The app has hard coded into it the various pieces of the APC serial protocol that I'm using. That also means that you can't be running any monitoring software like Powerchute or the Windows UPS service, since those will keep the comm port open.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [email protected]
Sent: 4/1/2005 5:32 PM
Subject: RE: [SA-list] Looking for Beta Testers-SA APC Check Plugin
Intersting. Do you read the OS's setting for the serial cable or do you
hard code those into the COM?
Michael D. Shook
Technical Analyst
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
863 668 4477 (work)
863 860 4070 (cell)
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<file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/MichaelS/Application%20Data/Micro
soft/Signatures/www.saddlecrk.com> www.saddlecrk.com
_____
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On
Behalf Of Laird, Timothy
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 5:21 PM
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: [SA-list] Looking for Beta Testers-SA APC Check Plugin
You'll have to excuse me if I'm re-inventing the wheel here; I'm new to
the list, but I've been using SA for over a year now. I've been
assembling a new server rack with new APC UPSes, and I'm just not
satisfied with the monitoring options either through Windows or
PowerChute Personal--and there's no way am I spending MORE money just to
monitor $3000 worth of UPSes, so PC Business and the various network
cards are not an option. I thought that Servers Alive would be a great
tool for monitoring them, but I couldn't find anybody that had written a
COM check that worked with UPSes.
So I wrote one myself. I've been testing it today on my own, but now
I'd like to get it out into the world for some real life testing. I've
been testing under SA v5, but I believe it should work under V4 as well.
I've also only tested on new APC UPSes--it should work for just about
any serial APC ups, but I'm not sure. The installation package doesn't
yet write out the necessary registry entries to make SA recognize it, so
you'll need to do that manually. Other than that, it should be pretty
self explanatory.
My goal was to write something simple that SA could use to check on a
serial APC UPS and alert me if something goes wrong. My default setup
right now has two entries--the first is the main check, and it checks
whether or not the UPS is online (running on external power). Any other
status will result in a check "fail" and mark the entry as
down--alerting me of a power outage. I then have another entry,
dependent on the first and only checked if the first is marked as down.
This second entry checks the estimated runtime of the UPS, and will run
an external EXE as an alert that will shut down all servers cleanly if
that runtime falls below a certain threshold.
The module will also check load on the UPS, input and output voltage,
and battery life remaining (as a %).
If you are interested in helping me test, and have the time and
equipment to dedicate to testing it, please let me know either directly
or via the list.
