UPS monitoring

There are two options to monitor UPS: first is through USB or serial connection with help of subagent and second one is through the network with help of SNMP.

Subagent can be used for monitoring UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) attached to serial or USB port on computer where NetXMS agent is running. USB-attached devices currently supported only on Windows platform, serial is supported on all platforms. One subagent can monitor multiple attached devices.

USB or serial UPS monitoring

You can monitor UPS devices attached to the hosts via serial cable or USB via UPS subagent. Once you have your UPS attached to the host and NetXMS agent installed, you should configure UPS subagent. First, add the following line to agent’s configuration file main section:

SubAgent = ups.nsm

Second, configure attached UPS devices. Create UPS section, and for each UPS device attached to the host add line in the following format:

Device = id:port:protocol

id is an arbitrary but unique number in range 0 to 127, which is used to distinguish multiple UPS devices in further requests.

device is either name of the serial port (e.g. COM1: or /dev/ttyS0) or serial number of the USB device (keyword ANY can be used instead of exact serial number to select first available).

protocol specify which communication protocol should be used. Supported protocols:

  • APC

  • BCMXCP - Some of the HP/Compaq, PowerWare, etc.

  • MEGATEC

  • METASYS

  • MICRODOWELL

  • USB - HID UPS devices (currently Windows only)

Sample configuration section for two devices attached via serial ports, one is APC device (configured as device 0) and one is HP device (configured as device 1):

# UPS subagent configuration section
[UPS]
Device = 0:/dev/ttyS0:APC
Device = 1:/dev/ttyS1:BCMXCP

Once UPS subagent is configured, you can start to monitor UPS devices status via metrics provided by it:

Metric Name

Type

Meaning

UPS.BatteryLevel(*)

Integer

Battery charge level in percents.

UPS.BatteryVoltage(*)

Float

Current battery voltage.

UPS.ConnectionStatus(*

Integer
Connection status between agent and device. Can have the following values:

  • 0 - Agent is communication with the device

  • 1 - Communication with the device has been lost

UPS.EstimatedRuntime(*)

Integer

Estimated on-battery runtime in minutes.

UPS.Firmware(*)

String

Device’s firmware version.

UPS.InputVoltage(*)

Float

Input line voltage.

UPS.LineFrequency(*)

Integer

Input line frequency in Hz.

UPS.Load(*)

Integer

Device load in percents.

UPS.MfgDate(*)

String

Device manufacturing date.

UPS.Model(*)

String

Device model name.

UPS.NominalBatteryVoltage(*)

Float

Nominal battery voltage.

UPS.OnlineStatus(*)

Integer
Device online status. Can have the following values:

  • 0 - Device is online.

  • 1 - Device is on battery power.

  • 2 - Device is on battery power and battery level is low.

UPS.OutputVoltage(*)

Float

Output line voltage.

UPS.SerialNumber(*)

String

Device’s serial number.

UPS.Temperature(*)

Integer

Internal device temperature.

Please note that not all metrics are supported by all UPS devices. Many old or simple models will support only basic things like UPS.OnlineStatus metric. Most typical approach is to monitor UPS.OnlineStatus for going to 1 or 2, and then send notifications to administrators and shutdown affected hosts if needed. You can also monitor UPS.EstimatedRuntime metric for the same purposes if your devices support it.

SNMP UPS monitoring

Other option to monitor UPS is using SNMP. NetXMS already includes MIBs for some UPS, like APC UPS and standard UPS MIB. Description for possible OIDs and some additional information for APC UPS configuration can be found on a NetXMS wiki.

Please check Import MIB for MIB loading and DCI configuration for metric collection.