UPS with TrueNAS

[Patrick M. Hausen]

I'm talking of a second machine of this kind:

Buy a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ – Raspberry Pi

1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core processor, dual-band wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.2/BLE, faster Ethernet, and Power-over-Ethernet support (with separate PoE HAT)

www.raspberrypi.org

To elaborate ...

You cannot boot a Linux distro from another USB drive without disabling your TrueNAS for obvious reasons. Let me summarize the situation step by step.

1. To monitor a UPS you need a UPS monitoring service. A piece of server software running 24x7, checking for power loss and then initiating appropriate action.

2. The only open source UPS software (I am aware of) is NUT: https://networkupstools.org

3. The FreeBSD and hence TrueNAS version of NUT is hopelessly outdated. From 2016. So most USB connected UPS don't work (well).

4. But the fault is with the NUT project, IMHO, because they have not released a new version since 2016. So the FreeBSD package maintainer cannot update the package so iXsystems cannot integrate a newer one into TrueNAS.

5. Their approach is: checkout the latest source and compile yourself if you need anything newer than 2016.

6. Which is not possible on TrueNAS because you cannot compile and install your own software without much difficulty and probably breakage at every future TrueNAS update - so why go that way and try to "hack it"?

7. Better get a dirt cheap power efficient Linux system and compile their damned source there, make everything work and have that Linux system running 24x7 monitoring the UPS.

8. Then setup TrueNAS as a slave UPS monitor.


HTH,
Patrick

 

[elvisimprsntr]

I do something similar to what @Patrick M. Hausen is suggesting.

1. I run https://pfSense.org enterprise class firewall on an x86 appliance from https://protectli.com
2. Install NUT package on pfSense as UPS Master
3. All TrueNAS servers are UPS Slaves

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Did Netgate port a more recent (git) version of NUT or are they also running the latest FreeBSD package, i.e. 2.7.x? If the latter that won't improve USB support much. TrueNAS has got the same.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Did Netgate port a more recent (git) version of NUT or are they also running the latest FreeBSD package, i.e. 2.7.x? If the latter that won't improve USB support much. TrueNAS has got the same.

pfSense is using 2.7.4.

Many years ago when I had my APC UPS connect to a Debian based system running APCUPSD, I thought I was able to change the battery.mfr.date field when I replaced my battery. NUT claims battery.mfr.date and battery.date are both RO. I temporarily installed APCUPSD package and used apctest tool to change the battery.mfr.date since NUT didn't support.

History for sysutils/pfSense-pkg-nut - pfsense/FreeBSD-ports

FreeBSD ports tree with pfSense changes. Contribute to pfsense/FreeBSD-ports development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

FreshPorts -- sysutils/nut: Network UPS Tools

This is a developing project to monitor a large assortment of UPS hardware. Network communications are used so that multiple systems can monitor a single physical UPS and shut down together if necessary without any special "sharing hardware" on the UPS itself. CGI scripts are provided to monitor...

www.freshports.org

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

pfSense is using 2.7.4.

Which means the support for exotic USB models is not better than in TrueNAS.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Which means the support for exotic USB models is not better than in TrueNAS.

Which is why I stick with APC. As with anything requiring Linux support, check hardware compatibility before you buy.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Linux support

FreeBSD

 

[Max90]

at this point I think I will continue to use it like this, maybe one day they will make updates.
I'm not going to buy a pc on purpose to run the ups, if I wanted I could leave a notebook or its mini-pc with linux near the nas but it doesn't make much sense.