UPS Management Software
The leading UPS management packages for Windows NT provide varying degrees of interactivity, reporting, and testing/shutdown capabilities. Keep two caveats in mind:
- Except for PowerMon II, each package works only with its own company's UPS products.
- When setting up your system, determine if the package you select works with NT's UPS service--not all of them do. You can save considerable time and trouble if you find this out ahead of time in addition to selecting which serial port to use, at what speed, and what authentication that service will use. Taking the default settings at installation time might not catch these items.
In general, installing these programs was a simple and straightforward process, requiring no more than a typical systems administrator would know. Each program has self-guided routines that prompt for home directories and so forth, and then auto-configure a service that boots with the server/workstation. The documentation for these packages is good, providing explanations of all the major features and screen examples. Once you become familiar with the interfaces on the programs, they are all easy to use.
APC's PowerChute Plus
PowerChute Plus was the most impressive package I tested (see screens 3 and 4 on page 49). Although all the packages have their strong points in UI design, price, or number of features, PowerChute has the best combination, as well as thorough reporting options, testing and condition logging, and network support. It lacks certain features, such as power status graphing, statistics/ power history graphing--These would be really nice additions! Hint! Hint!--and a battery-conservation mode, but its clean interface and ease of use make it an excellent piece of management software.
If you are running an APC SmartUPS--vs. the standard BackUPS--you can access enhanced management features, which will communicate PowerChute's status directly to your server via a special serial cable. Among its capabilities are event notification (power failures, system status, etc.) and system-status reports through Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and paging. You can also get specific operating information from the UPS, such as environmental conditions, that tell you about impending system problems (e.g., if the temperature is too high).
More customization options are available using PowerChute's system-control capabilities. You can schedule shutdowns and powerups, monitor and manage other servers and workstations on your network that are equipped with UPSs, and, best of all, schedule (or run manually) regular self-tests to maintain the integrity of the UPS. (The options are complete, including simulated power failures and alarm tests.)
APC's FlexEvents provide outstanding control over user notification and condition handling. There are several dozen events, ranging from service startup to system failure, which are completely configurable, allowing you to select a variety of actions: Log Event, Notify Administrators, Notify Users, Run Command File, Send E-Mail, Page Users, and Shut Down Server. These are particularly handy when testing a system: You can determine whether broadcast messages are to be sent on any or all events, so that the domain users aren't barraged with alert boxes while you're adjusting the UPS. Each of these actions (except Log Event) is configurable as to which users, administrators, files, etc. receive which responses.
PowerChute Plus also supports SNMP for more advanced networking features, such as remote management under other operating systems. The only major drawback to the otherwise inexhaustible list of features in this package is that--reportedly--it works only with APC power supplies and IBM's smaller UPSs.
Exide Electronics' OnliNet
OnliNet implements a good range of UPS management functions and adds a few handy UI features which display a considerable amount of sampled data. Like the others, OnliNet has its own NT Service which must be enabled before it will operate. You must also specifically engage data collection before you can perform most functions.
The main screen is simple (see Screen A), but it gives you access to a number of different real-time graphs simultaneously, including battery voltage, I/O frequency, etc., all from the Screens-Meters box. You can also view the UPS's operation graphically.
There are event and alarm logs that you can configure to monitor specific events at specific intervals, and OnliNet will monitor UPSs scattered across your network. For security and power-use optimization, you can set up a regular schedule of system shutdowns, with a special warning message to users and a password.
Despite OnliNet's extensive power-monitoring capabilities with many different kinds of data to reveal trends and problems, it lacks any UPS testing capabilities or configurable user notification. It does support a shutdown command file but needs special text files to display warning messages.