User`s manual

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724-746-5500 | blackbox.com Page 120
 The driver programs talk directly to the UPS equipment and run on the same host as the NUT
network server (upsd). Drivers are provided for a wide assortment of equipment from most of
the popular UPS vendors and understand the specific language of each UPS. They communicate
with serial, USB, and SNMP network connected UPS hardware and map the communications
back to a compatibility layer. This means both an expensive “smart” protocol UPS and a simple
“power strip” model can be handled transparently.
 The NUT network server program upsd is responsible for passing status data from the drivers to
the client programs via the network. upsd can cache the status from multiple UPSes and then
serve this status data to many clients. upsd also contains access control features to limit the
abilities of the clients (only authorized hosts may monitor or control the UPS hardware).
 There are a number of NUT clients that connect to upsd to check on the status of the UPS
hardware and do things based on the status. These clients can run on the same host as the NUT
server or they can communicate with the NUT server over the network (enabling them to
monitor any UPS anywhere):
 The upsc client provides a quick way to poll the status of a UPS server. Use it inside shell
scripts and other programs that need UPS data but don't want to include the full
interface.
 The upsmon client enables servers that draw power through the UPS to shutdown
gracefully when the battery power reaches critical.
 There are also logging clients (upslog) and third party interface clients (Big Sister, Cacti,
Nagios, Windows, and more. Refer www.networkupstools.org/client-projects.)
 The latest release of NUT (2.4) also controls PDU systems. It can do this either natively using
SNMP or through a binding to Powerman (open source software from Livermore Labs that also
is embedded in Black Box console servers).
These NUT clients and servers all are embedded in each Black Box console server (with a Management
Console presentation layer added) —and they also are run remotely on distributed console servers and
other remote NUT monitoring systems. This layered distributed NUT architecture enables:
 Multiple manufacturer support: NUT can monitor UPS models from 79 different
manufacturers—and PDUs from a growing number of vendors—with a unified interface.
 Multiple architecture support: NUT can manage serial and USB connected UPS models with the
same common interface. Network-connected USB and PDU equipment can also be monitored
using SNMP.
 Multiple clients monitoring one UPS: Multiple systems may monitor a single UPS using only their
network connections. There is a wide selection of client programs that support monitoring UPS
hardware via NUT (Big Sister, Cacti, Nagios and more).
 Central management of multiple NUT servers: A central NUT client can monitor multiple NUT
servers that may be distributed throughout the data center, across a campus, or around the
world.
NUT supports the more complex power architectures found in data centers, communications centers,
and distributed office environments where many UPSes from many vendors power many systems with