NUT package (2.8.0 and below)

dennypage

Notes on Power Off vs Halt

When shutdown time arrives, the NUT package uses the following shutdown command:

SHUTDOWNCMD "/sbin/shutdown -p +0"

This command will power off the pfSense system. This is generally appropriate for systems such as firewalls that are configured to always turn on when power is applied. If there is a power setting in the BIOS this is generally referred to as “always on”.

If you have a system that does not support the always on mode, and instead always returns to the prior (last) state when power is applied, then you probably want to override the shutdown command so that the system is halted but not powered off.

You can do this by placing the following in upsmon.conf section of the advanced settings:

SHUTDOWNCMD "/sbin/shutdown -h +0"

If you have an option, the default "always on" approach is preferable.

dennypage

Notes on SNMP configuration

The NUT package uses defaults for SNMP values. In most situations, the defaults are appropriate. However, depending upon your particular use case, there are variables that you may want to set in the Extra Arguments section. Arguments that you may need include directives for SNMP version and associated security, polling frequency, timeouts, mibs, etc.

Full details on the many SNMP options can be found here:

http://networkupstools.org/docs/man/snmp-ups.html

One that is of particular interest is the mibs directive. The default value is "auto" which means that the driver will attempt to discover the correct mib at runtime. Most of the time, this works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Occasionally it appears to work, but reports incorrect values for various values like voltages, frequency, etc. If your UPS is reporting things that don’t make sense, this is the thing to check.

dennypage

Notes on executing commands

NUT has command line tools that allow execution of local commands to perform tasks such as a battery test or set variables in the hardware of the ups. Information on these tools can be found here:

http://networkupstools.org/docs/man/upscmd.html
http://networkupstools.org/docs/man/upsrw.html

In order to use these tools, a privileged NUT user is required. The NUT package automatically creates an administrative user for this purpose. The username is “admin”, and the password can be found in /usr/local/etc/nut/upsd.users. Note that the password is automatically generated, and changes each time the NUT configuration is changed or the system is rebooted.

Be careful with these commands. :)

mattlach

I didn't notice that this update went through, so I never removed the old version.

I thought it was broken at first, because I kept going to "Services -> NUT" and I kept getting an nginx error, didn't realize that it had moved to "Services -> UPS"

Is there any way to remove the old "Services -> NUT" menu entry? It seems stuck there.

dennypage

@mattlach:

I thought it was broken at first, because I kept going to "Services -> NUT" and I kept getting an nginx error, didn't realize that it had moved to "Services -> UPS"

Is there any way to remove the old "Services -> NUT" menu entry? It seems stuck there.

If you are comfortable editing the config file, you can remove the old menu section. It looks like this:

<menu>
<name>NUT</name>
<tooltiptext>Set Network UPS Tools settings.</tooltiptext>
Services
<url>/ups_status.php</url>
</menu>

Be very careful editing the config file, and back up the config first.

mattlach

@dennypage:

@mattlach:

I thought it was broken at first, because I kept going to "Services -> NUT" and I kept getting an nginx error, didn't realize that it had moved to "Services -> UPS"

Is there any way to remove the old "Services -> NUT" menu entry? It seems stuck there.

If you are comfortable editing the config file, you can remove the old menu section. It looks like this:

<menu>
<name>NUT</name>
<tooltiptext>Set Network UPS Tools settings.</tooltiptext>
Services
<url>/ups_status.php</url>
</menu>

Be very careful editing the config file, and back up the config first.

Thank you,

I have no problem editing xml config files (though the pfsense version of vi is awful), but where is the file?

Or is it more appropriate to save a backup config to my workstation, edit the config, and then upload the edited version?

dennypage

@mattlach:

I have no problem editing xml config files (though the pfsense version of vi is awful), but where is the file?

Or is it more appropriate to save a backup config to my workstation, edit the config, and then upload the edited version?

You can download/edit/upload if you are okay with a firewall reboot. Alternatively, you can ssh in and use viconfig.

dennypage

mattlach, did you get your issue resolved?

LinuxTracker

Just a note I was getting "Driver not connected" errors that wouldn't go away until I rebooted.
Works fine now.

Backstory:
After install, Nut picked up an old (and correct) config - Local USB & usbhid.

It kept failing w/ the following errors:
Poll UPS [APC] failed - Driver not connected
Can't connect to UPS [APC] (usbhid-ups-APC): No such file or directory.

I followed every suggestion here and other BSD (ie: NAS) threads.

None of that helped but a reboot put everything right.
I still appreciate everyone's input though.

