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I have my NAS connnected to a APC UPS with a USB cable. The NAS has detected the UPS.
My question is in the NAS menu, under system, shutdown, status, UPS configuration under 'Select shutdown on battery low threshold' what does 'Auto' mean. What does 10% mean, is it 10% left of battery power OR 10% used of battery power
So do I understand that I need to use NUT software to accomplish this? How does it work? On PC's? What about my NAS? Of course its on the network. Does it recognize a signal from NUT??
One way or another, you need to make sure the network stays up until the power events are communicated to everything that shuts itself down. One advantage of sotrack's strategy is that shutting down the servers immediately makes that fairly simple. The UPS would then keep the network up (router/switches/wifi) until the battery drains. In my case the network equipment uses quite a bit less power than the various ReadyNAS..
However, if you have a fair amount of equipment to protect (or if that equipment isn't all co-located) you will need more than one UPS anyway.
Note if you have another load (a couple old incandescent light bulbs perhaps) you can also test it with the UPS connected to the load, but the NAS connected to the main power. You do need to connect the USB to the NAS of course.
Then the NAS won't actually lose power, but should still respond to the power events.
StephenB wrote: My recollection is that "auto" causes the NAS to shut down then the UPS sends a power-critical event. So the threshold would be up to the UPS.
UPS does not send power-critical event. It send percentage of battery power. NAS check threshold parameter and get shutdown decision. "Auto" is predefined threshold parameter I think 50%.
UPS does not send power-critical event. It send percentage of battery power. NAS check threshold parameter and get shutdown decision. "Auto" is predefined threshold parameter I think 50%.
I've had power failures that used more than that, and my NAS didn't shut down.
Thanks for the link. It is interesting for me. I see the NUT is the part of OS6. Agree "Auto" value can be processed more complex way in NUT package. We discuss UPS for home usage (not for data center). NUT package is working on server (NAS) side. Home UPS just send percentage of battery power and is not aware of events generated by NUT. Main goal of NUT is to send events to slave servers in local net to shutdown them. Generate events for own shutdown does not make a sense. Lifecycle of UPS battery is reduced quickly with deep discharging of battery. Home NAS is not production system. For home usage I would prefer start shutdown as soon as possible if power out. And this is why I don't use "Auto" parameter. My second UPS is simple and haven't got USB interface. Instead of threshold and NUT functionality I use script in autostart (/etc/init.d)
It check eth0 every 20 sec. If router/commutator is out of power for 40 sec then start shutdown.
More cheaper - much better.
pseudo_ups.sh
#!/bin/bash
###################################################
#### --add script from /etc/init.d to autostart
# update-rc.d check_pseudo_UPS defaults
# --or
# insserv check_pseudo_UPS
# --start service
# /etc/init.d/check_pseudo_UPS start
# /etc/init.d/check_pseudo_UPS restart
# --stop service
# /etc/init.d/check_pseudo_UPS stop
# --check log file
# ln --target-directory=/root -s /var/log/check_pseudo_UPS.log
#check service status
#systemctl status check_pseudo_UPS
###################################################
CHECK_INTERVAL=20 #time interval in seconds between interface state check
TRIGGER_INTERVALS_COUNT=2 #'not running'-s between 1st detect and shutdown
IFNAME=eth0
echo "---------------------------------------"ifconfig
echo -n "Power up: "
date
echo $?
DOWN_COUNT=0
while true
do
ifconfig $IFNAME | grep -q RUNNING
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
if [ $DOWN_COUNT -ne 0 ]; then
DOWN_COUNT=0
echo -n "Interface $IFNAME again running: "
date
fi
else
((DOWN_COUNT++))
if [ $DOWN_COUNT -eq 1 ]; then
echo -n "Interface $IFNAME not running: "
date
fi
if [ $DOWN_COUNT -gt $TRIGGER_INTERVALS_COUNT ]; then
echo -n "Shutting down: "
date
sync
rn_shutdown
# /frontview/bin/autopoweroff &> /dev/null
# shutdown -h now
exit 0
fi
fi
sleep $CHECK_INTERVAL
done
Sotrack, that's also an elegent addition for situations where the router/switch are on a different power source than the NAS, since keeping the NAS up when nobody can talk to it makes little sense, as you say. For those not comfortable with SSH, a "LAN Watchdog" add-on would be nice.
...For home usage I would prefer start shutdown as soon as possible if power out....
That's more conservative than what I do, but is perfectly sensible. The top priority is to ensure a clean shutdown after all.
Power failures are pretty rare events for me, with extended unplanned outages (more than a few seconds) happening perhaps once a year. I've left my NAS UPS settings on auto, but if I'm home (and awake) during an extended power outage I'll manually shut down my various NAS. So far they have always shut down safely.
FWIW, another thing to be careful about with a home UPS is the total load you connect to it. If the load is too high, the UPS will drain very quickly (it becomes non-linear).
Power failures are pretty rare events for me, with extended unplanned outages (more than a few seconds) happening perhaps once a year. I've left my NAS UPS settings on auto, but if I'm home (and awake) during an extended power outage I'll manually shut down my various NAS. So far they have always shut down safely.
Unfortunately, not so here in Florida. Summer storms create outages of an hour or two all too often, and even longer sporatically.
FWIW, another thing to be careful about with a home UPS is the total load you connect to it. If the load is too high, the UPS will drain very quickly (it becomes non-linear).
Especially as the batteries get old. Finding out that the batteries are too old by having them not hold up your equipment when there is an outage is not the preferred method.
Actually in reading this, I would much rather use a network solution as I have a server and other pc I would also like to shutdown in event of power failure.
So do I understand that I need to use NUT software to accomplish this? How does it work? On PC's? What about my NAS? Of course its on the network. Does it recognize a signal from NUT??
So do I understand that I need to use NUT software to accomplish this? How does it work? On PC's? What about my NAS? Of course its on the network. Does it recognize a signal from NUT??
One way or another, you need to make sure the network stays up until the power events are communicated to everything that shuts itself down. One advantage of sotrack's strategy is that shutting down the servers immediately makes that fairly simple. The UPS would then keep the network up (router/switches/wifi) until the battery drains. In my case the network equipment uses quite a bit less power than the various ReadyNAS..
However, if you have a fair amount of equipment to protect (or if that equipment isn't all co-located) you will need more than one UPS anyway.
