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NAS model - ReadyNAS Duo v1, loaded with 2x2TB HDD's.
UPS model - Belkin F6H350UK-UNV
Problem:- NAS will not monitor UPS - On System/Power/UPS Configuration window, the following message is displayed "This device is not physically monitoring a UPS".
The UPS is connected to the NAS via a USB cable.
The NAS LOG records a 'UPS has been disconnected.' event when the USB cable is unplugged but does not record the connection of the UPS.
Comments on the Internet appear to suggest that monitoring is possible.
Can anybody advise if my NAS should monitor my UPS by default or if I need to install any software on the NAS to make it happen?
Also, could a previous owner of my NAS have disabled the monitoring capability by tweaking something inside the NAS?
Thanks everyone for all your input. It's helped me to finally come up with a solution that works for me. Remember that a lot of my kit is old, so it doesn't have latest support.
My setup is as follows:-
1 x Belkin UPS (F6H350UK-UNV);
1 x Salicru UPS (SPS One);
1 x Office PC (Dell XPS 8500) [Windows 7 Home Premium];
1 x Network PC (Dell Vostro 220) [Windows 7 Professional SP1];
1 x Netgear NAS (ReadyNAS Duo V1) [Firmware 4.1.16].
I monitor the SPS One with the Vostro 220, using "ViewPower" software and
the Belkin with the XPS 8500 using "Belkin Power Management Software for Windows" (Version V3.22m) (BPM).
Power failure shutdown is achieved by -
BPM shutting down the Office PC from within its program;
ViewPower shutting down the Network PC from within its program;
ViewPower shutting down the NAS by running a DOS Batch file on shutdown, containing a 'cURL' script [curl -k https://xxx.xxx.x.x/get_handler -u admin:<password> -d PAGE=System -d OUTER_TAB=tab_shutdown -d INNER_TAB=NONE -d shutdown_option1=1 -d command=poweroff -d OPERATION=set].
This is very much a 'Heath Robinson' setup but my costs for it have been £30 for the Salicru UPS and £25 for the 2nd-hand Dell; I think I've got good value for money!
Once again, thanks to everyone for their contributions.
Also, could a previous owner of my NAS have disabled the monitoring capability by tweaking something inside the NAS?
The system boots from the disks. If you did a factory install, then you have a clean installation from the flash image in the NAS. The previous owner wouldn't have touched that. If you didn't do a factory install, then you probably should do that, just to make sure that there isn't anything left behind that could compromise security.
NAS model - ReadyNAS Duo v1, loaded with 2x2TB HDD's.
UPS model - Belkin F6H350UK-UNV
Problem:- NAS will not monitor UPS - On System/Power/UPS Configuration window, the following message is displayed "This device is not physically monitoring a UPS".
Comments on the Internet appear to suggest that monitoring is possible.
The driver is already installed as a part of the OS. Even on a newer NAS, updating pre-installed packages is risky. It's moreso on an older NAS running an older Linux distro.
@StephenB was only letting you know what Netgear uses so you could check there for any information about support for your UPS.
You aren't also trying to monitor the NAS through a serial port (if your UPS has one), are you? I've never seen an UPS that supports both simultaneously.
I've never dealt with Network UPS Tools. Can I have some advice on how to install the driver please?
The driver is already installed - it's included as part of the NAS application.
Though I'm not sure which driver (and there is one mentioned in the compatibility report that says it might or might not work. Plus the duo is old, which might also factor in.
I have become totally lost with compatibility charts, drivers, etc. I did consider remote internet shutdown from email prompts but - of course - my UPS cannot talk to the internet,so it can't tell anyone what is happening!!!
My latest thoughts are:-
Buy (!) a new UPS that I know will communicate with the ReadyNAS Duo v1 (and that's going to be hard to define), or;
Manually shut-down if I have a power cut while using the NAS.
As I only use the NAS to store and stream video files (MP4, no transcoding {LOL}) is there any risk to the NAS hardware or files from a power-cut shutdown if there is no 'gracefull' shutdown? I don't want to buy a new NAS and a new UPS just for this one safety situation.
As I only use the NAS to store and stream video files (MP4, no transcoding {LOL}) is there any risk to the NAS hardware or files from a power-cut shutdown if there is no 'gracefull' shutdown?
There is some risk, since writes can be lost when the system doesn't shut down gracefully - and that can cause the volume (or the OS partition) to go out of sync.
If you have a backup plan in place, you could just take that risk - and you should have a backup of the NAS anyway, since RAID isn't enough to keep your data safe.
