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Independent Submission R. Price, Ed.
Request for Comments: 9271 Network UPS Tools Project
Category: Informational August 2022
ISSN: 2070-1721
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Management Protocol -- Commands and
Responses
Abstract
This document describes the command/response protocol currently used
in the management of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units and
other power devices often deployed in small offices and in IT
installations subject to an erratic public power supply. The UPS
units typically interface to an Attachment Daemon in the system they
protect. This daemon is in turn polled by a Management Daemon that
notifies users and system administrators of power supply incidents
and automates system shutdown decisions. The commands and responses
described by this document are exchanged between the UPS Attachment
Daemon and the Management Daemon. The practice current when this
protocol was first developed risks weak security, and this is
addressed in the Security Considerations sections of this document.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other
RFC stream. The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at
its discretion and makes no statement about its value for
implementation or deployment. Documents approved for publication by
the RFC Editor are not candidates for any level of Internet Standard;
see Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9271.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2022 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Current Practice
1.1.1. NUT Project
1.1.2. The Shutdown Story
1.1.3. How to Read this Document
1.2. Additional Information
1.3. Requirements Language
2. Terminology
2.1. Administrative User
2.2. Attachment Daemon
2.3. Driver
2.4. Event
2.5. Instant Command
2.6. Management Daemon
2.7. Primary
2.8. Secondary
2.9. Session
2.10. UPS Status
2.11. UPS Variable
3. Protocol Overview
4. Protocol Specification
4.1. Notation Used in this Specification
4.2. Commands
4.2.1. ATTACH
4.2.2. DETACH
4.2.3. FSD
4.2.4. GET
4.2.4.1. GET CMDDESC
4.2.4.2. GET DESC
4.2.4.3. GET NUMATTACH
4.2.4.4. GET TYPE
4.2.4.5. GET UPSDESC
4.2.4.6. GET VAR
4.2.5. HELP
4.2.6. INSTCMD
4.2.7. LIST
4.2.7.1. LIST CLIENT
4.2.7.2. LIST CMD
4.2.7.3. LIST ENUM
4.2.7.4. LIST RANGE
4.2.7.5. LIST RW
4.2.7.6. LIST UPS
4.2.7.7. LIST VAR
4.2.8. PASSWORD
4.2.9. PRIMARY
4.2.10. PROTVER
4.2.11. SET
4.2.12. STARTTLS
4.2.12.1. Key Infrastructure and Self-Signed Certificates
4.2.13. USERNAME
4.2.14. VER
4.3. Summary of Responses
4.3.1. Response When Command Succeeds
4.3.2. Error Responses
4.4. An ABNF of the Commands
4.4.1. Responses to Commands
5. Statuses and Events
5.1. Status Symbols
5.2. Events
6. Security Considerations
6.1. Current General Security Practice
6.2. Communication Security Requirements
6.2.1. Certificate Security
6.3. Attacks and Defenses
6.3.1. Eavesdropping
6.3.1.1. Misplaced Declarations Requiring TLS
6.3.1.2. Weak Protection in Previous Version 2.7.4
6.3.2. Man-in-the-Middle
6.3.3. Masquerade Attack: Agent Verification
6.3.4. Message Insertion, Deletion, and Modification
6.3.5. Replay
6.3.6. Denial of Service
7. IANA Considerations
8. Implementation Status
8.1. Inclusion in Software Distributions
8.2. Recommended Minimum Support
8.2.1. Desktop PC Variables
8.2.2. Unattended Servers and Additional Variables
8.2.3. Commands and Other Technical Terms
8.2.4. Support for Earlier Versions
9. References
9.1. Normative References
9.2. Informative References
Appendix A. Variables
A.1. Typical UPS Variables
A.2. Typical UPS Readable and Writable Variables
A.3. Typical UPS Instant Commands
Appendix B. The Shutdown Story for System and UPS
Appendix C. Technical Terms: Historical Differences
Appendix D. Security Defenses in Release 2.7.4
D.1. Shims
D.1.1. Attachment Daemon Shim
D.1.2. Management Daemon Shim
D.2. TLS Tunnels
D.3. VPN
D.4. VLAN
Appendix E. Administrative Security
E.1. Management of Administrative Users
E.2. An Administrative User of a Client Management Daemon
E.2.1. An Administrative User Logs into a Short Session
E.2.2. An Administrative User Logs into a Long Session
Acknowledgments
Author's Address
1. Introduction
1.1. Current Practice
This document describes UPS management techniques and current UPS
management practice published by the Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project.
The document is based on version 2.8.0 of the NUT Project software,
which supports version 1.3 of the NUT protocol.
Since May 2002, the protocol described by this document has been
operating on IANA port 3493/TCP (nut).
1.1.1. NUT Project
The primary goal of the Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project software
[NUT] is to provide support for power devices, such as UPSs. The
project has been in operation since 1998, with a major rework in
2003. It operates through a user mailing list [nut-upsuser], a
developer mailing list [nut-upsdev], a website [NUT], and a GitHub
repository [nut-repository]. See [githist] and Appendix J of
[History] for a history of the project.
1.1.2. The Shutdown Story
The Shutdown Story section (see Appendix B) describes the current UPS
management practice for performing a managed shutdown of unattended
infrastructure after an unscheduled failure of the public power
supply in order to minimize the risk of corruption to data processed
by this infrastructure.
1.1.3. How to Read this Document
As a simplification to ease reading, the term "UPS" is used when
"Managed Power Device" would be more complete. The reader should
understand the simple "UPS" to include other managed power devices.
The statuses and events appearing in this document are named with
short text-form names, some of which are abbreviations. A full list
of the statuses can be found in Section 5.1, while the events are
listed in Section 5.2.
This document refers to the "public power supply". Other texts
frequently refer to "utility power", "input source power", or even
"wall power".
1.2. Additional Information
Additional information about the NUT Project is available in the
project documentation [Documentation]. Requests for further
information about this protocol and related technical matters may be
addressed to the mailing list [nut-upsuser] of the NUT Project.
1.3. Requirements Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
capitals, as shown here.
2. Terminology
The following technical terms appear in this document. They are
listed in alphabetical order.
2.1. Administrative User
In current practice, the commands and other functions offered by the
Attachment Daemon are made available to a set of users known as
Management Daemons. These Management Daemons authenticate to the
Attachment Daemon with basic credentials (username and password).
Although called "users", the administrative users are not system
users; they are specific to an Attachment Daemon and are listed in a
text file (currently upsd.users) that is read by the Attachment
Daemon and that assigns to each of them the password, Instant
Commands, and actions that are allowed, together with the Primary or
Secondary status of the Management Daemon. For details, see
Appendix E.1. For details of the Primary, see Section 2.7; for
details of the Secondary, see Section 2.8. Typically, a high-level
user will be able to send command FSD, but a low-level user might
only be allowed to access the test panel. The security provisions
for administrative users are discussed in Appendix E.
2.2. Attachment Daemon
The Attachment Daemon retrieves the status from the UPS and sends
commands to it often through a Driver specific to the hardware model
and the connection medium, e.g., USB, serial. See Section 2.3. It
maintains an abstracted view of the hardware through the use of
hardware statuses. See Section 2.10. A Management Daemon may
consult the abstracted view using the commands described in this
document.
See Section 8.2 for details of the recommended minimum support of
variables, which calls for Attachment Daemon support of statuses OB,
OL, LB, and FSD.
The NUT Project has implemented an Attachment Daemon as program upsd
and a set of hardware-specific Drivers, all written in K&R C
[C2ndEd]. The Attachment Daemon is launched as system user "root"
but for better security; then, it drops the privilege to run as a
detached software service.
2.3. Driver
A Driver is that part of an Attachment Daemon that is specific to the
UPS hardware, the connection medium, and the connection protocol,
e.g., USB, serial. In current practice, the Attachment Daemon has a
Driver for each hardware interface type it supports. Although this
document considers the Driver to be part of the Attachment Daemon,
current practice is to see it as a separate software unit running as
a daemon "in front of" the Attachment Daemon. The protocol for data
exchange between the Driver and the Attachment Daemon is outside the
scope of this document.
2.4. Event
A UPS event occurs in the Management Daemon when a change in the UPS
status is received from the Attachment Daemon. This event is
internal to the Management Daemon. See Section 5.2.
2.5. Instant Command
An Instant Command is a command that, when sent to the Attachment
Daemon, is passed to the Driver and sent to the hardware without any
configured delay to perform a function. For example, INSTCMD su700
test.panel.start. See Section 4.2.6.
2.6. Management Daemon
The Management Daemon is primarily responsible for managing the
hardware and orchestrating system-wide actions after a power event.
Using commands sent to the Attachment Daemon, it follows the status
of the UPS and determines when UPS events occur. It takes decisions
based on the events, such as calling for a system shutdown. See
Appendix B. Although the term includes the word "Daemon", nothing
requires that it be implemented as a detached software service. The
Management Daemon may also provide administrative functions, such as
a graphic interface to view the hardware activity.
There are several examples of a Management Daemon: the NUT Project
provides upsmon, which takes the system shutdown decision when the
public power supply fails. Further configuration options, such as
timers, are provided by the helper program upssched.
Other programs represent the Management Daemon:
* upsc reports the values of the variables defined for a given UPS;
see Table 6.
* upsrw reports on and changes the values of the readable and
writable configuration variables defined for a given UPS; see
Appendix A.2.
* upscmd reports on and executes the instant action commands defined
for a given UPS; see Section 4.2.6.
* UPSmon.py is an experimental Python3 rewrite of upsmon and
upssched that includes support for TLS 1.3 [RFC8446].
2.7. Primary
When a power device, such as a UPS unit, supplies power to more than
one system, the computer running the Driver is known as the Primary.
The others are Secondaries. See Figure 4. Common current practice
for system administrators is to consider the Management Daemon in the
Primary to be the Primary Management Daemon that is in charge of the
shutdown of all the systems powered by the UPS. The Primary
Management Daemon sets status symbol FSD to order the Secondaries to
shut down.
| Note: Historically, the Primary was known as the "Master".
2.8. Secondary
When a hardware device, such as a UPS unit, supplies power to more
than one system, the system that communicates directly with the UPS
unit, e.g., using a USB, RS-232, or a network connection, is known as
the Primary. The others are Secondaries. There is no Attachment
Daemon in a Secondary. See Figure 4. Common current practice for
system administrators is to consider the Management Daemon in a
Secondary to be a Secondary Management Daemon that understands status
symbol FSD as an order to shut down.
| Note: Historically, the Secondary was known as the "Slave".
2.9. Session
The Management Daemon may initiate a TCP session with a specified
device, such as a UPS known to the Attachment Daemon. The session
structure provides for audit and security, as well as access to
mission-critical UPS functions. For example, good practice requires
password protection for an Instant Command that turns off a UPS
outlet. Other than the commands and responses used, the details of
session management are outside the scope of this document.
