Single UPS that can control 2 PCs?

[Bert Hyman]

After three power failures in a week, I'm ready to get a UPS.

I'd like a single UPS which can signal two PCs to shut down on loss of
AC power. I don't need the PCs to run any longer than it takes to shut
down cleanly.

I visited APC's Web site, but there's nothing in their selector "wizard"
to specify that particular requirement.

Who makes a "consumer" UPS that can perform this function?

 

[John McGaw]

After three power failures in a week, I'm ready to get a UPS.

I'd like a single UPS which can signal two PCs to shut down on loss of
AC power. I don't need the PCs to run any longer than it takes to shut
down cleanly.

I visited APC's Web site, but there's nothing in their selector "wizard"
to specify that particular requirement.

Who makes a "consumer" UPS that can perform this function?

I've never seen any UPS units other than whole-rack server units that could
control multiple computers. If your two computers are networked then one
kludge would be to have the master computer run a batch file as Windows is
closing using the Group Policy Editor and then have the batch file execute
"shutdown /m \\other_computer". I'm fairly certain that this would work --
for sure the shutdown command works on my networked computers. If you just
type "shutdown" at the command prompt you will see that there are a dozen
or more options available.

 

[Bert Hyman]

In John McGaw

I've never seen any UPS units other than whole-rack server units that
could control multiple computers. If your two computers are networked
then one kludge would be to have the master computer run a batch file
as Windows is closing using the Group Policy Editor and then have the
batch file execute "shutdown /m \\other_computer". I'm fairly certain
that this would work -- for sure the shutdown command works on my
networked computers. If you just type "shutdown" at the command prompt
you will see that there are a dozen or more options available.

Neat idea.

I'll give it a try and see if the batch file is executed early enough in
the shutdown sequence that the network is still alive.

If it works, it would certainly save me more than a few bucks.

 

[Gerard Bok]

In John McGaw

Neat idea.

I'll give it a try and see if the batch file is executed early enough in
the shutdown sequence that the network is still alive.

That won't be a problem.
Look at the START command (part of Windows).
Precede your batch lines with START /WAIT
and you will force the batch commands to be executed one after
the other.

 

[Bert Hyman]

In Bert Hyman

Neat idea.

Well, maybe not quite.

I tried it and it works (I had to update permissions on the "other"
machine to allow remote shutdown).

But, as I tested the process, I realized that I really don't want the
"other" machine to be shut down every time "this" machine shuts down.

Maybe the UPS utilities or whatever set some sort of environment
variable or leave a file around that can be tested in the BAT file I'd
use to shut down the other machine so that it only performs the remote
shutdown on a power failure.

I guess here's where I find out just how good the pre-sales tech support
of the various UPS makers is

 

[Bert Hyman]

In Bert Hyman

Maybe the UPS utilities or whatever set some sort of environment
variable or leave a file around that can be tested in the BAT file I'd
use to shut down the other machine so that it only performs the remote
shutdown on a power failure.

Even easier; the function I'm looking for is apparently built in to Windows
XP.

In Control Panel->Power Options, UPS tab, I selected an arbitrary UPS and
in the "Configure..." dialog and found that there's a field for selecting a
program to run when the "Critial alarm" state is reached. So, I just call
the BAT file to shut down the other machine from there.