Nut upsuser - Mar 2018 - Trying to update the official docs for nut on FreeNAS - help needed to ensure it's written correctly

This is slightly off-topic, I guess, but I'm not sure who better to ask for
help.

I'm active within the FreeNAS community and involved in their (FreeBSD
based) documentation work. There is a long standing bug ticket - years old
now - to update their "network ups tools" docs page, to cover Ethernet
attached UPS that use nut for the link. Currently the docs mainly describes
configuring USB connected power, not Ethernet connected power.  The docs
team have pretty much indicated they don't have the resources available to
do this, and asked if I can work it out and propose any necessary docs
changes to cover nut over Ethernet.

I'm a complete newcomer to nut, so I don't know that much about its
config
files, but I probably wouldn't need to know much to improve the issues in
their docs so I'd like to have a go.  I'm sure most of this is in nut
docs,
but I'm fitting this in between jobs and help would be appreciated so I can
help quickly and with more certainty.

My own UPS setup is an APC SUA 1500i + AP9630 card, and the default user on
the UPS has been changed, so that's what I'll test anything with, to
check
my understanding and appropriate inputs.

My questions are mainly about the config required to correctly link to an
ethernet UPS using nut (connection/users/pw config), not so much about
advanced config or management of a UPS once connected (master/slave/status
info/control):



GENERAL NUT + ETHERNET CONNECTIONS:

1. Is "ethernet" likely to be synonymous with "snmp" for UPS
network cards?
Is information update based entirely on the daemon periodically polling, or
does the UPS independently broadcast across the network upon a status
issue, for any device to receive? If the UPS can both broadcast and be
polled, does nut use both capabilities?

2. What users/passwords provided/created/usual in nut -> Ethernet UPS? For
example, does 3rd party software need a user/pw for a nut client to
communicate with the daemon, and *also* the daemon need a separate user/pw
to login and get status info from the UPS? Is a user/pw combination needed
just to get status info from the UPS, such as if power is OK, or to be
alerted if there is a power issue? (I'd expect so, but worth checking
explicitly)

3. What would be the basic config params needed to establish a data link to
an ethernet-connected UPS (other than user/pw) when using nut in a simple
way to communicate with the UPS?


FREENAS/FREEBSD SPECIFIC:

4. Does anyone already use FreeNAS/FreeBSD with an APC UPS+AP963x network
card? If so, what nut config do you use - either FreeNAS GUI fields or nut
main config file entries that are important, would help. Are there any
crucial setup points you find important/necessary to get it working well,
or other comments on your config?

5. The FreeNAS UPS service GUI has fields marked "monitor user+pw".
Some
web references seem to suggest they contain the users defined externally in
the UPS through Powerchute/WebUI, other sources suggest they are used
internally by the nut client to communicate with a nut daemon. Nobody
(including the team itself) actually seems to be very sure which is
somewhat intriguing! To save dabbling in the codebase, does anyone happen
to know for sure what the data in these fields is used for, off the top of
their head?


Thanks for any help you can give. Any assistance appreciated!

Stilez
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On Mar 30, 2018, at 2:46 AM, Stilez Stilezy <stilezy at gmail.com>
wrote:
> GENERAL NUT + ETHERNET CONNECTIONS:
> 
> 1. Is "ethernet" likely to be synonymous with "snmp"
for UPS network cards?
It is the most likely, but there are definitely Ethernet network cards for MGE
models that support SNMP as well as an XML-based protocol over HTTP.

We have a similar situation with the USB-connected UPSes. The physical connector
says nothing about the protocol (HID PDC, serial-over-USB, or other vendor
proprietary).
> Is information update based entirely on the daemon periodically polling, or
does the UPS independently broadcast across the network upon a status issue, for
any device to receive? If the UPS can both broadcast and be polled, does nut use
both capabilities?
I don't see any mention of traps in the NUT documentation, so I think NUT is
only polling the network card via SNMP.

Reference: http://networkupstools.org/docs/man/snmp-ups.html
> 2. What users/passwords provided/created/usual in nut -> Ethernet UPS?
I would phrase this a little differently to avoid confusion, in that NUT has the
concept of users regardless of the connection to the UPS (USB, serial, network).
> For example, does 3rd party software need a user/pw for a nut client to
communicate with the daemon, and *also* the daemon need a separate user/pw to
login and get status info from the UPS?
Same thing here: NUT username/passwords are separate from the authentication
used over SNMP. I would recommend using the specific SNMP terminology to avoid
confusion.

The different versions of SNMP use various names for the authentication
parameters. SNMPv1 uses "community" names, sent in the clear, and the
read-only default name is "public". To have NUT command the UPS to
shut itself off after the servers are powered down, you need a RW community name
(which is usually treated like a password, but is also sent in the clear with
SNMPv1).

SNMPv3 has authentication and privacy protocols, and the NUT configuration
parameters (the ones that FreeNAS would need to write to ups.conf) are listed in
the snmp-ups man page cited above.
> Is a user/pw combination needed just to get status info from the UPS, such
as if power is OK, or to be alerted if there is a power issue? (I'd expect
so, but worth checking explicitly)
No password needed to check NUT status (this is what happens when you run
"upsc name-of-ups at name-of-server"), but a NUT username and password
is needed to log in as a slave. Although a slave is just monitoring the master,
the distinction is because the slaves are also capable of blocking the master
shutdown sequence.

More info on NUT username/passwords:
http://networkupstools.org/docs/man/upsd.users.html
> 3. What would be the basic config params needed to establish a data link to
an ethernet-connected UPS (other than user/pw) when using nut in a simple way to
communicate with the UPS?
I think both cases (NUT and SNMP) are covered in the answers above, but feel
free to ask for clarification.
> FREENAS/FREEBSD SPECIFIC:
> 
> 4. Does anyone already use FreeNAS/FreeBSD with an APC UPS+AP963x network
card? If so, what nut config do you use - either FreeNAS GUI fields or nut main
config file entries that are important, would help. Are there any crucial setup
points you find important/necessary to get it working well, or other comments on
your config?
Might be worth checking the mailing list archives (search box is on
http://networkupstools.org/support.html ) to see if anyone else has posted
details.
> 5. The FreeNAS UPS service GUI has fields marked "monitor
user+pw". Some web references seem to suggest they contain the users
defined externally in the UPS through Powerchute/WebUI, other sources suggest
they are used internally by the nut client to communicate with a nut daemon.
Nobody (including the team itself) actually seems to be very sure which is
somewhat intriguing! To save dabbling in the codebase, does anyone happen to
know for sure what the data in these fields is used for, off the top of their
head?
I suspect that if the fields do not go away if you choose a non-networked UPS,
then it is referring to monitoring another NUT instance (you would also need the
hostname of the NUT master system for that). You could also put in unique values
for the user and password, and check which of the NUT configuration files they
end up in.

(When replying, be sure to use "Reply All" to include the mailing
list. Thanks!)

On Fri, 30 Mar 2018, Stilez Stilezy wrote:
> My own UPS setup is an APC SUA 1500i + AP9630 card, and the default user on
> the UPS has been changed, so that's what I'll test anything with,
to check my
> understanding and appropriate inputs.
Perhaps this question is even more off-topic, but given that the APC SUA1500i 
already offers a USB interface and a serial interface, what does the AP9630 
offer FreeNAS in addition, other than complexity and expense?

Roger