Subject: Re: Installing a UPS for a NetBSD server... software and procedures?
To: Gilles Gravier <Gilles@Gravier.org>
From: Martin Husemann <martin@duskware.de>
List: netbsd-users
Date: 04/20/2007 08:48:28
On Fri, Apr 20, 2007 at 08:20:16AM +0200, Gilles Gravier wrote:
> 1) What UPS work well with NetBSD? I see in the pkgsrc many pieces of
> code supporting UPS systems. What are your preferred ones? For what
> reasons? What package do you use to monitor the UPS and trigger the
> shutdown?
I use APC UPSes a lot, and pkgsrc/sysutils/ups-nut. I like this pkg because
it allows me to connect multiple machines to the same ups, have one of
them run the ups monitoring server and the others clients. When power fails,
the clients shutdown first, then the server. I only have UPSes with serial
connection so far, I think people had problem getting the USB connected ones
to work - but that should be a solvable problem if you are ready
to do a bit of hacking on the pkg (or wait for success stories).
There is a small window where power can return (after the machines shut down
and before the ups shuts off), but my power failures in general have been
very short (ups survives), or significantly longer than battery time, so
this was never a problem.
I buy UPSes cheap second hand. Replacing batteries is easy, and they are
standard, available on stock at the shop around the corner. The ups tests
the batteries every other week and notifies you when it goes bad.
Martin