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Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

 
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Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

This depends on the type of UPS and the management software.

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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Finis Conner
Advisor

Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

Hello Torsten! OK, but could be that there is some default program already part of HPUX that manages the UPS? If so, may be only manages some range of bauds, etc; and this must be supported by the UPS selected. That is, when I ask the vendor for a model, I need to say him: "this UPS can comunicate at for example 1200/8/n/1/x flow control??". Well, the truth is that I'm not going to buy a new UPS for this machines, because is absolutely out of my budget (the big ones, according to the power consumed by a N4000, are very expensive!), but at my working place, there is one big LUNAR that could be gave it to me, and would be useful to know if can be "understanded by HPUX". Hope you can understand me too... :-). Thanks!
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

You need a UPS that is powerful enough for your server (of course) and it must have management software for HP-UX.

There is default software (ups_mond), but it works for certain models only!

Even different HP UPS models need different management software.

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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Finis Conner
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Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

Torsten, thank you again for transmitting your valuable knowledge. So, I need to see if the big Lunar UPS has HP-UX soft (I think it has not...). Then, I could set a second PC that manages the UPS, and send the shutdown signal to the HP9000s in case of power is down. Suggestions about this? Regards!
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

Even if the HP-UX server is a client for another UPS management server, you need a piece of software that is "listening" to the master and starts the shutdown.

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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Finis Conner
Advisor

Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

Yes Torsten, the second machine would be listening to the UPS, but it is an old Acer Windows server, so more easy to find soft to do that. I need an UPS, because each lot of chemical molecular simulations could take hours or days of calculations, and if shut down not gracefully, work and energy spent would be lost.
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

BTW, I found used HP UPS (e.g. PowerTrust II) sold for around 70 EURO on different places in the world. The question is, if the batteries are still good enough ...


IMHO your problem is how to initiate the server shutdown in case of power loss.

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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Bill Hassell
Honored Contributor

Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

UPS standards (something that would allow HP-UX or a PC to perform a group shutdown) simply do not exist. The ups_mond program works with the (very old) Sola systems (Power Trust). The newer UPS models from Compaq (the R3000, R6000, etc) are completely incompatible with ups_mond and came with software called Power Manager. Alas, it appears that HP has obsoleted Power Manager for HP-UX:

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/power-protection/software/power-manager/index.html

and points to a very old 3rd party product called LanSafe III. Unfortunately, it is fairly clunky and seemingly incomplete without a shred of documentation. I did locate the UPS's current owner (Eaton) and found LanSafe 6 which comes in several OS versions, but with the same lack of documentation as LS3. However, it appears that you can install this on 11.11 (and higher) and it will issue a shutdown (halt) before the batteries run out:

http://powerquality.eaton.com/portugal/support/software-drivers/default.asp

The same software, when installed on other HP-UX systems can be configured as a group and they will be commanded by the controller system to also shutdown at the same time. This is for all the machines running off the same UPS, usually in the same rack.

The Compaq-branded Eaton units use a serial straight through extension cable, that is, a male+female cable. Although Eaton supplies a LAN card as an option, I haven't been able to test this connection with LanSafe6. Eaton also provides a PC-based information program called LanSafe WebView (but listed as "legacy"). It does work with a HP-UX based system. Note that for an L-class and N4000, you must use the Remote port (not the UPS). Apparently the HP desing for the UPS port is incompatible with the Eaton UPS models.

As far I can tell, UPS support for HP-UX appears to have been dropped early in 2010. Probably the thinking was that these big servers would always be in a data center with a generator.

Note that you can never predict the length of time for a future power failure. It may be seconds or hours...the batteries will only last long enough to ride through a short (a few minutes depending on the load). So your lengthy calculation programs need a restart mechanism that detects standard kill signals, saves intermediate results and gracefully shuts down before HP-UX finishes shutdown and halts.

> old Power Trust batteries...

The Sola/PowerTrust and Eaton units all use sealed lead acid batteries which have a finite shelf life as well as active service life. Batteries older than 3-5 years must be recycled. While they may read 12 volts DC, the UPS may run for only a few seconds before the voltage drops below a useable level. Modern UPS (*NOT* the old Power Trust) circuits will evaluate the battery health and provide battery warnings so they can be replaced before you need them. I have seen some systems with 8-9 year old batteries but never saw a power failure. When there is one, the batteries will be useless.


Bill Hassell, sysadmin
Finis Conner
Advisor

Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

Bill, Torsten; your data was very useful; thank you very much again!! Sorry for the delay, I was ill. Well, I see that an UPS is not going to work automatically with HP-UX. That brands/models availabe are unreachable because of budget limitations; as they are too heavy (shipment cost) to buy it at ebay, for example. Maybe the best choice is keep pinging to some small device as an old router (or an old 486 PC) not connected to the UPS (any what I can get), and when response fails, means the line is down, some script alarms, I access remotely the server and shut it down manually. What do you think? Could work?
Regards!
Bill Hassell
Honored Contributor

Re: W cable A5191-63001 wiring

> ping an old router

Yeah, that would probably work as long as you have enough battery power to keep the HP-UX box going until it shuts down.

Note that you may be able to get a cheap UPS without the batteries (make sure the battery clips and tray come with the empty box). UPS units on eBay probably have dead or almost dead batteries anyway.


Bill Hassell, sysadmin