Selecting UPS for TrueNAS Scale (beginner)

TrueNAS General
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1

I’ve searched and had issues finding understandable information for finding a UPS and then configuring that UPS through the Truenas included interface.
As device may not be listed under the driver section, and was unable to proceed with my previous UPS model.

I currently have a Amazon Basics 600VA UPS, which runs networking gear (Router + Switch) and the TrueNAS home server (~60-70w idle) on its backup.

It has a USB-B port and I did connect it to truenas system which had a variety of messages in console (ABST600 mentions etc) I returned the cable I bought after not having any responses to my previous request for configuring this UPS and figured I need to get something new and more standard, so i can have a soft shutdown when UPS has low battery.

Power outages are very rare, but flickers aren’t too uncommon. They don’t always shut down a PC, usually will shut down one of my main monitors.

I’m confused on finding the specific information needed to configure the UPS when connected via USB, and seen alot of conflicting information about setting up NUT servers etc.

2

Welcome!

TrueNAS uses NUT

Your Amazon UPS is likely rebranded kit from some other manufacturer, so you likely will not find it in the hardware compatibility list or driver pick list.

Run the following command

nut-scanner

You should see output similar to the following. More than likely yours will use the usbhid-ups driver

[nutdev1]
	driver = "usbhid-ups"
	port = "auto"
	vendorid = "051D"
	productid = "0002"
	product = "Back-UPS XS 1500M FW:947.d11 .D USB FW:d11"
	serial = "3B2125X60993"
	vendor = "American Power Conversion"
	bus = "000"
	device = "003"
	busport = "001"

Configure TrueNAS UPS settings as follows

Mode: Master
Driver: usbhid-ups (pick any model that uses this driver)
Port: auto

Note: There is a known bug in TrueNAS SCALE where the UPS reporting will be blank. Use the following command to see if TrueNAS has connected to the UPS

upsc upsmon # (or what ever identifier you defined)

Personally, I connect my UPS to my pfSense firewall as a UPS Master and all my TrueNAS servers as UPS Slaves.

1 Like
3

Thanks for the response, i don’t have a pfsense router setup or anything like that.

usbhid-ups rings a bell when i was seeing tons of what looked like error logs scrolling my console output from the Truesense screen output.

I’ll grab another cable, and test it out, the next cheapest UPS that meets my needs is a cyberpower 550VA that also uses that cable, and i’ll try to follow through this and see what comes up.

4

Looks like this post confirms the Amazon Basics 600VA uses the usbhid-ups driver and may be rebranded CyberPower hardware.

1 Like
5

Does this help ID it?

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Says CPS ABST600 so assuming thats Cyberpower systems? Just came back with cable now and going through above steps

That message clears then bit later this message shows on console, saying it was disconnected and then device number goes up by 1, so hoping that doesn’t mean its busted, or it just doesn’t have a successful endpoint connection or something

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Going through shell in truenas dashboard, nut-scanner isn’t finding anything but timing it when the usb device is connected it fails to open something.

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Soon as I turned the service on, the console messages stopped, and nut-scanner stays at the bottom message when ran.

Setting it up, i followed the remote monitor username/etc, upsc upsmon ups doesn’t work and gives an error still trying to work out.

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Is the web shell equivalent to 7 in the interface (linus shell)?

6

So I see UPS,

image

but cannot run that upsc upsmon command, unsure how.

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I believe the port is 1?
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7

Started getting low battery notifcations that were a bit confusing, after its been setup and not touched beyond point above.

Some examples,

UPS Warnings

UPS amazonups battery level low.

UPS Statistics: ‘amazonups’

Statistics recovered:

  1. Battery charge (percent)
    battery.charge: 100

  2. Battery level remaining (percent) when UPS switches to Low Battery (LB)
    battery.charge.low: 10

  3. Battery runtime (seconds)
    battery.runtime: 575

  4. Battery runtime remaining (seconds) when UPS switches to Low Battery (LB)
    battery.runtime.low: 300

UPS amazonups battery level low.

UPS Statistics: ‘amazonups’

Statistics recovered:

  1. Battery charge (percent)
    battery.charge: 100

  2. Battery level remaining (percent) when UPS switches to Low Battery (LB)
    battery.charge.low: 10

  3. Battery runtime (seconds)
    battery.runtime: 1250

  4. Battery runtime remaining (seconds) when UPS switches to Low Battery (LB)
    battery.runtime.low: 300

UPS amazonups battery level low.

UPS Statistics: ‘amazonups’

Statistics recovered:

  1. Battery charge (percent)
    battery.charge: 100

  2. Battery level remaining (percent) when UPS switches to Low Battery (LB)
    battery.charge.low: 10

  3. Battery runtime (seconds)
    battery.runtime: 900

  4. Battery runtime remaining (seconds) when UPS switches to Low Battery (LB)
    battery.runtime.low: 300

I turned off the Alert for low battery under alerts and also found I was getting active reporting information albiet not very useful reporting information from UPS under Reporting.

The UPS is 4 years old or so, its worked when have had power outage for network gear etc.

I just have the shutdown set to 15 seconds on low battery but these alerts and that never coincided.