Xserve G5 serial port - Trying to hookup UPS

MDLarson

MDLarson

Registered
I shoulda bought a UPS unit with USB...

BUT, what I do have is an Xserve G5 and an APC Smart-UPS. Both have serial ports, and I am using the APC provided serial cable (apparently it is different than a standard serial cable).

I believe Mac OS X 10.3.3 and later (I'm running Server 10.3.9) can detect automatically if a UPS device is plugged into either the USB or serial port, and you can simply navigate to the Energy Saver preference pane to configure UPS settings - even place a UPS status item in the menu bar.

When I installed the serial cable, both the Xserve and the APC were powered up. However, even after shutting down and restarting the Xserve, the Energy Saver preference pane remains UPS-less. I can't get the UPS tab to show up.

I'm not entirely familiar with serial port technology - is serial hot-pluggable? Do I need to turn the APC off to make it work? What am I missing?
 
Its a couple of steps:

1. Use arp to set an IP to the hardware address of the ACP unit
2. Ping the card to be sure its reachable
3. Telnet into the APC to set up the info you need
4. Install the APC software on the Xserve
5. Use the web interface to finish up configuration
 
Thank you for the replies - I will try to post back with my results when I have time. I've never used "arp" before - what is it? Any pointers for a beginner? I am somewhat familiar with Telnetting through the Terminal app.
 
arp is used for address resolution. You could use -s to assign a specific IP address to a particular hardware address....

man arp for more :)
 
ARP looks handy for some things, but in my case, I don't think it will do me any good as the APC unit is not equipped with an ethernet card. The only connection between my Xserve and the APC unit is the APC-provided serial cable. Am I missing something? :/
 
Well, here's what I asked of APC:
Customer (Matt Larson) - 02/01/2006 01:40 PM
I'm a little unsure of how to proceed... I need a solution. I have an
Xserve G5 running Mac OS X Server 10.3.9 with a serial port. This serial
port, as near as I can tell, is there for communicating to battery backups.
We bought an APC battery backup unit with a serial port assuming things
would work. Since you do not provide software out-of-the-box that is
compatible with my setup, I was hoping Mac OS X Server could recognize the
serial connection and negate the need to install any APC software.

However, this is not working either, and I am left with hunting down
solutions that may or may not work on the internet, and will surely burn up
several hours of my time.

Does APC have any recommendations for connecting their serial port battery
backups to an Xserve? Is there a serial to USB cable that I can purchase
from you? Please provide some guidance.
Click to expand...

And here's what APC said:
Hi Matt,

I apologize for all the inconvenience you had to face. Unfortunately, we do not have any serial to USB converter cable which you can use. We do not recommend using any such cables because they create communication issues between the UPS and the computer.

In case this unit is within 30 days of purchase, you may get it exchanged with another model which use USB connectivity.

Thanks for choosing APC!
Click to expand...

I checked out the link that pedz suggested (thanks!), and, following the advice to install APC PowerChute Personal Edition (1.3.3), it appears to have worked. The documentation from APC was adequate, but I will still need to figure out a way to gracefully shutdown applications such as FileMaker Server.

I guess that makes me an "Advanced User" because the ReadMe had this to say:
For Advanced Users

•Prior to shutdown, PowerChute Personal Edition looks for an executable file with the following pathname:

/etc/comapcpcpe/PowerChute.pre_shutdown

This file is optional, and is not present by default. Most users will never need to create this file or the directory, as PowerChute Personal Edition does not require this file in order to shut down.

The only reason you might want to create this file is if some application has special pre-shutdown needs. The file and directory can only be created by a user with root access.

Please note that this runs as a root process, so the application launched will run with root privileges. The "/etc" directory is generally write protected to non-administrators. APC recommends that you verify the protection on this folder. You will need to create the "/etc/comapcpcpe" folder, and manually add the file named "PowerChute.pre_shutdown", as the install does not create this file.
Click to expand...
Onward and upward right? :p
 
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