APC UPS management under Linux
Author: Kern Sibbald
Description: apcupsd a Linux daemon for controlling APCC UPSes
Keywords: apcupsd, UPS, APCC, Power

### Apcupsd Linux UPS daemon version 3.8.3

# apcupsd a program for controlling APC UPSes

## SYNOPSIS

/sbin/apcupsd
/etc/apcupsd/apccontrol
/etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf
/sbin/apcaccess
/sbin/apcnisd

## DESCRIPTION

Apcupsd can be used for controlling APC UPSes. During a power failure, apcupsd will inform the users about the power failure and that a shutdown may occur. If power is not restored, a system shutdown will follow when the battery is exhausted, a timeout (seconds) expires, or runtime expires based on internal APC calculations determined by power consumption rates. If the power is restored before one of the above shutdown conditions is met, apcupsd will inform users about this fact.

Apcupsd runs on Linux systems, many Unix systems (Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Alpha, ...) as well as on Windows systems (Win95/98/Me/NT/2000).

Apcupsd performs the shutdown by calling /etc/apcupsd/apccontrol, which is a shell script. Consequently, no changes to /etc/inittab are necessary. There is no communication between apcupsd and init(1) process. During installation, the system halt script was modified so that at the end of the shutdown process during a power failure, apcupsd will be re-executed in order to power off the UPS. This step is not mandatory, but is good practice as it avoids the possibility of your system being prematurely restarted if the power returns for a short period. It also permits your computer to be automatically rebooted when the power is restored providing you have configured your computer BIOS appropriately.

The apcupsd daemon now supports two networking modes that function independently, but if desired at the same time.

Most users will probably enable the first network mode, which permits apcupsd to serve STATUS and EVENTS information to clients over the network.

The second networking mode is for multiple networked machines that are powered by the same UPS. In this mode, one machine is configured as a master with the UPS attached to the serial port. The other machines (maximum 20) powered by the same UPS are configured as slaves. The master has a network connection with the slaves and sends them information about the UPS status. Please see the UPS Sharing section of this document for more details.

RedHat and S.u.S.E. versions of Linux have direct install support. All other flavors of Linux may need some fussing with to get the install correct.

## SUPPORTED MODELS

Please see the Configuration section of this document for more details.

## OPTIONS

-c --configure
  Attempts to configure the UPS EPROM to the values specified in the configuration file /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf.
-d --debug <level>
  Turns on debugging output for a NETSLAVE or a NETMASTER.
f --config-file <file>
  Specifies the location of the configuration file. The default is: /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf
-k --killpower
  Attempt to turn the UPS off. This option is normally only used by the daemon itself to shut the UPS off after a system shutdown has completed. Note, if the killpower is done by a netmaster, it will sleep for 30 seconds before issuing the power kill request to the UPS to allow the slaves to properly shutdown.
-n --rename-ups
  Attempts to change the UPS name stored in the UPS EPROM to that specified in your /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf file.
-t, --term-on-powerfail
  This option tells apcupsd to exit immediately when it issues the system shutdown command (i.e. calls apccontrol). This behavior can be useful for those systems where it is not possible to insert apcupsd commands in the termination script in order to do the killpower. Without this option, apcupsd will wait for the SIGTERM signal from the system shutdown before exiting.
-u --update-battery-date
  Attempts to update the battery date stored in the UPS EPROM. Normally done after a battery replacement.
-V --version
  Prints the apcupsd version number and the usage.
-? --help
  Prints a brief apcupsd help screen.

## FILES

/etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf - configuration file.
/etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.status - STATUS file
/etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.events
  where up to the last 50 events are stored for the network information server.

## SEE ALSO

apcnisd(8)

For credits, please see the Thanks Chapter of this manual.