MinutemanUPS.com

henkjohn · Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Albany, NY

I have a couple of pro-e's (1100,1500) and wondering if there are any usb drivers that can allow communications with network devices using NUT Unfortunately the one device (Readynas nv+) I want to network has a built in Linux o.s. but can't be accessed without hacking. Using the Sentry software on the pc's (1 Winxp, 1 Linux) would not be a problem but I need the capability to communicate with NUT to allow the network storage unit to take advantage of the built in auto shutdown features. Is there any way to achieve this or any future plans to integrate the usb capability with NUT. As it stands now My Readynas does not recognize the usb connection to the ups. I figured I could do it the other way around if I could configure my pc to talk to NUT.

jeff · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Posts: 187

henkjohn,

Good Morning,

I will need a couple of days to answer this question.

I will follow up soon.

tvancil · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:11 am Post subject:

A couple of notes:
1) The USB method used on those models requires a virtual COM port driver be installed on a Windows box - sadly, there is not a Linux virtual COM driver for them. You must use the XP machine if you use the USB connection with either UPS.
2) Unfortunately, there is not any current or planned support for NUT for these two units, so there is no way for the the UPS to communicate directly to the NAS.

You may still be able to accomplish what you want by using the PC and software as the event trigger to run a shutdown on the Readynas. If one of the UPS systems is powering a PC and the Readynas, you could run SentryPlus or SentryII on the PC connected to that UPS and set up the Power Fail event to run an EXE file or batch command that does this when the event happens.

If your Readynas doesn't support any method of doing a direct shutdown that way, either by telnet or SSH, the tricky part may be running the Linux command from your XP box if you use it to run your UPS software. If you have the option of using the RS-232 cable with the UPS, you might have an easier time doing this from your Linux box since it already speaks the language of your Readynas. A script that connects and runs halt command would be easy to run from it. However, there are also tools like this one that allow you to connect and run Linux commands from Windows batch files too:
http://www.cygwin.com/

I was able to find an older post on another board with a similar topic where one of the posters suggested using a cURL command to initiate an automated shutdown of the NAS from its web interface.

Here's a link to that full post:
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2996&highlight=automated%2520shutdown

By the way, is there any reference to a shutdown command in the Readynas manual for your model? I wish I could suggest a more elegant way of doing this task. Please let us know if you have other information or ideas.

Todd

henkjohn · Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Albany, NY

Thanks for the quick reply, the links are great; I believe the one to the curl shell script might be just what I'm looking for. I'm not too versed in writing code, but this looks (hopefully is) to be a simple solution; It appears the script worked for the person who made it (not sure if it will be the same for my model but it should be close enough that it would only be small changes). It might be a short while before I attempt to get it to work but I will post when I get it working (or don't).
One other thing with the sentry2 software - doesn't seem to send an email how does it determine email settings - doesn't seem to have any mail server settings to configure and my router didn't show any packets sent. I've tried different recipients and my email configurations work for everything else that sends emails automatically.

tvancil · Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:23 pm Post subject:

Good, it sounds like cURL may work as long as Netgear didn't change anything too drastically. Please post your results when you can.

As to the setup of email in SentryII:
1) Connect to the SentryII web management page at the IP address of the machine or http://127.0.0.1/ if you're on the local machine, and enter your user name and password to login.

2) Click the Settings link up at the top of the left frame in the Server section, look for the SMTP Server field just below the Baud Rate field, enter your sending mail server address there, then click the Save button.
Screenshot http://www.minutemanups.com/products/sentryii.php#server

3) Goto Event Action in UPS section and select an event like Alarm Input Bad and click the Email button at the bottom of the page.
Screenshot http://www.minutemanups.com/products/sentryii.php#events

4) In the Send Email page add your sender and any recipient addresses and Save.
Screenshot http://www.minutemanups.com/products/sentryii.php#email

5) If you want to test it, pull the plug from AC outlet and it should send a message.

Give it a try and see how it works.

henkjohn · Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Albany, NY

Thanks for the tip on the smtp server setting (I had not seen the setting for that previously, should have looked more before I posted.) I have that configured now so the email should probably work when I try it tonight. As for the curl script, it looks like the script itself is simple but getting curl to work in Windows is going to be a royal pain, so it might be a while before I post the results; Thanks for the help, this is a great forum.
update: 4/24 22:30 -still can't get email to work; both my Verizon and Gmail email servers require authentication and it looks as though the email settings don't allow the proper configuration to send; As many servers are requiring this now, are there any plans to incorporate more extensive mail settings. A patch maybe?
Also a newly discovered problem: When I set an input bad event (power failure as it seems) to shut down the pc operating system and put a large delay (don't want ups output to shut off), the pc delay works fine but no matter what delay time I put in for the ups to shut down, it will shut down at that time even if power has been restored. The instructions indicate that if input bad alarm is canceled (thinking that means power restored) the output should not turn off. How am I supposed to cancel the ups shut down if the power comes back. I have to think I am doing something wrong because it doesn't seem logical that it should work that way.

jeff · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Posts: 187

I revisited this post and I was curious did you ever figure why your output was shutting off?

Did you get the SMTP mail issue cleared up?

Jeff

henkjohn · Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Albany, NY

The software that came with the minuteman seemed to have problems when I set shutdown times; the times shut down accurately but if the power came back, it would not cancel shutdown. tried everything I could think of. I did see a post somewhere from someone who had the exact same problem with the same model I have and the answer was to load newer firmware in the ups. I tried to locate firmware for my unit but could not find any firmware downloads at all on the site. I could not find any newer software than the version I had.
I have since bought a nut compatible ups and I use the Minuteman for other applications. A shame, because, besides that glitch, the Minuteman is a good ups.