So we’re using several types of UPS’s at our clients, and sometimes bump into generic USB UPS systems too. To monitor these we use a couple of methods that all have benefits and downsides. Let’s get started.

If a generic USB UPS is installed, Windows Server recognizes this as a Battery Unit. The status is sent to the server by using a generic Windows Driver called “Microsoft Compliant Control Method Battery” which is quite the mouthfull. The good thing is that with this driver we can use a couple of small PowerShell commands to find the exact status of the battery.

USB UPS systems

 $Battery = Get-CimInstance -ClassName win32_battery
Switch ($Battery.Availability) {
    1  { $Availability = "Other" ;break}
   2  { $Availability =  "Not using battery" ;break}
   3  { $Availability = "Running or Full Power";break}
   4  {$Availability =  "Warning" ;break}
   5  { $Availability = "In Test";break}
   6  { $Availability = "Not Applicable";break}
   7  { $Availability = "Power Off";break}
   8  { $Availability = "Off Line";break}
   9  { $Availability = "Off Duty";break}
   10  {$Availability =  "Degraded";break}
   11  {$Availability =  "Not Installed";break}
   12  {$Availability =  "Install Error";break}
   13  { $Availability = "Power Save - Unknown";break}
   14  { $Availability = "Power Save - Low Power Mode" ;break}
   15  { $Availability = "Power Save - Standby";break}
   16  { $Availability = "Power Cycle";break}
   17  { $Availability = "Power Save - Warning";break}
    }

$BatteryStatus = $Battery.Status
$BatteryName = "$($Battery.name)"
$Remaining = $Battery.EstimatedChargeRemaining
$EstRunTimeMinutes = $Battery.EstimatedRunTime
$BatAvailability = $Availability

The script gets the battery status out of WMI, it shows if the machine is running on battery or not, and you can alert on this. We’ve set our systems up to make sure that when the battery status changes from anything but “Not using battery” it alerts, and possibly shuts down the machine.

Another thing to pay attention to is the Battery Status – Most APCs and Dell’s connected to USB even tell the OS if the battery is in a warning state or failed, you should alert on anything but “OK” for the status.

We can’t really monitor network UPS systems with this, as they do not get their data in w32_battery, so we’ll have to use a couple of different solutions for this. I’ll try covering this in a future blog. As always, happy PowerShelling!