Buy (!) a new UPS that I know will communicate with the ReadyNAS Duo v1
FWIW, Cyberpower UPS systems do work with the Duo v1. There are other options too (including APC). You can search the forum for specific models.
If you are also sharing the UPS with a PC, there is a third option. That is to install NUTS on the PC, and connect the USB to that PC. You can set that up to allow the NAS to monitor the UPS status through the PC. You'd also want to connect both the NAS and the PC through a switch that is also protected by the UPS. If you want to explore this, let us know.
I do have backups - the source DVD's (I know it sounds odd but it's effective).
The PC monitoring option would not work for me as I specifically want the NAS running all-the-time and the PC shut down when not in use.
I've looked at one of the UPS options you suggest - APC Back-UPS BX - BX500CI. The info says it uses PowerChute for USB connectivity but I thought that the ReadyNAS Duo v1 specifically does not work with PowerChute - am I missing something?
\The info says it uses PowerChute for USB connectivity but I thought that the ReadyNAS Duo v1 specifically does not work with PowerChute - am I missing something?
The NAS doesn't use PowerChute. But most of the APC NAS also support NUT.
...and which (of the many) NUT options do I choose to install? Sorry to sound thick but I'm totally not familiar with what's on the Network UPS Tools website.
...and which (of the many) NUT options do I choose to install? Sorry to sound thick but I'm totally not familiar with what's on the Network UPS Tools website.
I thought you'd ruled that option out. You'd install the Windows Beta version in the PC. You'll need to configure it to use monuser as the user name and pass as the password. Then you'd use the "remote UPS" option in the NAS - using the IP address of the PC.
I am going to go with running my PC continuously (monitor switche off).
I've played around with NUT but no success.
Currently I can use cURL from the command prompt to shut down the NAS. I can even convert it to a BAT file and still it works. I can even convert BAT to EXE and the EXE works OK.
My reason for an EXE file was to try and get the Belkin Power Management application to shut down the NAS - there is a 'Command File' function in the shutdown options but non of the variations of my shutdown files will run.
Windows install failed - lib file missing. I've now got command line access to the NAS (via PuTTY) and would like to try installing NUT on the NAS. Any advice on how I do it?
@Paul_Leadbeater wrote: I've now got command line access to the NAS (via PuTTY) and would like to try installing NUT on the NAS. Any advice on how I do it?
I've done some configuration (following instructions at the shadypixel blog site).
Only thing I didn't do was change the UPS driver (which was set as "usbhid-ups") - and, of course, I got an error "...upsdrvctl failed...".
Main problem is finding the right driver. I've looked in GitHub and found an entry "belkin-hid.c" which contains code but, am I right in saying, this needs to be compiled? At the moment, compiling is beyond me.
Is there anywhere I can get hold of the correct file to just install on my NAS (and a bit of advice as to the right place to install it)?
Is there anywhere I can get hold of the correct file to just install on my NAS (and a bit of advice as to the right place to install it)?
Not that I know of. One aspect is that the NAS linux kernel is old, so even if you found a compiled version it likely wouldn't install.
Also, some of your changes might not turn out to be "sticky" - that is, the NAS might replace some of the files when you reboot or do an OS reinstall. Make sure you keep copies of everything you've changed (wouldn't be a bad idea to keep the original also).
More experiments! I'm now trying to use an old android tv box (Android 6) to try to do the monitoring.
Haven'f found any android apps to do the job directly but I'm trying to install a windows emulator on the android box to then install ViewPower (program supplied with my new Salicru SPS One UPS) on the TV box. I have successfully run ViewPower on my PC and got it to shut down the NAS on UPS switch to battery power; only trouble is, it seems to need a user to be logged-in to work.
If I can get the android box to monitor and do the shutdown, I can leave the android running and switch off my PC - my origional requirement.
Would be grateful for any suggestions for android monitoring apps and android emulators.
Just another thought - what's the way to know, if I bought a new NAS, that it will definitely be able to monitor a UPS?
Well, the first check is whether the NAS is detecting the UPS.
The simplest way to check if the NAS will cleanly shut down is to disconnect the UPS from the main power, and see what happens.
If you don't want to risk an unclean shutdown, you can connect the NAS to different power, and put a different load on the UPS. Then you'll either get a clean shutdown, or no shutdown at all.
With an older NAS with the OS not updated in quite some time, it's hard to know. You can check on the NUT web site, but you will not necessarilly know if the older version in your NAS suppots it. You are best off sticking with the major brands like CyberPower and APC.
If you want to continue down that road and need it to work when nobody is logged into the PC, you probably need to set up the NAS software to run as a system task at power-on via the Windows Task Scheduler.
