Availability : How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts) : Comments

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

jholland — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:45:21 GMT

Thanks to William Lam (lamw), Innuendo_, llyubenov, Duncan Epping and Steve Chambers.

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

lamw — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:58:53 GMT

Thanks for putting this detailed document together, great work.

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

bbustin — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:58:05 GMT

I am always leery of disabling a firewall. Instead of disabling the firewall, I added two rules to the top of the INPUT chain in iptables. I didn't add it into the redhat chain that was already thee in case it gets auto generated. This seems to work so far. I have not yet tested a UPS-initiated shutdown. I did not add rules for SNMP or SNMPTRAPS because they seemed to already be there.

Here are the commands that I used. I hope this helps.

sudo iptables -I INPUT 1 -p TCP --dport apcupsd -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT

sudo iptables -I INPUT 2 -p UDP --dport apc-3052 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT

sudo /etc/init.d/iptables save

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

jholland — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:34:48 GMT

Thanks Brian. I tried adding rules to VIMA's firewall to allow the UPS to talk with apcupsd, but I could not get it to work properly. If I get a chance to test this (may take a while as I do not have my spare UPS for testing anymore) or you can confirm that the UPS can communicate properly with the apcupsd daemon running on the VIMA VM I will add this into the document.

There are details on testing this here:

http://www.apcupsd.com/manual/Testing_Apcupsd.html#SECTION000145000000000000000

Joseph.

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

bbustin — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:10:55 GMT

We performed a simulated power outage test of our entire infrastructure as hurricane season is imminent. The test consisted of making sure that our backups were completed and then unplugging both of our UPS from building power.

The VMs running on ESXi as well as the ESXi hosts themselves shut down properly.

It looks like the firewall rules work, but I would encourage someone else to test as well just to double-check.

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

guidobras — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:34:05 GMT

Hi, I'm using ESXi U4 and version 4 of this document (shutdown via ssh with a script running on ESXi host).

I'm testing the script connecting via ssh to the ESXi U4 host and manually typing in the relevant commands.

Unfortunately when I issue the final command to physically shutdown the host (/sbin/poweroff) it refuses to do it (Poweroff: No.)

To make it work I have to force the shutdown with /sbin/poweroff -f (which causes a non graceful shutdown)

is there a workaround to this? Or am I doing something wrong?

These are the commands I've issued and related messages:

~ # /sbin/shutdown.sh

Running sfcbd-watchdog stop

Stopping sfcbd

Running wsmand stop

Stopping openwsmand

watchdog-openwsmand: Terminating watchdog with PID 1557

Running sfcbd stop

This operation is not supported.

Please use /etc/init.d/sfcbd-watchdog start

Running slpd stop

Stopping slpd

Running hostd stop

watchdog-hostd: Terminating watchdog with PID 1475

Running ntpd stop

Stopping ntpd

config implicitly loaded

Saving current state in /bootbank

Clock updated.

Time: 09:22:18 Date: 05/20/2009 UTC

~ #/sbin/poweroff

poweroff: No.

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

guidobras — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:45:18 GMT

Solved!

It was the "sleep 30", too short to allow my VM to complete a graceful shutdown

I used a longer sleep and all is OK now

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

FixR — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:37:37 GMT

Thanks for the very usefull scripts and example!

One question: How can I add a script for remote shutting down my storage? I think it must be done before shutting down the vMA server. Where can i integrate it?

Thanks in advance.

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

nycvelo — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:57:22 GMT

Thanks for this helpful howto.

What version of apcupsd is right for ESX 3.5 hosts? I thought ESX (non-i) was based on something older than RHEL5 (and is i386 and not x86_64) but just checking...

Thanks again.

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

jholland — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:26:46 GMT

The apcupsd is not installed on the ESXi host, it's installed on VIMA/VMA which is based on RHEL5 and x86_64.

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

nycvelo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:00:31 GMT

Thanks, Joseph! I did make one exception from your howto: Because I already have another machine connected to the monitored UPS, I installed and configued the VMA box as a client to this monitor box. Here's the relevant stuff from apcupsd.conf:

UPSCABLE ether

UPSTYPE net

DEVICE myapcupsdmonitor.examplecom:3551

I've tested this setup on other (physical) Linux boxes and it works fine.

I also added '/home/vi-admin/upsVIShutdown.pl' to apccontrol as per your howto.

So here's my question: With my VMA box as a client, will that perl script still shutdown each guest VM or will I need apcupsd instances running on each VM?

I should mention that the guest VMs are a mix of Windows, FreeBSD and OpenBSD. The Windows guest machines will gracefully shut down when hitting stop from the ESX VI client; the BSD boxes don't, so I need to run shutdown on them before powering off from ESX VI.

Thanks again!

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

FixR — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:31:23 GMT

How can I add a script for remote shutting down my storage? I think it must be done before shutting down the vMA server. Where can i integrate it?

Thanks in advance.

RE: How to configure ESXi to shutdown using an APC SmartUPS (with lamw scripts)

jholland — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:55:28 GMT

@FixR - I have sent you a PM about this.

Anyway what OS does your storage server run, is it as easy as running a shutdown command via SSH? If so I think the best place for you to put this script/command is after the "/home/vi-admin/upsVIShutdown.pl" line in the "apcupsd.conf" file. See below:

doshutdown)

echo "UPS ${2} initiated Shutdown Sequence" | ${WALL}

/home/vi-admin/upsVIShutdown.pl

/path/to/script/shutdown_storage.sh

${SHUTDOWN} -h now "apcupsd UPS ${2} initiated shutdown"

;;

The above "should" work, I'm not 100% though. Give it a shot and let me know how you get on.

Joseph.