Configuring UPS

If you have an uninterrupted power supply device from APC corporation, you can automate your system startup and shutdown when running on batteries using the open source tool called apcupsd.

$ sudo emerge -av apcupsd

Have a look at the possible USE flags for the package and put an entry in your /etc/portage/package.use/sys-power if desired. The cgi flag is recommended for the web configuration below. Afterward, emerge the package.

Once emerged, edit the configuration file to suit your needs.

$ sudo nano -w /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf

Edit the hosts.conf file to enable cgi web monitoring.

$ sudo nano -w /etc/apcupsd/hosts.conf

Add your email address and particulars to the files changeme,onbattery and offbattery if you want notifications when the power goes out. Note that notifications may not work unless you change the APCUPSD_MAIL directive from /bin/mail to /usr/bin/sendmail.

Next, set apcupsd to start with the system.

$ sudo rc-update add apcupsd default

Start the service.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apcupsd start

To view your UPS's statistics once the service has started,

$ sudo apcaccess status

CGI Web Monitoring

This feature used to be provided by the installer using the webapp-config command, but support for this was removed some time ago.

To enable CGI web monitoring, you'll need to create a symbolic link from your primary web folder to the apcupsd script directory. Assuming you aren't using apache vhosts,

$ sudo -u apache ln -s /usr/libexec/apcupsd/cgi-bin /var/www/localhost/htdocs/apcupsd

You'll then need to make an addition to your apache configuration.

$ sudo nano -w /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Add the following to the bottom of the file:

<Directory /var/www/localhost/htdocs/apcupsd>
# * The cgi-bin directory for apcupsd is /usr/libexec/apcupsd/cgi-bin.
# * Set up your ScriptAlias or symbolic links accordingly.
       Options ExecCGI
       SetHandler cgi-script
</Directory>

Restart the apache server.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

You should now be able to see the statistic from a browser by visiting http://localhost/apcupsd/multimon.cgi.