Synology UPS operation/permissions

[OGroteKoning]

Sorry in advance for the long-winded post, but I want to give as much info as possible for you to help me.

I need someone to help me with setting up my Synology NAS so that when the power goes out, the UPS will send a signal to the NAS to safely shut it down as soon as possible (?immediately?).

Setup:
I recently got myself a Mecer ME-2000-VU UPS. The UPS supplies power to my Asus RT-n66u router, Synology DS411j NAS and 2 PCs (one of which is a laptop with no battery). The UPS is connected to a PC via USB to operate the monitoring software. And the PCs, router and NAS is connected via ethernet through the router. The PC connected to the UPS and the NAS both have static IP addresses. The software for the UPS is called ViewPower and it came with the UPS.

Problem:
I did the pucker setup and all works well - that is if you are areound to switch off the PC's and NAS manually. For the life of me, I do not know how to get the NAS to shut down safely without human intervention. NAS is on DSM 4.1. I got to the UPS settings under "Power", and it asks me for an IP address for the UPS. The UPS is not connected with any ethernet cables, although there is modem/surge protection feature on the UPS, but I doubt it can be used to for normal ethernet connections (or can it?). So what do I put in the IP field in order for the NAS to see the UPS and detect loss of AC power?

On the PC software (ViewPower), the dashboard operates through web interface (Chrome, IE, etc) and it shows something like "http://localhost:15178/ViewPower/" (can't remember exactly). In my desperation, I entered this in the IP field of the NAS, but this did not work or is not intended to work that way or I did something wrong. I doubt that I will be able to make a connection this way seeing the UPS is connected via USB.

I have also entered the static address of the NAS into ViewPower for remote shutdown, but this did not work. I don't know if the NAS needs to give permission/access to the UPS, and if so, how do I do that?

Any help will be appreciated

 

[OGroteKoning]

Okay ... I did it!

WinNUT works well, but it is outdated. Is there another UPS configuration tool some of you use which is a bit more recent for Windows 7? This one does not really allow for alot of configuration.

My setup now is :
UPS connected to NAS with USB
NAS, PC and Router on same network and all with power supply from UPS

 

[stevech]

I understand that Synology (et al) implement the semi-standard minimal protocol for communicating with UPSes from major manufacturers. You plug the USB cable from the UPS into the NAS, not the PC. I think that Microsoft defined the standard.

With the UPS plugged into a PC - that PC has to be ON whenever the NAS is ON, so that the software you mention can send an IP packet on the LAN, and the NAS might trigger a shutdown on receipt of that packet. Of course, all ethernet switches in the wiring from PC to NAS LAN have to be on as well, meaning these devices have to be UPS powered, along with the PC into which the UPS is plugged. I get the impression that this shareware to do the packet over LAN notice to other PCs and the NAS - is flaky.

So, if your VIP files are on the NAS, and you make a habit of not storing any important irreplaceable data on the PC's disk, the the UPS-to-NAS via USB seems the best choice. That's what I do - and on PCs, I run "SecondCopy" from Centered Systems (cheap). That is setup to copy selected folders from PC to NAS whenever there's a change, or every x minutes/hours. This helps avoid mistakes where VIP data did get put only on the PC.

 

[OGroteKoning]

stevech, thanks for replying (for a moment I thought I am a threadkiller ... )

I played around with different options (UPS to PC and UPS to NAS), and I wasn't sure exactly which setup I preferred. Your explanation makes it unanimous. The UPS must be connected to the NAS. That is where the most VIP info is stored, therefor requires the first point of protection. So that is now taken care of.

Problem is that the signal sent to the PC to shut down, is almost "abrupt". And WinNUT is not really that much configurable. If you know of a better UPS controller, please let me know.

I like the idea of "SecondCopy" - I will investigate