Does Grid Junction Over-ride WHS Hibernation Function In Power Options

Yes Grid Junction disables these native power management configuration options to prevent problems. Please do not re-enable or mess with those settings. FYI The new APC PowerChute 2.2 software is now WHS compatible and it too disables these settings upon initial install.

If you want to use Grid Junction to hibernate your WHS please do not install the APC software - you cannot have 2 sets of software manage the same set of resources.

1) No, Grid Junction measures battery in % remaining which is more accurate then time remaining. Therefore a measurement of 10 minutes is not acurate as a threshold because the power drawn might vary based on system load.

2) Yes If you want GJ to hibernate your WHS after 10 minutes of no activity it would be best to have Grid Junction custom action scripting execute this EXE upon the initial battery alert. You need to however first think and clearly define your algorithm.

For example, pseudo code for the exe would be something like:

1. initialize a 1 minute timer interval
2. on timer interval check if GJ is still on battery if not exit exe (return 0)
3. if GJ is still on battery increment count by 1 and check if count == 10 (10 mins have passed proceed to hibernation function)

hibernation function:

1. are we idle? whats if there is activity? define no activity????
2. hibernate WHS
3. wake up when? Only certain UPS's support auto-restart hence wake up 1 hour later? 2 hours?

I cant promise as my weekend is rather crowed but let me know and I can try and compile you an EXE and show you how to tell Grid Junction to run it when the on-battery event occurs.

Hi,

Thanks for your prompt reply...

I would like my WHS box to go into Hibernation after (on reconsideration) 5 minutes of no activity (no activity is when the WHS has balanced hard drives and done all "in house" maintenance and is "idle"), if the server is balancing hard drives etc., then no Hibernation would take place. I will wake up the WHS box manually via "magic packets" when required.

I have set Grid Junction to go onto battery (after power failure) and run on battery until 40% of battery power is left and then shut down, I wish this to be left like this and the Hibernation script to simply run independently after 5 minites of no activity, "no activity" defined as above.

Hopefully I have explained what I am trying to achieve.

Thanks.

OK. I created a small EXE for you but let's first test the hibernate and resume functionality...

Please send me an email so that I can attach the EXE; for you to test out the hibernation - when happy we can proceed to step #2 which is the idle trigger.

Email sent...

Thanks.

Thanks but I have not received any emails from you? Please email to akent AT kentdome DOT com  

Have sent email to supplied address...

Thanks...

Script works well, puts WHS box into Hibernation and am able to wake it up via magic packets...

Perfect.
Please give us another day or so to continue with the next step; we are going to add the idle detection and abort routine if Grid Junction resumes AC operation during that time. We will extend that test GUI and add a 5 minute countdown timer which would only engage if the system is idle and not balancing storage.

Hi,

Was just wondering if there was any update on this script, Alexander?

Happy New Year!

Thanks...

Happy New Year!

Thanks for the ping - no unfortunately time was not on my side but I have thought about this some more over the holidays and have not forgotten about you. I plan to knock this out later today and will email you once more.

Thank you for your patience.

Quick Update: created the idle and GJ status detection to hibernate after 5 minutes of inactivity. Conducting some tests and will send your way shortly.

Excellent.

Really appreciate your work on this...

Thanks.

Just checking in to give you an update. I have let the hibernation test code run for over 24 hours and randomly throughout this period I simulated power failure and other idle/activity events. For the most part it worked accordingly but going back to the drawing board on what "idle" means to the program - balancing and any DISK write activity; if someone is connected to a share but is only reading or streaming media, although the CPU might be busy handling these requests it will be considered IDLE by the program.

Right, I see what you mean...

Yes, the system would need to see those actions as "activity" and not initiate the Hibernation countdown/function...

Thanks for the update...