Monitor UPS for AC power loss

[Lisa Dingman]

Can someone advise me as to how to set up our system to monitor for a UPS power loss. We have an itanium rx6600, hpux 11.31, and a r5500 UPS. The ups has a serial connection to connect it to the HP server. It came with software HP Power Manager and HP UPS Management module. After much research and reading I am more confused than ever. Is there some way we can monitor for power loss with what we have. Our vendor said they believed we needed to purchase an additional piece for the UPS in order to do so. Has anyone/is anyone doing this and would you be willing to share your process. Thank you in advance.

[TTr]

There are two separate taks here. One is to monitor the UPS itself as a separate piece of hardware. This is what the UPS software is about. It monitors the battery status, charge level, etc. You need to have a management station (maybe a PC) to install it and it probably interacts with a centralized monitoring system such as openview and that 's what the vendor was refering to additional pieces.

The second task is what you want to do with your server if there is a power failure. You probably want to issue a server shutdown if the UPS lost power. So the server needs to monitor the UPS and check its status as well. Fo that you need to
1. connect the UPS with the server via the serial cable
2. Setup the /etc/ups_conf file and ensure that the device for the second serial port of the server is in the file. Also tune the shutdown delay and timeout values depending on how long the UPS will sustain server power during a power loss.
3. connect the serial cable from the UPS to the server (second serial port on the server).
4. Enable the ups_mond service by uncommenting the ups line in /etc/inittab and issue an "init q" to apply the change.
The ups_mond is a daemon that checks the ups via the serial connection. if the UPS loses power, the ups_mond find out and issues a server shutdown.

[Torsten.]

@TTr:

This UPS will not be monitored by ups_mond! Not compatible!

@Lisa:

Connect the serial cable to the most right serial port of the server. Install HP power manager and point to the correct serial device (path 0/0/1/2). Select an unused web port for the software. Configure and monitor the UPS via a web browser.

[Torsten.]

see also

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

[Lisa Dingman]

Do I install the software on the HP, am confused because I read somewhere to install the software on a pc that is powered up by the ups. I have a cd that came with the ups and on it, it has:
HP Power Manager 4.2
HP UPS Management Module 1.2

The cd says 'for unix ' refer to the readme file and the readme file only references Windows, not hpux. I do have the ups serial connection leaving the UPS and into the rightmost serial port on the HP. Thank you for the link, I do have that. I think I have confused myself with all the research I have done. Put a call into HP and someone called me just a few minutes ago and said that typically the software that comes with the UPS is pc based, not unix. Do you know what I can do to verify the port is active, or that the 6600 sees the ups connected and then how I could verify the software is for UNIX.

[Lisa Dingman]

Forgot to add,
I had read several articles about the ups_mond, power on_off - so I take it that procedure will not work?

[Lisa Dingman]

This might not be the correct post, but can you please explain what an ERM is, the output from the UPS is dependent upon whether you have an ERM connected.

[Lisa Dingman]

My director is sure there is something you can do on the HP via unix to monitor, I am thinking it is the instructions you posted including the file /etc/ups_conf. I need to verify that this can/cannot be done with HPux 11.31 and itanium rx6600. Can someone point me in the right direction?

[Torsten.]

Don't touch the ups_mond, this will not work with this UPS model.

In the link I posted you will find the hp-ux software, just install the manager and agent.

[Lisa Dingman]

Thank you all, I will do so and let you know the outcome.