2.10. UPS Status
The status of a hardware device, such as a UPS unit, is a symbolic
description of the state of the unit. It consists of a space-
separated list of symbols from the set {ALARM BOOST BYPASS CAL CHRG
COMM DISCHRG FSD LB NOCOMM OB OFF OL OVER RB TEST TRIM}. The symbols
TICK and TOCK are experimental additions to the statuses and are not
in common current practice. See Section 5.1, which specifies each of
these symbols.
See Section 8.2 for details of the recommended minimum support of
status symbols OB, OL, LB, and FSD.
2.11. UPS Variable
The metrics and identifiers provided by each UPS are represented by
variables giving the value representing that metric or identifier.
The UPS variable is an abstraction of the UPS hardware configuration
and activity maintained by the Attachment Daemon. See Appendix A,
which provides examples of variables. For example, the variable
battery.charge contains the current charge of the UPS battery as a
percentage value.
Note: Some variables are constants, e.g., battery type and
manufacturer.
See Section 8.2 for details of the recommended minimum support of
variables. A full list of possible variables is available in source
code file docs/nut-names.txt [gitvars], which serves as the Recording
Document.
3. Protocol Overview
Figure 1 shows a reference configuration in which the command/
response protocol applies. The UPS shown is representative of all
managed power devices.
"The client"
,--------------, ,--------------,
,-----, | UPS | <-Commands | UPS |
| UPS |---| Attachment |---------------| Management |
| |===| Daemon | Responses-> | Daemon |
/-----\ '--------------' '--------------'
UPS Attachment UPS Management
System Network System
Figure 1: Reference Configuration
The reference configuration in Figure 1 shows a single UPS unit that
has a power supply link (===) and a data link (---) attached to a
system running an Attachment Daemon. The UPS provides power supply
protection to the system running the Attachment Daemon.
In practice, there may be more than one UPS unit, and a unit may
provide power protection to more than one system. The figure also
shows a single Management Daemon. In practice, there may be more
than one Management Daemon, and any one Management Daemon may manage
more than one UPS Attachment Daemon.
The protocol applies to connections between the Attachment Daemon and
the Management Daemon, which act as the *server* and *client*,
respectively. The Management Daemon sends commands over TCP to the
Attachment Daemon and receives responses over TCP from that daemon.
The two daemons may run in the same system or may be connected
through a local or wide area network. In simple cases, as shown in
Figure 2, the Attachment Daemon and the Management Daemon are in the
same system, the one protected by the UPS. The commands and
responses are exchanged through an internal loopback interface.
"The client"
,--------------------,---------------------,
,-----, | UPS <-Commands UPS |
| UPS |---| Attachment | Management |
| |===| Daemon Responses-> Daemon |
/-----\ '--------------------'---------------------'
Internal
Loopback
UPS Attachment and Management System
Figure 2: Simplified Single-System Configuration
The reference configuration does not require any specific design.
For example, Figure 3 shows an arrangement in which the Attachment
Daemon is closely associated with, or even included in, the UPS
system setup. This is becoming more prevalent with the availability
of low-cost processors able to run the Attachment Daemon, thereby
effectively creating a network-attached UPS running a published
protocol.
"The client"
,-----,------------, ,--------------,
| | UPS | <-Commands | UPS |
| UPS - Attachment |---------------| Management |
| | Daemon | Responses-> | Daemon |
/-----'------------\ '--------------'
UPS Attachment UPS Management
System Network System
Figure 3: UPS and Attachment Daemon Integration
As the power requirements for processors decrease, it is becoming
increasingly common to use a single UPS to protect multiple systems,
as shown in Figure 4. However, there is only one data line (---)
from the UPS to the Primary system. The others have only power
connections (===) to the UPS and are known as Secondaries. A
Secondary does not run an Attachment Daemon; it connects over a
network to the Attachment Daemon in the Primary. Figure 4 shows the
Attachment Daemon and the Primary Management Daemon in the same
system. This is common practice, but it is not a technical
requirement.
"The client"
,--------------------,---------------------,
,-----, | UPS <-Commands Primary |
| |---| Attachment | Management | Primary
| |===| Daemon Responses-> Daemon |
| | '--------------------'---------------------'
| UPS | ^
| | '<-Commands---Responses->,
| | v
| | ,--------------,-----------------,
| |============| | Secondary |
/-----\ | | Management | Secondary
| | Daemon |
'--------------'-----------------'
Figure 4: UPS Protects Multiple Systems
| Note: Should the Primary fail or go offline, the fate of the
| Secondaries depends on the UPS status when the Primary failed.
| If the UPS had status OL, the Secondary continues operation,
| but if the UPS had status OB, the Secondary may choose to shut
| down as a precaution.
4. Protocol Specification
This specification includes only the commands and their responses.
An implementation of the Attachment Daemon has an internal state
machine, and some complex implementations of the Management Daemon
include an internal state machine, for example, to assist the system
shutdown of a complex installation. The Management Daemon is
required to remember the previous ups.status value it received from
the Attachment Daemon and compare it with the next. Other than that,
the management protocol used between them is effectively stateless.
For example, see Section 5.2, which shows a map of the new ups.status
response and the previous ups.status response to an event, which is
taken as the basis for Management Daemon action.
4.1. Notation Used in this Specification
The character set used for commands and responses is US-ASCII; see
[RFC0020].
Multi-word elements are contained between quotation mark characters
for easier parsing, e.g., "UPS on fire". Embedded quotation marks
are escaped with reverse slant (\), often known as backslashes.
Embedded backslashes are also escaped by representing them as \\.
Commands and responses have no leading or trailing blank space and
are terminated with a single new line character line feed (LF).
Blank space within commands and responses is reduced to one space
(SP).
4.2. Commands
The commands address the UPS to which they apply by <upsname>, where
* <upsname> ::= <ups>[@<hostname>[:<port>]]
* <ups> is defined by the Attachment Daemon configuration files.
* The default <hostname> is localhost.
* The <port> is the number of the TCP port on which the Attachment
Daemon is listening. The default is 3493. This is supported by
all current Management Daemons.
Examples: myups, UPS-97B@bigserver.example.com
ABNF: See variable upsname in Figure 5.
Note: Experimental Management Daemons use an extended form of
<upsname> in configuration files and in program parameters, where:
* <upsname> ::= [<group>:]<ups>[@<hostname>[:<port>]]
* <group> is an experimental extension to provide for groups of
UPSs. It is not in common current practice.
* <ups> is defined by the Attachment Daemon configuration files.
* The default <hostname> is localhost.
Examples: ups-1@example.com:3493, HB:heartbeat1@example.com:3493
| _Implementation note:_ In the current implementation, the names
| of commands and subcommands are not case sensitive. For
| example, GET VAR may be written as Get var, but in this
| specification, they are always written in uppercase.
| Similarly, <upsname> and <varname> are not case sensitive. For
| example, UPS341 ups.id may be written as ups341 Ups.Id, but in
| this specification, <varname> is always written in lower case.
4.2.1. ATTACH
In a configuration like the one shown in Figure 4, in which a UPS
protects more than one system, the Primary Management Daemon needs to
know how many Secondaries are currently _active_, i.e., powered by
the UPS, either from the public power supply or from battery power.
The Attachment Daemon supports this by keeping a count of all the
_active_ systems powered by a UPS. The count is initialized, one
Secondary at a time by the ATTACH command, which should be understood
as _count this Secondary as active_. ATTACH is one of three commands
for Secondary counting. Additionally, command DETACH decrements the
count, and a Management Daemon may read the count at any time using
the command NUMATTACH.
The ATTACH command is also sent to the Attachment Daemon for the
Primary, so during normal, fully protected operation, the count is 1
for the Primary + the number of Secondaries. During a full system
shutdown, the count drops as each Secondary Management Daemon
executes command DETACH during its own shutdown. When the count
drops to 1, only the Primary is _active_, and it knows that all the
Secondaries have shut down.
Command: ATTACH <upsname>
If the command succeeds, the response is OK; otherwise, see the error
responses in Section 4.3.2.
ABNF: See variable attach in Figure 5.
| Note: Historically, this command was known as LOGIN. However,
| because LOGIN was not the conventional user access to a shell
| or program, the name was changed to avoid confusion.
4.2.2. DETACH
This companion command to ATTACH reduces the count of "active"
Secondaries. It should be understood as _this Secondary is no longer
active_ and is usually used during system shutdown to decrement a
count of how many Secondaries are still _active_.
Command: DETACH
If the command succeeds, the response is OK Goodbye; otherwise, see
the error responses in Section 4.3.2.
ABNF: See variable detach in Figure 5.
| Note: Historically, this command was known as LOGOUT.
4.2.3. FSD
A Management Daemon that is Primary and has the required authority
uses this command to set status symbol FSD, meaning "Forced
Shutdown", in the Attachment Daemon. In current practice, the
Primary Management Daemon uses the symbol to tell the Secondaries to
shut down.
Command: FSD <upsname>
If the command succeeds, the response is OK FSD-SET; otherwise, see
the error responses in Section 4.3.2.
ABNF: See variable fsd in Figure 5.
In current practice, commands such as FSD are made available only to
a privileged administrative user authorized to send such a mission-
critical command. The security provisions for administrative users
are discussed in Appendix E.
Note: The symbol FSD is also used for an event. See Table 5.
4.2.4. GET
Retrieve a single response from the Attachment Daemon.
ABNF: See variable get in Figure 5.
The possible subcommands are listed in the sections below.
4.2.4.1. GET CMDDESC
Retrieve a text description of a command.
Command: GET CMDDESC <upsname> <cmdname>
Response: CMDDESC <upsname> <cmdname> "<description>"
For example: command GET CMDDESC su700 load.on and response CMDDESC
su700 load.on "Turn on the load immediately"
This is like GET DESC, but it applies to an Instant Command. See
Section 4.2.4.2.
4.2.4.2. GET DESC
Retrieve a text description of a UPS variable. See Section 2.11.
Command: GET DESC <upsname> <varname>
Response: DESC <upsname> <varname> "<description>"
<description> is a string that gives a brief explanation of the named
variable. The Attachment Daemon MAY return "Unavailable" if the file
that provides this description is not installed.
For example: command GET DESC su700 ups.status and response DESC
su700 ups.status "UPS status"
4.2.4.3. GET NUMATTACH
Retrieve the count kept by the Attachment Daemon of all the _active_
systems protected by this UPS.
Command: GET NUMATTACH <upsname>
Response: NUMATTACH <upsname> <value>
<value> is a count of the Primary and the number of Secondaries
currently powered by this UPS.
For example: command GET ATTACH su700 and response NUMATTACH su700 1
This information is needed by the Management Daemon to determine how
many Secondaries are still connected during the system shutdown
process.
| Note: Historically, this subcommand was known as NUMLOGINS.
| Since LOGIN was not the conventional user access to a shell or
| program, the name was changed to avoid confusion.
4.2.4.4. GET TYPE
Retrieve the type of a UPS variable. See Section 2.11.
