[SATLUG] APC UPS and monitoring software

[Chuck]

Hi everyone,

I've got a friend with a APC UPS on their little Linux server.  The APC
died over the weekend and was alarming.  They shutdown the server and
removed the UPS.  But when they brought the server back up, it wouldn't
allow them to log in at the command line.  Odd...

I was able to get in as root, but it kept telling me the system was
going down immediately and I should log out.  Of course, it didn't shut
down -- but it kept saying that for a couple hours (before I got there).

I checked and found there were two daemons started in /etc/rc.d/init.d
(one was genpowerd and I've forgotten the other).  I was able to shut
them down, but the problem persisted.  I then found there was a ttyS
kept open with mgetty and listening for the UPS signaling.  I commented
it out in the /etc/inittab and rebooted (to be sure it wouldn't come
back if they rebooted) and all problems cleared up.

Problem is -- I need to replace this dead APC UPS.  I've looked at the
new ones and they all come with USB ports, not the serial my friend's
server was using.  You CAN send off for a serial adapter from APC, but
that will take a couple of weeks (at least).

I'm wondering about the new APC software.  I was wondering if anyone has
any experience with the newest APC software?  Instead of using the
existing software and a serial port, I may install the new software and
use their newer USB port connection.  The question is -- how difficult
is the new software to install and how good is it?  This old stuff,
although difficult to install and a pain, is already there and did the
job.  If the new software is just as big a pain to install, I'll stick
with the existing and the serial port.

Any experiences?  Comments pro/con???



Chuck