firewalla-apcupsd

What is this project?

This project is intended to provide a customized script that's compatible with Firewalla Gold units that allows you to easily integrate an APC UPS device for battery backup and surge protection in the event of a less than ideal power situation.

Note that this project is not officially supported by either Firewalla or APC and is provided free of charge as open source software. Firewalla, APC, and the contributors of this package provide no guarantees of compatibility or any other warranty if you choose to use this software on your Firewalla Gold unit.

Installation

# SSH into your Firewalla Gold (specify your network gateway IP)
# Note: Please verify that SSH is enabled for your particular network
ssh pi@192.168.100.1 # eg. for a 192.168.100.1/24 network
# Enter password from Firewalla app --> Settings --> Advanced --> Configurations --> SSH Console --> Tap password to reveal

# Clone the repository on your Firewalla Gold
git clone https://github.com/mrodrig/firewalla-apcupsd.git

# Navigate into the cloned directory and ensure the scripts are executable
cd firewalla-apcupsd
chmod +x *.sh

# Install the firewalla-apcupsd.conf script into the Firewalla custom scripts directory
./install.sh

# Run the installation script to ensure APCUPSD is installed.
./firewalla-apcupsd.sh

# Done!

How does this work?

This script leverages Firewalla's Customized Scripting functionality to provide a persistent UPS package installation and configuration on your Firewalla Gold unit. This package will use a default configuration, as specified in the firewalla-apcupsd.sh script so you may need to customize it before running install.sh depending on your specific UPS. The settings that were specified were for the Back-UPS 1000VA 600W unit that I purchased (Model Number: BX1000M-LM60) for use with my network equipment.

Essentially the install.sh script will copy the firewalla-apcupsd.sh script and the apcupsd.conf configuration file over to /home/pi/.firewalla/config/post_main.d where Firewalla allows custom scripts to be stored so that whenever your Firewalla Gold is restarted or updated your Firewalla Gold will not lose your APC UPS configuration or connection. Without this custom script and configuration, your Firewalla Gold effectively uninstalls the apcupsd package that's required to integrate with an APC UPS system at every reboot, causing the UPS to simply run until the battery is completely depleted, and therefore decreasing the life of the UPS' battery.

Currently this project does not support running custom scripts when different power events are reported by the UPS, but I am open to pull requests to add support for that functionality and good documentation around the configuration and usage of the feature.

Contributing

Since everyone's configuration is different, I'm open to pull requests that improve the script logic, performance, and reliability, but will likely not merge any PRs seek to adjust the configuration specified in this project, unless it is in response to an apcupsd package update on the Firewalla Gold unit.

FAQ

Q: What is the runtime of your 1000VA 600W UPS?

A: On average, the display and command line show anywhere between 140-160 minutes of runtime depending on system load, but usually hovering around 146 minutes. This includes power for my Firewalla Gold, Verizon FiOS ONT network box, Netgear GS308E managed switch, ActionTec ECB6200 MoCA Adaptor, T-Mobile Line Link, and a 5V fan which is being used to provide cooling for the Firewalla Gold.