UPSMON replacement?

Discussion:

UPSMON replacement?

(too old to reply)

Al Savage

2013-01-22 07:44:40 UTC

I'm looking for a UPS monitor-and-control (shutdown, etc.) utility that
will operate with APC "smart" UPSs --- I have several.

If it can work with APC SmartUPSs that are located remotely on my lan,
so much the better, but that's just icing, not a deal-breaker. The
remote UPSs have Network Monitoring Cards installed, so the can do SNMP
too.

A port of apcupsd would be perfect, I think.

Background:
-------------------------------------------------
I registerred UPSMON by Lone Peak Automation about a decade ago, and
it's been faithfully monitoring my 1998-vintage APC Back-UPS Pro 650
(BK6550S) ever since. This is via APC's special serial cable
(9940-0024C). It has been rock-solid.

I just moved my W4 HDD to newer hardware, and no amount of prodding on
my part has been able to get UPSMON to relliably connect and *stay*
connected to the UPS. It usually will not connect to the UPS
automatically upon startup anymore, and if I prod it manually enough
times (<F8>) it will connect for one or two message cycles (typically it
polls the serial port every five seconds or so), but then error out,
complaining "Cannot connect. UPS turned off or no comm cable."

When the hardware is booted to Win, both APC's software (PowerChute
Business Edition v3..02) and the excellent "apcupsd" utility both
communnicate with the UPS reliably.

The single serial port is integrated to the mainboard. SIO's SU.exe
shows good things about it, and PMLM does not show anything amiss inn
transmission. The port's IRQ is not shared (at the BIOS level, anyway).
I do not have a PCI serial add-in card around to test further.

I have spent considerable tiime on this. I have tried both the IBM
COM.SYS (v10.078) and the older SIO.SYS
SIO.SYS 58,880 .a.. 9-04-97

While ZOC works and "MODE COM1" shows nothing odd to me (likewise "SU 1
About", etc.), UPSMON is not reliable, and that's no good for a UPS
utility.
-------------------------------------------------

--
Regards,
Al S.

David H. Durgee

2013-01-22 13:17:02 UTC

Permalink

Post by Al Savage
I'm looking for a UPS monitor-and-control (shutdown, etc.) utility that
will operate with APC "smart" UPSs --- I have several.
If it can work with APC SmartUPSs that are located remotely on my lan,
so much the better, but that's just icing, not a deal-breaker. The
remote UPSs have Network Monitoring Cards installed, so the can do SNMP
too.
A port of apcupsd would be perfect, I think.
-------------------------------------------------
I registerred UPSMON by Lone Peak Automation about a decade ago, and
it's been faithfully monitoring my 1998-vintage APC Back-UPS Pro 650
(BK6550S) ever since. This is via APC's special serial cable
(9940-0024C). It has been rock-solid.
I just moved my W4 HDD to newer hardware, and no amount of prodding on
my part has been able to get UPSMON to relliably connect and *stay*
connected to the UPS. It usually will not connect to the UPS
automatically upon startup anymore, and if I prod it manually enough
times (<F8>) it will connect for one or two message cycles (typically it
polls the serial port every five seconds or so), but then error out,
complaining "Cannot connect. UPS turned off or no comm cable."
When the hardware is booted to Win, both APC's software (PowerChute
Business Edition v3..02) and the excellent "apcupsd" utility both
communnicate with the UPS reliably.
The single serial port is integrated to the mainboard. SIO's SU.exe
shows good things about it, and PMLM does not show anything amiss inn
transmission. The port's IRQ is not shared (at the BIOS level, anyway).
I do not have a PCI serial add-in card around to test further.
I have spent considerable tiime on this. I have tried both the IBM
COM.SYS (v10.078) and the older SIO.SYS
SIO.SYS 58,880 .a.. 9-04-97
While ZOC works and "MODE COM1" shows nothing odd to me (likewise "SU 1
About", etc.), UPSMON is not reliable, and that's no good for a UPS
utility.

