Peter S Galbraith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: [snip] > Unresolved questions: > > - What do we get for smart mode? I presume more info about the > state of the UPS and the line condition gets to the user > software. But can the Linux software display it?
If you get the APC Back-UPS pro and use apcupsd in smart mode it can. The main advantage is that it can get an estimate of how long your system can run on the battery from the UPS. In dumb mode most of the UPS software immediately shuts down a system when a power outage is detected. In smart mode, with the right software, the system will stay up until the battery gets low. Here's the output of "apcaccess status" on my system (apcaccess is part of the apcupsd package): APC : Aug 17 11:21:25 CABLE : APC Cable 940-0095A UPSMODEL : BACK-UPS PRO 650 UPSMODE : Net Master SHARE : NetworkUPS UPSNAME : ULINE : 118.0 Volts MLINE : 118.0 Volts NLINE : 118.0 Volts FLINE : 60.0 Hz VOUTP : 118.0 Volts LOUTP : 042.9 Load Capacity BOUTP : 13.8 Volts BCHAR : 100.0 Batt. Charge TIME : 18.0 Minutes SENSE : HIGH WAKEUP : 060 Cycles SLEEP : 020 Cycles LOTRANS : 002.0 Volts HITRANS : 002.0 Volts CHARGE : 003.0 Percent BFAIL : 0x08 Status Flag ALARM : Always LASTEVNT : SELF TEST LOWBATT : 02 Minutes So, my system can run for an estimated 18 minutes if the power fails. I have it set so that a shutdown will be performed when either BCHAR drops below 10% or TIME drops below 10 minutes (this is something you can configure yourself). The other quantities that are neat to know about, but not critical, are the maximum, minimum and current line voltages (MLINE, NLINE and ULINE, respectively), and the load capacity (LOUTP). Again, it's interesting to see these values, but not really a necessity to save your system when the power goes out. Gary