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    Help with getting APC Powerchute working with pfSense

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    • R
      Radius118
      last edited by Radius118

      Hi...

      Been running pfSense successfully for about a year now. The only issue I have had was a corruption issue when the power went out.

      I now have an older APC 3000XLM UPS unit with a network monitoring card that I picked up and refurbished. The unit works well as does the powerchute software on my windows based PCs connected to it.

      I thought perhaps I might be smart about things and try to figure out how to get the Linux version of Powerchute working on my pfSense box.

      Unfortunately I am completely lost at the command line on pfSense. I tried following some instructions I found online for freeBSD to mount my USB thumb drive and nothing works. So I hit the wall pretty early! :(

      So, would someone be willing to help me out? I need to figure out how to get my thumb drive mounted so I can put the installation package on the box, then figure out how to uncompress it and run it.

      Thank you!

      P.S. I did read about apcupsd but from my understanding it only supports a direct wired connection to the UPS. I need a daemon that will register and connected with the management card in the UPS. Unless I missed something?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GrimsonG
        Grimson Banned
        last edited by

        http://www.apcupsd.org/manual/manual.html#powerchute-network-shutdown-driver-pcnet RTFM

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • R
          Radius118
          last edited by

          Hey thanks for the quick reply and info.

          Guess I missed that in TFM.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            Yeah, you should be able to use the pfSense apcupsd package by selecting 'pcnet' as the ups type.

            Steve

            R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • R
              Radius118 @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10 said in Help with getting APC Powerchute working with pfSense:

              Yeah, you should be able to use the pfSense apcupsd package by selecting 'pcnet' as the ups type.

              Steve

              Hi Steve..

              Thank you for that. I did not think to look at the Package Manager to see if apcupsd was an available package.

              Now that I have done that and installed the package it's time to figure out how to configure it. Thanks for the info.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • R
                Radius118
                last edited by

                Looks like it is working! :)

                Thank you for the help!

                Running: apcaccess -h 0.0.0.0:3551

                APC : 001,050,1138
                DATE : 2018-11-14 07:57:21 -0800
                HOSTNAME : pfSense.grip.local
                VERSION : 3.14.14 (31 May 2016) freebsd
                UPSNAME : Grip_APC
                CABLE : Ethernet Link
                DRIVER : PCNET UPS Driver
                UPSMODE : Stand Alone
                STARTTIME: 2018-11-14 07:57:20 -0800
                MODEL : Smart-UPS 3000 XLM
                STATUS : ONLINE
                LINEV : 115.2 Volts
                LOADPCT : 34.4 Percent
                BCHARGE : 100.0 Percent
                TIMELEFT : 5.0 Minutes
                MBATTCHG : 40 Percent
                MINTIMEL : 3 Minutes
                MAXTIME : 0 Seconds
                MAXLINEV : 120.2 Volts
                MINLINEV : 114.4 Volts
                OUTPUTV : 115.2 Volts
                SENSE : High
                DWAKE : 60 Seconds
                DSHUTD : 90 Seconds
                DLOWBATT : 2 Minutes
                LOTRANS : 106.0 Volts
                HITRANS : 127.0 Volts
                RETPCT : 0.0 Percent
                ITEMP : 29.7 C
                ALARMDEL : 5 Seconds
                BATTV : 54.8 Volts
                LINEFREQ : 60.0 Hz
                LASTXFER : Line voltage notch or spike
                NUMXFERS : 0
                TONBATT : 0 Seconds
                CUMONBATT: 0 Seconds
                XOFFBATT : N/A
                SELFTEST : NO
                STESTI : 168
                STATFLAG : 0x05000008
                REG1 : 0x00
                REG2 : 0x00
                REG3 : 0x00
                MANDATE : 10/04/07
                SERIALNO : XXXXXXXXXXXX
                BATTDATE : 11/13/18
                NOMOUTV : 120 Volts
                NOMBATTV : 48.0 Volts
                EXTBATTS : 0
                FIRMWARE : 715.3.D
                END APC : 2018-11-14 08:09:59 -0800

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • M
                  MacUsers
                  last edited by

                  Hi @Radius118
                  I know it's a yrs. old thread but I'm having the same issue of not connecting. I have a SMT1000RM2U and a newer NMC (APC9630) but all I get STATUS : COMMLOST running apcaccess -h 0.0.0.0:3551. Could you tell me how did you config the both side pls?

                  -S

                  R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • R
                    Radius118 @MacUsers
                    last edited by

                    @MacUsers said in Help with getting APC Powerchute working with pfSense:

                    Hi @Radius118
                    I know it's a yrs. old thread but I'm having the same issue of not connecting. I have a SMT1000RM2U and a newer NMC (APC9630) but all I get STATUS : COMMLOST running apcaccess -h 0.0.0.0:3551. Could you tell me how did you config the both side pls?

                    -S

                    You know to be honest it was so long ago I really don't remember I used the included apcupsd package and I remember it was pretty straightforward. Perhaps the issue is the newer APC-9630 isn't compatible with apcupsd? I don't really know.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • M
                      MacUsers
                      last edited by MacUsers

                      I figured out after a couple of days why it was not working. I think not really documented clearly, how it's supposed to work, at least I didn't find out: info are scattered around in the APC forum discussions and the some of the docs.
                      First of all, for the PCNET type, it uses pass/auth phrase instead of password and that needs to defined in the NMC web-gui, which is placed in rather odd-place: under Configuration > Shutdown:

                      6fdbe869-42bd-4a69-94d5-8cd0b80dbd02-image.png

                      re. https://www.se.com/uk/en/faqs/FA159659/

                      That user (e.g. netman, which I setup as a network-only user) must be created first. PCNS uses both the password & pass-phrase for that user and APCUPSD uses only the pass-phrase. After that both started working. Hope it will help others, if get stuck the same way I was.

                      -S

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