I've got 2 APC Smart UPS 3000's, one of which has the management card (AP9617). They're both currently being used purely for battery backup, and since we've had repeated power issues in this building, I'd love to get some of the servers to shut down gracefully before the juice runs out.
The media is long gone, and documentation seems a bit sketchy on the APC site (I imagine this guy's been long discontinued). I'll see if I can break it down into some straightforward questions.
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What options does the Net card give me? I grabbed the network shutdown software from the APC site, and it refuses to get past the first screen without a 2nd IP address. This is a bit baffling. (I'm able to log in and configure the card directly from its IP, but the options there seem focused entirely on notification)
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Regarding the non-card unit, I'm assuming the RJ54 port labeled USB is only going to work with the cable provided (which was thankfully left in the bag). Am I correct in the disappointing assumption that I can use this to instruct exactly one server to shut down? Any software I should pick up to enable this? I believe 2008 server has already started disaplying a laptop-esque battery meter in the systray.
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Any germane points I've overlooked are most welcome! I'm not afraid to study up anywhere you point me, but I seem to have started chasing my tail.
[edit] I should mention that my primary goal is to get the 2 production virtual servers set to shut down. The DMZ virt server would be a stellar secondary goal. Anyone else I can connect is tertiary (but would still be lovely). Thanks in advance for any pointers!
Best Answer
Your observations re: the web interface on the card itself having to do only with notifications are correct. The shutdown functionality is in the software on the server computers.
Powerchute Network shutdown is fairly crappy. I've had mixed luck with it. Particularly galling is that you can't easily replicate the configuration between servers just by copying a file.
I've been playing around with APCUPSd for Windows after running it on Linux and I've been very pleased. I don't have it production anywhere yet, but I hope to by end of summer. Have a look at it. It's a lot more "Unix-ey" as opposed to APC's ugly-assed Java software.