LanSafe Release Notes Version 5.0.1 These release notes are provided as a guide to help troubleshoot LanSafe deployment issues. This document is not intended to be all-inclusive. The contents of this document are copyright 2003 Powerware. For the latest updates and product release information, visit www.powerware.com. For additional installation and software assistance, review the LanSafe ReadMe file and online help/manual. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 1.0 Product Description 2.0 System Requirements 3.0 Compatible Devices 4.0 New Features 5.0 Known Issues 6.0 Workarounds 7.0 Bug Fixes 8.0 Supported Third-Party UPSs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 Product Description -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LanSafe is power protection software that provides UPS monitoring, control, and preventive measures against power problems that affect computer networks and equipment. Together with Powerware UPS products, computer network systems protected by LanSafe software are more reliable and less prone to down time and data corruption. LanSafe is capable of connecting to UPSs that are directly connected to the network, in addition to those that are attached to computers via USB or serial ports. LanSafe can manage up to 64 computers that receive protected power from one UPS. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 System Requirements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.1 Supported Platforms Operating systems are running on 32-bit processors unless otherwise specified. * Windows > Windows Me > Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 6 or greater) - Workstation - Server > Windows 2000 - Server - Advanced Server - Professional > Windows XP - Home - Professional > Windows Server 2003 - Standard - Web - Enterprise (&) * HP-UX > 10.20, 11.0, 11i (11.11) for PA-RISC (&&) > 11i v1.6 (11.22) for Itanium (&&) * IBM AIX > 4.1, 4.3.2 for RISC > 4.3.3, 5.1, 5.2 for PowerPC * Linux > Red Hat - 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, 9.0 > SuSe - 7.2 * Novell NetWare > 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 (Must upgrade to the latest service packs) & - Includes support for 32 and 64 bit processors && - Running on a 64 bit processor 2.2 Windows Minimum Requirements * Installed TCP/IP networking * 200 MHz processor * 20MB of RAM * 30MB of available hard-disk space * CD-ROM drive, if installing from CD * Monitor resolution must be at least 800 by 600 pixels (1024 by 768 recommended) with 16 bit color (thousands of colors) 2.3 IBM AIX Minimum Requirements * Installed TCP/IP networking * 66 MHz processor * 16 MB of RAM * 16 MB of available hard-disk space 2.4 HP-UX Minimum Requirements * Installed TCP/IP networking * 66 MHz processor * 16 MB of RAM * 16 MB of available hard-disk space 2.5 Linux Minimum Requirements * Installed TCP/IP networking * 66 MHz processor * 16 MB of RAM * 16 MB of available hard-disk space 2.6 NetWare Minimum Requirements * Installed TCP/IP networking * 200 MHz processor * 16 MB of RAM * 16 MB of available hard-disk space -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 Compatible Devices -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following have been tested to work with LanSafe 3.1 Uninterruptible Power Supplies * Powerware 3110 * Powerware 3115 * Powerware 5115 (with firmware version 10.00 or higher) * Powerware 5125 * Powerware 5140 * Powerware 9 Prestige * Powerware 9120 * Powerware 9125 * Powerware 9150 * Powerware 9170+ * Powerware 9315 * Powerware 9320 * Powerware 9330 * Powerware 9335 * Powerware 9340 Note: For a list of supported third-party UPSs see section 8.0 below. 3.2 Communication Cards * ConnectUPS-X Web/SNMP 10/100 Card (X-Slot) (firmware v2.03 or higher required) * ConnectUPS-BD Web/SNMP 10/100 Card (X-Slot) (firmware v3.00 or higher required) * ConnectUPS-M (firmware v4.01 or higher required) * X-Slot Single Serial Port Card * Expansion Chassis with compatible option card * X-Slot USB Card (firmware v1.05 or higher required) * Multi-Server Card (firmware v2.05 or higher required) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.0 New Features -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- – New User Interface The new LanSafe User Interface is the result of significant customer feedback and best-of-breed suggestions. Standardized and simplified, the new LanSafe look and feel is easier to use and more powerful than ever. – UPS Network Connectivity In addition to monitoring a UPS via the serial or USB port, LanSafe can now monitor UPSs connected to the network with the Powerware ConnectUPS X-Slot Cards via the SNMP network communication protocol using Powerware's information-rich proprietary PowerMIB or the public domain standard SNMP MIB (RFC 1628). – Simple Event Monitoring or System Status A simple and quick list of currently active events with color-coded status indicators is displayed in the main LanSafe window. There is