This file is read by the driver controller upsdrvctl(8),
the UPS drivers that use the common core (see nutupsdrv(8), and
upsd(8)). The file begins with global directives, and then each UPS
has a section which contains a number of directives that set parameters for
that UPS.
A UPS section begins with the name of the UPS in brackets, and
continues until the next UPS name in brackets or until EOF. The name
"default" is used internally in upsd, so you can’t use it
in this file.
You must define the driver and port elements for
each entry. Anything after that in a section is optional. A simple example
might look like this:
[myups]
driver = blazer_ser
port = /dev/ttyS0
desc = "Web server UPS"
A slightly more complicated version includes some extras for the
hardware-specific part of the driver:
[bigups]
driver = apcsmart
port = /dev/cua00
cable = 940-0095B
sdtype = 2
desc = "Database server UPS"
In this case, the apcsmart(8) driver will receive variables
called "cable" and "sdtype" which have special meanings.
See the man pages of your driver(s) to learn which variables are supported
and what they do.
chroot
Optional. The driver will
chroot(2) to this directory
during initialization. This can be useful when securing systems.
driverpath
Optional. Path name of the directory in which the UPS
driver executables reside. If you don’t specify this, the programs look
in a built-in default directory, which is often /usr/local/ups/bin.
maxstartdelay
Optional. Same as the UPS field of the same name, but
this is the default for UPSes that don’t have the field.
maxretry
Optional. Specify the number of attempts to start the
driver(s), in case of failure, before giving up. A delay of
retrydelay
is inserted between each attempt. Caution should be taken when using this
option, since it can impact the time taken by your system to start.
The default is 1 attempt.
nowait
Optional. Specify to upsdrvctl to not wait at all for the
driver(s) to execute the request command.
The default (omission) is to wait.
retrydelay
Optional. Specify the delay between each restart attempt
of the driver(s), as specified by
maxretry. Caution should be taken
when using this option, since it can impact the time taken by your system to
start.
The default is 5 seconds.
pollinterval
Optional. The status of the UPS will be refreshed after a
maximum delay which is controlled by this setting. This is normally 2 seconds.
This may be useful if the driver is creating too much of a load on your system
or network.
Note that some drivers (such as usbhid-ups(8),
snmp-ups(8) and nutdrv_qx(8)) also have an option called
pollfreq which controls how frequently some of the less critical
parameters are polled. Details are provided in the respective driver man
pages.
synchronous
Optional. The drivers work by default in asynchronous
mode initially but can fall back to synchronous mode if writes to server
socket failed (i.e
synchronous=auto). This means that all data are
pushed by the driver on the communication socket to upsd (Unix socket on Unix,
Named pipe on Windows) without waiting for these data to be actually consumed.
With some HW, such as ePDUs, that can produce a lot of data, asynchronous mode
may cause some congestion, resulting in the socket to be full, and the driver
to appear as not connected. In such case, the driver will provide the
following debug message:
write XX bytes to socket Y failed
By enabling the synchronous flag (value = yes), the
driver will wait for data to be consumed by upsd, prior to publishing more.
This can be enabled either globally or per driver.
The default of auto acts like no (i.e. asynchronous
mode) for backward compatibility of the driver behavior, until
communications fail with a "Resource temporarily unavailable"
condition, which happens when the driver has many data points to send in a
burst, and the server can not handle that quickly enough so the buffer fills
up.
user
Optional. Overrides the compiled-in default unprivileged
username for all NUT device drivers. See the discussion of the -u option in
nutupsdrv(8) for details.
group
Optional. Overrides the compiled-in (and/or
global-section) default unprivileged group name for all NUT device drivers,
used for the socket file access. See the discussion of the -g option in
nutupsdrv(8) for details. This may be specifically useful for ensuring
access to dynamic device filesystem nodes, such as USB (or serial-over-USB)
hot-plug support, or with device filesystems re-generated by an OS for every
reboot.
debug_min INTEGER
Optional. Specify a minimum debug level for all driver
daemons, e.g. for troubleshooting a deployment, without impacting foreground
or background running mode directly. Command-line option -D can only increase
this verbosity level.
driver
Required. This specifies which program will be monitoring
this UPS. You need to specify the one that is compatible with your hardware.