Command: GET TYPE <upsname> <varname>
Response: TYPE <upsname> <varname> <type>...
<type>... can be one or more of the following tokens. Multiple types
may be returned.
For example: command GET TYPE su700 input.transfer.low and response
TYPE su700 input.transfer.low ENUM
+==============+==============================================+
| Type | Meaning |
+==============+==============================================+
| RW | This is a read/write variable. It may be |
| | read with command GET VAR (see |
| | Section 4.2.4.6) and set to a different |
| | value with command SET (see Section 4.2.11). |
+--------------+----------------------------------------------+
| ENUM | This is an enumerated type, which supports |
| | specific predetermined values. |
+--------------+----------------------------------------------+
| STRING:n | This is a string of maximum length n. |
+--------------+----------------------------------------------+
| RANGE | This is a number, either integer or float, |
| | comprised in the range that may be seen with |
| | the command LIST RANGE (see |
| | Section 4.2.7.4). |
+--------------+----------------------------------------------+
| NUMBER | This is a single numeric value, either |
| | integer or float. |
+--------------+----------------------------------------------+
Table 1: Variable Types
Notes:
* ENUM, STRING:n, and RANGE are usually associated with RW but not
always. The default <type>, when omitted, is numeric, so either
integer or float. Each Driver is then responsible for handling
values as either integer or float.
* Current practice is to represent floating point values using a
decimal (base 10) English-based representation. Hexadecimals,
exponents, and commas used as separators for thousands are not
allowed. For example, "1200.20" is valid, while "1,200.20" and
"1200,20" are not valid.
4.2.4.5. GET UPSDESC
Retrieve a text description of a UPS.
Command: GET UPSDESC <upsname>
Response: UPSDESC <upsname> "<description>"
<description> is defined by the Attachment Daemon configuration. If
it is not set, current practice is for the Attachment Daemon to
return "Unavailable".
For example: command GET UPSDESC su700 and response UPSDESC su700
"Development box"
This can be used to provide human-readable descriptions, instead of a
cryptic ups@hostname string.
4.2.4.6. GET VAR
Retrieve the value of a UPS variable. See Section 2.11.
Command: GET VAR <upsname> <varname>
Response: VAR <upsname> <varname> "<value>"
For example: command GET VAR su700 ups.status and response VAR su700
ups.status "OB LB"
4.2.5. HELP
Return a list of the commands supported by the Attachment Daemon.
This command is intended for human, as well as program, use.
Command: HELP
For example: the following command line sequence executed on an
Attachment Daemon
netcat localhost 3493
HELP
Commands: HELP VER GET LIST SET INSTCMD ATTACH DETACH
USERNAME PASSWORD STARTTLS
ABNF: See variable help in Figure 5.
| Note: Historically, this command also returned LOGIN and
| LOGOUT. Because LOGIN was not the conventional user access to
| a shell or program, the command names were changed to ATTACH
| and DETACH to avoid confusion.
4.2.6. INSTCMD
Send an Instant Command to the UPS.
Command: INSTCMD <upsname> <cmdname>
<upsname> is the name of the UPS, and <cmdname> is the Instant
Command to be issued to that UPS. See Appendix A.3 for examples of
Instant Commands.
If the command succeeds, the response is OK; otherwise, see the error
responses in Section 4.3.2.
For example: command INSTCMD su700 test.panel.start and response OK
ABNF: See variable instcmd in Figure 5.
4.2.7. LIST
All the LIST commands produce a response with a common format. The
response begins with BEGIN LIST and then repeats the initial query.
A list then follows, with as many lines as are necessary. The
response ends with END LIST, followed by the initial query.
The formatting may seem a bit redundant, but it makes a different
form of client possible. A client can send a LIST command and then
wait for the response. When it arrives, the Management Daemon
doesn't need a complicated state machine to remember which list is
which.
Note: The current NUT Project implementation of the Attachment
Daemon, upsd, sends back the response to the LIST command as a
sequence of messages. The Management Daemon should continue reading
these messages until it receives the line beginning END LIST.
ABNF: See the variable list in Figure 5.
The possible subcommands are listed in the sections below.
4.2.7.1. LIST CLIENT
The command calls for the Attachment Daemon to report all the current
Management Daemon clients of a given UPS.
Command: LIST CLIENT <upsname>
Response:
BEGIN LIST CLIENT <upsname>
CLIENT <upsname> <client_IP_address>
...
END LIST CLIENT <upsname>
For example: command LIST CLIENT ups1 and response
BEGIN LIST CLIENT ups1
CLIENT ups1 ::1
CLIENT ups1 203.0.113.1
END LIST CLIENT ups1
4.2.7.2. LIST CMD
The command calls for the Attachment Daemon to report a list of the
Instant Commands that the Management Daemon may send to the
Attachment Daemon. This Instant Command list is the abstracted view
of the UPS hardware capabilities. An economical UPS will support few
or no Instant Commands, but a professional model should support more.
Command: LIST CMD <upsname>
Response:
BEGIN LIST CMD <upsname>
CMD <upsname> <cmdname>
...
END LIST CMD <upsname>
<upsname> is the name of the UPS, and <cmdname> is the name of the
Instant Command that may be issued to the UPS.
For example: command LIST CMD su700 and response
BEGIN LIST CMD su700
CMD su700 load.on
CMD su700 test.panel.start
...
END LIST CMD su700
4.2.7.3. LIST ENUM
The command calls for the Attachment Daemon to report the set of
possible values of a UPS variable that has predetermined values.
Command: LIST ENUM <upsname> <varname>
Response:
BEGIN LIST ENUM <upsname> <varname>
ENUM <upsname> <varname> "<value>"
...
END LIST ENUM <upsname> <varname>
<upsname> is the name of the UPS, <varname> is the UPS variable, and
<value> is one of the possible values of that UPS variable. Note
that, in current practice, the output is an unordered list. Also
note that the quotation marks are part of the response.
For example: command LIST ENUM su700 input.transfer.low and response
BEGIN LIST ENUM su700 input.transfer.low
ENUM su700 input.transfer.low "103"
ENUM su700 input.transfer.low "100"
...
END LIST ENUM su700 input.transfer.low
4.2.7.4. LIST RANGE
The command calls for the Attachment Daemon to report the interval in
which valid values of UPS variable lie.
Command: LIST RANGE <upsname> <varname>
Response:
BEGIN LIST RANGE <upsname> <varname>
RANGE <upsname> <varname> "<min>" "<max>"
...
END LIST RANGE <upsname> <varname>
<upsname> is the name of the UPS, <varname> is the UPS variable, and
{<min>,<max>} is the interval of valid values of that UPS variable.
Note that the quotation marks are part of the response.
For example: command LIST RANGE su700 input.transfer.low and response
BEGIN LIST RANGE su700 input.transfer.low
RANGE su700 input.transfer.low "90" "105"
END LIST RANGE su700 input.transfer.low
4.2.7.5. LIST RW
The command calls for the Attachment Daemon to report a list of the
UPS variables associated with a given UPS that may be read and
written by the Management Daemon. These variables are the abstracted
view of the UPS hardware capabilities. An economical UPS may support
few variables, but a professional model should support at least the
variables that are needed for an automatic shutdown and restart; see
Appendix B. Also, see Section 8.2 for details of the recommended
minimum support of variables. A full list of variables is available
in source code file docs/nut-names.txt [gitvars], which serves as the
Recording Document.
Command: LIST RW <upsname>
Response:
BEGIN LIST RW <upsname>
RW <upsname> <varname> "<value>"
...
END LIST RW <upsname>
<upsname> is the name of the UPS, <varname> is the UPS variable, and
<value> is the value of that UPS variable. Note that the quotation
marks are part of the response.
For example: command LIST RW su700 and response
BEGIN LIST RW su700
RW su700 output.voltage.nominal "115"
RW su700 ups.delay.shutdown "020"
...
END LIST RW su700
4.2.7.6. LIST UPS
The command calls for the Attachment Daemon to report a list of the
UPS units to which it is attached.
Command: LIST UPS
Response:
BEGIN LIST UPS
UPS <upsname> "<description>"
...
END LIST UPS
<upsname> is the name of a UPS, and <description> is the description
maintained by the Attachment Daemon, if available. It is set to
"Unavailable" otherwise. Note that the quotation marks are part of
the response.
This command can also be used to determine what values of <upsname>
are valid before calling other functions on the server. This is also
a good way to handle situations where a single Attachment Daemon
supports multiple UPSs. It is also useful for clients that perform a
UPS discovery process.
For example: response
BEGIN LIST UPS
UPS su700 "Development box"
END LIST UPS
4.2.7.7. LIST VAR
The command calls for the Attachment Daemon to report a list of all
the UPS variables that it maintains for a given UPS and the values of
those UPS variables.
Command: LIST VAR <upsname>
Response:
BEGIN LIST VAR <upsname>
VAR <upsname> <varname> "<value>"
...
END LIST VAR <upsname>
<upsname> is the name of the UPS, <varname> is the UPS variable, and
<value> is the value of that variable. Note that the quotation marks
are part of the response.
The response to this command lists the UPS variables available for
this UPS and their current values.
For example: command LIST VAR su700 and response
BEGIN LIST VAR su700
VAR su700 ups.mfr "Example Mfg"
VAR su700 ups.mfr.date "10/17/96"
...
END LIST VAR su700
See Section 8.2 for details of the recommended minimum support of
variables. A full list of variables is available in source code file
docs/nut-names.txt [gitvars], which serves as the Recording Document.
4.2.8. PASSWORD
This command is a companion to USERNAME and is used by a Management
Daemon to specify the password required to enter a session with the
Attachment Daemon; see Section 2.9.
Command: PASSWORD <password>
If the command succeeds, the response is OK; otherwise, see the error
responses in Section 4.3.2.
For examples of the use of commands USERNAME and PASSWORD by
administrative users, see Appendix E.2.
ABNF: See variable session-password in Figure 5.
4.2.9. PRIMARY
In current practice, the Attachment Daemon records in local file
upsd.users that an administrative user is a Primary. See
Appendix E.1 for an example. When a Management Daemon starts up and
opens a session with the Attachment Daemon, it lays claim to being a
Primary by sending command PRIMARY to the Attachment Daemon, thus
claiming that it has the required authority to perform critical
actions, such as setting status symbol FSD.
Command: PRIMARY <upsname>
<upsname> is the name of the UPS.
If the Attachment Daemon has the authority, the response is OK;
otherwise, see the error responses in Section 4.3.2.
| Note: Historically, this command was known as MASTER.
4.2.10. PROTVER
Return the version of the command/response protocol used by the
Attachment Daemon. This command is intended for human, as well as
program, use.
Command: PROTVER
For example: the following command line sequence in the Attachment
Daemon
netcat localhost 3493
PROTVER
1.3
Notes:
1. There are no quotation marks in the response.
2. The version of the protocol returned by PROTVER is different than
the implementation version of the Attachment Daemon returned by
VER.
