How good is the support for NUT-based UPSs against APC?

Question

My choice of UPS is this -- CyberPower CP900EPFCLCD or APC Smart-UPS 750VA (SMT750I). I intend to connect UPS with USB for data transfer, not Ethernet.

According to UPS HowTo http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/UPS-HOWTO/, the first one is adviced to run with NUT, and the second with Apcupsd.

Are those package equally good? Another issue -- support. When I run into problems, and I would look for some help, with which package (and community related to it) I will solve my problems faster?

In short, which package you think will cause less problems with configuring and using (with UPS)? I am asking this, because those UPSs looks almost the same for me (*), the only thing I don't know now is how good are they when working with Linux.

If you are a user of one of those UPS+packages, please simply answer with your experience "I had no problems at all" or "I had to install Windows to make it work properly". You don't have to know both of them to answer.

(*) The first one is cheaper (price for device, and less energy consumed), the other provides longer power support. For me it is a draw at this point.

Answer 1

I have used NUT with a wide variety of APC UPS models. Support has gotten event better over the years. I would recommend NUT. It works well when supporting a single server single UPS setup and any number of more complicated configurations. I generally recommend NUT whenever I need to monitor a UPS and shutdown appropriately.

Consider enabling the CGI script which will allow you to monitor, query, and configure the UPS using a web browser. The command line utilities work well. Configuration is a little complicated, but each configuration file has a single purpose. Once you get the configuration done, it is pretty well set and forget.

Using the default configuration your server won't shutdown until the UPS reports low-battery. If desired you can log data to syslog, or use a custom script to writer your own log.

Answer 2

I have used (not anymore) apcupsd for about 5 years in combination with linux (RH), w2k3 and various models from APC and with various setups. During that time I notice that for linux was crashing about 1-2 times per month and the w2k3 apcupsd clients refused to reconnect unless restarted. Also I notice some problems operating apcupsd in combination with w2k3 terminal services.