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Subsections


Planning Your Installation


Quick Start for Beginners

apcupsd is a complex piece of software, but most of its complexities are meant for dealing with older hardware and operating systems. On current hardware and software getting it running should not be very complicated.

The following is a help guide to the steps needed to get apcupsd set up and running as painlessly as possible.

  1. Check to see if apcupsd supports your UPS and cable (see Supported UPSes and Cables).
  2. Check to see if apcupsd supports your operating system (see Supported Operating Systems).
  3. Plan your configuration type (see Choosing a Configuration Type). If you have just one UPS and one computer, this is easy. If you have more than one machine being served by the same UPS, or more than one UPS supplying power to computers that are on the same local network, you have more choices to make.
  4. Figure out if you have one of the easy setups. If you have a USB UPS, and a supported operating system and you want to use one UPS with one computer, that's an easy setup. APC supplies the cable needed to talk with that UPS along with the UPS. All you need to do is check that your USB subsystem is working (see USB Configuration); if so, you can go to the build and install step.
  5. If you have a UPS designed to communicate via SNMP over Ethernet, that is also a relatively easy installation. It's in Advanced Topics (see Advanced topics) mainly because it's an unusual situation.
  6. If you have a UPS that communicates via an RS232C serial interface and it is a SmartUPS, then things are relatively simple, otherwise, your life is about to get interesting.

    1. If you have a vendor-supplied cable, find out what cable type you have by looking on the flat ends of the cable for a number, such as 940-0020A, stamped in the plastic. Check the cables column of the table of types (see type_table) to see if it's a supported type.
    2. If you don't have a vendor-supplied cable, or your type is not supported, you may have to build one yourself (see Cables). Here is hoping you are good with a soldering iron!

  7. Now you are ready to read the Building and Installing (see Building and Installing apcupsd) section of the manual and follow those directions. If you are installing from an RPM or some other form of binary package, this step will probably consist of executing a single command.
  8. Tweak your /etc/apcupsd/apcupd.conf file as necessary. Often it will not be.
  9. Change the BIOS settings (see Arranging for Reboot on Power-Up) on your computer so that boots up every time it gets power. (This is not the default on most systems.)
  10. To verify that your UPS is communicating with your computer and will do the right thing when the power goes out, read and follow the instructions in the Testing (see Testing Apcupsd) section.
  11. If you run into problems, read the Troubleshooting (see Troubleshooting Your Installation) section of this manual.
  12. If you still need help, send a message to the developer's email list apcupsd-users at lists.sourceforge.net describing your problem, what version of apcupsd you are using, what operating system you are using, and anything else you think might be helpful.
  13. Read the manual sections on monitoring and maintaining your UPS.


next up previous contents index
Next: Supported Operating Systems Up: Apcupsd User's Guide Previous: Basic User's Guide   Contents   Index
2009-11-06