Hi, I've been using TrippLite's PowerAlert software with my RM2200XL2U rack system and my APC BackUPS desktop systems. Unfortunately it doesn't work with openSUSE 10.2 (the software has problems with the serial port and UPS interfaces on openSUSE 10.2), so I've been looking at other options. I see that openSUSE 10.2 includes NUT, and it appears to work with my TrippLite UPS via the USB driver (thanks!). It looks like upsc is reporting most of the data, although it's missing a couple of things like battery charge, and the ability to control the four independent loads. Successful use of nut will also depend on my ability to monitor the systems via SNMP and Cacti, and that seems to be a bit of a hole at the moment. It looks like there are SNMP projects in the to-do pile, but the only code I see is from the 2004 patch. Does that old code work with the newer drivers and Net-SNMP, or will I need to wait for the new stuff? I can hack up a Cacti PHP script to monitor UPS state via the upsc client in the meantime. I'll have to manually enumerate the UPS names associated with a host target (is there a way to probe for them with upsc now?), but otherwise it ought to be pretty straightforward scripting. Thanks for any info -- Eric A. Hall http://www.ehsco.com/ Internet Core Protocols http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/
On 1/2/07, Eric A. Hall <ehall@ehsco.com> wrote:> I've been using TrippLite's PowerAlert software with my RM2200XL2U rack > system and my APC BackUPS desktop systems. Unfortunately it doesn't work > with openSUSE 10.2 (the software has problems with the serial port and UPS > interfaces on openSUSE 10.2), so I've been looking at other options. I see > that openSUSE 10.2 includes NUT, and it appears to work with my TrippLite > UPS via the USB driver (thanks!). It looks like upsc is reporting most of > the data, although it's missing a couple of things like battery charge, > and the ability to control the four independent loads.The equipment that I was testing against has been put away, so I can't test much myself. I have a vague idea of the changes necessary for load control and battery charge, so if you want, you can try building from source, and we can work on that in the SVN tree. Bear in mind that bugs in driver testing could shut your system down at a bad time, so caveat emptor. SVN instructions: http://www.networkupstools.org/source.html> I can hack up a Cacti PHP script to monitor UPS state via the upsc client > in the meantime. I'll have to manually enumerate the UPS names associated > with a host target (is there a way to probe for them with upsc now?), but > otherwise it ought to be pretty straightforward scripting.Here is some information on the protocol, and specfically enumerating UPSes: http://boxster.ghz.cc/projects/nut/browser/trunk/docs/protocol.txt#L128 -- - Charles Lepple
2007/1/2, Eric A. Hall <ehall@ehsco.com>:> > Hi, > > I've been using TrippLite's PowerAlert software with my RM2200XL2U rack > system and my APC BackUPS desktop systems. Unfortunately it doesn't work > with openSUSE 10.2 (the software has problems with the serial port and UPS > interfaces on openSUSE 10.2), so I've been looking at other options. I see > that openSUSE 10.2 includes NUT, and it appears to work with my TrippLite > UPS via the USB driver (thanks!). It looks like upsc is reporting most of > the data, although it's missing a couple of things like battery charge, > and the ability to control the four independent loads. > > Successful use of nut will also depend on my ability to monitor the > systems via SNMP and Cacti, and that seems to be a bit of a hole at the > moment. It looks like there are SNMP projects in the to-do pile, but the > only code I see is from the 2004 patch. Does that old code work with the > newer drivers and Net-SNMP, or will I need to wait for the new stuff? > > I can hack up a Cacti PHP script to monitor UPS state via the upsc client > in the meantime. I'll have to manually enumerate the UPS names associated > with a host target (is there a way to probe for them with upsc now?), but > otherwise it ought to be pretty straightforward scripting.there is already some cacti support for nut: http://forums.cacti.net/about9729.html Arnaud -- Linux / Unix Expert - MGE UPS SYSTEMS - R&D Dpt Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project Leader - http://www.networkupstools.org/ Debian Developer - http://people.debian.org/~aquette/ OpenSource Developer - http://arnaud.quette.free.fr/
On 1/2/07, Eric A. Hall <ehall@ehsco.com> wrote:> I'll have to manually enumerate the UPS names associated > with a host target (is there a way to probe for them with upsc now?)I have a change for upsc in the pipeline, but then again, if you're doing it with PHP, it's pretty simple to just list the UPSes via the NUT protocol. -- - Charles Lepple
On 1/2/07, Eric A. Hall <ehall@ehsco.com> wrote:> It looks like upsc is reporting most of > the data, although it's missing a couple of things like battery charge, > and the ability to control the four independent loads.The trunk (after rev 720) has battery.charge support in the tripplite_usb driver. I tested this with a RM15002U, and it looks like the charge number calculated by the UPS is all over the map. It did look slightly better after running the battery calibration ("upscmd test.battery.start <ups>", basically). Before I started playing with Cacti, I had a basic set of RRD graphs for my home UPS, and I found that it was more helpful to have a graph of battery voltage so that I could second-guess the UPS's state-of-charge algorithm. I don't know if Cacti allows you to zoom the default graphs, but it would help to display only from, say, 32V to 42V on a 36V nominal system. Outlet control is on a branch at the moment - it's pretty rough code. Let me know how the testing goes. For outlet control, it would be handy to get the value of the ups.debug.V variable, as well as a list of the load numbers and names. (I think they're the same on the RM15002U as on the RM2200XL2U, but it never hurts to check.) -- - Charles Lepple
On 1/2/2007 2:07 PM, Eric A. Hall wrote:> I can hack up a Cacti PHP script to monitor UPS state via the upsc client > in the meantime. I'll have to manually enumerate the UPS names associated > with a host target (is there a way to probe for them with upsc now?), but > otherwise it ought to be pretty straightforward scripting.I ended up using the protocol directly, as suggested. PHP sockets seems to be pretty simple. The cacti template is at http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?p=89624 Thanks -- Eric A. Hall http://www.ehsco.com/ Internet Core Protocols http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/