Below is just for ref:

Original config:

                <nut><config><type>local_usb</type>
                                <name>APC</name>
                                <email></email>
                                <usb_driver>usbhid-ups</usb_driver>
                                <upsmon_conf><extra_args></extra_args></upsmon_conf></config></nut>

Current (working) config:

		 <nut><config><type>local_usb</type>
				<name>APC</name>
				<email></email>
				<usb_driver>usbhid-ups</usb_driver>
				<upsmon_conf>UlVOX0FTX1VTRVIgcm9vdA==</upsmon_conf>
				 <extra_args></extra_args></config></nut>

2.3.2-RELEASE (amd64)
Intel Xeon CPU X3430 @ 2.40GHz
4GB RAM
APC Back-UPS NS1250 (BN1250G)

Output of usbconfig dump_device_desc

ugen1.4: <back-ups bn1250g="" fw867.l5="" .d="" usb="" fwl5="" american="" power="" conversion="">at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=ON (2mA)

  bLength = 0x0012
  bDescriptorType = 0x0001
  bcdUSB = 0x0200
  bDeviceClass = 0x0000  <probed by="" interface="" class="">bDeviceSubClass = 0x0000
  bDeviceProtocol = 0x0000
  bMaxPacketSize0 = 0x0040
  idVendor = 0x051d
  idProduct = 0x0002
  bcdDevice = 0x0090
  iManufacturer = 0x0001  <american power="" conversion="">iProduct = 0x0002  <back-ups bn1250g="" fw:867.l5="" .d="" usb="" fw:l5="">iSerialNumber = 0x0003  <xxxxxxxxxxx >bNumConfigurations = 0x0001</xxxxxxxxxxx ></back-ups></american></probed></back-ups>

dennypage

@LinuxTracker:

After install, Nut picked up an old (and correct) config - Local USB & usbhid.

It kept failing w/ the following errors:
Poll UPS [APC] failed - Driver not connected
Can't connect to UPS [APC] (usbhid-ups-APC): No such file or directory.

Original config:

                <nut><config><type>local_usb</type>
                                <name>APC</name>
                                <email></email>
                                <usb_driver>usbhid-ups</usb_driver>
                                <upsmon_conf><extra_args></extra_args></upsmon_conf></config></nut>

Current (working) config:

		 <nut><config><type>local_usb</type>
				<name>APC</name>
				<email></email>
				<usb_driver>usbhid-ups</usb_driver>
				<upsmon_conf>UlVOX0FTX1VTRVIgcm9vdA==</upsmon_conf>
				 <extra_args></extra_args></config></nut>

Do you mean to say that you install a new version of the NUT package? Both configs you posted are are from the new version of the package. Neither is from the old package.

From a UPS driver point of view, the two configs are identical. The addition of RUN_AS_USER in upsmon_conf has no effect on the driver (usbhid-ups). It's only use is have the monitor (upsmon) run as root in order to work around an issue sending email with a TLS connection, which you are not using. Unless you are planning to use email with a TLS connection, you should remove this directive.

LinuxTracker

@dennypage:

Do you mean to say that you install a new version of the NUT package? Both configs you posted are are from the new version of the package. Neither is from the old package.

It went like this.
I installed Nut from the package manager. After install, Nut said it found an old config and would use that.
That's when I started getting the driver errors. I did some poking around, checked out the Nut section of config.xml. That's what I posted as my original config.

Today, I went into a config.xml backup from June and the Nut config section there is in the older format.

		 <nut><config><monitor><powerdown><allowaddr><allowuser>fakeuser</allowuser>
				<allowpass>fakepass</allowpass>
				<name>APC</name>
				<driver>usbhid-ups00</driver>
				<port>auto</port>
				 <upstype><cable><snmpname><snmpaddr><snmpcommunity><snmpversion>v2c</snmpversion>
				<snmpmib>ietf</snmpmib>
				 <snmpfreq><snmpdisabletransfer><remotename><remoteaddr><remoteuser>fakeuser</remoteuser>
				<remotepass>fakepass</remotepass></remoteaddr></remotename></snmpdisabletransfer></snmpfreq></snmpcommunity></snmpaddr></snmpname></cable></upstype></allowaddr></powerdown></monitor></config></nut>

I'm assuming the new ver of Nut rewrote my config, sometime after install.

@dennypage:

From a UPS driver point of view, the two configs are identical. The addition of RUN_AS_USER in upsmon_conf has no effect on the driver (usbhid-ups). It's only use is have the monitor (upsmon) run as root in order to work around an issue sending email with a TLS connection, which you are not using. Unless you are planning to use email with a TLS connection, you should remove this directive.