3. To ease migration, NUT version 2.8.0 also supports the equivalent
NETVER command used in previous releases. See Section 8.2.4.
ABNF: See variable protver in Figure 5.
4.2.11. SET
The command calls for the Attachment Daemon to set a UPS variable to
a given value. Whether this has an effect on the UPS hardware is
specific to the Driver and the UPS model. Some variables are read-
only due to the design of the UPS or its Driver.
Command: SET VAR <upsname> <varname> "<value>"
<upsname> is the name of the UPS, <varname> is the UPS variable, and
<value> is the value to be assigned to that variable. Note that the
quotation marks are part of the command.
If the command succeeds, the response is OK; otherwise, see the error
responses in Section 4.3.2.
For example: command SET VAR su700 ups.id "My UPS" and response OK
ABNF: See the variable set in Figure 5.
4.2.12. STARTTLS
The client tells the Attachment Daemon to switch to communication
encrypted by TLS [RFC8446]. When the client receives OK, it also
switches to TLS encryption.
Command: STARTTLS
If the command succeeds, the response is OK STARTTLS; otherwise, see
the error responses in Section 4.3.2.
If the client does not send command STARTTLS to the Attachment
Daemon, communication continues unencrypted; however, an Attachment
Daemon MAY refuse unencrypted communication.
NUT 2.8.0 supports the encryption of communications between the
Attachment Daemon and the Management Daemon using TLS 1.3 [RFC8446]
with X.509 v3 certificates, as defined by [RFC5280] and updates. See
Appendix D for details of the encryption of communications in
previous release 2.7.4.
ABNF: See variable starttls in Figure 5.
4.2.12.1. Key Infrastructure and Self-Signed Certificates
_The very restricted nature of UPS management makes it of interest to
consider self-signed certificates._
In the World Wide Web, there are millions of servers and hundreds of
millions of potential clients for each one. The servers do not know
who their clients will be, so they entrust the management of a Public
Key Infrastructure (PKI) to Certificate Authorities that they trust.
The encryption of communications between the client and server
requires that the browsers carry a list of Certificate Authorities
that the clients have to trust. _This is a many-to-many
relationship._
The management of UPS units is not a many-to-many relationship; it is
frequently one to one. In the closely restrained world of UPS
management, there are a very limited number of clients for each
server, rarely more than three, and unlike the World Wide Web, the
server administrators know exactly who they are. These clients visit
very few servers, typically one only. This situation is totally
different from the World Wide Web. The use of external Certificate
Authorities is a potential security weakness that must be accepted
for the World Wide Web but which can be avoided for UPS management by
either generating the private and public keys locally or, for larger
organizations, using a PKI.
The security policies for UPS management may be subordinate to an
organization's own internal IT security plans and procedures,
possibly based on [RFC7030] and [RFC8894], but in simple cases, it is
possible to obtain better security using self-signed certificates.
4.2.13. USERNAME
The Attachment Daemon limits access to clients whose credentials
match those in the file upsd.users. There is no anonymous access. A
Management Daemon program or script uses command USERNAME and its
companion command PASSWORD to open a session with the Attachment
Daemon for an administrative user. Note that this command is for
program or script use and is not the familiar login command typed on
a command line to gain access to a shell.
Command: USERNAME <username>
If the command succeeds, the response is OK; otherwise, see the error
responses in Section 4.3.2.
For examples of the use of commands USERNAME and PASSWORD by
administrative users, see Appendix E.2.
ABNF: See variable session-username in Figure 5.
4.2.14. VER
Return the implementation version of the Attachment Daemon. This
command is intended for human, as well as program, use.
Command: VER
For example: the following command line sequence
netcat localhost 3493
VER
Network UPS Tools upsd 2.8.0 - http://www.networkupstools.org/
Notes:
1. There are no quotation marks in the response.
2. The implementation version of the Attachment Daemon returned by
VER is different than the protocol version returned by PROTVER.
ABNF: See variable ver in Figure 5.
4.3. Summary of Responses
4.3.1. Response When Command Succeeds
If the command succeeds, the response has the following command-
dependent form:
+==========+=====================+================+============+
| Command | Response | Reference | Note |
+==========+=====================+================+============+
| ATTACH | OK | Section 4.2.1 | Was LOGIN |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| DETACH | OK Goodbye | Section 4.2.2 | Was LOGOUT |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| FSD | OK FSD-SET | Section 4.2.3 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| GET | Subcommand specific | Section 4.2.4 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| HELP | List of commands | Section 4.2.5 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| INSTCMD | OK | Section 4.2.6 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| LIST | Subcommand specific | Section 4.2.7 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| PASSWORD | OK | Section 4.2.8 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| PRIMARY | OK | Section 4.2.9 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| PROTVER | Protocol version | Section 4.2.10 | Was NETVER |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| SET | OK | Section 4.2.11 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| STARTTLS | OK STARTTLS | Section 4.2.12 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| USERNAME | OK | Section 4.2.13 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
| VER | Program version | Section 4.2.14 | |
+----------+---------------------+----------------+------------+
Table 2: Response If Command Succeeds
4.3.2. Error Responses
Error responses have the following format:
ERR <error-name> [<extra>]
<error-name> is a single word token taken from the 27 characters A-Z
and hyphen (-). Implementations MAY, if needed, add an additional,
optional <extra>. Current practice does not make use of this
possibility.
The <error-name> may have one of the following values:
+==============================+==================================+
| The Error Name Token | Meaning |
| <error-name> | |
+==============================+==================================+
| ACCESS-DENIED | The client's host and/or |
| | authentication details supplied |
| | by USERNAME and PASSWORD are not |
| | sufficient to execute the |
| | requested command. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| ALREADY-ATTACHED | The client has already sent a |
| | successful ATTACH command for a |
| | given UPS and can't do it again. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| ALREADY-SET-PASSWORD | The client has already supplied |
| | a PASSWORD and is attempting to |
| | repeat the command in the same |
| | session. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| ALREADY-SET-USERNAME | The client has already supplied |
| | a USERNAME and is attempting to |
| | repeat the command within the |
| | same session. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| CMD-NOT-SUPPORTED | The specified UPS doesn't |
| | support the Instant Command. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| DATA-STALE | The Attachment Daemon is |
| | connected to the Driver for the |
| | UPS, but that Driver isn't |
| | providing regular updates or has |
| | specifically marked the data as |
| | stale. Current practice is for |
| | the Attachment Daemon to refuse |
| | to provide the Management Daemon |
| | with variables on stale units to |
| | avoid false readings. |
| | |
| | This generally means that the |
| | Driver is running, but it has |
| | lost communication with the |
| | hardware. Check the physical |
| | connection to the equipment. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| DRIVER-NOT-CONNECTED | The Attachment Daemon can't |
| | perform the requested command, |
| | since the Driver for that UPS is |
| | not connected. This usually |
| | means that the Driver is not |
| | running or, if it is, is |
| | misconfigured. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| FEATURE-NOT-CONFIGURED | This instance of the Attachment |
| | Daemon hasn't been configured |
| | properly to allow the requested |
| | feature to operate. In current |
| | practice, this error response is |
| | possible only for command |
| | STARTTLS. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| FEATURE-NOT-SUPPORTED | This instance of Attachment |
| | Daemon does not support the |
| | requested feature. In current |
| | practice, this error response is |
| | possible only for command |
| | STARTTLS. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| INSTCMD-FAILED | The Attachment Daemon failed to |
| | deliver the Instant Command |
| | request to the Driver. No |
| | further information is available |
| | to the client. This typically |
| | indicates a dead or broken |
| | Driver. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| INVALID-ARGUMENT | The client sent an argument to a |
| | command that is not recognized |
| | or is otherwise not valid in |
| | this context. This is typically |
| | caused by sending a valid |
| | command, such as GET, with a |
| | subcommand that is not valid. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| INVALID-PASSWORD | The client sent a nonvalid |
| | PASSWORD. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| INVALID-USERNAME | The client sent a nonvalid |
| | USERNAME. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| INVALID-VALUE | The value specified in the |
| | request is not valid. This |
| | usually applies to a SET of an |
| | ENUM type that is using a value |
| | not in the list of allowed |
| | values. See Section 4.2.7.3. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| PASSWORD-REQUIRED | The command requires a PASSWORD |
| | for authentication, but the |
| | client hasn't provided one. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| READONLY | The requested variable in a SET |
| | command is not writable. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| SET-FAILED | The Attachment Daemon failed to |
| | deliver the SET request to the |
| | Driver. This is similar to |
| | INSTCMD-FAILED. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| TLS-ALREADY-ENABLED | TLS mode is already enabled on |
| | this connection, so the |
| | Attachment Daemon can't start it |
| | again. |
| | |
| | Note: Historically, this message |
| | was ALREADY-SSL-MODE. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| TLS-NOT-ENABLED | TLS mode is required but has not |
| | yet been enabled on this |
| | connection, so the Attachment |
| | Daemon can't send commands. |
| | |
| | Note: This message is |
| | experimental and not in current |
| | common use. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| TOO-LONG | The requested value in a SET |
| | command is too long. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| UNKNOWN-COMMAND | The Attachment Daemon doesn't |
| | recognize the command. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| UNKNOWN-UPS | The UPS specified in the request |
| | is not known to the Attachment |
| | Daemon. This usually means that |
| | it didn't match anything in the |
| | Attachment Daemon configuration. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| USERNAME-REQUIRED | The command requires a USERNAME |
| | for authentication, but the |
| | client hasn't provided one. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| VAR-NOT-SUPPORTED | The specified UPS doesn't |
| | support the UPS variable in the |
| | command. |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------+
Table 3: Error Responses
| Note: Historically, this error response was ALREADY-LOGGED-IN.
4.4. An ABNF of the Commands
This section repeats the syntax of Section 4.2 but in Augmented
Backus-Naur Form (ABNF). It does not define any additional features.
For further details of each command and the response, see
Section 4.2.
The commands may be presented in ABNF [RFC5234] [RFC7405] and
represented using US-ASCII [RFC0020].
Current practice tolerates mixed-case command names, but it is
RECOMMENDED to use uppercase only for commands. See Figure 5.
;-------------------------------------------------------------------
; This grammar is case sensitive. Terminal keywords SHOULD be
; written in uppercase, as shown.
; The following basic rules written with uppercase names are
; taken from RFC 5234, Appendix B.1.
SP = 1*%x20 ; At least one SPACE
LF = %x0A ; Linefeed
DIGIT = %x30-39 ; Digit 0 through 9
ALPHA = %x41-5A / %x61-7A ; A-Z / a-z
DQUOTE = %x22 ; Double quote "
VCHAR = %x21-7E ; Visible (printing) characters
; Additional basic rules needed by this grammar
LC = %x61-7A ; Letter a through z
DOT = 1%x2E ; Exactly one .
COLON = 1%x3A ; Exactly one :
AT = 1%x40 ; Exactly one @
SEP = 1"-" / 1"_" / 1"." ; A single - or _ or .
