[SOLVED] APC Back-UPS XS 1000 (or BC1000G) Software?

tronayne · 05-06-2013, 03:15 PM

Yesterday my 10-year-old APC UPS battery gave up the ghost (not bad, ten years out of a battery).

Today, Staples had a $150 new one on clearance for $80 (not much more than a replacement battery, plus shipping and fiddling with it).

Hmm. OK, pop for that.

APC offers free software (every flavor of Windows only, of course) and I've never had the UPS hooked up to a server (I just pushed the button and looked at the display) and I'm wondering... is there software for controlling it, looking at reports and stuff that's not a total PITA to install and use? They give you a nice USB-to-looks like an Ethernet plug cable, might as well get some use out of it, eh?

Any advice?

fskmh · 05-06-2013, 04:47 PM

Take a look at NUT. The SlackBuild is on SBo.

I've used it in the past with some commodity UPSs here that did not ship with a Linux driver or offered a really crappy binary only thing. There's also a KDE front-end called KNutClient. There's even a Cacti plugin.

StreamThreader · 05-06-2013, 05:58 PM

Yes, NUT is a best solution for monitoring and control over UPS'es.
For non server desktop PC, KnutClient good client application.
For server useful used web interface with graphical history of voltage and failures.
screenshot - 1 2

tux_dude · 05-06-2013, 08:49 PM

For APC you should apcupsd. It is also available on SBo. I use this for all my APC UPSes and it works without issue. I have never personally used NUT, but from what I read, apcupsd offers more functionality for APC devices.

SlackInstalled · 05-07-2013, 10:20 AM

I totally agree with the previous poster that apcupsd is the right choise
apcupsd also can function as a server for other systems connected tot the same ups.
When these other sytems also have apcupsd installed they will also power down when the time has come (If configuered)
These other systems do not have to be linux systems, but can also be Windows, FreeBSD etc since apcupsd is available for all these platforms
Profesionnaly I am using apcupsd on a FreeBSD system with also several Windows servers connected to the same UPC
Works as a champ !

tronayne · 05-07-2013, 02:57 PM

Thank you all for the input.

I went with apcupsd (from SlackBuilds.org).

One little glitch was that, in /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf, I needed to do this:

Code:

PSTYPE usb
#DEVICE /dev/ttyS0     # this doesn't work with the USB cable, methinks
DEVICE

Started 'er up, executed

Code:

apcaccess status
APC      : 001,036,0901
DATE     : 2013-05-07 15:52:49 -0400  
HOSTNAME : fubar
VERSION  : 3.14.10 (13 September 2011) slackware
UPSNAME  : fubar
CABLE    : USB Cable
DRIVER   : USB UPS Driver
UPSMODE  : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: 2013-05-07 15:25:48 -0400  
MODEL    : Back-UPS RS 1000G 
STATUS   : ONLINE 
LINEV    : 121.0 Volts
LOADPCT  :  20.0 Percent Load Capacity
BCHARGE  : 100.0 Percent
TIMELEFT :  41.5 Minutes
MBATTCHG : 5 Percent
MINTIMEL : 3 Minutes
MAXTIME  : 0 Seconds
SENSE    : Medium
LOTRANS  : 088.0 Volts
HITRANS  : 139.0 Volts
ALARMDEL : 30 seconds
BATTV    : 27.0 Volts
LASTXFER : No transfers since turnon
NUMXFERS : 0
TONBATT  : 0 seconds
CUMONBATT: 0 seconds
XOFFBATT : N/A
SELFTEST : NO
STATFLAG : 0x07000008 Status Flag
SERIALNO : 3B1235X07353  
BATTDATE : 2012-08-30
NOMINV   : 120 Volts
NOMBATTV :  24.0 Volts
NOMPOWER : 600 Watts
FIRMWARE : 869.L3 .D USB FW:L3
END APC  : 2013-05-07 15:52:50 -0400

Seems like they can talk to each other, eh?

Scanning through the manual it looks like there's a graphic display (haven't tried that yet). Also looks like I can use the two servers connected to this device (haven't tried that either, one step at a time).

I use XFCE and, magically, a power information thingie appears on the, whatsit, panel, and it shows an abbreviated status. Wow, zowie.

Should have done this years ago.

xj25vm · 05-11-2013, 04:55 AM

Yeah - one more vote here for apcupsd. I used nut for a while - but it was driving me, err, nuts. Switched to apcupsd and never looked back. The fact that the clients can also be Windows is a bonus - and the thing just works. Watch out for the changes you have to do to rc.6 in order to shut the system down properly. It is somewhere in the readme files from Sbo.

tronayne · 05-11-2013, 05:45 AM

Yeah, there's a README.SLACKWARE with the /etc/rcd./rc.6 edits and the addition to /etc/rc.d/rc.local (to start it).

So far, no events, no problems.