Nut upsuser - Dec 2015 - Server not shutting down before power loss

Hi I hope someone can please help.

I have an Ubuntu Server running 14.04.3 LTS and using an APC ES550 UPS
connected via USB.

I've installed Nut and can see it does monitor the UPS correctly and give
the correct stats with battery percentage etc.

But on doing a "real" test and unplugging the UPS from the power
supply,
after watching the battery drop slowly suddenly the server just lost power
along with the UPS and monitor. No graceful shutdown and I didn't see any
attempt at a warning or shutdown in any way.

Now I realise my UPS is no use at all if my system doesn't shutdown.

Can anyone please help me get this to work as I'm vulnerable at present.

Nut Version: 2.7.1-1ubuntu1
Nut installation method was just through apt from standard Ubuntu repos.

Thanks very much indeed.
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On Dec 28, 2015, at 2:24 PM, Jonah Naylor <jonahnaylor at gmail.com>
wrote:
> I have an Ubuntu Server running 14.04.3 LTS and using an APC ES550 UPS
connected via USB.
> 
> I've installed Nut and can see it does monitor the UPS correctly and
give the correct stats with battery percentage etc.
> 
> But on doing a "real" test and unplugging the UPS from the power
supply, after watching the battery drop slowly suddenly the server just lost
power along with the UPS and monitor. No graceful shutdown and I didn't see
any attempt at a warning or shutdown in any way.
Thank you for sending complete version and hardware information.

A couple of things here:

* APC units seem to be sensitive to proper grounding. While this is more
important when calibrating the battery (NUT FAQ #41/42 [1]), you might want to
use a power strip or other switch to test in the future.

[1] http://www.networkupstools.org/docs/FAQ.html

* It's safer to use a dummy load (lamp, PC with no hard drives, etc) when
testing shutdown scenarios. You will be able to see the UPS turn off power, but
it won't harm an important computer.

* If the battery drains from 100% to say, 80%, then cuts out without warning,
the UPS needs to recalibrate itself (best done with a dummy load, but there is
less risk of cutting power to the computer: the UPS can end the test early and
switch to line power by itself) or the battery needs to be replaced (lead acid
batteries should be replaced every 3-5 years). Unfortunately, the DDL [2] entry
for your UPS doesn't mention which calibration commands are supported, but
you can list them with "upscmd -l <name-of-UPS>". If you send
the output of that command, plus the output of "upsc" for your UPS, we
can update the DDL. Be sure to check the output for serial numbers if you
don't want that published online. (The first few digits can be helpful,
though.)

[2] http://www.networkupstools.org/ddl/APC/Back-UPS_ES_550.html

-- 
Charles Lepple
clepple at gmail

> Hi I hope someone can please help.
> 
> I have an Ubuntu Server running 14.04.3 LTS and using an APC ES550 UPS
> connected via USB.
> 
> I've installed Nut and can see it does monitor the UPS correctly and
give
> the correct stats with battery percentage etc.
> 
> But on doing a "real" test and unplugging the UPS from the power
supply,
> after watching the battery drop slowly suddenly the server just lost power
> along with the UPS and monitor. No graceful shutdown and I didn't see
any
> attempt at a warning or shutdown in any way.
> 
> Now I realise my UPS is no use at all if my system doesn't shutdown.
> 
> Can anyone please help me get this to work as I'm vulnerable at
present.
Chuckle. I remember a previous New Year I said "Watch This" pulled the
plug,
& what visitors expected & I did Not ... Happened ... All disc spun
down.
Demo effect ! I hadnt checked batteries for a while.

As ever, as I & others have commented over years in archives,
first disconnect batteries & check voltage of each battery, - dead easy,

Then much more important: calculate internal resistance of each battery.
Batteries go bad after some years, even on trickle charge.
Measure voltage drop when driving a load such as 1 or a few car
headlamp bulbs in parallel. Then its simply Ohms law V=IR,

If voltage drops from say 13V to 11V & if you use 1 headlamp that
uses maybe 4 amps, then 13-11 / 4 = 2/4 = 0.5 which is on high side,
you dont want higher, better 0.3 or less.

Your UPS for PC's will prob. want a lot more than 4 amps, so low 
internal resistance is critical to good UPS performance.