JOIN = COLON / AT ; A single : or @
; Frequently used in this grammar
cmdname = 1*LC *62(DOT 1*LC) ; E.g., load.off.delay
upschar = DIGIT / ALPHA / SEP
ups = 1*ALPHA *62upschar ; E.g., Example-Mfg-999
group = ups ; E.g., HB (Not in common use)
hostname = ups ; E.g., example.com
port = 1*5DIGIT ; E.g., 3493
upsname = [group COLON] ups [AT hostname [COLON port]]
; Fully Qualified UPS name
; E.g.,
; HB:heartbeat1@example.com:3493
username = ups ; E.g., Power-Dept.6
varname = 1*LC *62( DOT 1*(DIGIT / LC) )
; E.g., outlet.1.status
;-------------------------------------------------------------------
commandLine = command LF ; LF is a single %x0A
command = attach / detach / fsd / get / help / instcmd /
list / password / primary / protver / set /
starttls / username / ver
;
attach = "ATTACH" SP upsname
;
detach = "DETACH"
;
fsd = "FSD" SP upsname
;
get = "GET" SP getsubcommnd
getsubcommand = getcmddesc / getdesc / getnumattach /
gettype / getupsdesc / getvar
;
getcmddesc = "CMDDESC" SP upsname SP cmdname
getdesc = "DESC" SP upsname SP varname
getnumattach = "NUMATTACH" SP upsname
gettype = "TYPE" SP upsname SP varname
getupsdesc = "UPSDESC" SP upsname
getvar = "VAR" SP upsname SP varname
;
help = "HELP"
;
instcmd = "INSTCMD" SP upsname SP cmdname
;
list = "LIST" listsubcommand
listsubcommand = listclient / listcmd / listenum / listrange /
listrw / listups / listvar
;
listclient = "CLIENT" SP upsname
listcmd = "CMD" SP upsname
listenum = "ENUM" SP upsname SP varname
listrange = "RANGE" SP upsname SP varname
listrw = "RW" SP upsname
listups = "UPS"
listvar = "VAR" SP upsname
;
session-password = "PASSWORD" SP *63VCHAR
; A sequence of printable characters defined
; in a server configuration file. Local
; security practices may mandate a minimum
; and maximum number of characters.
;
primary = "PRIMARY" SP upsname
;
protver = "PROTVER"
;
value = *63VCHAR ; Local practices may limit the choice of
; characters and require non-US-ASCII.
set = "SET" SP %s"VAR" SP upsname SP varname SP
DQUOTE value DQUOTE
;
starttls = "STARTTLS"
;
session-username = "USERNAME" SP username
;
ver = "VER"
;-------------------------------------------------------------------
Figure 5: ABNF for the Commands
Notes:
1. _Implementation note:_ The ABNF is written using the provisions
of [RFC5234] and [RFC7405], which are US-ASCII based [RFC0020].
2. The grammar is case sensitive. The terminal key words SHOULD be
written in uppercase, as specified.
3. The repetition factor in front of an expression has the form
<min>*<max>, where <min> is the minimum number of repetitions,
and <max> is the maximum number.
4. If <min> is omitted, its value is 0. If <max> is omitted, its
value is infinity.
5. The notation n*n, meaning "exactly n copies", may be written as
n.
6. Square brackets around an expression mean that the expression is
optional. This could be written as 0*1.
4.4.1. Responses to Commands
The responses to the commands are encoded in US-ASCII [RFC0020] and
fall into two groups:
1. Short replies to action commands; see Section 4.3.
2. Long replies to requests for information. In this case, the
reply is sent in a sequence of messages. The last message will
contain a line beginning END LIST . For example, see
Section 4.2.7.1.
5. Statuses and Events
5.1. Status Symbols
These symbols resume the abstracted view of the UPS hardware
maintained by the Attachment Daemon. The variable ups.status
contains one or more space-separated status symbols, which together
describe the UPS state at that instant. In current practice, the
Management Daemon will poll variable ups.status every 5 seconds with
a command, such as GET VAR su700 ups.status, and a response, such as
VAR su700 ups.status "OB LB", to discover changes in the UPS status.
These changes will indicate UPS events.
+=========+======================================================+
| Status | Meaning |
| Symbol | |
+=========+======================================================+
| ALARM | The UPS reports that it requires intervention. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| BOOST | The UPS has determined that the voltage level of the |
| | public power supply is too low and is boosting it to |
| | the required level. The UPS continues to supply the |
| | protected system from the public power supply. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| BYPASS | The UPS is feeding current directly from the public |
| | power supply to the protected system. The backup |
| | facilities are disconnected. This state allows |
| | maintenance personnel to change the batteries |
| | without interrupting the protected system. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| CAL | The UPS is calibrating itself, for example, to |
| | determine at what charge the LB status is raised or |
| | lowered. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| CHRG | The UPS battery is charging. This usually implies |
| | that the UPS also has status OL but may not be the |
| | case if the UPS also has status OFF. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| COMM | The Attachment Daemon has effective contact with the |
| | UPS. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| DISCHRG | The UPS battery is discharging. This usually |
| | implies that the UPS also has status OB but may not |
| | be the case if the UPS also has status OFF. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| FSD | This "Forced Shutdown" status signals that the final |
| | shutdown sequence has begun. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| LB | Low Battery. The battery level of the UPS is below |
| | a chosen limit. The UPS may be in status OL or OB. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| NOCOMM | The Attachment Daemon has no effective contact with |
| | the UPS. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| OB | On Battery. The UPS is taking energy from its |
| | battery. The battery is discharging. A UPS must |
| | have status OB or OL; otherwise, it is deemed dead. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| OFF | The UPS is in state "Off". It does not react to |
| | failure in the public power supply. The exact |
| | meaning depends on the model. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| OL | Online. The UPS is online, receiving energy from |
| | the public power supply. The battery is charging. |
| | A UPS must have status OB or OL; otherwise, it is |
| | deemed dead. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| OVER | Overloaded. The UPS reports that the load on it is |
| | beyond its normal operating maximum. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| RB | Replace battery. The UPS reports that its battery |
| | or batteries should be replaced. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| TEST | Under test. The UPS is currently undergoing a test |
| | that may have been requested manually or internally. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| TICK | Heartbeat. A software UPS in the Attachment Daemon |
| | provides a regular signal monitored by the |
| | Management Daemon as a way of verifying effective |
| | end-to-end management. TICK and TOCK are |
| | companions; they are considered experimental. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| TOCK | Heartbeat. See TICK |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
| TRIM | The UPS has determined that the voltage level of the |
| | public power supply is too high and is reducing it |
| | to the required level. The UPS continues to supply |
| | the protected system from the public power supply. |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------+
Table 4: UPS Status Symbols
5.2. Events
A Management Daemon detects the occurrence of a UPS event from a
change in the UPS status received from the Attachment Daemon. The
following table summarizes the process. A status of "none" means
that the status symbol is not present in the variable ups.status.
The Management Daemon should retrieve the variable ups.status from
the Attachment Daemon at regular intervals. If the interval is too
short, compute and network resources will be wasted, but if the
interval is too large, the Management Daemon risks missing short-
lived changes in the UPS status.
A default value of 5 seconds is RECOMMENDED, but an implementation
MAY make this value configurable. By default, the "old" status is
therefore the previous value retrieved 5 seconds ago.
Current practice is for the Management Daemon to assign names to
certain events. These are shown in the table in parentheses.
+=======+=========+===============++=========+========+=============+
|Old | New |Event || Old | New |Event |
|Status | Status | || Status | Status | |
+=======+=========+===============++=========+========+=============+
|none | ALARM |Alarm on || ALARM | none |Alarm off |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | BOOST |Boosting || BOOST | none |Not boosting |
| | |voltage || | | |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | BYPASS |Bypass on || BYPASS | none |Bypass off |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | CAL |Calibrating || CAL | none |Not |
| | | || | |calibrating |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | CHRG |Charging || CHRG | none |Not charging |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | COMM |UPS || COMM | none |See note 4 |
| | |communicating || | | |
| | |(event COMMOK) || | | |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | DISCHRG |Discharging || DISCHRG | none |Not |
| | | || | |discharging |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | FSD |System shutdown|| FSD | none |Shutdown |
| | |(events FSD, || | |abandoned. |
| | |SHUTDOWN) || | |See note 1 |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | LB |Low battery. || LB | none |Battery not |
| | |See note 2 || | |low |
| | |(event LOWBATT)|| | | |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | NOCOMM |UPS dead? See || NOCOMM | none |See note 4 |
| | |note 4 || | | |
| | |(events || | | |
| | |COMMBAD, || | | |
| | |NOCOMM) || | | |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | OFF |UPS turned off || OFF | none |UPS not |
| | | || | |turned off |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|OB | OL |Receiving power|| OL | OB |Power lost |
| | |(event ONLINE) || | |(event |
| | | || | |ONBATT) |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | OVER |UPS overloaded || OVER | none |Overload gone|
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | RB |Replace battery|| RB | none |Replacement |
| | |(event || | |canceled |
| | |REPLBATT) || | | |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | TEST |Test starts || TEST | none |Test finished|
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | TICK |Heartbeat || TICK | none |No heartbeat.|
| | |event. See || | |See note 3 |
| | |note 3 || | | |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | TOCK |Heartbeat || TOCK | none |No heartbeat.|
| | |event. See || | |See note 3 |
| | |note 3 || | | |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
|none | TRIM |Trimming || TRIM | none |Not trimming |
| | |voltage || | | |
+-------+---------+---------------++---------+--------+-------------+
Table 5: Event Deduction from Status Changes
Notes:
1. Current practice does not include this event.
2. If the status OB is present, current practice takes Management
Daemon reception of LB as an order to perform an emergency
system shutdown.
3. The use of a software-defined UPS to provide a heartbeat is
experimental and is not part of common current practice.
4. Current practice is the following: if the UPS has not
responded for 15 seconds, the Management Daemon assumes that
the UPS is _dead_ (event NOCOMM), and if the last known OL/OB
status was OB, a system shutdown (command FSD) is requested.
6. Security Considerations
6.1. Current General Security Practice
Experience over the last 20 years shows that new UPS management
software releases are not frequent and, when installed, stay
unmodified for some years. This is probably because UPS management
is a mature activity, part of site management. A limited number of
system administrators have access to the UPS hardware and software
and tend to assume a certain "security by obscurity" since many
installations have a configuration like the one shown in Figure 6,
which uses port 3493/TCP (nut) between the two daemons running in the
same system. The traffic is often not encrypted, and when it is
encrypted, it uses deprecated early versions of SSL/TLS.
,-----, ,--------------------,---------------------,
| UPS |---| Attachment <-Commands Management |
| |===| Daemon Responses-> Daemon |
/-----\ '--------------------'---------------------'
Listens on
port 3493/TCP
for localhost
Figure 6: Common Single-System Configuration
This situation is now changing as low-cost processors become
available, costing significantly less than a UPS unit. This
evolution makes it interesting to shift to a configuration like the
one shown in Figure 7, but it also exacerbates the security weakness
of Figure 6, since the traffic between the daemons is now over an
exposed network.
