IBM Changed UPS Vendors

Just recently, I discovered that IBM decided to quietly switch their UPS vendor from APC to Eaton (Powerware). We needed to replace a dead IBM UPS 3000 XHV (SmartUPS-3000) and so I ordered a new IBM UPS, the UPS 3000 HV (Eaton 5125). Upon receiving the UPS, I noticed that the battery and power module were rather different. So I boot up the UPS and start configuring the web management card and it hits me… this isn’t an APC UPS, it’s an Eaton! ARG! Why?!? WHY?!? :'(

This won’t have a large functional difference but it pisses me off none-the-less. I’ve been using Network UPS Tools (NUT) with our APC UPS devices over USB and now I come to realize that this Eaton UPS doesn’t support USB, or rather it doesn’t come with a USB cable although the documentation says it does. Now to integrate this Eaton UPS with NUT I need to use SNMP since the Eaton only comes with a serial cable, which is useless to me for monitoring purposes. I guess I get to find out how NUT’s SNMP support is now.

This silent switch with a minor model change/update just rubs me the wrong way. I’m not so happy with the management of this UPS either…

UPDATE: Got the Powerware 5125 working with NUT via SNMP… seems good so far.

For the sake of posterity, here is my /etc/ups/ups.conf for the 5125 to work with NUT:

[ibm3000_1]
  driver = snmp-ups
  port = ibm3000-1.mydomain.com
  mibs = pw
  pollfreq = 30
  community = mycommunity
  snmp_version = v1
  desc = "Rack \#1 - IBM UPS 3000 HV @ U1/2"

This of course assume you’ve already properly configured the 5125 with a DNS name or IP address and properly enabled SNMP, allowing your NUT client to connect

UPDATE 2: The Powerware is starting to grow on me a little. It looks like it packs more juice than the same 2U unit from APC: 45% load and 12 minutes run time compared to an APC with 48% load and 8 minute run time. As long as I ignore the web management interface and stick to NUT via SNMP, I actually kind of like this UPS.

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