If you decide to use computer as your measurement load instead or
a car headlamp bulb, remember the static inverter is still On,
generating 110 or 240 Volts, dont kill yourself or blow stuff up
while measuring :-)
> Nut Version: 2.7.1-1ubuntu1
> Nut installation method was just through apt from standard Ubuntu repos.
> 
> Thanks very much indeed.
> 
Cheers,
Julian
--
Julian Stacey,  BSD Linux Unix Sys. Eng. Consultant Munich http://berklix.com
 Reply After previous text to preserve context, as in a play script.
 Indent previous text with > 		Insert new lines before 80 chars.
 Use plain text, Not quoted-printable, Not HTML, Not base64, Not MS.doc.

HI thanks for replying and helping.

I've now ran the UPS down a few times from full charge to test and I
don't
think it's the batteries or a problem with the UPS itself. I can watch it
go from 100% right down to 1% over 20 minutes etc and then the power gets
so low that everything just powers off!

I think it's down to Nut not actually shutting down my server that is my
problem... The battery on the UPS seems to hold plenty long enough from a
full charge, giving lots of time for a shutdown. How can I get the shutdown
to occur early, say when the battery is 50% to play it safe and just test
and make sure that nut is even sending a command to shutdown and why it
isn't happening?

You'll have to excuse me as I've not used nut before, but I'm sure
it's an
Ubuntu or nut config problem here and that the shutdown sequence isn't
happening and not my UPS...

Thanks once again for any help to get this working. It would be fantastic
if it would just shutdown early on LOWBATT rather than waiting until the
very last minute and me not knowing it's going to make it or the shutdown
not evening happening!

On 29 December 2015 at 00:38, Julian H. Stacey <jhs at berklix.com> wrote:
> > Hi I hope someone can please help.
> >
> > I have an Ubuntu Server running 14.04.3 LTS and using an APC ES550 UPS
> > connected via USB.
> >
> > I've installed Nut and can see it does monitor the UPS correctly
and give
> > the correct stats with battery percentage etc.
> >
> > But on doing a "real" test and unplugging the UPS from the
power supply,
> > after watching the battery drop slowly suddenly the server just lost
> power
> > along with the UPS and monitor. No graceful shutdown and I didn't
see any
> > attempt at a warning or shutdown in any way.
> >
> > Now I realise my UPS is no use at all if my system doesn't
shutdown.
> >
> > Can anyone please help me get this to work as I'm vulnerable at
present.
>
> Chuckle. I remember a previous New Year I said "Watch This"
pulled the
> plug,
> & what visitors expected & I did Not ... Happened ... All disc spun
down.
> Demo effect ! I hadnt checked batteries for a while.
>
> As ever, as I & others have commented over years in archives,
> first disconnect batteries & check voltage of each battery, - dead
easy,
>
> Then much more important: calculate internal resistance of each battery.
> Batteries go bad after some years, even on trickle charge.
> Measure voltage drop when driving a load such as 1 or a few car
> headlamp bulbs in parallel. Then its simply Ohms law V=IR,
>
> If voltage drops from say 13V to 11V & if you use 1 headlamp that
> uses maybe 4 amps, then 13-11 / 4 = 2/4 = 0.5 which is on high side,
> you dont want higher, better 0.3 or less.
>
> Your UPS for PC's will prob. want a lot more than 4 amps, so low
> internal resistance is critical to good UPS performance.
>
> If you decide to use computer as your measurement load instead or
> a car headlamp bulb, remember the static inverter is still On,
> generating 110 or 240 Volts, dont kill yourself or blow stuff up
> while measuring :-)
>
> > Nut Version: 2.7.1-1ubuntu1
> > Nut installation method was just through apt from standard Ubuntu
repos.
> >
> > Thanks very much indeed.
> >
>
> Cheers,
> Julian
> --
> Julian Stacey,  BSD Linux Unix Sys. Eng. Consultant Munich
> http://berklix.com
>  Reply After previous text to preserve context, as in a play script.
>  Indent previous text with >            Insert new lines before 80
chars.
>  Use plain text, Not quoted-printable, Not HTML, Not base64, Not MS.doc.
>
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