See
nutupsdrv(8) for more information on drivers in general and
pointers to the man pages of specific drivers.
port
Required. This is the serial port where the UPS is
connected. On a Linux system, the first serial port usually is
/dev/ttyS0. On FreeBSD and similar systems, it probably will be
/dev/cuaa0.
user
Optional. Overrides the compiled-in (and/or
global-section) default unprivileged username for a particular NUT device
driver. See the discussion of the -u option in
nutupsdrv(8) for
details. This may be specifically useful for ensuring access to dynamic device
filesystem nodes, such as USB (or serial-over-USB) hot-plug support, or with
device filesystems re-generated by an OS for every reboot.
group
Optional. Overrides the compiled-in (and/or
global-section) default unprivileged group name for a particular NUT device
driver, used for the socket file access. See the discussion of the -g option
in
nutupsdrv(8) for details. This may be specifically useful for
ensuring access to dynamic device filesystem nodes, such as USB (or
serial-over-USB) hot-plug support, or with device filesystems re-generated by
an OS for every reboot.
sdorder
Optional. When you have multiple UPSes on your system,
you usually need to turn them off in a certain order. upsdrvctl shuts down all
the 0s, then the 1s, 2s, and so on. To exclude a UPS from the shutdown
sequence, set this to -1.
The default value for this parameter is 0.
desc
Optional. This allows you to set a brief description that
upsd will provide to clients that ask for a list of connected equipment.
nolock
Optional. When you specify this, the driver skips the
port locking routines every time it starts. This may allow other processes to
seize the port if you start more than one accidentally.
You should only use this if your system won’t work without
it.
This may be needed on Mac OS X systems.
ignorelb
Optional. When you specify this, the driver ignores a low
battery condition flag that is reported by the UPS (some devices will switch
off almost immediately after setting this flag, or will report this as soon as
the mains fails). Instead it will use either of the following conditions to
determine when the battery is low:
battery.charge < battery.charge.low
battery.runtime < battery.runtime.low
The idea is to set the battery.charge.low and/or
battery.runtime.low levels in ups.conf to a value that gives enough
time to cleanly shutdown your system:
override.battery.charge.low = 30
override.battery.runtime.low = 180
In order for this to work, your UPS should be able to (reliably)
report charge and/or runtime remaining on battery. Use with caution!
maxstartdelay
Optional. This can be set as a global variable above your
first UPS definition and it can also be set in a UPS section. This value
controls how long upsdrvctl will wait for the driver to finish starting. This
keeps your system from getting stuck due to a broken driver or UPS.
The default is 45 seconds.
synchronous
Optional. Same as the global directive of the same name,
but this is for a specific device.
usb_set_altinterface[=altinterface]
Optional. Force the USB code to call
usb_set_altinterface(0), as was done in NUT 2.7.2 and earlier. This should not
be necessary, since the default for bAlternateSetting (as shown in lsusb) is
zero on all USB devices seen to date. However, this redundant call to
usb_set_altinterface() prevents certain UPSes from working on Mac OS X. If
your UPS requires explicitly setting the alternate interface, include this
flag, and email the nut-upsdev list with details about your UPS and operating
system.
default.<variable>
Optional. Set a default value for <variable> which
is used in case the UPS doesn’t provide a value, but will be
overwritten if a value is available from the UPS:
default.input.voltage.nominal = 230
The above will report the nominal input voltage to be 230, unless
the UPS tells us differently.
override.<variable>
Optional. Set a value for <value> that overrides
any value that may be read from the UPS. Used for overriding values from the
UPS that are clearly wrong (some devices report wrong values for battery
voltage for instance):
override.battery.voltage.nominal = 12
Use with caution! This will only change the appearance of the
variable to the outside world, internally in the UPS the original value is
used.
All other fields are passed through to the hardware-specific part
of the driver. See those manuals for the list of what is allowed.
debug_min INTEGER
Optional. Specify a minimum debug level for this driver
daemon, e.g. for troubleshooting a deployment, without impacting foreground or
background running mode directly. If the global debug_min is also set, this
driver-level setting overrides it. Command-line option -D can only increase
this verbosity level.