back, and everything is back to normal

- when the server boots with the UPS unplugged, and I plug it after the boot process is over, communication with the UPS is established, and all information are correct at first sight

 

So, I highly suspect the apcupsd dameon establishes the communication "a bit" too early, at a stage where the USB "stack" on my server is not totally ready (sorry for the improper words, I'm not an Unraid/Linux expert...). To try and sort it out, I thought that delaying the launch of the apcupsd plugin / daemon might be a solution, but I didn't find any setting or thread on this forum to do so.

 

 

Just got a SMT1500RMI2UC and was getting desperate. Thank you for posting the solution! 

 

With my model the behavior is exactly same. Enabling modbus on the UPS and setting the Unraid APC UPS daemon to use USB/Modbus results in garbage values. I restarted the APC UPS daemon after I had unplugged and replugged the USB-cable. So you can do it in that order too I guess. Simply restarting the daemon without unplugging the USB did not work.

I have set my UPS to power off after shutdown so I will be manually starting the server and can check that APC UPS daemon initializes properly. Still it is an extra thing to worry about so it would be great to have this working properly.

I was getting the basic information with USB/USB connection but was missing nominal power, usage and others. With USB/Modbus I get it all which is nice for my InluxDB/Grafana setup. My previous Back-UPS Pro worked with USB/USB out of box.

As a side note this model has an integrated ethernet but it works only with the cloud based monitoring. No local web management or control. I did not understand this when ordering. To get proper web based management and PCNet/SNMP functionality I would have to buy the optional network management card. I feel a bit cheated...

image.thumb.png.4e946378aec2942c2d256a14d893a99a.png

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