Rack and Power Manager problems

[Stephen Kebbell]

Hi,

I have the following setup:

2 Racks, each with one R3000XR with SNMP/Serial Port card. UPS Firmware 1.09, SNMP Card FW 3.60

Attached to UPS A:
Load Segment 1 (PDU extension bar connected to large connector of UPS): 2x ML370 G4, one power supply each. The redundant power supply of each ML370 is connected directly to the mains.
Load Segment 2: SSL Autoloader (attached to one of the above servers) + KVM/TFT
Load Segment 3: Nothing

UPS B:
Load Segment 1: Same as LS1 from UPS A, but with only 1 ML370 server, attached same as the 2 servers above
Load Segment 2: LAN Switch + KVM/TFT
Load Segment 3: Nothing

One of the servers attached to UPS A is the HP Rack and Power Manager server (version 1.1), which manages both UPSes. The agents are installed on all 3 servers, which are all running Windows 2003 SP1. Communication with the UPS is via LAN, not serial. No serial relay agents installed.
I have setup the agents correctly, attached them in HPRPM to the correct UPS and load segment, and configured the shutdown times.

Shutdown parameters:
UPS A:
LS1: Total time to shutdown all servers (delay + shutdown time) is 8 minutes. Then LS1 should power off.
LS2: 10 minutes until Load Segment power off. No agents associated with LS2
LS3: Zero, and I unchecked the "Infinite" setting

UPS B:
LS1: Server shutdown takes about 6 minutes, then power off LS1
LS2: Set to Infinite (so the LAN switch stays up as long as possible)
LS3: Zero, and I unchecked the "Infinite" setting

When I simulate a power failure on UPS A (pull input plug from UPS) the servers shutdown gracefully as expected. Then LS1 powers off (the light on the extension bar is off). But LS2 does not power off, even after 20 minutes. And the UPS does not shut itself off to conserve battery life. Only UPS B should be acting like this (and it does, when I simulate a power failure there).

Could it be that RPM is getting confused between the 2 UPSes? Since it sees that one UPS has LS2 set for infinite, does it then decide that all attached UPSes have the same setting?

Any ideas out there ? (Apart from removing HPRPM and installing HP Power Manager 4.0 once for each UPS)

Thanks and regards,
Stephen

[Scott Robey]

Interesting problem Stephen. I have drawn out your setup the best that i could to understand exactly how you have it setup and everything appears to be right. he only thing I can think of is to make sure that the infinite button is not checked for load segment 2 on UPSA which i am sure you have checked. One thing you can try is to implement a "dummy" agent. HPPM 4.0 has the ability to do this my adding a monitor or storage device to a load segment but RPM does not. Maybe delete your settings to a shutdown delay for LS2 and create a dummy agent and associate it with LS2 instead. Then try and set its shutdown timings to 10 mins and see if that helps. The only draw back is that you will always see a red ball on the agents tab as this agent does not exist but it is worth a shot. Another thing to note is that you mentioned that the other power supplies on the 370s are directly connected to main power, i just want to clarify that this means that they are not connected to UPS power.

What I am testing by having you do this is the management server. In your instance the management server powers off after 8 mins but it is supposed to tell LS2 to turn off at 10 mins. I don't think it can do that as it does not send the command to the UPS to power that LS off until it is time. Items like shutdown timings are all sent to the UPS on utility power failure and the UPS then has the clock and will act accordingly.

your thoughts?
Scott

[Stephen Kebbell]

Hi Scott,

thanks for your response. I'm not sure if I can create a dummy agent in HPRPM. To get an agent, I have to install one on a server, then get it discovered by RPM and then associate it with the UPS. On UPS A there are no infinite settings checked. In the coloured bars, they all go red after a certain time. If an infinite is checked, it is green for the entire runtime of the battery.

After the RPM server shuts down, it is a couple of minutes before LS1 goes off (I hear a click, too).

I had previoulsy set up an R12000XR with RPM and this shut itself off about 1-2 minutes after the last server shut down. But that UPS has only 1 load segment.

I think my next step will to remove UPS B and its associated agents from the RPM config and see if that influences things. It might be a while before I can test this, but I will post my results here.

Thanks and regards,
Stephen

[Scott Robey]

It sounds like you are on the right track but just an FYI, you dont have to have the agent installed on a system to add it to RPM. A dummy agent can be added by manually adding the agent and associating it with a load segment, I have done this alot of times to turn lamps on and off during testing.

The agent does not have to really exist.