[SGVLUG] auto shutdown when ups indicates power out

[Manuel Fernandes]

I used the serial port for communications from the central UPS to all 
boxes. At the time, I did not trust USB on my production boxes!

No, not the movie ... their higher end UPS was called the Matrix, 
perhaps they changed it to something new.

-----Original Message-----
From: Emerson, Tom <Tom.Emerson at wbconsultant.com>
To: SGVLUG Discussion List. <sgvlug at sgvlug.net>
Sent: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 15:53:00 -0700
Subject: RE: [SGVLUG] auto shutdown when ups indicates power out

> -----Original Message-----
> From: matti <mathew_2000 at yahoo.com>
>
> Ok - getting a new APC UPS with USB comm cable...

which specific unit, and are you sure it ONLY has a USB cable?  Just 
glancing
through their product pages, most of them say "usb AND serial", and one 
I saw
that only listed "usb" had a "photo" that showed it had a serial port.  
Also,
 from the general description, it says, "...Connectivity is through 
serial or USB
port (USB not standard on all models).", which further leads me to 
believe it
may have a serial port after all.  In a stretch, there may even be a
USB-to-serial adapter that would let you plug it in as if it were 
"legacy"
hardware.  (it's not like this really needs a 400mbit connection to 
signal
"power is out...")

> -----Original Message-----
> From: serross at ix.netcom.com
>
> Not on a Lynix [sic] system - have one on a Novel [sic] 5 server. It
> works great - [...] APC is great for tech support - as I
> remember there is a phone for them (and a live person - don't think 
they
> went to India yet).

"...I see dead tech support..."    [couldn't resist]

APC has supported Linux for some time.  As Manual points out:

> -----Original Message-----
> Behalf Of Manuel Fernandes
>
> PowerChute has worked great for me on Windows based servers in the
> past. You can even get a hub and redistribute that power
> failure signal
> out to several servers; if you have something big like the Matrix.

...uhh, yeah, since "the Matrix" encompassed nearly every living human 
on the
planet...

(but then, it used people for power anyway, so there really wasn't any 
need for
a UPS...)

> http://www.apcc.com/products/management/pcp_linux.cfm
> Linux has been tested on the following Linux distributions. :

which points to version 4.5.3.  While this is some of that "evil scary
proprietary stuff", they DO make an open source "simple signalling 
daemon",
which I suspect is the core of their spiffy full "free-as-in-beer" 
product.