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Chapter 8: Power Management
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Figure 8-13. NUT.
NUT is built on a networked model with a layered scheme of drivers, server and clients:
The driver programs talk directly to the UPS equipment and run on the same host as the NUT network server (upsd). Drivers are provided for a wide
assortment of equipment from most of the popular UPS vendors and understand the specific language of each UPS. They communicate with serial,
USB, and SNMP network connected UPS hardware and map the communications back to a compatibility layer. This means both an expensive
“smart” protocol UPS and a simple “power strip” model can be handled transparently.
The NUT network server program upsd is responsible for passing status data from the drivers to the client programs via the network. upsd can
cache the status from multiple UPSes and then serve this status data to many clients. upsd also contains access control features to limit the abilities
of the clients (only authorized hosts may monitor or control the UPS hardware).
There are a number of NUT clients that connect to upsd to check on the status of the UPS hardware and do things based on the status. These
clients can run on the same host as the NUT server or they can communicate with the NUT server over the network (enabling them to monitor any
UPS anywhere):
The upsc client provides a quick way to poll the status of a UPS server. Use it inside shell scripts and other programs that need UPS data
but don't want to include the full interface.
The upsmon client enables servers that draw power through the UPS to shutdown gracefully when the battery power reaches critical.
There are also logging clients (upslog) and third party interface clients (Big Sister, Cacti, Nagios, Windows, and more.
Refer to
.)
The latest release of NUT (2.4) also controls PDU systems. It can do this either natively using SNMP or through a binding to
(open
source software from Livermore Labs that also is embedded in Black Box console servers).
These NUT clients and servers all are embedded in each Black Box console server (with a Management Console presentation layer added) —and
they also are run remotely on distributed console servers and other remote NUT monitoring systems. This layered distributed NUT architecture
enables:
Multiple manufacturer support: NUT can monitor UPS models from 79 different manufacturers—and PDUs from a growing number of vendors—
with a unified interface.
Multiple architecture support: NUT can manage serial and USB connected UPS models with the same common interface. Network-connected USB
and PDU equipment can also be monitored using SNMP.
Multiple clients monitoring one UPS: Multiple systems may monitor a single UPS using only their network connections. There is a wide selection of
client programs that support monitoring UPS hardware via NUT (Big Sister, Cacti, Nagios, and more).
Multiple local
UPSes
Multiple
remote UPSes
Monitor log graph and client
NUT upsc client
Local NUT upsd server
NUT serial/USB/SNMP UPS drivers
NUT upsd server
UPS drivers
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