SUMMARY: APC UPS Power monitoring for Solaris?

From: Brett Lymn (blymn@baea.com.au)
Date: Mon Feb 22 1999 - 23:41:20 CST


Last week I put this message out:

>
> We have some APC ups's and I want to connect one of them up to
>our E250 server so that we can shut it down gracefully. I went to the
>APC site (after a slight detour to Alabama Power Corp - the correct
>site is www.apcc.com not www.apc.com as I first guessed) but after
>filling in an interminable web form the only supported platforms they
>had were wintel and SCO. Sooooo, anyone have a pointer for some
>software than can monitor an APC UPS on Solaris 2.6?
>

Well, the response was overwhelming. Yes, APC _do_ make software for
Solaris 2 - the download web page was misleading, if you do a search
there is a mention of Solaris but no option to download it from the
web. Don't despair, read on and find out what you can do to get
around this!

Most people said the same thing as "lievend" <ldb@ntchq.com>:

>Go to their site (www.apcc.com) and search for the term AP9004 (the part nr
>of Powerchute Plus for Unix). You'll get links to their pricelist and info
>about the software. Solaris is mentioned there as being supported.

But with this warning which makes sense:

>One little caveat: don't hook up the serial cable from the APC to your
>ttya - certain sequences going out ttya during system operation or bootup
>are the same as the command sequence for 'shut down the UPS')

Full marks goes to "Fisher, Julie" <jfishe@sandia.gov> who gave me the
goods on where to grab the stuff via ftp:

>I have Solaris 2.6 running on 2 machines that each have a Smart-UPS 1400
>hooked up to them. I had to FTP to APCC and download files for PowerChute
>Plus 4.2.3 The address is:
>apccorp.apcc.com/apc/ts_select/unix/symmetra/pc423solaris_sparc. The login
>is "techsup" and password is "english". There are 5 files to download:
>BS_SOL2,COMMON,CS_SOL2,FS_SOL2,INSTALL.

Actually, I was able to log in as anonymous and found some interesting
stuff at
apccorp.apcc.com/apc/ts_public/software/powerchute_plus/unix/sparc_solaris
which I am downloading now :-)

Leif Ericksen <leif@imho.net> provided the final piece of the puzzle,
the pin-outs for the cable. So, if you are a hardware jock you can
whip up your own cable with this info:

        http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/doug/ups.html.

Had I realised that the interface was a simple "relay" one then I
would not have worried - I have already written my own ups monitor
previously. :-/

Others mentioned software like Powermon II which I had used with other
UPS's previously. Knowing what I know now that would work fine.

Great big thanks to all these people for responding with help:

 Bill Mooney <bmooney@appropriate.com>
 Peter Wallis <wallisp@icl.co.za>
 Bismark Espinoza <bismark@alta.jpl.nasa.gov>
 "James J. Waldram" <waldram@cat.uwyo.edu>
 Zion_Huang@focusppo.com
 Ed Baxter <Ed.Baxter@pii.com>
 Rick Kelly <rmk@rmkhome.rmkhome.com>
 John D Groenveld <jdg117@elvis.arl.psu.edu>
 jsutton@nko.com (John Sutton)
 "lievend" <ldb@ntchq.com>
 "David H. Brierley" <dhb@ssd.ray.com>
 Jon LaBadie <jon@jgcomp.com>
 "MARK ZANDER" <mzander@newbridge.com>
 "Timothy Symes" <tsymes@pallisersd.ab.ca>
 charles@applix.com (Charles Homan [ext 422])
 habicht@ims.uni-hannover.de (Detlev Habicht)
 Brian Exelbierd <bcexelbi@controller.osc.state.nc.us>
 "Dwight Peters" <dpeters@nswc.navy.mil>
 Todd Herr <herrt@hankhill.iisd.sra.com>
 Tim Evans <tkevans@eplrx7.es.dupont.com>
 Andrew Bloodworth <andyb@pcs.co.uk>
 "Mohammed S Alshammri" <AbuSakit@naseej.com.sa>
 "Celeste Stokely" <celeste@Stokely.COM>
 Dale Shaw <Dale.Shaw@select.com.au>
 Benjamin Cline <benji@hnt.com>
 Richard Goerwitz <richard@goon.stg.brown.edu>
 MARC.NEWMAN@chase.com
 Philip Plane <philip@ra.tepapa.govt.nz>
 "Jeff Kennedy" <jeff.kennedy@natdecsys.com>
 "Reichert, Alan" <aareichert@tommy.gsd.tasc.com>
 Reto Lichtensteiger <rali@meitca.com>
 Andy Lucas <andy@totalweb.co.uk>
 Mark Francillon <markf@marlboro.edu>
 Leif Ericksen <leif@imho.net>
 "Fisher, Julie" <jfishe@sandia.gov>

--
Brett Lymn, Computer Systems Administrator, British Aerospace Australia
===============================================================================
  And the monks would cry unto them, "Keep the bloody noise down!"
  - Mort, Terry Pratchett.



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