VMWare HA & PowerChute Network?

Have you installed the PCNS software in the VMA appliance ?

If you have controlled a Shutdown of your hosts, you will need to manually restart the VMs.

I've got the PowerChute Appliance running ... everything was already installed there ... I've configured it through the wizard.

What do you mean with 'have controlled a Shutdown etc'? I thought that the 'Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown' had to be disabled by default on HA cluster servers?

So there's no other way than to start them manually? Which is kind of tricky since all my servers, AD, DNS and DHCP servers included, are virtual servers ... I guess I have to configure a laptop with a static IP address then and connect it to the same switch as the VM hosts and then connect to each host via its IP address to then manually start the virtual servers?

PowerChute Appliance, do you mean VMA ?

e.g. if the PowerChute software sends a signal to shutdown the Hosts, this is a controlled shutdown, and with a controlled shutdown, HA will not operate.

e.g. VMs only restart on other hosts with an uncontrolled shutdown, e.g. power off!

You can use Startup and Shutdown, but it's not recommended with HA.

No, not the VMA. I mean a fully configured PowerChute VM that I only needed to deploy/import into my vCenter. I tried to go the VMA route first but I got stuck so I was glad to find the PowerChute appliance ... I can't find the download link anymore though!? It was from an offical site though.

And ok, so it makes sense to disable automatic start up and shutdowns on a HA cluster.

Some questions remain though:

1. So in that case, after a complete, prolonged power failure (twice a year we don't have electricity for +- 4 hours where the servers are; the dates are known beforehand; but we already had the very occasional unexpected power failure as well ...) I need to put a laptop on the switch my physical VM hosts are on and connect to them individually though my vSphere Client on the laptop to start the virtual machines, right?

2. I still need to install PowerChute clients on my ESXi hosts, no? How would I do that?

Update: I found the link to download the appliance (for free)

http://www.apc.com/tools/download/software_comp.cfm?sw_sku=SFPCNS31-V&id=127&swfam=127

In my case I've used the third link.

1. Correct

2. You deploy the VMA, and then install the PCNS software on the VMA.

This is the recommended approach, when using PCNS software with a Network Management card in a SMART-UPS.

Ok, regarding the second point ...

I've downloaded and imported the PowerChute appliance on which the PCNS software is already running. I only needed to configure it using the wizard. This works all fine.

I was just wondering if I needed to install something on the ESXi hosts (= the PowerChute clients) as well or if it's enough to simply indicate their IP addresses in the PCNS software?


The only client registered so far here is the virtual machine the PCNS is running on. But the more crucial elements, my three ESXI hosts, are still missing ...

Sorry if I'm being dense here -.-

which version of ESXi are you using the instructions are different?

see here

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1007036

Are these the instructions you've followed?

http://www2.schneider-electric.com/resources/sites/SCHNEIDER_ELECTRIC/content/live/FAQS/159000/FA159780/en_US/Installing%20PCNS%203.0.1%20on%20ESXi-vMA%205.0.pdf

ESXi 5.5

And again ... I did neither of those. I did NOT install the VMA and then the PCNS on it. That's only one way to do it. Another is to download the whole thing as an appliance (3rd link here): http://www.apc.com/tools/download/software_comp.cfm?sw_sku=SFPCNS31-V&id=127&swfam=127

I've got PCNS 3.1 running, that's not the problem. I'm just wondering about the clients that PCNS is supposed to communicating with. Those 'Powerchute agents' from the previous screenshot ...

But maybe we're talking past each other?

Okay, I see APC have released the VMA with the PCNS software installed already!

(not sure how they are allowed to do this, as it's VMware code, anyway!!!)

So you need to start at Page 21 in the Document, (which you may have done already) and continue to Page 53, when to Add ESXi Servers to the list of Servers to be Shutdown by the vMA appliance, (which is VMA + PCNS software, also called PowerChute Network Shutdown v3.1.0 VMware Virtual Appliance!

The address of the Host running the appliance should always be in the list, if it is now need to do anything else, other than configure.

Ok, now we're on the same page! :)

So I've browsed to page 54 (I had already gone through the wizard stuff before) and I've tried to enter 'vifp addserver xxxx' in the console of the PCNS appliance but I get a 'vipf: command not found' error ...

vifp listservers

does this command work?

No, 'command not found' :(

if you change to the following directory

'/opt/vmware/vma/bin'

and also try sudo vifp listservers

Hi, there is no vma subfolder in the vmware folder ...

There's a bin subfolder though. But vifp doesn't work in there either :/

Seems that appliance isn't fool-proof either!?

I'm checking, this works

sudo vifp listservers

on standard vMA as provided by VMware, on version 5.0.0.2 Build 724898.

and also has the directory '/opt/vmware/vma/bin'.

The new PowerChute Appliance is NOT VMA!

and it's setup differently to the document above...

see here

http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/SJHN-92FLU8/SJHN-92FLU8_R0_EN.pdf

When going through the wizard, you assign Hosts to UPS

under the

PowerChute Setup: VMware Host Protection setup.

So the commands are deprecated for this appliance, and not needed, if you've gone through the wizard, you are protected.

Ok, then I should be good ... thank you so far!

One more question though (relating to all of this), on the Wizard page following the VMware Host Protection Setup: given that my installation is a cluster should I enable all the options on the 'PowerChute Setup: Virtual Machine Settings' page or not? If yes, what delays? 120 seconds?

Ok, thanks a lot!