Getting backup battery to send email alerts....?

Question

Level 2

156 points

Getting backup battery to send email alerts....?

Hello! I've got an APC RS1500 UPS hooked up to my Mac Mini server running 10.6.

Obviously, I've already used System Preferences to configure how we want the battery to manage the power to the machine in the event of an outage. But since APC's PowerChute software (which, from what I understand, used to have the ability to send email alerts in such a case) only works up until about 10.4 until they started implementing the native support we have "lost" the ability for the server to send out an email alert whenever should there be a power issue.

So far, I've found no native way to do this within OSX and the APC software that used to do this for you is no longer supported on 10.5 or 10.6.....how can we do this?

I'm looking for something, anything, really to just get the server to send me an email should the power go down. Terminal command, Automator workflow, AppleScript, third party software....whatever.
Just....something?

Surely there are other people out there running Mac servers on a battery backup with some kind of notification system in place?

Thanks in advance.

Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Apr 5, 2011 12:07 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 5, 2011 12:24 PM in response to jinniferb

Check PowerSave - CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.

Reply

Answer 2

jinniferb Author

Level 2

156 points

Apr 5, 2011 12:28 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks for the info! I checked it out.

It doesn't appear to send email alerts, though...?
http://www.faronics.com/en/Products/PowerSave/PowerSaveKeyFeatures.aspx

Reply

Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 5, 2011 12:36 PM in response to jinniferb

You might look for similar software at those sites. Power Manager, for example, allows scheduling AppleScripts. I'm guessing there may be one or two others.

Reply

Answer 4

Apr 10, 2011 3:02 AM in response to jinniferb

This software appears to do it.

http://www.equinux.com/us/products/apctracker/index.html

However, it costs $129. I am in the same boat as the OP. Does anyone know of anything that's not as costly? I really only need something that will send me an e-mail when power is lost. Seems simple enough, but...

Reply

Answer 5

Apr 10, 2011 6:35 AM in response to jinniferb

[acpupsd|http://www.apcupsd.org>?

Reply

Answer 6

jinniferb Author

Level 2

156 points

Apr 11, 2011 4:00 AM in response to DavidStewart

I tried APC tracker as a demo and couldn't get it to work. Official word from the software company is that it doesn't support Snow Leopard...:(

Reply

Answer 7

Apr 11, 2011 10:23 AM in response to MrHoffman

Yeah, I found acpupsd, but it looks over my head to set it up. So I guess I am looking for something cheaper than APC tracker, and simple to implement.

jinniferb, did they give you any ETA for SL support?

Reply

Answer 8

vmghd

Level 1

4 points

May 13, 2011 9:10 AM in response to DavidStewart

Curious if anyone else has found any other software that will send email notifications? I've been wanting to purchase APC Tracker for a while now... finally got approval and I realized that it wasn't compatible with 10.6. Bummer...

Reply

Answer 9

Mitch

Level 4

1,346 points

Jul 17, 2012 7:36 PM in response to jinniferb

Also wondering if there are any more suggestions for this question ? I have looked at apcupsd but it has my ups unit on it's "DoNotPurchase" list ! APC Smart UPS 1500 ...

Also looked at APC Tracker then re-read last post ... Not compatible with 10.6 - which is also what I have ...

Regards

Mitch

Reply

Answer 10

Nov 1, 2012 12:10 PM in response to jinniferb

Did anyone ever find a solution for this? I'm interested in achieving the same thing.

Reply

Answer 11

Nov 1, 2012 12:30 PM in response to interconnect

Which problem are you looking to solve?

Automatic shutdowns? Those happen by default with the APC Smart UPS 1500, using a USB connection.

Notifications on power outages? You can either write a script that polls for the power status locally (using pmset or such) and sends an email or whatever, scrounge something similar, or that operates remotely by using Pingdom or another similar free or commercial polling service.

If you're just looking for uptime or such, it's also possible to use an SNMP service elsewhere on your network, assuming you're willing to start and maintain SNMP on the box you're monitoring.

Reply

Answer 12

Nov 1, 2012 3:07 PM in response to MrHoffman

Specifically I'm looking for a notifcaton (email) when there is a power failure. I haven't found anything that'd do that.

Reply

Answer 13

Nov 1, 2012 3:18 PM in response to interconnect

Ive had no luck either. I would have thought it should be a part of the UPS management software to have an email function to alert an admin of power failure ...

Reply

Answer 14

Nov 3, 2012 12:39 PM in response to MitchSharpe

Pingdom does what you are asking for. It detects the web server outage. It sends email, SMS or a tweets. And it's a free service.

If you're working on an internal server of some sort (or otherwise outside of what pingdom can reach), then this is going to involve a quick script, or some add-on software.

If you're working on the script, do you have a local mail server running on this box? (That'll make sending mail easier.)

And do you want to know about every outage, or do you want notifications when the shutdown happens? (If it's the latter that you're after, then you can send mail from the shutdown script.)

Some of the more capable and less-interruptible power supplies have notification capabilities. (eg: APC less-interruptible power supplies with the APC Web/SNMP card.)

The apcupsd tool might be of interest, too. Whether that update works on Mountain Lion, I don't know.

Reply