,-----,------------, ,--------------,
| UPS - Attachment | <-Commands | Management |
| | Daemon | Responses-> | Daemon |
/-----'------------\ '--------------'
Listens on
port 3493/TCP
Figure 7: Integration of UPS and Attachment Daemon
These security issues raised by UPS management are those of the power
industry in general; they are addressed in detail in IEC Technical
Specification 62351 [IEC62351-1]. In addition to equipment security,
cyber security is now an essential consideration.
Quoting from IEC 62351-1[IEC62351-1], Introduction to the standard,
clause 5.2.3.5:
| With the computer systems for power operations presumably kept
| isolated from the Internet, many utility personnel do not see any
| reason for adding security measures to these systems. However, as
| clearly seen from these Subclauses, this may not be true anymore
| as networking becomes more prevalent and additional information
| access requirements grow.
In IEC 62351-1[IEC62351-1], clause 5.3.5 lists typical security
attacks: Eavesdropping, Masquerade, Man-in-the-Middle, Replay, and
Resource Exhaustion. [RFC3552] adds message insertion/deletion/
modification and denial of service.
Let's look more closely at these requirements:
* Eavesdropping; see Section 6.3.1
* Man-in-the-Middle; see Section 6.3.2
* Masquerade; see Section 6.3.3
* Message insertion, deletion, and modification; see Section 6.3.4
* Replay; see Section 6.3.5
* Resource Exhaustion and Denial of Service; see Section 6.3.6
6.2. Communication Security Requirements
Enforcing secure communication requires tightening up the Attachment
Daemon to require the use of command STARTTLS for commands sent over
the global Internet. In such a situation, an Attachment Daemon
listening for traffic other than from localhost:
1. SHOULD require and accept command STARTTLS,
2. MUST encrypt all communication with a Management Daemon, and
3. SHALL refuse all non-encrypted commands, except an initial
STARTTLS.
Notes:
* The SHOULD, rather than MUST, in Section 6.2, Paragraph 2, Item 1
above allows system administrators to enforce secure communication
using other techniques that do not involve the STARTTLS command.
* If an Attachment Daemon requires that all commands be encrypted as
required by the MUST in Section 6.2, Paragraph 2, Item 2 above,
then, automatically, each Management Daemon MUST encrypt as well,
since it has to do so in order to gain access.
* The SHALL in Section 6.2, Paragraph 2, Item 3 above applies to
traffic from the global Internet. An Attachment Daemon MAY accept
unencrypted commands from localhost if the local installation's
security practices allow it, for example, in a dedicated
appliance.
Firewalls SHOULD be used to restrict the communication between the
Attachment Daemon and the accepted Management Daemons, prohibiting
and discarding traffic from any systems that are not part of the
envisioned power management setup. Note: See Section 6.2, Paragraph
4, Item 1 above on the use of SHOULD.
6.2.1. Certificate Security
In long-lived installations, such as those found in UPS management,
careful certificate management is essential, whether the certificate
is provided by a Certificate Authority or is a self-signed
certificate. For example, the expiration times of both the
certificate containing the public key and the signing certificate
should be specified.
6.3. Attacks and Defenses
6.3.1. Eavesdropping
The defense against eavesdropping is encryption of the commands and
responses passed between the client Management Daemon and server
Attachment Daemon. The protocol provides command STARTTLS, see
Section 4.2.12, which calls on the Attachment Daemon to support TLS
encryption of the communication. If this command is accepted, the
Management Daemon also encrypts.
In current NUT Project practice, the use of TLS is optional; however,
a Management Daemon may refuse to accept unencrypted communication.
This is done by setting declarations FORCESSL to 1 and CERTVERIFY to
1 in the Management Daemon configuration file.
6.3.1.1. Misplaced Declarations Requiring TLS
A further weakness is that the FORCESSL and CERTVERIFY declarations,
which enforce use of encryption, are in the client Management Daemon
configuration file and not in the Attachment Daemon. Secure practice
requires enforcement by the server Attachment Daemon, rather than a
possibly rogue client Management Daemon out on the Internet.
This weakness may be mitigated with strict firewall rules that would
prevent the rogue client Management Daemon from accessing the
Attachment Daemon.
6.3.1.2. Weak Protection in Previous Version 2.7.4
Although version 2.8.0 of NUT supports TLS 1.3 [RFC8446] with X.509
v3 certificates as defined by [RFC5280], previous version 2.7.4 only
supported earlier SSL/TLS versions. To overcome this weakness, The
following techniques have been used:
* Shims; see Appendix D.1
* TLS tunnel; see Appendix D.2
* Virtual Private Network (VPN); see Appendix D.3
* Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN); see Appendix D.4
6.3.2. Man-in-the-Middle
The protocol relies on TLS encryption to prevent man-in-the-middle
attacks. See Appendix D for defense methods used for previous NUT
version 2.7.4.
6.3.3. Masquerade Attack: Agent Verification
The protocol allows a malicious client acting as a Management Daemon
to send command FSD to an Attachment Daemon to shut down a working
system and its power supply, as described in The Shutdown Story
section (see Appendix B). Similarly, a malicious client could turn
off the UPS power outlets, causing the system to fail.
The protocol provides commands USERNAME (see Section 4.2.13) and
PASSWORD (see Section 4.2.8), which allow an administrative user in a
Management Daemon to authenticate itself to the Attachment Daemon, as
a defense against masquerade attacks. The administrative username
and password need protection against local malicious users. This is
done by restricting access to the configuration files.
6.3.4. Message Insertion, Deletion, and Modification
The protocol relies on TLS encryption to prevent message insertion,
deletion, and modification attacks. See Appendix D for defense
methods used for previous NUT version 2.7.4.
6.3.5. Replay
There are two cases:
1. The replay is from a system other than an approved Management
Daemon, i.e., the protocol relies on a firewall to block the
traffic.
2. The replay is from an approved Management Daemon. i.e., the
protocol relies on the Management Daemon's own security to
prevent unauthorized access.
6.3.6. Denial of Service
The protocol relies on a very tightly specified firewall to prevent
denial-of-service attacks. Only designated client Management Daemons
should be able to reach the server Attachment Daemon.
7. IANA Considerations
The protocol specified by this text runs over port 3493/TCP (nut),
which is registered by the Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project.
This document has been added to the registration's Reference field in
the "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry"
[Registry].
8. Implementation Status
This section presents a very short summary of the status of the
Network UPS Tools project.
* May 1996: The first hack as a cron job.
* September 1997: The first server-client code.
* March 1998: First public release.
* June 1999: Code rewrite with a UPS Driver smartups, an Attachment
Daemon upsd, and a simple Management Daemon.
* September 1999: The project became "Network UPS Tools". The
Management Daemon upsmon supported Primary/Secondary
configurations.
* June 2001: Common core for multiple Drivers.
* May 2002: IANA granted port 3493/TCP (nut). August: release
1.0.0. November: OpenSSL support.
* April 2003: The initial set of command and variable names was
designed.
* February 2005: Arnaud Quette took over the project lead from
Russell Kroll.
* March 2016: Version 2.7.4 released, supported over 100 device
manufacturers and hundreds of UPS models.
* November 2020: Evgeny "Jim" Klimov took over project lead from
Arnaud Quette.
* May 2022: Version 2.8.0 released, supporting protocol version 1.3.
See [githist] and Appendix J [History] for a detailed history of the
NUT Project.
8.1. Inclusion in Software Distributions
The programs upsd, upsmon, upssched, upsc, upscmd, and upsrw have
been included in the package known as "nut" in the package systems of
many distributions, i.e., all the major Linux distributions and Unix
distributions, such as OpenBSD and OpenSolaris. A Microsoft Windows
version has been developed but was not maintained.
8.2. Recommended Minimum Support
The features provided by current UPS units vary widely. However,
experience shows that a minimum feature set is needed for
satisfactory use of the NUT Project software. A full list of
variables is available in source code file docs/nut-names.txt
[gitvars], which serves as the Recording Document.
8.2.1. Desktop PC Variables
The following variables form a minimum set suitable for a desktop PC.
It is expected that, on public power supply failure, the PC will be
halted. It will not restart automatically when power returns.
* battery.charge
* battery.charge.low
* device.mfr
* device.model
* ups.status with the minimum status symbol set OL OB LB FSD; see
Section 5.1
8.2.2. Unattended Servers and Additional Variables
The following additional variables are needed in a minimum set
suitable for an unattended server. It is expected that, on public
power supply failure, the server will be halted. It will restart
automatically when power returns.
* battery.date
* device.serial
* ups.delay.shutdown
* ups.delay.start
8.2.3. Commands and Other Technical Terms
Satisfactory use of the NUT Project software requires support for all
the commands specified in protocol version 1.3, software version
2.8.0.
8.2.4. Support for Earlier Versions
In order to ease migration from software version 2.7.4, which
supported protocol version 1.2, software version 2.8.0 also supports
the technical terms used in protocol version 1.2. See Appendix C for
the differences.
9. References
9.1. Normative References
[RFC0020] Cerf, V., "ASCII format for network interchange", STD 80,
RFC 20, DOI 10.17487/RFC0020, October 1969,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc20>.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC5234] Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5234, January 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5234>.
[RFC7405] Kyzivat, P., "Case-Sensitive String Support in ABNF",
RFC 7405, DOI 10.17487/RFC7405, December 2014,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7405>.
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
9.2. Informative References
[C2ndEd] Kernighan, B. and D. Ritchie, "The C Programming
Language", 2nd edition, Prentice Hall Software Series,
ISBN 0-13-110362-8, 1988.
[devguide] Kroll, R., Quette, A., Lepple, C., and P. Selinger,
"Network UPS Tools Project Developer Guide",
<https://networkupstools.org/docs/developer-guide.chunked/
ar01s09.html>.
[Documentation]
"Network UPS Tools Documentation",
<https://networkupstools.org/documentation.html>.
[githist] "The Network UPS Tools repository, project history", July
2022,
<https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/blob/master/docs/
history.txt>.
[gitvars] "The Network UPS Tools repository, variable names", April
2022,
<https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/blob/master/docs/
nut-names.txt>.
[History] Kroll, R., Quette, A., and A. de Korte, "Network UPS Tools
User Manual", May 2022,
<https://networkupstools.org/docs/user-manual.pdf>.
[HyTimeA] ISO/IEC, "Information technology -- Hypermedia/Time-based
Structuring Language (HyTime)", ISO/IEC 10744:1997, August
1997.
[IEC62351-1]
IEC, "Power systems management and associated information
exchange -- Data and communications security. Part 1:
Communication network and system security -- Introduction
to security issues", 35 pages, TC 57 - Power systems
management and associated information exchange, IEC TS
62351-1:2007, May 2007, <https://nanopdf.com/download/
technical-iec-specification-ts-62351-1_pdf>.
