APC 9617 Network Management Card

[blue68f100]

Does any one have the Network Management Card installed in a Smart-UPS.

I am having trouble with this card completely shutting down my 4500.

I have a AP9617 card installed in a APC Smart-UPS 1500VA, FW 3.3.1. All of my SnapOS units shutdown without any problem. The 4500 Guardian OS (v4.2) starts the process, but does not go all the way off. The blower kicks up on high just like a normal shutdown then it just hangs there. I can finish powering the snap4500 down by holding the power button in for 5 sec. On restart it reports no data corruption, raid 5 clean.

I have connected to the serial port to monitor startup and shutdown process. The log show all process have been stopped. The power does not go off. The system led blinks 3 times rapidly, every couple of seconds. This is normal on bootup, till it comes on line.

The schedule shutdown (Powechute) crashes the 4500, the 2200 has no problem (it goes off).

I'm at a loss on what is hanging the 4500 up. At first the 2200 would drop of first and the UPS would come out of low battery after the shut down process started. I added a 90 sec delay and fixed that. I also added a delay for restart. I have low battery set at 23%, startup must reach 30% battery for restart, with a 60 sec delay. If I am connected to 4500 watching the UPS status. If goes from online, to battery to no connection.

[Hallis]

does the 4500 shut down normally when you shut it down from the web interface or tapping the power button once?

Shane

[blue68f100]

Yes, no problem when doing a normal shutdown. Just the automated shutdown by APC. And it 90% there. The fan kicks on high 10 sec before shutdown. The whole process takes 60 sec once started.

[Phoenix32]

I know Shane asked this already, but I am going to ask again to be sure. Will the 4500 do a proper shutdown by software command (not power switch)? i.e. From the Admin menu or debug menu or whatever the Guardian OS uses?

How does the APC net card do a shutdown on the SNAPs? What exactly does it send to the SNAPs to shut them off?

[Hallis]

The snaps monitor an IP address (the one of the card itself) for a certain signal to shit down. When the battery in the APC reaches a certain level of battery life it send that signal. And adversely when teh battery has recharged enough it sends a wake-up signal telling the servers to power back up.

Shane

[blue68f100]

Like Shane said. The 9617 network card in the UPS send a signal to any networking hardware that you tell it to. In the 4500 and SnapOS you have to enter a security phase to initate the shutdown. The status changes in 4500 from ON Line, On Battery, Low Battery .... at low battery is send the software cmd to shut down. If I can't this fixed I will switch it over to the USB signal.

All software cmd work on the 4500, have tested that.

Shane the Guardian OS have a different utility for managing the NAS's. They no longer use Assist. It allow you to see all units, flash the led so you can find which one, if you have them stacked up......

I have maybe 5 units that I could bring up, not counting the Snap 10 exp unit. But 3 of them have 1000, 1100, 2000 have problems. But will boot up a run till they heat up.

[Hallis]

Is that utility part of the OS itself or a seperate utility?

[blue68f100]

OK figured out what was going on with the 4500 and UPS.

If I set the 4500 to shutdown and NOT auto startup it goes off when low battery is reached. Everything worked liked it was suppose too.

I went in to the BIOS to check settings on the 4500. The unit has an option for reboot on power failure. It was set to reboot.

So I set the 4500 to reboot on power failure, a admin setting in the 4500/UPS setup.
I then set the UPS to shutdown at 2 min left with a 90 sec delay.
End shutdown at 15% with a 60 sec delay.
Note : I added a extra PC to the UPS load to speed up the time required for events to happen.

1. When the UPS reached the 2 min low battery mark the 4500 went in to shutdown mode, but did not power completely down, as before. Blower on high with the System LED blinking 3 times rapidly, indicates shutdown.
2. The UPS continued on remaining power (UPS battery LED blinking) with the 4500 (and PC) still on till the battery was exhausted and turned OFF. This took about 10 min before the outlets on the UPS went dead.
3. I then turned the power back on after a 5 min wait.
4. The battery charged till it reached the end shutdown level (15%), 20 min. Then power was applied to the outlets.
5. All equipment came back to life, including the 4500.
6. All my network equipment, router, switch, NIM was booted in 1 min.
7. At 5 min the 4500 was fully booted and reported NO Errors, RAID5 array clean.

Every thing is working as designed. :

It would have saved a lot of trouble if the Admin manual would have said the 4500 would be on till power loss. Or explained the sequence of events. But like most manuals they are written by people that knows what will happen. And never follow there instructions they have wrote. If they did the manual would be twice it's size. But then they would loose Phone support revenue.

[Hallis]

Glad it wasnt a problem.