IBM Changed UPS Vendors

rthomson — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:40:37 +0000

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.

Check Your UPS Batteries!

Check Your UPS Batteries!

rthomson — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:33:30 +0000

Every now and then it’s a good idea to check your UPS batteries, right? Sure, we all know that. But who really does it? In well run environments UPSes are monitored, internally and/or externally but in a small machine room with only a couple racks, the individual UPS systems may not be monitored. These machine rooms (closets?) might also not be frequented by people very often or may not even get a visit, ever unless something goes wrong.

The reason you want to check your UPS often? Well, there are a few but here’s mine:

I found that one day in the UPS supporting our firewall/passive gateway device. Notice the top two battery packs. The UPS wasn’t monitored and was still happily putting power through but I really wonder what would have happened had we experienced a power loss and the battery was actually called upon… would it just have lasted much shorter than it was supposed to or was there a real fire/safety hazard here? I don’t know for certain, but I know when your batteries start bulging and being misshapen, it’s time to replace them.

The scratching on the battery pack labels is a result of trying to remove the battery pack tray from the UPS shell and having it just barely fit by the edge. Any more bulging and the tray wasn’t going to come out, complicating the fix as I swapped this battery tray for another, all online. If I wasn’t able to remove the battery pack, I would have had to shutdown the firewall device as it only has one PSU, I couldn’t “move” it to another UPS online.

So yes, please be sure to check your UPS system and battery packs, especially if they are 3+ years old like this one was!