[Library] "Devices Dumps Library",
<https://networkupstools.org/ddl/>.
[NUT] "Network UPS Tools, Devices Dumps Library",
<https://www.networkupstools.org>.
[nut-repository]
"The Network UPS Tools repository",
<https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/>.
[nut-upsdev]
NUT, "Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project Mailing List for
Developers", <https://alioth-lists.debian.net/cgi-
bin/mailman/listinfo/nut-upsdev>.
[nut-upsuser]
NUT, "Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project Mailing List for
Users", <https://alioth-lists.debian.net/cgi-
bin/mailman/listinfo/nut-upsuser>.
[Registry] IANA, "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number
Registry", <https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-
names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xhtml>.
[RFC3552] Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing RFC
Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72, RFC 3552,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3552, July 2003,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3552>.
[RFC5280] Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S.,
Housley, R., and W. Polk, "Internet X.509 Public Key
Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List
(CRL) Profile", RFC 5280, DOI 10.17487/RFC5280, May 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5280>.
[RFC7030] Pritikin, M., Ed., Yee, P., Ed., and D. Harkins, Ed.,
"Enrollment over Secure Transport", RFC 7030,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7030, October 2013,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7030>.
[RFC7991] Hoffman, P., "The "xml2rfc" Version 3 Vocabulary",
RFC 7991, DOI 10.17487/RFC7991, December 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7991>.
[RFC8446] Rescorla, E., "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol
Version 1.3", RFC 8446, DOI 10.17487/RFC8446, August 2018,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8446>.
[RFC8894] Gutmann, P., "Simple Certificate Enrolment Protocol",
RFC 8894, DOI 10.17487/RFC8894, September 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8894>.
[SGML] Goldfarb, C., "The SGML Handbook", Oxford University
Press, ISBN-10 0-19-853737-9, 1990.
[sgmlnorm] OpenJade Project, "OpenJade Distribution Page",
<http://openjade.sourceforge.net/>.
[stunnel] "Stunnel", <https://www.stunnel.org/>.
Appendix A. Variables
The UPS variables represent the abstracted state of the UPS unit.
Certain variables represent not only the state of some hardware
feature but also provide tunable values and Instant Commands; see
Section 2.5. The full set of variables is recorded in the reference
document for variable names [gitvars].
The number of variables used in a given deployment depends on the
sophistication of the UPS product; this annex shows a typical example
of the subset of variables used for a reasonably complete "consumer
grade" UPS. The NUT Project maintains a large library of the
variable subsets [Library] used by different UPS models.
Note that successive versions of a given product may add or delete
features, causing a change in the subset of variables used. An
example is the removal of ups.delay.start from a "consumer grade"
UPS. The manufacturer reserves the feature for the "professional"
product.
An implementation of a Management Daemon acting as a utility program
may provide a listing of the variables available for a given product,
for example, utility program upsc, as included in the NUT package;
see Section 2.6, Paragraph 3.
The following sections illustrate the use of variables by taking the
values associated with a typical product. The example is a 1600 Va
1000 W UPS.
A.1. Typical UPS Variables
+===============================+============+====================+
| Variable | Typical | Default |
| | Value | Description |
+===============================+============+====================+
| battery.charge | 100 | "Battery charge |
| | | (percent of full)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| battery.charge.low | 20 | "Remaining battery |
| | | level when UPS |
| | | switches to LB |
| | | (percent)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| battery.runtime | 1481 | "Battery runtime |
| | | (seconds)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| battery.type | PbAc | "Battery |
| | | chemistry" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| device.mfr | Example | "" |
| | Mfg | |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| device.model | Economy | "" |
| | 1600 | |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| device.serial | 1234567890 | "" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| device.type | ups | "" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.name | usbhid-ups | "Driver name" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.parameter.lowbatt | 37 | "Driver parameter: |
| | | <name>" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.parameter.offdelay | 30 | "Driver parameter: |
| | | <name>" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.parameter.ondelay | 40 | "Driver parameter: |
| | | <name>" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.parameter.pollfreq | 30 | "Driver parameter: |
| | | <name>" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.parameter.pollinterval | 2 | "Driver parameter: |
| | | <name>" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.parameter.port | auto | "Driver parameter: |
| | | <name>" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.parameter.synchronous | no | "Driver parameter: |
| | | <name>" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.parameter.vendorid | 0999 | "Driver parameter: |
| | | <name>" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.version | 2.8.0 | "Driver version - |
| | | NUT release" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.version.data | HID 1.39 | "" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| driver.version.internal | 0.41 | "Internal driver |
| | | version" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| input.transfer.high | 264 | "High voltage |
| | | transfer point |
| | | (V)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| input.transfer.low | 184 | "Low voltage |
| | | transfer point |
| | | (V)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.1.desc | PowerShare | "Outlet |
| | Outlet 1 | description" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.1.id | 2 | "Outlet system |
| | | identifier" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.1.status | on | "Outlet switch |
| | | status" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.1.switchable | no | "Outlet switch |
| | | ability" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.2.desc | PowerShare | "Outlet |
| | Outlet 2 | description" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.2.id | 3 | "Outlet system |
| | | identifier" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.2.status | on | "Outlet switch |
| | | status" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.2.switchable | no | "Outlet switch |
| | | ability" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.desc | Main | "Outlet |
| | Outlet | description" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.id | 1 | "Outlet system |
| | | identifier" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.power | 25 | "" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| outlet.switchable | no | "Outlet switch |
| | | ability" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| output.frequency.nominal | 50 | "Nominal output |
| | | frequency (Hz)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| output.voltage | 230.0 | "Output voltage |
| | | (V)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| output.voltage.nominal | 230 | "Nominal output |
| | | voltage (V)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.beeper.status | enabled | "UPS beeper |
| | | status" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.delay.shutdown | 20 | "Interval to wait |
| | | after shutdown |
| | | with delay command |
| | | (seconds)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.delay.start | 30 | "Interval to wait |
| | | before |
| | | (re)starting the |
| | | load (seconds)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.firmware | 02 | "UPS firmware" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.load | 20 | "Load on UPS |
| | | (percent of full)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.mfr | Example | "UPS manufacturer" |
| | Mfg | |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.model | Economy | "UPS model" |
| | 1600 | |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.power.nominal | 1600 | "UPS power rating |
| | | (VA)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.productid | ffff | "Product ID for |
| | | USB devices" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.serial | 000000000 | "UPS serial |
| | | number" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.status | OL | "UPS status" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.temperature | 27 | "UPS temperature |
| | | (C)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.timer.shutdown | 0 | "Time before the |
| | | load will be |
| | | shutdown |
| | | (seconds)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.timer.start | 0 | "Time before the |
| | | load will be |
| | | started (seconds)" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
| ups.vendorid | 0999 | "Vendor ID for USB |
| | | devices" |
+-------------------------------+------------+--------------------+
Table 6: Typical UPS Variables
A.2. Typical UPS Readable and Writable Variables
Some of the features of a UPS are represented by variables that may
be tuned by the user. The following variables are typical of such
tunable features. The precise list depends on the model of UPS. An
implementation of a Management Daemon acting as a utility program may
provide a listing of the variables available, as well as acting on
them, for example, utility program upsrw, as included in the NUT
package; see Section 2.6, Paragraph 3.
+========================+============+=========================+
| Variable | Typical | Default Description |
| | Value | Provided as Response to |
| | | the Command GET DESC |
+========================+============+=========================+
| battery.charge.low | 20 | "Remaining battery |
| | | level when UPS switches |
| | | to LB (percent)" |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| input.transfer.high | 264 | "High voltage transfer |
| | | point (V)" |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| input.transfer.low | 184 | "Low voltage transfer |
| | | point (V)" |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| outlet.1.desc | PowerShare | "Outlet description" |
| | Outlet 1 | |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| outlet.2.desc | PowerShare | "Outlet description" |
| | Outlet 2 | |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| outlet.2.switchable | no | "Outlet switch ability" |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| outlet.desc | Main | "Outlet description" |
| | Outlet | |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| outlet.power | 25 | "Description |
| | | unavailable" |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| output.voltage.nominal | 230 | "Nominal output voltage |
| | | (V)" |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| ups.delay.shutdown | 20 | "Interval to wait after |
| | | shutdown with delay |
| | | command (seconds)" |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
| ups.delay.start | 30 | "Interval to wait |
| | | before (re)starting the |
| | | load (seconds)" |
+------------------------+------------+-------------------------+
Table 7: Typical Readable and Writable UPS Variables
A.3. Typical UPS Instant Commands
Some of the features of a UPS are actions known as Instant Commands
(see Section 2.5), which may be ordered by the user. The following
variables represent such Instant Commands. The precise list depends
on the model of UPS. An implementation of a Management Daemon acting
as a utility program may provide a listing of the variables
available, as well as acting on them, for example, utility program
upscmd, as included in the NUT package; see Section 2.6, Paragraph 3.
+==================+==========================================+
| Command | Meaning |
+==================+==========================================+
| beeper.disable | Disable the UPS beeper |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
| beeper.enable | Enable the UPS beeper |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
| beeper.mute | Temporarily mute the UPS beeper |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
| load.off | Turn off the load immediately |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
| load.off.delay | Turn off the load with a delay (seconds) |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
| load.on | Turn on the load immediately |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
| load.on.delay | Turn on the load with a delay (seconds) |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
| shutdown.return | Turn off the load and return when power |
| | is back |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
| shutdown.stayoff | Turn off the load and remain off |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
| shutdown.stop | Stop a shutdown in progress |
+------------------+------------------------------------------+
Table 8: Typical Instant Commands
Appendix B. The Shutdown Story for System and UPS
This appendix provides background material helpful for a general
understanding of the relation between system and UPS. It does not
define any feature of the command-response protocol.
We consider the steps involved in the shutdown and restart of a long-
running unattended server protected by a single UPS. The Management
Daemon runs in the server as shown in Figure 8.
,------------------SERVER------------------,
| | |
,-----, | UPS <-Commands UPS |
| UPS |---| Attachment | Management |
| |===| Daemon Responses-> Daemon |
/-----\ '--------------------'---------------------'
Internal
loopback
Figure 8: Long-Running Unattended Server
1. _The public power supply is on._ The system runs normally.
Every 5 seconds, variable ups.status reports OL. _Days, weeks,
months go by..._
2. _Winter storm. Tree falls on power lines. The public power
supply fails._ The server remains operational, running on the
UPS battery. The Management Daemon polls the Attachment Daemon
and detects status change OL->OB.
3. The Management Daemon logs warning messages. The server is
still operational, running on the UPS battery. _Minutes go
by..._
4. The battery discharges below the level specified by variable
battery.charge.low. The server remains operational, but the UPS
battery will not last much longer. The Management Daemon polls
the Attachment Daemon and detects status change OB->OB+LB.