now a single graphical user interface to display UPS status. – UPS Auto-Detection LanSafe can detect a UPS if it communicates via a serial port or USB. LanSafe is also capable of verifying connection information for UPSs connected via the network. – Battery Replacement Date with Notification Capability LanSafe offers a battery replacement reminder to notify system administrators when the UPS batteries should be checked. – Cumulative Power Failure and Runtime On-Battery Counters Power failure counters and run time on-battery counters keep track of how many times LanSafe has protected the system from power failures and the total period of time the system has operated using battery power. – Cost Savings Calculator The Cost Savings calculator estimates the amount of money saved by the UPS as a result of preventing down time during power failures. – Scheduled Shutdowns Scheduled Shutdowns offer greater flexibility providing multiple new methods for controlling UPS power output. One-time, daily, weekly, monthly load segment control is provided. – LanSafe Views LanSafe Views are the primary interface for monitoring UPSs. Views provide current system information that allows analysis of the power protection status and configuration. The Views include the PowerScope, ControlRoom (enhanced support for multiple phase UPSs), and a History View to see immediately what important events have occurred within the last year. – Control of UPS Off and Operating System Shutdowns for High Severity Events UPSs can now be configured to remain online regardless of currently active events that would normally result in a shutdown. Operating systems can remain on for up to approximately 23 hours. – On Demand Shutdowns Configurable Per Load Segment Immediate shutdowns can now be executed on a per load segment basis. – Network Operations Consolidated Operations that can be performed for multiple Controllers on the network simultaneously have been consolidated under one Network Operations menu. – System Information Information about LanSafe, the UPS, the Controller, and Members such as version numbers, connectivity methods, and network IP locations is now consolidated into one location. – Event Notification ('Customize Alerts' in previous LanSafe versions) Email no longer relies upon the MAPI system on Windows platforms. All email is sent via SMTP- independently. – LanSafe SNMP Proxy Agent Installing LanSafe connected to a serial or USB connected UPS provides a network SNMP proxy for the device so that a Network Management System can be used if desired without having to purchase a network card for the UPS. Improved MIB browsing (also know as "MIB walking") capability has been implemented in LanSafe. Works well with IBM Director v3.1. Active only if UPS serial or USB connection is chosen at installation or at run time. – USB/Plug-and-Play Driver Prior to LanSafe release 5.0.1, users were required to install LanSafe when a USB or Plug-and-Play UPS was connected to a computer running the Windows operating system. The USB/Plug-and-Play driver is now a separate software component. After the driver is installed, you may install any Powerware software you choose. Follow the instructions in the driver ReadMe file (UPSDriversReadMe.txt) for information about installing this driver or upgrading your current driver. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.0 Known Issues -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.1 Windows Issues – Infrequent Power Monitor Crash on Windows 2003 with Serially/USB Connected UPS When using a serially connected UPS with LanSafe on a Windows 2003 operating system, you may experience an application crash during shutdown events (due to manual, scheduled, or power failure shutdown). This does not seem to prevent the operating system from shutting down properly. - Windows 2003 with USB X-Slot Cards When using a USB X-Slot card for UPS communication, restarting the operating system results in a New Hardware Found dialog box appearing. – Uninstalling LanSafe on Windows Me In order to uninstall LanSafe on Windows Me, you must manually stop the Power Monitor before running the uninstaller. To manually stop the Power Monitor, press Control-Alt-Delete on the keyboard, select PowerMonitor, and click the End Task button. If you have already run the uninstaller and the Power Monitor component remains, manually stop the Power Monitor as outlined above. Run the LanSafe installer to install LanSafe. After LanSafe is installed, manually stop the Power Monitor then run the installer again to uninstall LanSafe. This procedure should clean-up any orphaned files and registry entries. – LanSafe Window location when in Low Resolution If the LanSafe window is moved when the monitor resolution is 800x600 or lower, it wants to remain centered. – Backward Compatibility LanSafe version 5 is not backward compatible with previous versions of LanSafe III. UPS groups do not support the use of both LanSafe (version 5) and