UPS gets lost after a few days

Question

Hi to all! 
 I am facing an annoying issue.. 
 I am using an Eaton 5s1000 UPS connected via USB to my sophos UTM. 
 It is working great, alerts and all, but the UTM loses connection after a few days. It is a random thing not in specific time frames. 
 Below is the normal appearance: 
 
 When it loses connection I only see the UPS icon, but nothing in the percentage (the bar is totally empty) 
 The only way is to unplug the UPS and plug it back in - then all is back to normal again. 
 Any ideas about what may be wrong? 
 Do you know of any command I can use (via shell) in order to avoid physically unplugging and plugging the UPS back (in case I am away e.g.)?

BAlfson · Answer

I'm just guessing, too, but I'd definitely change the cable after seeing that.

Aleksandar Aleksiev · Answer

Hi guys, 
 
 Most likely your problem is related to this issue: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=810449 
 If you are with root access to the OS, try to use that PPA: https://launchpad.net/~clepple/+archive/ubuntu/nut 
 The unstable state could be from the Virtual VMware USB Hub, from the host USB 2.0 (or 3.0) port or even from additional hardware USB hub. 
 Again, if you have root access to the system, you can use the syslog messages to trigger automated recovery activities as a dirty bandage :) 
 For example, with SysV inittab reborn monitoring process - let's name that executalbe (755) file nut-usb-shake in the /etc/nut folder. 
 Two lines in the /etc/inittab file: 
 # Monitor and revive the NUT managed UPS devices nut-usb-shake:12345:respawn:/etc/nut/nut-usb-shake 
 The /etc/nut/nut-usb-shake file: 
 #! /bin/sh 
 tail -Fn0 /var/log/syslog | \ while read line ; do 
 echo "$line" | grep -q "upsmon\[.*Poll UPS.*failed - Driver not connected" if [ $? = 0 ] then 
 service nut-client stop service nut-server stop sleep 10 service nut-server start service nut-client start 
 fi 
 done 
 Finally reload the inittab context with " init q " and every-time when the monitored message is intercepted in the syslog, the remediation commands will be executed. 
 You can adjust to monitor and execute whatever will serve your needs - the above is just an example. 
 Good luck!

Aleksandar Aleksiev · Answer

Probably I didn't explained the idea good enough :) 
 The Sophos UTM is running on top of linux and that linux is using libusb library, just like the Ubuntu box - that's one of the contributors to the overall instability of the USB connection. 
 You can verify that relatively easy - when the connection to the UTM is broken, just verify from the CLI with " lsusb " if you can see the connected UPS in the list. Example from linux box (I haven't Sophos): 
 root@debian:/# lsusb Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 001 Device 004: ID 051d:0002 American Power Conversion Uninterruptible Power Supply Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0e0f:0002 VMware, Inc. Virtual USB Hub Bus 001 Device 002: ID 09ae:4004 Tripp Lite Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub root@debian:/# 
 If the Sophos UTM is not allowing you to ass PPA, to update and to adjust (hack) the underlying Linux OS, most likely you'll not be able to fix that issue yourself and have to ask the product support for assistance. 
 Another workaround, I can think of, is to use the Ubuntu box for the USB connection of both UPS devices. The NUT package (used in the Sophos appliance) is covering this scenario when one device is used to provide connectivity to the UPS (nut-server component) and another device is monitoring the UPS state via network connection to the first one (nut-client component) 
 You can verify if Sophos is supporting the nut-client UPS monitoring mode and if your Ubuntu is in the same LAN, you can try the stability in that way...