User Manual English APC Smart-UPS SC 1000/1500 VA 110/120/230 Vac Tower/Rack-Mount 2U Uninterruptible Power Supply 990-1851D 03/2007
Apc 1500 Smart Ups Manual
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This is the manual for apcupsd, adaemon for communicating with UPSes (Uninterruptible PowerSupplies) made by American Power Conversion Corporation (APC). If you have anAPC-made UPS, whether sold under the APC nameplate or OEMed (for example, the HPPowerTrust 2997A), and you want you get it working with a computer runningLinux, Unix, or Windows, you are reading the right document.
This manual is divided into parts which increase in technical depthas they go. If you have just bought a state-of-the-art smart UPSwith a USB or Ethernet interface, and you are running a currentversion of Red Hat or SUSE Linux, then apcupsd isvery nearly plug-and-play and you will have to read only the BasicUser's Guide.
If all these things check out and you still can't see the UPS,something is more seriously wrong than this manual can cover --find expert help. If you are unable to list USB devices or drivers,you kernel may not be USB-capable and that needs to be fixed.
USB connected UPSes on Windows require a special driver. In mostcases, this driver is automatically installed when you installApcupsd. However in some cases you may need to install the driver manually.For detailed instructions, please see the install.txt file locatedin the driver folder of your Apcupsd install.
By default, 'make install' will install the executable files in/sbin, the manuals in /usr/man, and the configuration and scriptfiles in /etc/apcupsd. In addition, if your system is recognized,certain files such as the startup script and the system halt scriptwill be placed in appropriate system directories (usuallysubdirectories of /etc/rc.d).
The purpose of modifying the system halt files is so that apcupsdwill be recalled after the system is in a stable state. At thatpoint, apcupsd will instruct the UPS to shut off the power. This isnecessary if you wish your system to automatically reboot when themains power is restored. If you prefer to manually reboot yoursystem, you can skip this final system dependent installation stepby specifying the disable-install-distdir option on the'./configure' command (see below for more details).
The above pertains to Red Hat systems only. There are significantdifferences in the procedures on each system, as well as thelocation of the halt script. Also, the information that is insertedin your halt script varies from system to system. Other systemssuch as Solaris require you the make the changes manually, whichhas the advantage that you won't have any unpleasant surprises inyour halt script should things go wrong. Please consult thespecific system dependent README files for more details.
On OS X (Darwin), apcupsd can be built with configure defaults.The USB driver can be enabled, as per the directions on Mac OS X (Darwin)USB Configuration Apcupsd may be usableon OS X with a smart serial device, but certainly does work as aNIS client or using a USB interface.
The Configuration Examples chapter of this manual providesthe essential characteristics of each main type of configurationfile. After those elements are correct, apcupsd should run, andthen it is only a matter of customization of your setup.
If your computer does not start up, manually turn on the power (bypressing the power on button) and enter your computer's SETUPprogram (often by pressing DEL during the power up sequence;sometimes by pressing F10). You must then find and change theappropriate configuration parameter to permit instant power on.
As of 3.14, Apcupsd supports the PowerChute Network Shutdownprotocol. This is an alternative to SNMP for use with APC's AP9617family of network smartslot modules. Note that the older AP9606modules do not support PCNET.
MODBUS is APC's replacement for the aging 'apcsmart' (aka UPS-Link)protocol. It is recommended for modern (ex: SMT series) Smart-UPS models.As of 3.14.11, apcupsd supports the MODBUS protocol over RS232 serialinterfaces. As of 3.14.13, apcupsd supports the MODBUS protocol over USB.
At this point, you should ensurethat apcupsd is handling the connection to the UPS correctly. Thistest assumes you have a UPS that speaks apcsmart protocol, overeither USB or a serial port. If you have an old-stylevoltage-signaling UPS, please skip to the next section (SimulatedPower Fail Test).
Before proceeding, please ensure that your halt script or theequivalent has been properly updated by the install process tocontain the logic to call apcupsd --killpower or apccontrol killpowerwhen it detects a power failure situation (the presence of a /etc/powerfailfile). See the Building and Installing apcupsd section of this manual,or the README files for additional details about the halt modificationsnecessary.
