Does this script allow use of apctest to change EEPROM battery date after replacing UPS batteries while still supporting NUT?

[42Network]

This is not an issue, but a question.

For years I have run NUT to share UPS status information with my HA, Proxmox, OPNsense, etc. devices. But I always struggle with the dance I have to do when replacing the APC UPS batteries, which goes like this:

1. Try to run apctest, find out it is not installed
2. Install apcupsd to get apctest, and apcupsd "helpfully" wipes out NUT install without me noticing
3. Try to use apctest to update battery date but it complains it can't get access because apcupsd has the device
4. Stop apcupsd
5. Sucessfully use apctest to finally update battery date on the UPS
6. Try to restart NUT "systemctl start nut-driver" only to be told it doesn't exist
7. Reinstall NUT and spend an hour getting it happy again
8. Repeat the above every few years, LOL

I really like your wrapper script. I am thinking it would avoid the messy middle of my steps with NUT and I can simply do steps 4 and 5.

Thoughts? I'm willing to give it a try and will report back.

[gitmachtl]

The struggle between NUT and apcupsd was exactly the reason i wrote this wrapper script back in the days. I wanted the APC ups to be connected on my little linux machine, and the Synology NAS to also have access to the data. Installing NUT killed apcupds and the other way around. So for years i now stick with the simple apcupsd on every linux machine i run (Proxmox, etc) and devices that need a NUT server like my NASes are connecting to the wrapper script. This is running errorfree now for years. So i would give it a try. :-)

Btw, a while ago i did an install with a hardware device that is running OPNsense as the main router and i installed the wrapper script directly on that OPNsense. The NAS is connected to the router via USB, rest of the devices are getting the info from the router. And in case of a power outage, the router+cablemodem and some switches are the last ones standing before they go dark.

[42Network]

Sounds like you have a similar mix of devices and experiences as do I. May I ask what is your general procdure for UPS battery maintenance? Do you use apctest to reset the battery date when you swap in new batteries? I find the estimated runtime calculation is much better when the EEPROM has an accurate date.

I have three consumer-grade APC UPS devices I try to monitor with NUT: an APC Back-UPS 1500 (with expansion - 6 12V 9Ah batteries total which supports home office workstation, NAS, PVE cluster, other small servers), one APC Back-UPS 1300 for the Frontier ONT and a monitoring RPi4, and another APC 1300 for upstairs Juniper PoE switch supporting Unifi APs. This is 10 12V batteries in total and for a while it seemed one of them was in a failing state every few months! I finally have them on two cycles, having a set of 6 and a set of 4 with matched manufacture dates.

Thanks!

[gitmachtl]

Do you use apctest to reset the battery date when you swap in new batteries?

Yes. It depends on the UPS actually. I have a few bigger ones that are doing that automatically when i swap in new batteries. Those are the ones that are also having this new cloud connection. For the ones without any useful display/interface i am using apcupds/apctest to set/reset the data. As you have described, its as simple as stopping the apcupsd service, updating the ups and than restarting it. Which i do on the instance that the apcupsd/wrapperscript is running on.