Do you have a copy of APC's PowerChute Plus for OS/2 version 4.2.3 to
try? That is what I have been using with my systems here for years. It
may still be available on their FTP site, if not let me know and I will
look for my copy if you want to try it.

Dave

Dave Saville

2013-01-22 15:14:02 UTC

Permalink

On Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:17:02 UTC, "David H. Durgee" <***@privacy.net>
wrote:

<snip>

Post by David H. Durgee
Do you have a copy of APC's PowerChute Plus for OS/2 version 4.2.3 to
try? That is what I have been using with my systems here for years. It
may still be available on their FTP site, if not let me know and I will
look for my copy if you want to try it.

Don't bother looking. APC don't have it, or won't admit it, and are
not interested in supporting anything other than Windows - Even expect
you to run their Win code under Wine on *nix.

I went through this a couple of years back when I bought a new UPS.
There are several on Hobbes I think but none worked for me as the new
one only had a USB connector. I found some Russian s/w that supported
USB connection type. I think there was an updated announcement for one
of the others in the last few weeks.

HTH

--
Regards
Dave Saville

David H. Durgee

2013-01-22 15:34:16 UTC

Permalink

Post by Dave Saville
<snip>

Don't bother looking. APC don't have it, or won't admit it, and are
not interested in supporting anything other than Windows - Even expect
you to run their Win code under Wine on *nix.
I went through this a couple of years back when I bought a new UPS.
There are several on Hobbes I think but none worked for me as the new
one only had a USB connector. I found some Russian s/w that supported
USB connection type. I think there was an updated announcement for one
of the others in the last few weeks.

I believe that it will work with the UPSs Al is using, as he makes
reference to an APC special serial cable. I have also confirmed that
the OS/2 software is available for download on os2site as well as
Hobbes, look for "os2v423.zip" in /pub/os2/util/power/ for it.

Dave

Al Savage

2013-01-22 19:38:42 UTC

Permalink

Post by Dave Saville
I went through this a couple of years back when I bought a new UPS.
There are several on Hobbes I think but none worked for me as the new
one only had a USB connector. I found some Russian s/w that supported
USB connection type. I think there was an updated announcement for one
of the others in the last few weeks.

Yeah, I saw the USB APC software on hobbes, even dowloaded it and looked
through the README, but it only mentions USB, the words "serial" and
"COM" do not appear anywhere.

--
Regards,
Al S.

Al Savage

2013-01-22 19:36:40 UTC

Permalink

Yes, I have os2v423.zip here (it's on Hobbes). I got through the
Win-OS2 install a couple of days ago, but deleted it soon after, I
forget why. Oh, yeah: it dies fast. Here's the POPUPLOG.OS2 entry:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
01-19-2013 13:56:33 SYS3175 PID 0060 TID 0001 Slot 006a
D:\APC_POWERCHUTE\UPSD.EXE
c0000005
0002a78a
P1=00000008 P2=00003220 P3=XXXXXXXX P4=XXXXXXXX
EAX=00000000 EBX=0000001c ECX=0000faf1 EDX=0000d318
ESI=0000d825 EDI=0000d825
DS=055f DSACC=00f3 DSLIM=0000f587
ES=055f ESACC=00f3 ESLIM=0000f587
FS=150b FSACC=00f3 FSLIM=00000030
GS=0000 GSACC=**** GSLIM=********
CS:EIP=0017:0000a78a CSACC=00fb CSLIM=0000fa58
SS:ESP=055f:0000d278 SSACC=00f3 SSLIM=0000f587
EBP=0000d280 FLG=00010282

UPSD.EXE 0001:0000a78a
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
The newest file date is in 1997 :/ I'll go install it again.

It's fairly benign to the system to install. From the README:

The CONFIG.SYS was modified to add the Pwrchute
directory to the LIBPATH.

