Question how to shut down gracefully on UPS?

[luv2liv]

my desktop is plugged into an APC UPS, nothing fancy. i would love to have this desktop shuts down gracefully if it detects UPS is no longer being fed 120v ac from the house. how?
which UPS or what features should i look for?

 

[Muadib]

APC has software that will do what you want.

What is PowerChute UPS Management Software?

Follow our UPS Management Software Guide to explore what is APC PowerChute, why do you need it and what version of software should you use to manage your APC UPS(s).

www.apc.com

 

[WilliamM2]

my desktop is plugged into an APC UPS, nothing fancy. i would love to have this desktop shuts down gracefully if it detects UPS is no longer being fed 120v ac from the house. how?
which UPS or what features should i look for?

If running windows, plug a USB cable between the UPS and the computer. Windows will detect it automatically. Then click on the battery icon in the system tray, and you will find all the shutdown options there.

 

[gdansk]

In windows do something like this:

(assuming it has USB cable to report battery status to your PC)

Or if it's a server running linux or some BSD install nut and set up the configuration. Other machines can also connect to the master to get UPS status updates.

 

[aigomorla]

APC has software that will do what you want.

What is PowerChute UPS Management Software?

Follow our UPS Management Software Guide to explore what is APC PowerChute, why do you need it and what version of software should you use to manage your APC UPS(s).

www.apc.com

^ this is the only way.
It also requires you to connect the USB on the UPS to your PC directly.
The software will shutdown your system right away in the event of a power loss.

But most don't use it.
The point in the UPS primary is to stay on during power loss, in hopes that it gets restored before your battery is used up.
The second point is so you have enough time to save whatever data requires saving before you perform a physical shutdown.

If your after the second one, i don't think you would want software to shutdown your PC at UPS activation, and should always be done manually with you in front of the PC.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Yeah, PowerChute is the way to go with an APC UPS. I have it on about 5 different personal systems (windows, linux, and solaris based). I have used it on about 30 more work systems (including multiple systems connected to the same APC unit, with just the single USB, in which case you had to have the other systems point to the main one to receive shutdown information, and the network based APC UPS systems wherein you tell all the systems the IP of the UPS). It works really well once you play around with it and get to understand it's capabilities.

I have most of mine setup such that they stagger shutdowns (on systems that share a single UPS) such that it would focus on keeping systems that I had file storage located as opposed to compute systems (so my fileserver VM stays on, but I shutdown all the other VMs on my main server, and I turn off the fileserver when there is just 5 minutes battery remaining in order to give it enough time to cleanly power off).