PowerChute Business Edition....

vCole

We have a APC Smart UPS 1500. It comes with the PowerChute Business Edition.

My boss doesn't want to setup a server for monitoring, and wants it to work like the Persona PowerChute software (which does not work with this UPS)


Any help is appreciated to be able to monitor a few machines like you would with the personal PowerChute.

paintb4707

Not sure how the Persona edition works but I'd suggest getting one of these:

UPS Network Management Card

You don't need any management server, just have to install an agent for network shutdown on your servers.

vCole

paintb4707 wrote: »

Not sure how the Persona edition works but I'd suggest getting one of these:

UPS Network Management Card

You don't need any management server, just have to install an agent for network shutdown on your servers.

She doesn't want to spend any money.

paintb4707

FadeToBright wrote: »

She doesn't want to spend any money.

Your boss sounds very hard headed. Is she aware that a UPS with multiple servers is useless without software managing the servers to perform a proper shutdown at battery threshold?

Not only that, I'm pretty sure the UPS will power back up your servers once the battery is recharged. Don't quote me on that though, its' been awhile since we've lost power for an extended time.

Anyways I think you should mention that to her. This is where you have things like data corruption to worry about if the servers aren't being properly shut down in the event of an extended power outage.

As far as I know (and I've done TONS of research on it), there's really no other way to manage multiple servers connected to a single UPS without getting the network card for it.

vCole

She knows.


Also, we currently have no disaster recovery plan aside from backup tapes.

elaverick1981

The only thing I can think is that you set it up to power all of the servers but have it monitor one of them and as soon as it switches to battery power get it to fire a warning e-mail to an address that get re-routed to a text message or pager so that you can manually shut the others down. Its a stupid system and as I recall the APS 1500 doesn't support that great a load.

If you're on good terms with her then I'd suggest subtly trying to change her mind, Microsoft have a framework for anaylsing IT risks in business that works out how much you're likely to lose out, you coudl take a look at this. Might also help with forming a proper disaster recover plan.

Your only other option would be to setup a shrine to St Jude (patron saint of lost causes) in the server room... thought I'm not sure this comes with any real guarrentees

paintb4707

elaverick1981 wrote: »

Your only other option would be to setup a shrine to St Jude (patron saint of lost causes) in the server room... thought I'm not sure this comes with any real guarrentees

very nice

The 1500 carries a pretty good load imo. I have 3 PowerEdge 2950's (Redundant PSUs, dual quad core cpus, etc) connected per UPS with about 60 minutes of battery time.

vCole

I set it up just to send email alerts, and she's okay with that. PHEW!