The variable SET PWRCHUTE=DRIVE:\PATH was also
added to the CONFIG.SYS.

The file STARTUP.CMD was modified/created
to auto start UPSD.EXE.

But the installer gives the option of not screwing with the CONFIG.SYS &
Startup.cmd if you choose, merely creating prototype files so you can
inspect the changes.

[later]
Ah, yes: the install drive has more then 2Gb free, so the installer
barfs. I have to copy some large files to the the drive to get that
number under the threshold . . . fortunately, I have a stack of handy
100Mb files sitting on the NAS for just such an occasion . . . yup, that
gets it through the install OK.

Start the daemon:

[D:\APCPC]SET PWRCHUTE=D:\APCPC

[D:\APCPC]SET beginlibpath=D:\APCPC;

[D:\APCPC]upsd
01/22/13 11:31:28 *** PowerChute PLUS Version 4.2.3 Started ***

OK, now for the interface:
Oops, I took too long to find the GUI's EXE (it's PWRCHUTE.exe), and
after about 20 seconds upsd died without touching the system:

SYS1811: The process has stopped. The software diagnostic code
(trap number) is 000D.

The POPUPLOG has SYS3175, though, with slightly different numbers:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
01-22-2013 11:32:33 SYS3175 PID 007c TID 0001 Slot 00bf
D:\APCPC\UPSD.EXE
c0000005
0009834f
P1=00000008 P2=00000500 P3=XXXXXXXX P4=XXXXXXXX
EAX=0000d056 EBX=00000000 ECX=0000834d EDX=0000004f
ESI=0000001c EDI=00009bd0
DS=055f DSACC=00f3 DSLIM=0000f587
ES=0547 ESACC=00f3 ESLIM=000000ff
FS=150b FSACC=00f3 FSLIM=00000030
GS=0000 GSACC=**** GSLIM=********
CS:EIP=004f:0000834f CSACC=00fb CSLIM=0000c354
SS:ESP=055f:0000d052 SSACC=00f3 SSLIM=0000f587
EBP=0000d056 FLG=00010202

UPSD.EXE 0008:0000834f
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------

And that's why I'm not using it APC's PowerChute for OS/2 from 1997.

--
Regards,
Al S.