LanSafe III Power Monitors. All must be LanSafe v5. – Active Alerts Reporting Delay It can take anywhere from 30 to 90 seconds for LanSafe to display in an Active Alert such as a Communications Failure condition- this is normal. The LanSafe Power Monitor Service is aware of the condition and is taking the appropriate steps to protect the system. – Communication Settings On Windows ME, initializing an auto-detect after disconnecting a serially connected UPS and connecting another UPS to the Power Monitor machine, causes the Operating System to ring repeatedly until communications have been established with the UPS. – Event Notification and Virus Software You are encouraged to add LANSAFE.EXE to the list of "allowable" programs to perform network operations if you are running virus protection or firewall protection software. See your user's manual of this third party software for details. – Event Notification Visibility Customized event actions take place on Controllers only. Members do not send broadcasts, e-mails, or execute commands. – User Scheduled Shutdown Conflicts While most shutdowns are validated before saving their configuration to prevent inadvertent user error, monthly shutdowns are not compared to other shutdown events. Therefore, it is possible for monthly shutdown events to conflict with other events- and not be warned of the conflict. – Power Monitor "Pipe Ended" Error Occasionally, a "Pipe Has Ended" error will occur when stopping the Power Monitor service. This 'error' can be safely ignored. – LanSafe Password on Local Machine LanSafe access passwords are not required when viewing LanSafe on the same computer as the Controller you are monitoring. It is assumed the local user has permission to do so. – Broadcast Messaging on 9x Systems Broadcast messaging originating from Event Notification is not supported on Windows 98 and Windows Me operating systems. – LanSafe Help and Exporting Logs If you experience difficulties running the help system or exporting the log files try re-launching LanSafe from the Start menu. – Diagnostic Test Results Some diagnostic test results and timestamps are not reported properly. – Load Segments Automatically Turn On All UPS load segments are powered-on regardless of specified settings when a Controller Power Monitor service is restarted after a manual shutdown. This is normal. – Battery Replacement Warning The battery replacement warning requires that the appropriate settings be made in LanSafe Controller Preferences AND that event 11 in Event Notification is configured to perform an action. LanSafe does not support the ABM advanced notification of the end of useful battery life. – PowerGraph There are various issues with selecting a value range for the graphs and the general display of data. – Communication Settings Certain UPSs cannot be selected at run time. To switch UPSs to a 9315, 9 Prestige, 3110 Serial, or 3115, you must reinstall the Controller. If the Controller being reinstalled is part of a UPS Group, you must reinstall the entire group. – UPS Communication Lost When LanSafe cannot communicate with a UPS, up to three minutes may pass before LanSafe notifies users that communication was lost. – Status@aGlance Status@aGlance does not currently work with the following serially connected Powerware UPSs: 3110 Serial, 3115, 9 Prestige, 9150, 9315. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.2 AIX Issues – Features not currently implemented * Status@aGlance * User-configurable SMTP Server in Event Notification * Silent installation * UPS communication via USB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.3 HP-UX Issues – Features not currently implemented * Status@aGlance * User-configurable SMTP Server in Event Notification * The LanSafe SNMP proxy agent is not supported on HP-UX versions newer than 11.11 due to the absence of an HP SNMP Extensible agent. * Silent installation * UPS communication via USB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.4 Linux Issues – Power Monitor to UPS Communication Loss A loss of communication between a Controller and a UPS results in a "Controller Communication Lost" error being displayed in LanSafe. The correct error message "UPS Communication Lost" will be displayed after several minutes and will enable features in the interface that will allow troubleshooting. – Features not currently implemented * LanSafe SNMP proxy agent * Status@aGlance * User-configurable SMTP Server in Event Notification * Silent installation * UPS communication via USB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.5 NetWare Issues – Serial Connected UPSs Certain functions of the NetWare operating system may prevent LanSafe from detecting serially connected UPSs. If you are running the X-Windows GUI, connect the UPS to COM2 or COM4. To use COM1 or COM3 for the UPS connection, disable the X-Windows GUI by removing or commenting out the STARTX line in AUTOEXEC.NCF (use the NWCONFIG utility to edit the