APC Network Shutdown for ESX 3.x - General Question

[ITThies]

Hi.

This is no "howto shutdown my esx host" question.

Does anybody know, if the PCNS is supported by vmware?

I´m looking for a solution to use a network shutdown without violating the vmware support restrictions.

Thanks for any information.

[vhb-technician]

My understanding is that when PCNS in the ESX console

sends the shutdown command all the VMs are shut down

accordingly as well.

I asked my question because I would prefer not to

have to install PCNS into every VM, unless I have to.

It's A) a lot of work to install and maintain, and

B) I'd prefer not to have to add complexity to each

VM unless really necessary.

We also searched for this a bit and found that in the VI-Client for ESX 3.01 you can go to the 'Configuration' Tab and there to the 'Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown'[/b] Section, where you can configure the stopping sequence and way to stop ('Power Off' , 'Guest shutdown', 'suspend') of every single VM. So when you tell the PCNS on the host to shutdown on battery, the esx host initiates the guest shutdown in the prefered order and way and finally shuts down the host itself. We had no probs so far with our tests, but there is also a script that would force a guest Power Off if some guest get stuck: http://www.tooms.dk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=131

So no installation of PCNS on the vm-guests was necessary here.

[tlyczko]

I followed all the commands listed by Box293 except that I installed the software first, then stopped the firewall, then configured the software, then re-started the firewall, then I was still able to open http://servername:3052.

However my final step was to run the firewall commands as stated below, I am assuming this is/was necessary to ensure that everything will work properly whenever the system restarts.

As a piece of information, I also learned elsewhere that this software can be told to shutdown when the connection to the management card is lost, that this is a way to test it out, see http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=724164.

This link also mentions about setting up the VMs' re-startup sequence, which is also very helpful., also see http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=72045.

Remember the comment, in this thread about UN-CHECKing the 'Turn off the UPS after the shutdown finishes. (Not applicable to Silcon UPS)' item in 'Configure Shutdown,' or your UPS will stop protecting your VMs.

Thank you everyone for creating this most excellent thread,

Tom

[scerazy]

Thanks for this excellent thread, it really ought to be made a sticky

Also ONLY version 2.2.1 works, current 2.2.3 does NOT work (error during config "This product does not support VMware")

as seen here http://communities.vmware.com/thread/127518

Seb

EDIT

After successfull install of version 2.2.1 I can NOT log in to the service (). I definitely have the correct user name/password, as it works on all other servers (Win,NW) connected to same UPS

Had to simply rerun:

/usr/local/bin/PowerChute/PCNSConfig.sh

choosing option1

Recommended re-configuration of the PCNS does not work due to an error (libXp does NOT exist on ESX server):

root@esx2 lib# /usr/local/bin/j2re1.4.2_11/bin/java -cp m11.jar:confutil.jar:../comp/Notifier.jar:../comp/CommandFileRunner.jar PCNSUtilApp

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /usr/local/bin/j2re1.4.2_11/lib/i386/libawt.so: libXp.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method)

at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)

at sun.security.action.LoadLibraryAction.run(Unknown Source)

at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)

at sun.awt.NativeLibLoader.loadLibraries(Unknown Source)

at sun.awt.DebugHelper.<clinit>(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.<clinit>(Unknown Source)

[Ianpo]

Hi, hope you don't mind me jumping into this thread. Using PCNS 2.2.1 and ESX 3.0.2 We are using 2 UPS in a "Group" I think its called. (and have a number of hosts)

When the UPSs lose power we run a controlled shutdown of the VMs; works fine (except cannot get the hosts to "shutdown -h now" but not worried about that either). We then want the UPSs to shutdown. This last bit is proving very unreliable. Sometimes we see the UPS log "starting graceful shutdown" and it shuts down. But when there is no logged "starting graceful shutdown" the UPS do not shutdown.

The problem appears to be that PCNS on the host does not reliably issue the command to "start graceful shutdown" to a UPS. Anybody had anything similar? Cheers.

[wildmind]

I can't seem to get 2.2.1 on the APC site, it's onl;y giving me access to 2.2.3.

Has anyone still got the version that works with Vmware that they could send me?

[larjona]

How can i send to you that version?

[wildmind]

Hi,

For the authentication phrase, is this going to be the UPS's pass phrase (in which case I can't find it). And I take it when you say the management card - this is the UPS's card also?

Thanks!

[christianZ]

>And I take it when you say the management card - this is the UPS's card also?

YES.

Check the attached file

[wildmind]

Apologies for my basic questions. I've got it all up and running now. the only thing that tripped me up was the Authentication Phrase. All sorted and up and running now!

On one of my other servers though,when I type esxcfg-firewall -o 80,tcp,out,"APC PowerChute Port 80"

it states bash: # esxcfg-firewall: command not found.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help guys.

[christianZ]

Try "su -" and your command again.

[mfoley]

PCNS v2.2.1 installed ok for me on VMWare but it won't get past registering the card. It says the security info is incorrect, even though it isn't.

However it may depend on what firmware version your APC is runing. I have firmware v3.5.5 on 3 of my 4 backups and couldn't register the management card on any of them. I have one backup unit running firmware v2.5.0 and that successfully registered. I also upgraded one of my backups to firmware v3.5.8 but couldn't get vmware to register in that either. So it would appear that registration is successful on the older firmware only.

Has anyone else come across this? Has anyone successfully registered ESX 3.5 using a newer (3.5.5 or 3.5.8) APC firmware?

The default passphrase is "APC SCG auth phrase" for APC firmware v3.5.5 and v3.5.8.

Also, APC has JUST released PCNS for ESX 3.5.0 but you have to buy a license @ $99. Support assurred me it's compatible with ESX 3.5.0 and I'll let you know how that works out when I get it.