Configuring APC SMT15000 w/ AP9620

[jboyce]

Greetings -

I am trying to connect and configure an APC SMT1500 UPS that has an AP9620 legacy communication card. This UPS has been managing a Dell T610 server running CentOS 6 using the APCUPSD software and is now being switched over to an iXsystems R20 server running TrueNAS 12. The R20 server is connected to the UPS using the serial cable originally supplied with the AP9620 card.

Setting this up I have tried the apcsmart driver, which is the one the NUT Hardware Compatibility List shows should be used, but am getting a connection failure. I have also tried the snmp-ups and the snmp-ups (experimental) without success either. The log messages when I first turn on NUT using the apcsmart driver are as follows. I don't recall if the log messages are similar when using either one of the snmp-ups drivers; would have to test it again to see.

Code:

Jun 18 13:47:15 condor 1 2021-06-18T13:47:15.753696-07:00 condor.mei.lan root 8495 - - /usr/local/etc/rc.d/nut: WARNING: failed precmd routine for nut
Jun 18 13:47:15 condor 1 2021-06-18T13:47:15.827820-07:00 condor.mei.lan upsmon 8504 - - UPS [ups@localhost:3493]: connect failed: Connection failure: Connection refused
Jun 18 13:47:15 condor 1 2021-06-18T13:47:15.827836-07:00 condor.mei.lan upsmon 8504 - - Communications with UPS ups@localhost:3493 lost
Jun 18 13:47:16 condor 1 2021-06-18T13:47:16.552368-07:00 condor.mei.lan collectd 8547 - - nut plugin: nut_connect: upscli_connect (localhost, 3493) failed: Connection failure: Connection refused

My NUT configuration is shown as:

I am wondering possibly if there are some settings on the physical UPS that I need to change. I don't recall making any changes to it when it was installed with the Dell server many years ago, and it just worked with APCUPSD. Not sure where to go now, and haven't found any good hints via Google, so I am hoping that someone here might have a clue about what I should look at next. Thanks.

Jeff

 

[Spearfoot]

Greetings -

I am trying to connect and configure an APC SMT1500 UPS that has an AP9620 legacy communication card. This UPS has been managing a Dell T610 server running CentOS 6 using the APCUPSD software and is now being switched over to an iXsystems R20 server running TrueNAS 12. The R20 server is connected to the UPS using the serial cable originally supplied with the AP9620 card.

Setting this up I have tried the apcsmart driver, which is the one the NUT Hardware Compatibility List shows should be used, but am getting a connection failure. I have also tried the snmp-ups and the snmp-ups (experimental) without success either. The log messages when I first turn on NUT using the apcsmart driver are as follows. I don't recall if the log messages are similar when using either one of the snmp-ups drivers; would have to test it again to see.

Code:

Jun 18 13:47:15 condor 1 2021-06-18T13:47:15.753696-07:00 condor.mei.lan root 8495 - - /usr/local/etc/rc.d/nut: WARNING: failed precmd routine for nut
Jun 18 13:47:15 condor 1 2021-06-18T13:47:15.827820-07:00 condor.mei.lan upsmon 8504 - - UPS [ups@localhost:3493]: connect failed: Connection failure: Connection refused
Jun 18 13:47:15 condor 1 2021-06-18T13:47:15.827836-07:00 condor.mei.lan upsmon 8504 - - Communications with UPS ups@localhost:3493 lost
Jun 18 13:47:16 condor 1 2021-06-18T13:47:16.552368-07:00 condor.mei.lan collectd 8547 - - nut plugin: nut_connect: upscli_connect (localhost, 3493) failed: Connection failure: Connection refused

My NUT configuration is shown as:

View attachment 47830

I am wondering possibly if there are some settings on the physical UPS that I need to change. I don't recall making any changes to it when it was installed with the Dell server many years ago, and it just worked with APCUPSD. Not sure where to go now, and haven't found any good hints via Google, so I am hoping that someone here might have a clue about what I should look at next. Thanks.

