How I've set up APC Back-UPS RS 1000 on Debian

Incomplete

This article is written to describe the steps I've used to configure the APC Back-UPS RS 1000 (aka BR1000I) UPS in my Debian box. The version showed in the link is the italian (european?) one, different in voltage and power ports from the american one.

1. Why and which UPS

Working hard on same complex and unreadable piece of code and then see it disappering because your system reboots due to a power loss, let you generate some rare insults in languages you tought you wouldn't know before... It happened to everyone, but you can avoid it using a UPS.

Uninterruptible Power Supply, UPS in short, is a battery that let you computer stay up during an electrical outage. This gives you enought time to save your work and turn off your pc safely: remember, this is the main work of an UPS, so do not undestimate your power needings.

Moreover, laying between the electric network and your machine, an UPS acts like a filter during voltage lowering, during power spot (a pick in the voltage, that can cause severe problems to you computer) or for a disturbed electric connection (tipical in rural zones).

Based on your needs and looking into your pocket, it's safe to buy an UPS... I choosed the BR1000I because it let my pc stay up a great amount of time (more than 30 mins all turned on, more than 40 with monitor off...) and this is what i wanted. And it's an APC, maybe the best UPS company around and well supported in the Linux community.

1.1 How to choose an UPS

The sell you a pc talking about W (watt) and they sell you an UPS talking about VA (Volt-Ampere). Hey! Two different measures, but we have the key: W = 0.8 * VA (this is true in Europe, or in every place where electric network is at 220 V). So my UPS of 1000VA is able to provide 800 W of power (that's nice...).

Reading the UPS description, you may find "Line interactive" or "AVR"

2. Installation

There are many tools to monitor an UPS, for example Network UPS Tools (NUT) and Apcupsd. I've choosen the last one because it seemed to give me what i need.

Because it exists in a Debian package, its installation is easy as type

# apt-get install apcupsd

3. Configuration

Download apcupsd.conf

Sandro Tosi (email), 20 June 2005