This discussion has been locked. The information referenced herein may be inaccurate due to age, software updates, or external references.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a similar question you can start a new discussion in this forum.

UPS monitoring: assistance requst and discussion

My organization has begun a refresh of their power solution and fortunately followed IT input electing to implement Smart solutions from APC.  So now we need to do just that.

I would like to find out what other organizations are doing to integrate NPM with their UPS monitoring.

- What parameters are you tracking?
     - are they different for electrician/facilities perspective versus operations.
- What thresholds are alerts triggered?
- How are you displaying this information in NPM?

I know that the universal poller is capable of providing this information; but, which worthwhile information to track and alert on is not my expertise.

  • While I can't speak to what other organizations are doing, I can offer up the following examples of monitors you can consider for your enviroment.  I borrowed this from some of our ipMonitor documentation.
    As you commented, you will also find some example pollers defined in the Universal Device Poller for UPS devices.

    Monitor 1

    Monitor NameAPC UPS :: Advanced Battery Capacity
    Monitor TypeSNMP - QA Monitor
    SNMP Object TypeupsAdvBatteryCapacity
    OID1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.2.2.1.0
    ReturnsThe remaining percentage of battery charge. The Monitor will return a result of 100% if the battery is fully charged and running on line voltage.
    Monitoring ConditionPass if greater than 85

    Monitor failure indicates that the power failure is not an intermittent or temporary problem. Further action may be required.

    Monitor 2

    Monitor NameAPC UPS :: Advanced Output Frequency
    Monitor TypeSNMP - QA Monitor
    SNMP Object TypeupsAdvOutputFrequency
    OID1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.4.2.2.0
    ReturnsThe current output frequency of the UPS system in Hz.
    Monitoring ConditionPass if greater than 55 and less than 65

    Monitor failure indicates that the power being supplied to devices is fluctuating. Devices may be susceptible to problems with receiving power at varying frequencies.

    Note: This configuration assumes that 60 Hz is nominal. Non-North American countries may have different nominal frequencies. As well, if your equipment is very sensitive, the range of acceptable values should be adjusted accordingly.

    Monitor 3

    Monitor NameAPC UPS :: Advanced Output Voltage
    Monitor TypeSNMP - QA Monitor
    SNMP Object TypeupsAdvOutputVoltage
    OID1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.4.2.1.0
    ReturnsThe output voltage of the UPS system in VAC.
    Monitoring ConditionPass if greater than 110 and less than 125

    Monitor failure indicates a problem with the voltage being supplied to end devices. There may not be enough voltage presently being provided to attached devices. As a result, devices may not operate as expected.

    Monitor 4

    Monitor NameAPC UPS :: Advanced Output Load
    Monitor TypeSNMP - QA Monitor
    SNMP Object TypeupsAdvOutputLoad
    OID1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.4.2.3.0
    ReturnsThe current UPS load expressed in percent of rated capacity.
    Monitoring ConditionPass if less than 50

    Monitor failure indicates that the percentage load attached to the UPS has been exceeded. The output load affects the running time of all components being supplied battery power.

    Monitor 5

    Monitor NameAPC UPS :: Basic Output Status (On-line)
    Monitor TypeSNMP - QA Monitor
    SNMP Object TypeupsBasicOutputStatus
    OID1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.4.1.1.0
    ReturnsThe current state of the UPS:

     

    1 = Unknown
    2 = On Line
    3 = On Battery
    4 = On Smart Boost
    5 = Timed Sleeping
    6 = Software Bypass
    7 = Off
    8 = Rebooting
    9 = Switched Bypass
    10 = Hardware Failure Bypass
    11 = Sleeping Until Power Returns
    12 = On Smart Trim

    Monitoring ConditionPass if equal to 2

    Monitor failure indicates that the UPS is not supplying line voltage to any attached devices.

    Monitor 6

    Monitor NameAPC UPS :: Basic Time on Battery
    Monitor TypeSNMP - QA Monitor
    SNMP Object TypeupsBasicBatteryTimeOnBattery
    OID1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.2.1.2.0
    ReturnsThe elapsed time since the UPS has switched to battery power. This value is reported in 100ths of a second.
    Monitoring ConditionPass if less than or equal to 12000

    Monitor failure indicates that the UPS has been supplying battery power to attached devices for longer than 2 minutes.

    Monitor 7

    Monitor NameAPC UPS :: Battery Status
    Monitor TypeSNMP - QA Monitor
    SNMP Object TypeupsBasicBatteryStatus
    OID1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.2.1.1.0
    ReturnsThe status of the UPS batteries:

     

    1 = Unknown
    2 = Battery Normal
    3 = Battery Low

    Note: The enumeration 'Battery Low' (3) indicates that the UPS will be unable to sustain the current load, and its services will be lost if power is not restored.

    Monitoring ConditionPass if equal to 2

    Monitor failure indicates that the battery status is either 'Unknown' (communication with the UPS has been lost) or that the battery is running low and will turn off shortly. This is used as a final warning condition.

    Monitor 8

    Monitor NameAPC UPS :: Replace Battery
    Monitor TypeSNMP - QA Monitor
    SNMP Object TypeupsAdvBatteryReplaceIndicator
    OID1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.2.2.4.0
    ReturnsIndicates whether the UPS batteries need to be replaced:

     

    1 = Batteries do not need replacing
    2 = Batteries need replacing

    Monitoring ConditionPass if not equal to 2

    Monitor failure indicates that there is a UPS battery that needs to be changed. The UPS may not perform as desired should a power failure occur.

  • This is a wonderful start.  Not only what to monitor but when and why to generate alerts.

  • FormerMember
    0 FormerMember in reply to rcahill

    NICE WORK Bill!!!

  • FormerMember
    0 FormerMember

    Incidently, The APC SmartUPS management software can be configured to send syslog messages. We find the syslog based alerts to have far less overhead.