Jeff

That card has RS-232 and USB ports. Judging from your logs snippet, it looks like you've configured NUT with an Ethernet setup? Not sure...

I would try using a USB cable. You may have to experiment with various drivers to find one that works. See my UPS resource for pointers:

Configuring UPS support for single or multiple FreeNAS servers

If you are running a FreeNAS server you definitely need to connect it to a UPS. Standalone Configuration You should read the FreeNAS UPS service documentation for your version of FreeNAS before proceeding. The instructions below are specific to...

www.truenas.com

 

[jboyce]

Ok, I read through your UPS resource page and did a little more digging into my system logs. I think I have the issue narrowed down, but I am still not sure how to resolve it.

To clarify, the connection between the UPS and the server is via a serial cable. It is connected to the serial port of the AP9620 card and to the serial port on the server. Not sure I understand what you mean when you say it looks like I have configured NUT with an Ethernet setup. The serial cable is the only connection between the server and the UPS (although of course the server's power plugs are plugged into the UPS).

Initially looking through dmesg I did not see any reference to the UPS being connected to the server. So I decided to reboot the system with the NUT service running and set to startup on boot and see if that gave me anymore information. The following information was in the logs after boot up.

Code:

Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Network UPS Tools - UPS driver controller 2.7.4
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Network UPS Tools - APC Smart protocol driver 3.1 (2.7.4)
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor APC command table version 3.1
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Unable to open auto: No such file or directory
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Things to try:
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor - Check 'port=' in ups.conf
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor - Check owner/permissions of all parts of path
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Fatal error: unusable configuration
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Driver failed to start (exit status=1)
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor /etc/rc: WARNING: failed precmd routine for nut
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Starting nut_upslog.
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Network UPS Tools upslog 2.7.4
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor logging status of ups to /var/log/nut/ups.log (300s intervals)
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Warning: initial connect failed: Connection failure: Connection refused
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Starting nut_upsmon.
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Network UPS Tools upsmon 2.7.4
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor fopen /var/db/nut/upsmon.pid: No such file or directory
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor UPS: ups@localhost:3493 (master) (power value 1)
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor Using power down flag file /etc/nokillpower
Jun 18 16:23:01 condor 1 2021-06-18T16:23:01.707147-07:00 condor.mei.lan upsmon 2002 - - UPS [ups@localhost:3493]: connect failed: Connection failure: Connection refused

My NUT configuration used Port=Auto. It appears that the UPS is not identified on any port (serial or otherwise) and the Auto option is not recognizing that the UPS is connected to the server at all, the Port parameter is incomplete, and therefore no communication can occur between them.

So that leads me to try and figure out why the UPS is not being recognized as connected to the serial port. Where do I go from here to chase that down?

Jeff

 

[Spearfoot]

You may have to poke around the networkupstools.org site. Here's information specifically mentioning your AP9620 card:

APCSMART(8)

You may have to tinker with configuration options, described here:

UPS.CONF(5)

networkupstools.org

I thought TrueNAS provided a means of specifying NUT options on the setup dialog. Perhaps this depends on the driver you choose.

Good luck!

 

[jboyce]

It looks like my next step is that I have to physically go to the site and see what shows up on the console when I unplug and re-plug in the serial cable between the UPS and the server. It seems odd to me that on reboot the server didn't re-probe the serial port, see it was active, and identify the communication port. Going to the site will also give me a chance to look at the display menu on the UPS and see if there is any valuable information on that. Thanks for your assistance.

Jeff

 

[Spearfoot]

It looks like my next step is that I have to physically go to the site and see what shows up on the console when I unplug and re-plug in the serial cable between the UPS and the server. It seems odd to me that on reboot the server didn't re-probe the serial port, see it was active, and identify the communication port. Going to the site will also give me a chance to look at the display menu on the UPS and see if there is any valuable information on that. Thanks for your assistance.

Jeff

You're very welcome, and I wish you success in getting it working.

My suggestion is to try using the card's USB interface in lieu of the serial port.

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

My UPS uses a 9619 card, and these settings work for me.