APC UPS polling/alerting

I'm trying to setup monitoring and alerting for a handful of APC smart UPS devices.

Ideally, what I'd like is the node to track things like whether or not it's on battery, how much runtime is remaining, and a couple of other minor items.

I'd also really like to have it trigger an alert when the UPS starts running on battery and when the remaining runtime drops below a certain amount.

It doesn't look like there is much pre-built for this which considering the popularity of APC UPSs kind of baffles me. I've seen a few custom Universal Device Pollers which look at one specific value, but I'm not seeing how to incorporate that information into the node status or how to trigger alerts from it.

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borgan

The Universal Device Poller in Orion NPM can configure this kind of custom monitoring. As a matter of fact, ther eis an excellent tutorial on the SolarWinds Support website that shows how to use the UnDP.

http://www.solarwinds.com/support/tutorials.aspx

It shows details of how to setup a battery runtime remaining poller for an APC UPS.

From that, you should be able to easily configure other APC pollers to use.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

damien.solodow

I've already got most of that setup but the tutorial helped a bit.

Still have some remaining issues though:

Battery capacity is very useful as a radial gauge. However, I want to reverse the red/green on it. It should show green from say 80-100, yellow from 79-30, red from 29-0 for example. Once I know how to do that, I can do similar for other gauges.

How do I set alerts based on these values? For example if the value of the OID that covers battery state is anything but "Normal" I want to trigger an alert.

kweise

Damien,

I don't know how (or if) you can reverse the red/green on the gauges. I looked through the different gauge styles and none of them have the red/green reversed. I think you're only option would be to pick a gauge that doesn't have red/green on it.

As far as setting alerts based on the values, you can use advanced alerts for that. We have our alerts set to send an email if the UPS has been on battery for 10 minutes. On the trigger condition tab, make sure you select "Custom Node Poller" as the Type of Property to Monitor.

Hope this helps!

APC_Trigger.jpg

jbaulsir

You have to start with something like this...

APC.JPG

jbaulsir

Then create an alert...

UPS_Alert.JPG

jbaulsir

with a messgae like....

${Node.Caption} reporting loss of Input Power.

Current utility input voltage is ${SQL:Select Status From CustomPollerAssignment as Assignment, CustomPollerStatus as Status where Assignment.CustomPollerAssignmentID = Status.CustomPollerAssignmentID and Assignment.NodeID = ${NodeID} and Assignment.AssignmentName like 'Input%'} VAC

Estimated Time Left on Battery ${SQL:Select Status From CustomPollerAssignment as Assignment, CustomPollerStatus as Status where Assignment.CustomPollerAssignmentID = Status.CustomPollerAssignmentID and Assignment.NodeID = ${NodeID} and Assignment.AssignmentName like 'Battery_Runtime_remaining%'} Minutes

Time Elapsed Since Loss of Utility Power ${SQL:Select Status From CustomPollerAssignment as Assignment, CustomPollerStatus as Status where Assignment.CustomPollerAssignmentID = Status.CustomPollerAssignmentID and Assignment.NodeID = ${NodeID} and Assignment.AssignmentName like 'TimeOnBattery%'}

Estimated Battery Capacity Remaining ${SQL:Select Status From CustomPollerAssignment as Assignment, CustomPollerStatus as Status where Assignment.CustomPollerAssignmentID = Status.CustomPollerAssignmentID and Assignment.NodeID = ${NodeID} and Assignment.AssignmentName like 'Battery_Capacity%'} %

The IP address of this Node is ${Node.IP_Address}

To view details of this Node, goto:

http://Your_Server/orion/View.aspx?View=NodeDetails&NetObject=N:${NodeID}

This alert was triggered on ${DateTime}

This has been sent by an automated system, DO NOT REPLY.
Generated By: ${AlertName}

jbaulsir

Here are the pollers I use, just change the suffix to UnDP and import it into Universal Device Poller.

APC_UPS.txt

jbaulsir

You could setup a transform to "Battery Percentage Used" which would be something like:

Then you could use a standard gauge to display it

UPS_Transform.JPG

mmayer5823

I am trying to setup UDP UPS alerts for varying metrics and seems as though they are not working since I should have gotten a couple of alerts. The UDPs are working fine and am getting good metrics in the UPS nodes. attached is how I have setup the alerts. Anyone see what I am going wrong?

Thanks much for your input

mmayer5823

I have looked at this again and apparently these alerts are working but I am not seeing them under alerts. So I have had alerts being e-mailed out but they do not show up under the alerts tab. Anyone know why this might be?

Thanks