UPS Monitor

Document revision:	2.1 (Mon Jul 19 07:33:14 GMT 2004)
Applies to:	V2.8

General Information

Summary

The UPS monitor feature works with APC UPS units that support “smart” signaling. This feature enables the network administrator to monitor the UPS and set the router to ‘gracefully’ handle any power outage with no corruption or damage to the router. The basic purpose of this feature is to ensure that the router will come back online after an extended power failure. To do this, the router will monitor the UPS and set itself to hibernate mode when the ‘utility’ power is down and the UPS battery is has less than 10% of its battery power left. The router will then continue to monitor the UPS (while in hibernate mode) and then restart itself after when the ‘utility’ power returns. If the UPS battery is drained and the router loses all power, the router will power back to full operation when the ‘utility’ power returns.

The UPS monitor feature on the MikroTik RouterOS supports

Specifications

Packages required: ups
License required: Level1
Submenu level: /system ups
Standards and Technologies: APC's smart protocol
Hardware usage: Not significant

Related Documents

Description

Cabling

The APC UPS (BackUPS Pro or SmartUPS) requires a special serial cable. If no cable came with the UPS, a cable may be ordered from APC or one can be made "in-house". Use the following diagram:

Router Side (DB9f)	Signal	Direction	UPS Side (DB9m)
2	Receive	IN	2
3	Send	OUT	1
5	Ground		4
7	CTS	IN	6

UPS Monitor Setup

Submenu level: /system ups

Property Description

alarm-setting (delayed | immediate | low-battery | none; default: immediate) - UPS sound alarm setting:

enabled (yes | no; default: no) - status of the monitoring is disabled by default

manufacture-date (read-only: text) - the UPS's date of manufacture in the format "mm/dd/yy" (month, day, year)

min-run-time (time; default: 5m) - minimal run time remaining. After a 'utility' failure, the router will monitor the run-time-left value. When the value reaches the min-run-time value, the router will go to hibernate mode

model (read-only: text) - less than 32 ASCII character string consisting of the UPS model name (the words on the front of the UPS itself)

nominal-battery-voltage (read-only: integer) - the UPS's nominal battery voltage rating (this is not the UPS's actual battery voltage)

off-line-time (time; default: 5m) - how long to work on batteries. The router waits that amount of time and then goes into hibernate mode until the UPS reports that the 'utility' power is back

port (name) - communication port of the router

rtc-alarm-setting (delayed | immediate | low-battery | none; default: none) - UPS sound alarm setting during run time calibration:

serial (read-only: text) - a string of at least 8 characters directly representing the UPS's serial number as set at the factory. Newer SmartUPS models have 12-character serial numbers

version (read-only: text) - UPS version, consists of three fields: SKU number, firmware revision, country code. The county code may be one of the following:

Notes

In order to enable UPS monitor, the serial port should be available.

Example

To enable the UPS monitor for port serial1:

[admin@MikroTik] system ups> set port=serial1 enabled=yes
[admin@MikroTik] system ups> print
                    enabled: yes
                       port: serial1
              off-line-time: 5m
               min-run-time: 5m
              alarm-setting: immediate
          rtc-alarm-setting: immediate
                      model: "Back-UPS Pro 420"
                    version: "11.4.I"
              serial-number: "NB9941252992"
           manufacture-date: "10/08/99"
    nominal-battery-voltage: 12
[admin@MikroTik] system ups>

Runtime Calibration

Command name: /system ups run-time-calibration

Description

The run-time-calibration command causes the UPS to start a run time calibration until less than 25% of full battery capacity is reached. This command calibrates the returned run time value.

Notes

The test begins only if the battery capacity is 100%.

Example

[MikroTik] system ups> run-time-calibration

UPS Monitoring

Command name: /system ups monitor

Property Description

battery-charge (percentage) - the UPS's remaining battery capacity as a percent of the fully charged condition

battery-voltage - the UPS's present battery voltage. The typical accuracy of this measurement is ±5% of the maximum value (depending on the UPS's nominal battery voltage)

frequency (percentage) - when operating on-line, the UPS's internal operating frequency is synchronized to the line within variations within 3 Hz of the nominal 50 or 60 Hz. The typical accuracy of this measurement is ±1% of the full scale value of 63 Hz

line-voltage - the in-line utility power voltage

load (percentage) - the UPS's output load as a percentage of full rated load in Watts. The typical accuracy of this measurement is ±3% of the maximum of 105%

low-battery - only shown when the UPS reports this status

on-battery (yes | no) - Whether UPS battery is supplying power

on-line (yes | no) - whether power is being provided by the external utility (power company)

output-voltage - the UPS's output voltage

overloaded-output - only shown when the UPS reports this status

replace-battery - only shown when the UPS reports this status

run-time-calibration-running - only shown when the UPS reports this status

run-time-left (time) - the UPS's estimated remaining run time in minutes. You can query the UPS when it is operating in the on-line, bypass, or on-battery modes of operation. The UPS's remaining run time reply is based on available battery capacity and output load

smart-boost-mode - only shown when the UPS reports this status

smart-ssdd-mode - only shown when the UPS reports this status

transfer-cause (text) - the reason for the most recent transfer to on-battery operation (only shown when the unit is on-battery)

Example

When running on utility power:

[admin@MikroTik] system ups> monitor
                         on-line: yes
                      on-battery: no
                   run-time-left: 11m
                  battery-charge: 100
                 battery-voltage: 13
                    line-voltage: 221
                  output-voltage: 221
                            load: 57
                        fequency: 50

[admin@MikroTik] system ups>

When running on battery:

[admin@MikroTik] system ups> monitor
                         on-line: no
                      on-battery: yes
                  transfer-cause: "utility voltage notch or spike detected"
                   run-time-left: 9m
                  battery-charge: 95
                 battery-voltage: 11
                    line-voltage: 0
                  output-voltage: 233
                            load: 66
                        fequency: 50

[admin@MikroTik] system ups>