David H. Durgee

2013-01-22 20:01:41 UTC

Permalink

Post by Al Savage

Yes, I have os2v423.zip here (it's on Hobbes). I got through the
Win-OS2 install a couple of days ago, but deleted it soon after, I
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
01-19-2013 13:56:33 SYS3175 PID 0060 TID 0001 Slot 006a
D:\APC_POWERCHUTE\UPSD.EXE
c0000005
0002a78a
P1=00000008 P2=00003220 P3=XXXXXXXX P4=XXXXXXXX
EAX=00000000 EBX=0000001c ECX=0000faf1 EDX=0000d318
ESI=0000d825 EDI=0000d825
DS=055f DSACC=00f3 DSLIM=0000f587
ES=055f ESACC=00f3 ESLIM=0000f587
FS=150b FSACC=00f3 FSLIM=00000030
GS=0000 GSACC=**** GSLIM=********
CS:EIP=0017:0000a78a CSACC=00fb CSLIM=0000fa58
SS:ESP=055f:0000d278 SSACC=00f3 SSLIM=0000f587
EBP=0000d280 FLG=00010282
UPSD.EXE 0001:0000a78a
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
The newest file date is in 1997 :/ I'll go install it again.
The CONFIG.SYS was modified to add the Pwrchute
directory to the LIBPATH.
The variable SET PWRCHUTE=DRIVE:\PATH was also
added to the CONFIG.SYS.
The file STARTUP.CMD was modified/created
to auto start UPSD.EXE.
But the installer gives the option of not screwing with the CONFIG.SYS &
Startup.cmd if you choose, merely creating prototype files so you can
inspect the changes.
[later]
Ah, yes: the install drive has more then 2Gb free, so the installer
barfs. I have to copy some large files to the the drive to get that
number under the threshold . . . fortunately, I have a stack of handy
100Mb files sitting on the NAS for just such an occasion . . . yup, that
gets it through the install OK.
[D:\APCPC]SET PWRCHUTE=D:\APCPC
[D:\APCPC]SET beginlibpath=D:\APCPC;
[D:\APCPC]upsd
01/22/13 11:31:28 *** PowerChute PLUS Version 4.2.3 Started ***
Oops, I took too long to find the GUI's EXE (it's PWRCHUTE.exe), and
SYS1811: The process has stopped. The software diagnostic code
(trap number) is 000D.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
01-22-2013 11:32:33 SYS3175 PID 007c TID 0001 Slot 00bf
D:\APCPC\UPSD.EXE
c0000005
0009834f
P1=00000008 P2=00000500 P3=XXXXXXXX P4=XXXXXXXX
EAX=0000d056 EBX=00000000 ECX=0000834d EDX=0000004f
ESI=0000001c EDI=00009bd0
DS=055f DSACC=00f3 DSLIM=0000f587
ES=0547 ESACC=00f3 ESLIM=000000ff
FS=150b FSACC=00f3 FSLIM=00000030
GS=0000 GSACC=**** GSLIM=********
CS:EIP=004f:0000834f CSACC=00fb CSLIM=0000c354
SS:ESP=055f:0000d052 SSACC=00f3 SSLIM=0000f587
EBP=0000d056 FLG=00010202
UPSD.EXE 0008:0000834f
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
And that's why I'm not using it APC's PowerChute for OS/2 from 1997.

I can understand that on your system. It works on my systems, one WSA
and one eCS 1.2R both on older hardware. Sorry it didn't work for you,
I hope you find something to get the job done.

Dave

Al Savage

2013-01-22 20:36:51 UTC

Permalink

Post by David H. Durgee

And that's why I'm not using APC's PowerChute for OS/2 from 1997.

I can understand that on your system. It works on my systems, one WSA
and one eCS 1.2R both on older hardware. Sorry it didn't work for you,
I hope you find something to get the job done.

ISTR that it didn't work well for me even under W4 in 1998/9 when I
bought the UPS. There had to be some reason why I bought a UPSMON
registration, and it wasn't because I was happy with PowerChute.

--
Regards,
Al S.

David H. Durgee

2013-01-22 20:52:04 UTC

Permalink

Post by Al Savage

Post by David H. Durgee

And that's why I'm not using APC's PowerChute for OS/2 from 1997.

I can understand that on your system. It works on my systems, one WSA
and one eCS 1.2R both on older hardware. Sorry it didn't work for you,
I hope you find something to get the job done.

ISTR that it didn't work well for me even under W4 in 1998/9 when I
bought the UPS. There had to be some reason why I bought a UPSMON
registration, and it wasn't because I was happy with PowerChute.

Another possibility is that Paul Smedley did a port of NUT 2.4.3 a few
years ago, but unfortunately he did not include the apcsmart driver that
is required to talk with an APC smartUPS via serial cables. I have
opened a "trouble ticket" with him about this:

http://mantis.smedley.id.au/view.php?id=552

I don't have any idea what priority, if any, he is giving to this at
this point in time, but I would imagine having a "second" for adding
this driver could not hurt the case. Perhaps an email would be in order
if you don't already have a login on his bug tracker.

Dave

Doug Bissett

2013-01-22 17:37:45 UTC

Permalink

with my APC UPS, model BE750G, but it has a USB connection. I don't
think it will work with a serial connection. UPSMON (one of the
versions), should work with it.

I would suggest that SIO is not the answer, as long as you have the
latest COM.SYS. The one that I have is dated August 2002. Bldlevel
shows:
=================
Signature: @#IBM:10.078#@ COM Port Driver-UNI
Vendor: IBM
Revision: 10.78
File Version: 10.78
Description: COM Port Driver-UNI
=================
which seems to be what you have.

