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[benn600]

I have an APC battery backup unit on my server and would like to know if anyone knows of a good program to email me when the power goes out?  I have email setup for my security cameras and raid array so why not for a power outage?  It's perfect now with my iPhone because I'll find out anywhere.

All it needs to do is watch to see if the computer goes on battery power.  I am not using the APC software (and don't want to) but Windows Vista still recognizes it as a standard battery device and therefore, sees it as a percentage...as soon as the percentage drops, email me.

The outage should not be a problem because my internet devices--modem, etc.--are also backed up.  I didn't find anything amazing upon quick searching.

[John Gateley]

Why aren't you using the APC software? It'll probably do what you want...

j

[benn600]

I guess that isn't a bad idea.  With XP I didn't like it because I felt that it provided less information than the built-in system.  Vista doesn't provide some of the nice info that XP did so perhaps I will try it.

Anything less I can install seems good...a small email utility seems less obtrusive.

[Mr ChriZ]

Doesn't the lights going out usually give you the idea  ?

[benn600]

Point is while I'm gone.  I'll receive the notification on my phone.  Then, I can login to my home computer via Logmein and make sure it shut down properly and doesn't get confused or something like that.

[robydago]

what it the power goes out while you're sleeping?
if you really want a clean shutdown, you'd better rely on a software triggered one

[benn600]

Windows does have a triggered shut down.  Lol.  I love this how everyone here assumes I'm ignorant of the entire issue of which I'm asking my question.

I feel that I have everything setup as I want it...now I just want an email when the power goes out!  Linux has a great utility that does this...obviously I'm using Vista.

[Mr ChriZ]

Windows does have a triggered shut down.  Lol.  I love this how everyone here assumes I'm ignorant of the entire issue of which I'm asking my question.

So why do you need the email though?

[benn600]

So I can start freaking out.  OMG, THE POWER'S OUT.

[Mr ChriZ]

So I can start freaking out.  OMG, THE POWER'S OUT.

Ah I see, why didn't you say in the first place 
So what happens if your IPhones battery has run out, or you're in the cinema.
You'll be there for like hours without the ability to Freak.

What you need obviously is for your IPhone to email your server machine to say
that it's running out of battery, then you can remember to stick it on charge   

[KingSparta]

I have an APC battery backup unit on my server and would like to know if anyone knows of a good program to email me when the power goes out?

If the power goes out your isp's node will normally go down (mine does), and you would not get the e-mail anyway.

[benn600]

I've had the power go out without that happening.  In fact, I've surfed the net while the power was out on my laptop and it worked surprisingly well.  (lol)

I would think that the phone company would have some sort of minor battery backup because I'm guessing if the power blipped for a second, some of their equipment would shut down and it would take a while to turn back on...so for that reason, they probably have some sort of battery backup.  And I remember seeing those APC datacenter backups that provide tens of kilowatts and up.  Huge rooms of batteries.

[robydago]

If the power goes out your isp's node will normally go down (mine does), and you would not get the e-mail anyway.

the best way to send an outage warning is to rely on cell phones; in our office we use a GSM modem capable of sending SMS messages; that way he could also receive warnings triggered when the ADSL line is down and the power line is up.

[zxsix]

The APC software sends emails for power spikes, power outage, and battery almost dead.
It would be assumed that your internet router/modem/etc. would also be powered by the APC backup unit...thus you would get the emails immediately.
If you have something against APC's software though, then I don't know what else to suggest.
It works fine in my server farm at work.
I have enough batteries for 18 hours of runtime.  If it goes almost that long, it'll shut down the servers, based on a percentage of battery power left.

[benn600]

That's pretty neat.  Well, I never liked the software because for one thing, it would only manage one UPS and I have different devices for different power-hungry items so that seemed unusual.  I suppose I should look at it again because it has that feature.  Now is that included in the basic edition that is included with typical, consumer UPS devices?  It probably wouldn't be tough to write a little application that would just monitor battery power and email on certain events but the APC software would probably be a good choice.

Oh and I never liked the shut down computer settings because, if I remember correctly, the available percentages for shutting down didn't go low enough.  My UPS is nowhere near huge and can only run my server for 20 minutes...and it cost $200 (marked way down at purchase).  To get 18 hours how much would it cost me?!  And you're talking big time...my setup is just for home and I really don't care if things go down...not for the price it would cost me to keep them up!  We don't have many power issues here anyway other than the very rare short power loss and that isn't any trouble for shorter lasting units like mine.  It's a 1500 VA APC unit.  I have two of them plus a 750, 725, 2 * 650, 2 * 350...so around 8 total UPS devices.  The smaller ones are great for special items like cordless phones so they still work when the power goes out (the base station, obviously).

[zxsix]

$1300 is what it took to get that runtime for here.  The autoshutdown can be disabled of course.  A usb cable connects to one server with the apc software.  Our setup is a single apc device and huge batteries, so can't comment on monitoring multiple smart units.  Could always install the software on each pc.  It's freely available on apc's site.  Download it and breeze through the docs.

[benn600]

my unit claims much longer runtimes on the box than what I actually get for some reason and my power requirements aren't out of sight.