Is there such a thing as a ups to power supply communications channel over the 240V lines, such that the UPS can talk to each power supply in a server and figure out what is plugged in where? It seems such an obviously useful idea but I can't see that such a thing exists anywhere. Comms would only need to be very basic (hundreds of bps would be sufficient) - PSU would tell the UPS what its maximum rating was and maybe an identifier (eg for grouping redundant PSUs), and the UPS would tell the PSU when it was on battery etc. I'm shopping for UPS's and looking at features etc. I'm opting for network based comms on my UPS's these days but even seems like a lot more mucking around than it could be. James
On 04/16/2013 04:45 PM, James Harper wrote:
I'm shopping for UPS's and looking at features etc. I'm opting for network based comms on my UPS's these days but even seems like a lot more mucking around than it could be.
In the past I did the maths for the sort of power down time that would suit my budget and availability to get to a site and fix a problem. Basically there was nothing reasonable to cover both bases. At the time I ended up putting UPS's in series and hoping that worked. (Which is why my gear is in a colo facility now). I picked APC UPS's and they had a USB port that had a driver for Linux. Might not be what you are after but APC seem linux friendly. Cheers P
In the past I did the maths for the sort of power down time that would suit my budget and availability to get to a site and fix a problem. Basically there was nothing reasonable to cover both bases. At the time I ended up putting UPS's in series and hoping that worked. (Which is why my gear is in a colo facility now).
I picked APC UPS's and they had a USB port that had a driver for Linux. Might not be what you are after but APC seem linux friendly.
I made a comment on luv-main recently that I was quite impressed by the APC UPS's I'd used in the past, but then someone said the newer ones had changed protocols and were no longer compatible with any known Linux driver. I don't know if the situation has changed since then. James
James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> writes:
I made a comment on luv-main recently that I was quite impressed by the APC UPS's I'd used in the past, but then someone said the newer ones had changed protocols and were no longer compatible with any known Linux driver. I don't know if the situation has changed since then.
It's on the front page of acpcupsd's website (http://apcupsd.com/). | Do Not Purchase The Following UPSes | | Recently APC has begun shipping UPSes that utilize a new communication | protocol called "Microlink". To date, APC has refused to release | details of this protocol to the apcupsd team so that we can add | support for it to apcupsd. CONSEQUENTLY, THE APCUPSD TEAM RECOMMENDS | YOU *DO NOT* PURCHASE THE FOLLOWING APC UPS MODELS (this list may be | incomplete; please send any additions to the apcupsd-users mailing | list): | | • SmartUPS SMX/SMT 750, 1000, 1500 | • SmartUPS RT 3000XL, 5000XL Incidentally, I heard the main nut dev works for Eaton.
Trent W. Buck <trentbuck@gmail.com> wrote:
It's on the front page of acpcupsd's website (http://apcupsd.com/).
| Do Not Purchase The Following UPSes
[snip] However, if you buy one with an Ethernet card installed, the problem is bypassed.
James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> writes:
Is there such a thing as a ups to power supply communications channel over the 240V lines, such that the UPS can talk to each power supply in a server and figure out what is plugged in where? It seems such an obviously useful idea but I can't see that such a thing exists anywhere. Comms would only need to be very basic (hundreds of bps would be sufficient) - PSU would tell the UPS what its maximum rating was and maybe an identifier (eg for grouping redundant PSUs), and the UPS would tell the PSU when it was on battery etc.
That sounds like a great idea, and AFAIK it's novel. If you take it to market yourself, keep me updated :-)
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