If you are using ACPI, especially on a SMP system, you could try
PSCOM.SYS dated Dec. 2005. Bldlevel shows:
=================
Signature: @#OEM:8.209#@ COM Port Driver-SMP
Vendor: OEM
Revision: 8.209
File Version: 8.209
Description: COM Port Driver-SMP
=================
but I think that is more for SMP systems, and is probably only
available with eCS.

One possibility, is to use UPSMONC, with an (old) external modem (as
described in the docs) to detect power loss, and act accordingly. I
used that method for a while, and it seems to work.

--
From the eComStation of Doug Bissett
dougb007 at telus dot net
(Please make the obvious changes, to e-mail me)

Al Savage

2013-01-22 20:08:15 UTC

Permalink

On Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:37:45 UTC, "Doug Bissett"

Post by Doug Bissett

Post by Al Savage
I'm looking for a UPS monitor-and-control (shutdown, etc.) utility that
will operate with APC "smart" UPSs --- I have several.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/util/power/mAPCUPS015.zip

with my APC UPS, model BE750G, but it has a USB connection. I don't
think it will work with a serial connection.

That's what I think, too.

Post by Doug Bissett
UPSMON (one of the versions), should work with it.

UPSMON v1.3 has worked with it for about a decade, but not with the
newer hardware. I do not know if it's a serial port issue, or because
it's now running on a CPU that's 3.8 times faster, or something to do
with APIC, but it just does not connect or stay connected to the UPS
anymore. Booted to Win, it works perfectly.

Post by Doug Bissett
I would suggest that SIO is not the answer, as long as you have the
latest COM.SYS. The one that I have is dated August 2002.
=================
=================
which seems to be what you have.
If you are using ACPI, especially on a SMP system, you could try
=================
=================
but I think that is more for SMP systems, and is probably only
available with eCS.

I do have PSCOM.SYS (I have one eCS 2.1 box). All the newer boxes here
are running kernel 14.105_SMP and APIC 3.21.4
From Roderick Klein in 2008:
"PSCOM.SYS has been written from DDK sources to fix high IRQ support."
My COM1 is IRQ4 and isn't (AFAIK) shared.

Post by Doug Bissett
One possibility, is to use UPSMONC, with an (old) external modem (as
described in the docs) to detect power loss, and act accordingly. I
used that method for a while, and it seems to work.

I need monitoring of load level, input & battery voltages, and other
variables.

--
Regards,
Al S.

Al Savage

2013-01-22 22:46:34 UTC

Permalink

Post by Al Savage
I do have PSCOM.SYS (I have one eCS 2.1 box). All the newer boxes here
are running kernel 14.105_SMP and APIC 3.21.4
"PSCOM.SYS has been written from DDK sources to fix high IRQ support."
My COM1 is IRQ4 and isn't (AFAIK) shared.

Hmmm.
I changed CONFIG.SYS from COM.SYS to PSCOM.SYS (no other change) and now
UPSMON 1.3 works.
Weird, but true.
Thanks for pointing me to PSCOM.SYS, Doug.

--
Regards,
Al S.

Doug Bissett

2013-01-23 01:13:25 UTC

Permalink

Post by Al Savage

Hmmm.
I changed CONFIG.SYS from COM.SYS to PSCOM.SYS (no other change) and now
UPSMON 1.3 works.
Weird, but true.
Thanks for pointing me to PSCOM.SYS, Doug.

GREAT! I would not be surprised if there is more to it than simply
supporting high IRQs. It probably also fixes SMP support. In any case,
anybody who is using a COM port on newer hardware should try
PSCOM.SYS. If it works, use it.

--
From the eComStation of Doug Bissett
dougb007 at telus dot net
(Please make the obvious changes, to e-mail me)