UPS Ubuntu Setup

Powering Amahi (Ubuntu 12.04) with APC Back-UPS and Network UPS Tools (NUT)

The software APC Back-UPS comes with does not work in Linux. Instead, you need to use NUT or apcupsd. Google will turn up evidence that both work, but NUT seems to be the preferred one.

Adapted from the original instructions that this guidance is based on came from here and here. The former, by Peter Selinger, are closest to this case, but a lot of the work he had to do is now done for you out of the box. The latter are for a different UPS, but are also fresher.

NOTE: The Amahi Web Application UPS Monitor provides web monitoring capability..

First, do this as root user:

sudo apt-get -y install nut nut-client nut-cgi

Next, you will need to configure four files in /etc/nut: nut.conf, ups.conf, upsd.users, hosts.conf, and upsmon.conf. They will look almost identical to Selinger's (password1 and password2 can be changed to anything):

sudo vi /etc/nut/ups.conf

[apc]
        driver = usbhid-ups
        port = auto
        desc = "APC Back-UPS"

sudo vi /etc/nut/upsd.users

[admin]
        password = password1
        actions = SET
        instcmds = ALL
[monuser]
        password = password2
        upsmon master

sudo vi /etc/nut/hosts.conf

MONITOR apc@localhost "UPS on HDA"

NOTE: If using UPS Monitor, skip the hosts.conf portion or you will end up with double entries.

sudo vi /etc/nut/upsmon.conf

MONITOR apc@localhost 1 monuser password2 master
MINSUPPLIES 1
SHUTDOWNCMD "/sbin/shutdown -h +0"
POLLFREQ 5
POLLFREQALERT 5
HOSTSYNC 15
DEADTIME 15
POWERDOWNFLAG /etc/killpower
RBWARNTIME 43200
NOCOMMWARNTIME 300
FINALDELAY 5

sudo vi /etc/nut/nut.conf

MODE=standalone

The next step is to start the UPS service:

sudo service ups-monitor stop
sudo service ups-monitor start

At this point, you should see something like this in your terminal:

Starting UPS monitor (master):                             [  OK  ]

If you do not, it may be because upsdrvctl refuses to cooperate at first. A reboot should fix that problem.