Well, it’s been a while since my last post – busy as always!
But APC’s got my dander up, and this is the only way I can relieve some tension 
<soapbox>
It seems that somewhere between 8.0.0 and 8.0.1, APC ‘saw the light’ and decided IT people don’t know how to do their jobs.
Basically, APC now believes we shouldn’t be allowed to use the free version of PowerChute version 8.0.1 on Server 2008 if it’s running the Hyper-V role.
That’s right. APC is telling us we can’t use their basic product because of a ROLE we have assigned to our servers.
Oh, and by the way, you’ll have to PAY for APC network cards and software licenses too (minor detail). One more time for clarity – you won’t be able to run PowerChute Business Edition on any server running Hyper-V (or any virtualization platform), and you’ll have to PAY them for something else instead (even though the initial version of 8.0 worked just fine).
As someone said in an APC forum, it’s because…
Business Edition does not support any type of virtualization
[ But I’m not asking for that – it’s a physical server ]
and
… powerchute network shutdown’s main concern is to shutdown the physical machine’s operating system gracefully. this means that if you have Windows Sever 2008 (host OS) installed with Hyper-V, powerchute network shutdown will only gracefully shutdown Windows Server 2008. If you have virtual (guest) operating systems, you will need to make sure those get shutdown gracefully via some other method since powerchute cannot command them to shutdown since it will only shut down Windows Server 2008.
[ Isn’t it MY job as the IT guy to worry about this? I wasn’t asking APC to be concerned with the VM’s that might be running on my server. APC’s never been concerned with what I was running on the servers in the past – that’s what the Deluxe version allowed ME to manage with scripting ]
and
… powerchute business edition does not support installation on any type of server where VMWare or Hyper-V is installed because we have specialized versions of powerchute network shutdown available for them. the theory is that you do not want to install business edition, which relies on a physical (USB or serial) connection to the server and then the guest operating systems will crash if the Windows Server 2008 or other server operating system shuts down.”
[ Thanks APC for making the specialized versions ‘available’ – nice to hear your ‘theory’ about what I’m thinking ]
Again, I’m not asking for APC to be concerned with what’s running on my PHYSICAL server – that’s up to me to worry about. The fact is, it’s a simple registry tweak to get the server to pause longer to allow the VM’s to shutdown gracefully.
Sure, APC, you’ve got a network product you’d like to sell, but forcing the issue because you think IT folks can’t handle the issue on the backend on their own is a just a little over the top. The network product should be for when there are multiple physical servers. I’m perfectly capable of managing my VM’s on the back-end.
To make this totally clear to anyone from APC reading this – you’ve now decided to play ‘big brother’ because ‘APC knows best’. It WILL backfire.
You’re not the only game in town.
</soapbox>
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Thanks for the information. Discovered this today. Awesome work from the team at APC.
APC is always such a pain, my initial fun with them was when trying to get facts about 8.0 working, and they were saying it worked on windows 2008, yes i needed to get java where at the time there was no supported java version for 2008. anyways, i tried to get them to walk me thru the install, and we could never get past the java version, i simply asked them where or could they send me the copy of java they used…
fun..
APC’s software is one of the main reasons we are looking at other makes of UPS now….
Well done APC
Or take a look at this: http://www.apcupsd.org/
Just installed and it seems to work, though I haven’t delved too deeply as yet. It may seem basic at first, but hopefully this means I can be cleverer with any scripting.
I agree that my next UPS purchase will unlikely be APC unless they reverse this change.
I can’t find the words to describe how disappointed I am after discovering this fact… I’ve been using APC devices for over 5 years, but now I’ll need to research for other supplier.
We’ve started looking at Zigor UPSes. The software works and works in Hyper-V. The units seem reasonable and well priced.
Count me in – I’m looking elsewhere because of APC software “incompatibilities” and incompleteness.
Let me add my voice to the chorus. Not impressed APC!
The batteries in the UPS I want to connect to my Hyper-V host are due for replacement in a little over a month. It’s time to look for alternatives to APC gear.
12-30-2009
Been an APC user for many, many years. Have three of these guys, from the very big to the very small and they are all still cooking just fine. Tried to create an acct. on the APC site (because this is apparently the only way they will let you download the software that supposedly works with Win7 & Server 2008) and this little operation evidently locked their server up. They can’t even run a good server anymore…suppose the Chinese bought them out and now they don’t care about us. Either that or they’re smokin’ some really good stuff there in the server room and just forgot to turn the server on…
Sniff! Now I’ll have to find another UPS company and throw out 3 perfectly good UPSes. Darn! (Chuckie in Redmond)
APC have stuck their nose into something that is none of their concern, as configuring shutdown delays has always been the role of the user. To program a block in the install and then create more software with associated costs stinks. What happens when more virtualisation platforms are released – install blocks for those also, with more releases of Powerchute BE/network shutdown for xx, yy, zz?
I work for an ASP/SI, and we tried to stack a bunch of new Hyper-V based units on existing APC equipment, stumbling on this issue. I would have liked the software to function for the entire duration of the equipment’s life without having to re-invest.
I have enjoyed the romance with their great equipment over the years, but it was too easy to look elsewhere given the circumstances. This has lead to ordering new equipment, and naturally having to steer clients in the same direction.
Not a particularly smart move from APC with their competitors being so numerous nowerdays. They’re going to lose their loyal customers if this (and their buggy coldfusion website) is a sign of what is to come.
Finally got the software from an APC Tech. Had to literally bludgeon him to get it…here’s the URL
http://forums.isxusergroups.com/thread.jspa?messageID=17810䖒
This is for Win7 using the USB cable.
If you have a larger model UPS and it uses the serial cable, they advise using the business edition. I don’t have the URL for that.
You do need to create an account first, which seems to be working today….hurry!
Enjoy
CDF
Sorry, that link is very hard to find on the ref. page, so I dug it out to save all that need it some time…
ftp://restrict:Kop$74!@ftp.apcc.com/restricted/software/pcpe/220/windows/PCPE_2.2_en-US.msi
Wierd URL but it works…
CDF
Just use bugmenot.com to get a password for the apc website.
I’m trying to work out why sbs2008 thinks the server is running on batteries all the time after a powercut. Can’t work out how to get it to run on power again.
Have anyone more have bad experiencies with APC UPS Deamon?
(http://www.apcupsd.org/)
Thanks in advance