5. The Management Daemon logs the low battery event.
6. The Management Daemon decides to call for a system shutdown. It
sets status FSD in the Attachment Daemon to call on any
Secondaries to shut down and waits for command GET NUMATTACH to
report one single attachment, i.e., the Primary itself. The
Management Daemon then issues the system shutdown command for
itself.
7. The operating system's shutdown process takes over. During the
system shutdown, a specific script to the NUT Project or an
equivalent system service unit runs the command upsdrvctl
shutdown. This tells the UPS that it is to shut down N seconds
later where the default is N=20. Note that the "shutdown" of a
UPS removes power from the outlet sockets but may not turn the
UPS off completely. A delayed shutdown is sometimes audible,
and the characteristic beeping of the UPS stops.
8. The system shuts down and powers down, hopefully before the N=20
seconds have passed.
9. _N seconds after item 7_ The UPS shuts down, i.e., it turns off
its outlet sockets when N=20 seconds have passed. With some UPS
units, there is an audible "clunk".
What if the public power supply returns before the UPS shuts
down? The UPS unit should be able to wait a configurable time
with default 30 seconds. These two timers start from the moment
the UPS receives the upsdrvctl shutdown command. _Minutes,
hours, days go by..._
10. _Some time later, maybe much later, the public power supply
returns._ The UPS reconnects its outlets to send power to the
protected system.
11. The system BIOS option "Restore power on AC return" or "Restore
to previous state" has hopefully been selected and the system
powers up. The bootstrap process of the operating system
begins.
12. The operating system starts the Attachment Daemon and the
Management Daemon. The Attachment Daemon starts the Driver and
scans the UPS. The UPS status becomes OL+LB.
13. After some time, the battery charges above the
battery.charge.low threshold, and the Attachment Daemon declares
the status change OL+LB->OL. We are now back in the same
situation as item 1 above.
Appendix C. Technical Terms: Historical Differences
This appendix lists the major differences between the technical terms
used in NUT software release 2.8.0 and documented in this text, as
well as those used in previous version 2.7.4 of the NUT Project.
+===================+========================+===========+
| Term in Previous | Term in this Document, | Reference |
| Release NUT 2.7.4 | Release NUT 2.8.0 | |
+===================+========================+===========+
| ALREADY-LOGGED-IN | ALREADY-ATTACHED | Table 3 |
+-------------------+------------------------+-----------+
| ALREADY-SSL-MODE | TLS-ALREADY-ENABLED | Table 3 |
+-------------------+------------------------+-----------+
| LOGIN | ATTACH | Section |
| | | 4.2.1 |
+-------------------+------------------------+-----------+
| LOGOUT | DETACH | Section |
| | | 4.2.2 |
+-------------------+------------------------+-----------+
| Master | Primary | Section |
| | | 2.7 |
+-------------------+------------------------+-----------+
| NETVER | PROTVER | Section |
| | | 4.2.10 |
+-------------------+------------------------+-----------+
| NUMLOGINS | NUMATTACH | Section |
| | | 4.2.4.3 |
+-------------------+------------------------+-----------+
| Slave | Secondary | Section |
| | | 2.8 |
+-------------------+------------------------+-----------+
Table 9: Technical Terms: Historical Differences
Appendix D. Security Defenses in Release 2.7.4
Previous NUT version 2.7.4 did not provide support for TLS 1.3
[RFC8446]. The following subsections describe mitigating techniques.
D.1. Shims
Previous version 2.7.4 of NUT did not support TLS 1.3 [RFC8446].
Where such protection is needed for version 2.7.4, a possible
technique introduces shims between the Attachment Daemon and the
network and between the network and the Management Daemon, as shown
in Figure 9. These shims provide TLS 1.3 support, thus allowing the
Attachment Daemon and Management Daemon to continue temporarily
without having TLS implementations themselves. The technique has
been successfully tested.
TLS shim listens TLS shim listens
on port TBD1/TCP on port 3493/TCP
,-----,------------,----, ,----,--------------,
| UPS - Attachment |TLS | <-STARTTLS | TLS| Management |
| | Daemon |shim| OK--> |shim| Daemon |
/-----'------------'----\ '----'--------------'
Listens on
port 3493/TCP
Figure 9: Shims Provide TLS Support During Migration
D.1.1. Attachment Daemon Shim
The shim in front of the Attachment Daemon listens to incoming
traffic on port TBD1/TCP. When it receives the command STARTTLS, it:
1. returns OK to the client and sets up TLS encapsulation.
2. does not send STARTTLS to the Attachment Daemon port 3493/TCP.
All other commands and responses are passed through.
Note: Port TBD1/TCP is not specified by this text.
D.1.2. Management Daemon Shim
The shim in front of the Management Daemon listens for incoming
traffic on port 3493/TCP. When it receives the command STARTTLS, it:
1. returns FEATURE-NOT-CONFIGURED to the client.
2. sends STARTTLS to the Attachment Daemon on port TBD1/TCP.
All other commands and responses are passed through.
D.2. TLS Tunnels
Another technique is the use of TLS tunnels [RFC8446], using a
software, such as stunnel [stunnel], which adds OpenSSL-based TLS
support without modifying the Attachment Daemon or Management Daemon.
The NUT Project has no procedure to enforce this on sites.
D.3. VPN
A further option to secure communications is very similar to TLS
tunneling [RFC8446] and consists of routing the NUT traffic through a
Virtual Private Network (VPN).
D.4. VLAN
A fourth option is to isolate the UPS management traffic at the
network switching level using a Virtual LAN (VLAN) technique.
,-------------, ,-------------,
,-----, | Attachment | | Management |
| UPS |---| Daemon | | Daemon |
| | |-------------| UPS |-------------|
| |===| | Management | UPS |
/-----\ | Protected |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Management |
| Server | VLAN | Client |
| | '-------------'
'-------------'
Production | VLAN
,---|-------,
,-----------,|
,-----------,|'
| Clients |'
'-----------'
Figure 10: UPS Management Protocol Runs over Its Own VLAN
In Figure 10, there are two VLANS: the main traffic between the
protected server and its clients using the production VLAN. The UPS
management traffic between the Attachment and Management Daemons uses
the UPS management VLAN marked as ~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
Appendix E. Administrative Security
Administrative commands, such as FSD, INSTCMD, and SET, are powerful
and can have a deep effect on system integrity. For example, the
command FSD is involved in mission-critical system shutdown
decisions. Access to them needs to be managed and restricted. This
section presents the current practice.
E.1. Management of Administrative Users
The Attachment Daemon maintains a file (currently upsd.users) that
defines each administrative user. Note that these users are
independent of those recorded in file /etc/passwd. Each
administrative user gets its own section in file upsd.users. The
declarations in that section set the parameters that define that
user's privileges. The section begins with the name of the user
enclosed in square brackets, opening bracket ([) and closing bracket
(]), and continues until the next username in brackets or EOF.
For example, the following file declares two administrative users,
admin and pfy:
[admin]
password = sekret
upsmon master
actions = SET
instcmds = ALL
[pfy]
password = sekret
instcmds = test.panel.start
instcmds = test.panel.stop
Within each section, the administrative user declarations are:
+=============+==========================================+
| Declaration | Meaning |
+=============+==========================================+
| actions | Allow the user to do certain things in |
| | the Attachment Daemon. To specify |
| | multiple actions, use multiple instances |
| | of the declaration. Valid actions are: |
| | |
| | * FSD Set the "Forced Shutdown" flag |
| | for this UPS. See Section 4.2.3. |
| | |
| | * SET Change the value of a UPS |
| | variable. See Section 4.2.11. |
+-------------+------------------------------------------+
| instcmds | Let a user initiate specific Instant |
| | Commands. See Section 4.2.6. Use value |
| | ALL to grant all commands automatically. |
| | To specify multiple commands, use |
| | multiple instances of the instcmds |
| | field. For the full list of what a |
| | given UPS supports, use client upscmd -l |
| | supplied by the NUT Project. The LIST |
| | CMD command is issued within the client |
| | upscmd. |
+-------------+------------------------------------------+
| password | Set the password for this user. _Your |
| | password should be more secure than the |
| | examples shown._ |
+-------------+------------------------------------------+
| upsmon | Add the necessary actions for a |
| | Management Daemon to process a system |
| | shutdown. In current practice, the |
| | value is still master or slave. Note |
| | that there is no EQUALS =. |
+-------------+------------------------------------------+
Table 10: Administrative User Declarations
E.2. An Administrative User of a Client Management Daemon
The following examples show the current security practices for
administrative users of a client Management Daemon. They also
illustrate the command pair USERNAME and PASSWORD. See Sections
4.2.13 and 4.2.8.
E.2.1. An Administrative User Logs into a Short Session
In this simple example of current practice, the system administrator
sets the battery level at which an Attachment Daemon will raise the
status LB, represented by variable battery.charge.low, to 35% of full
charge. A system administrator types the following command to call
the client upsrw supplied by the NUT Project.
upsrw -s battery.charge.low=35 -u admin -p sekret UPS-1@example.com
Option -s specifies the variable and the value, option -u specifies
the USERNAME, option -p specifies the PASSWORD, and UPS-1@example.com
is the UPS. The USERNAME and PASSWORD commands are issued within the
client upsrw, and the session is of short duration.
Note: Your password should be stronger than the example shown.
E.2.2. An Administrative User Logs into a Long Session
In this second example of current practice, the long-running
Management Daemon upsmon, which is responsible for initiating system
shutdowns and which is provided by the NUT Project, issues commands
USERNAME and PASSWORD when it starts up. The data values needed for
the USERNAME and PASSWORD commands are provided by a configuration
file upsmon.conf, which contains the line:
MONITOR UPS-1@example.com 1 admin sekret master
This says that the UPS to be monitored is UPS-1@example.com. It
provides 1 single power supply. The administrative user is admin
with password sekret. The Management Daemon acts as a Primary,
although current practice still uses the former term master.
The USERNAME and PASSWORD commands are contained within the client
upsmon, and the session is of long duration.
Acknowledgments
This document is based on the NUT Project documentation [devguide].
The editor acknowledges the work of Charles Lepple, Arjen de Korte,
Arnaud Quette, Jim Klimov, Russell Kroll, Manuel Wolfshant, Greg
Troxel, Mark Hansen, and many others who contribute to the
nut-upsuser [nut-upsuser] and nut-upsdev [nut-upsdev] mailing lists.
Earlier draft versions of this document were prepared using an SGML
DTD [SGML] and an XML meta-DTD defined by HyTime Annex A [HyTimeA].
Unlike XML, SGML offers markup minimization, and the earlier drafts
took advantage of this. The osgmlnorm [sgmlnorm] program generated
the XML that was used as input to xml2rfc [RFC7991], which then
created the document's current source. The editor acknowledges the
help received from Carsten Bormann and Julian Reschke in the xml2rfc
mailing list.
Many helpful comments were received from Eliot Lear, Bart Smit, David
Zomaya, Joyce Norris, and Ted Mittelstaedt.
Author's Address
Roger Price (editor)
Network UPS Tools Project
France
Email: ietf@rogerprice.org