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From: drew@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (R. D. Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: UPS Monitoring Software
Keywords: Hardware
Message-ID: <2980@brazos.Rice.edu>
Date: 11 Nov 89 17:18:13 GMT
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X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 195, message 1 of 12

In article <2749@brazos.Rice.edu> earth!heath@sunkist.west.sun.com
(Frank Heath) writes:
>X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 183, message 10 of 13
> [...]  In the Novell word there are UPSs that can tell an attached
> unit that they are in operation and that x amount of time is left. [...]
>Are there similair capabilities in the Unix/SunOS world?

"Yes" for the Unix world and "probably" for the SunOS world.  AT&T sells
an "alarm interface card" for AT&T 3B2 computers.  The AIC card interfaces
to some outputs of AT&T UPS's.  The AIC card comes with software that
allows an arbitrary shell procedure to be invoked whenever the UPS kicks
in, and another arbitrary shell procedure to be invoked when the UPS
battery is running low.  So, that's why I say "Yes" for the Unix world.

When I was shopping for a UPS, I noted that some vendors have RS232
interfaces on their UPS units.  So, it would be relatively straightforward
to have a routine on Sun that polls the UPS to note the UPS's status.  For
example, you could have a cron procedure that kicked off every minute or 2
to check on the UPS status.  That's why I say "probably" for the SunOS
world.  I'd have said "yes", but I don't have first hand knowledge of
anyone actually having done this integration of a UPS and a Sun.

Drew