file). You must then reboot the server, it does no good to manually stop the X-Windows GUI and then run PMSETUP. COM1 and COM3 system resources are not released by manually stopping the X-Windows GUI. – Features not currently implemented * Silent installation * UPS communication via USB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.6 Hardware Issues This section includes information about hardware that may not function perfectly with LanSafe. If you experience a problem with a product, visit www.powerware.com to get the latest firmware upgrades for your hardware product. – Powerware 5125 Certain Powerware 5125s may not function as expected with LanSafe. Problems could include shutdown and restart anomalies. – Powerware 9170+ Output meters may display incorrect values. – Powerware 3110 USB The USB version of this UPS will remain on for at least two minutes after being passed the shutdown command. Do not configure the System Shutdown time of a Power Monitor (configured in the LanSafe Management Settings dialog box) to be less than two minutes. – Powerware 3110 Serial Due to the limited information provided by this UPS LanSafe does not display the UPS Communication Lost event when the UPS is unplugged. If the communication cable is unplugged from the computer, a Low Battery event will be shown. If the communication cable is unplugged from the UPS, LanSafe behaves as though the UPS is still plugged-in and operating normally. Dry contact UPSs generally have fixed System Shutdown times (see your UPS manual for more details). Since LanSafe cannot set the System Shutdown time for these UPSs, any values configured for the System Shutdown value in Management Settings will not be honored; the fixed UPS value is used. – 3115 Serial Dry Contact UPS When installing LanSafe with a 3115 UPS additional configuration is required to prevent protected computers from losing power before shutting down the operating system. To prevent problems that may lead to data loss after LanSafe is installed, you MUST open LanSafe and choose Management Settings from the Configuration menu. When the Management Settings dialog appears, click the Options button. Select the Never Power Off UPS check box and click OK. Click OK on the Management Settings dialog box to save the settings. This setting will cause the UPS to remain on until a low battery condition occurs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.0 Workarounds -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No workarounds are available at this time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.0 Bug Fixes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- – Advanced Communication Settings Fixed a condition where it appeared the values in the advanced window of the Communication Settings were not being saved even though they were being saved. – Battery Reminder Crash Modified the battery reminder interface to make it more intuitive. The enable/disable checkbox that caused a crash in 5.0.0 was removed. – F1 Help The F1 key now provides contextual help on all dialogs. – History View History View now marks all affected days of events that span multiple days. – Automatic Settings Detection LanSafe now uses regional settings to set default values for time, date, and temperature format as well as the default PowerScope outlet. – Dual NIC Cards Fixed a condition where a Controller could not open network communications on a Linux system with two NIC cards. – Stopping the Power Monitor Service Fixed a bug that would cause the Power Monitor service to take an unnecessarily long time to shut down. – Linux Install Issues LanSafe for Linux can now be installed in a location other than the default directory, install error messages have now been resolved, and tar files are no longer required to retain the default file name in order to install. Improvements have also been made to uninstall. – USB on Windows Implemented a more Windows compliant USB driver that should improve USB performance. – Installation – All Platforms Resolved problems that would prevent users from installing or reinstalling the software to a directory other than the default directory. Also fixed some problems in the reinstall process. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.0 Supported Third-Party UPSs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.1 Sola - Sola 8000 - Sola 4000 - Sola 3010 - Sola 1000 - Sola 640 - Sola 625 - Sola 530 - Sola 305 8.2 HP/Compaq - T2200 XR - T1500 XR - T1000 XR - T700 - R12000 XR - R6000 - R3000 XR - R1500 XR - Legacy 8.3 Densei-Lambda - Densei-Lambda 9126 8.4 NCR - 4093 Series - 4091 Series - 4084 Series - 4072 Series - 4071 Series - 4070 Series - 4052 Series - 4054 Series - 4074 Series 8.5 Unisys - UPS 9170 - UPS 9125 - UPS 5115 - PM Series - UP800 - UP6000 - UP700M - PR Series - UPR - PRC - PRB - PRA - UPS5125 8.6 Stabiline - SP Series - SL Series - SW Series - SPW Series 8.7 Superior Electric - SPW Series - SL Series - SW Series - SWR Series