Okay. I tried that after reading a github post about perm issues w/ Nut & was ready to throw spaghetti at the wall.
(ref: https://github.com/rockstor/rockstor-core/issues/1073)

I'll get rid of RUN_AS_USER.
Thanks for the input.

dennypage

@LinuxTracker:

After install, Nut said it found an old config and would use that.
…
I'm assuming the new ver of Nut rewrote my config, sometime after install.

It wrote the new config when you pressed the save button on the Settings page. This is also when the service starts.

runjmc

I noticed the APC UPS plugged in via USB seems to stay connected for a few days then shows up as offline. I can reload the service and still doesn't work but if I physically unplug it and plug it back it works again.

usbconfig dump_device_desc

Online

ugen0.4: <back-ups 1250="" ns="" lcd="" fw846.h2="" .d="" usb="" fwh2="" american="" power="" conversion="">at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=LOW (1.5Mbps) pwr=ON (2mA)

bLength = 0x0012
bDescriptorType = 0x0001
bcdUSB = 0x0110
bDeviceClass = 0x0000 <probed by="" interface="" class="">bDeviceSubClass = 0x0000
bDeviceProtocol = 0x0000
bMaxPacketSize0 = 0x0008
idVendor = 0x051d
idProduct = 0x0002
bcdDevice = 0x0101
iManufacturer = 0x0003 <american power="" conversion="">iProduct = 0x0001 <back-ups 1250="" ns="" lcd="" fw:846.h2="" .d="" usb="" fw:h2="">iSerialNumber = 0x0002 <3B0902X11627 >
bNumConfigurations = 0x0001

Offline

ugen0.4: <back-ups 1250="" ns="" lcd="" fw846.h2="" .d="" usb="" fwh2="" american="" power="" conversion="">at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=LOW (1.5Mbps) pwr=ON (2mA)

bLength = 0x0012
bDescriptorType = 0x0001
bcdUSB = 0x0110
bDeviceClass = 0x0000 <probed by="" interface="" class="">bDeviceSubClass = 0x0000
bDeviceProtocol = 0x0000
bMaxPacketSize0 = 0x0008
idVendor = 0x051d
idProduct = 0x0002
bcdDevice = 0x0101
iManufacturer = 0x0003 <retrieving string="" failed="">iProduct = 0x0001 <retrieving string="" failed="">iSerialNumber = 0x0002 <retrieving string="" failed="">bNumConfigurations = 0x0001</retrieving></retrieving></retrieving></probed></back-ups></back-ups></american></probed></back-ups>

dennypage

Not sure what to tell you about this one. It sure looks like a USB connectivity issue. Is there a USB hub or anything you can remove? Another USB connector on the MB you can try? Another cable perhaps?

Yes, I'm shooting in the dark here. :)

runjmc

It could be a issue with vmware passthrough.. Ill try another port and see if I have the same issues with a windows vm.

Thanks

frozensteel

Hey Dennypage,

I just switched from an older server to a newer server. Older server was running Pfsense 2.3.1 running a much older version of NUT. Backed up the configuration file, installed Pfsense 2.3.2 and restored the configuration file. I then installed the NUT package (Which is now 2.7.4_2) and now the service runs, and the UPS option is under the services menu, but the NUT option is still under the services menu. Is this option supposed to work? All it gives me is "404 Not Found nginx". The UPS tab also doesn't have the fancy bar graphics the older NUT package has. Is this supposed to be under the NUT tab? How do I fix it?

dennypage

I'm looking at how to automatically remove the old Services / NUT menu item. In the interim, this tells you how to do it manually:

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=115349.msg650408#msg650408

dennypage

@frozensteel:

The UPS tab also doesn't have the fancy bar graphics the older NUT package has.

Both the old and the new NUT package have the same two bar graphs, UPS Load and Battery charge.

In the new package, you will find them on the status page (Services / UPS / Status). This page also shows full detail of what is reported by the NUT driver for the UPS. There is also a UPS Status widget for the dashboard which provides a abbreviated status listing including the two bar graphs.

frozensteel

So I did what you said and removed the following:


<menu>

<menu>
			<name>NUT</name>
			<tooltiptext>Set Network UPS Tools settings.</tooltiptext>
			Services
			<url>/ups_status.php</url>
</menu>

Restored only the package information (since my configuration has changed since this configuration file was used) and it worked like a charm.

However, this is the output I get from UPS Status:

![](https://s22.postimg.org/7ll45jiap/ups_status.png)

I wish it looked like the older version which was like this:

![](https://doc.pfsense.org/images/0/0d/Nut-status-example.png)</menu>

dennypage

The reason that you are not seeing bar graphs for load and charge is because they are not being reported for your UPS. The fields battery.charge and ups.load are missing from the UPS Detail section.

Best guess is that you want a different mib. I would try explicitly setting the ietf mib and see what it shows.

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=115349.msg649477#msg649477