If all goes well, your system should be shutdown before thebatteries are completely exhausted and the UPS should be poweredoff by apcupsd. Please be aware that if you do the full power down,you must ensure that your UPS is totally powered off. Otherwise, itmay have been given the command to power off, but due to a longgrace period it is still waiting. If you were to reboot yourcomputer during the grace period, the UPS could then suddenly turnoff the power (this happened to me). To avoid this problem, alwayswait for your UPS to power itself off, or power if off manuallybefore restarting your computer. On my system, the UPS isconfigured as at the factory to have a 180 second grace periodbefore shutting off the power. During this type of testing, 180seconds seems like an eternity, so please take care to eitherwait or manually power off your UPS. To determine what grace periodis programmed into your UPS EEPROM, run 'apcaccess eprom' and lookat the "Shutdown grace delay".
If you experienced so problems withthe above testing procedures, or if you are porting apcupsd toanother system, or you are simply curious, you may want to knowexactly what is going on during the shutdown process. If so, pleasesee the Shutdown Sequence section of this manual.
apctest is a program that allows you to talkdirectly to your UPS and run certain low-level tests, adjust various settingssuch as the battery installation date and alarm behavior, and perform abattery runtime calibration. Here we describe how to use it for a SmartUPSutilizing the apcsmart driver and RS232 serial connection.The menus and options for USB, MODBUS, and simple signaling UPSes are differentbut mostly self-explanatory.
Item 6 will initiate a direct communication between your terminaland the UPS, at which point you can enter raw UPS commands. Pleasebe aware that you should be careful what commands you enter becauseyou can cause your UPS to suddenly shutdown, or you can modify theEEPROM in a way to disable your UPS. The details of the raw Smartmode UPS commands can be found in the APC Smart Protocolchapter of this manual.
There are four CGI programs (multimon.cgi, upsstats.cgi, upsfstats.cgi, andupsimage.cgi). To have them properly installed, you must run the'./configure' command with --enable-cgi and you shouldspecify an installation directory with --with-cgi-bin= orload them manually. The default directory for installation of theCGI programs is /etc/apcupsd, which is not really where you wantthem if you are going to use them. Normally, they should go in thecgi-bin of your Web server.
Most brand name UPS batteries should last 3-5 years. Some APC Back-UPS modelsmay have a shorter battery life expectancy. Refer to the user's manual of yourAPC Back-UPS to determine the exact battery life expectancy or contact APCTechnical Support.
3. If after the soft battery runtime recalibration, the UPS does not detectthat the battery has been replaced, you will need to do a manual batteryruntime calibration. For details of doing this, refer to the "Manual" RuntimeCalibration section below.
Perform a Runtime Calibration. This is a manual procedure andshould not be confused with the runtime calibration performedthrough PowerChute plus [or apctest]. The batteries inside of theSmart-UPS are controlled by a microprocessor within the UPS.Sometimes it is necessary to reset this microprocessor, especiallyafter the installation of new batteries. Stop the PowerChute plus[or apcupsd] software from running and disconnect the serial cable.There must be at least a 30% load attached to the UPS during thisprocedure, but the process will cause the UPS to shut off and cutpower to its outlets. Therefore, attach a non-critical load to theUPS and then force the UPS on battery by disconnecting it fromutility power [suggest not disconnecting, but simply turning offutility power thereby preserving earthing]. Allow the unit torun on battery until it turns off completely. Make sure a 30% loadis present! Plug the UPS back into the wall outlet [switch utilitypower back on] and allow it to recharge (it will recharge more quicklyturned off and with no load present). Once the unit has recharged,the "runtime remaining" calculation should be more accurate.Remember that if the unit is an older model, then the runtime willnot improve significantly.
The default configuration calls for a USB connected UPS. This isthe most common connection for modern UPSes, especially those usedwith Windows computers. All other apcupsd drivers are available(apcsmart, dumb, net, snmp, pcnet) and can be used simply byediting the configuration file UPSCABLE, UPSTYPE, and DEVICEsettings as described elsewhere in this manual. 2ff7e9595c
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