[Nut-upsuser] Trying to update the official docs for nut on FreeNAS - help needed to ensure it's written correctly

[Stilez Stilezy]

This is slightly off-topic, I guess, but I'm not sure who better to ask for
help.

I'm active within the FreeNAS community and involved in their (FreeBSD
based) documentation work. There is a long standing bug ticket - years old
now - to update their "network ups tools" docs page, to cover Ethernet
attached UPS that use nut for the link. Currently the docs mainly describes
configuring USB connected power, not Ethernet connected power.  The docs
team have pretty much indicated they don't have the resources available to
do this, and asked if I can work it out and propose any necessary docs
changes to cover nut over Ethernet.

I'm a complete newcomer to nut, so I don't know that much about its config
files, but I probably wouldn't need to know much to improve the issues in
their docs so I'd like to have a go.  I'm sure most of this is in nut docs,
but I'm fitting this in between jobs and help would be appreciated so I can
help quickly and with more certainty.

My own UPS setup is an APC SUA 1500i + AP9630 card, and the default user on
the UPS has been changed, so that's what I'll test anything with, to check
my understanding and appropriate inputs.

My questions are mainly about the config required to correctly link to an
ethernet UPS using nut (connection/users/pw config), not so much about
advanced config or management of a UPS once connected (master/slave/status
info/control):



GENERAL NUT + ETHERNET CONNECTIONS:

1. Is "ethernet" likely to be synonymous with "snmp" for UPS network cards?
Is information update based entirely on the daemon periodically polling, or
does the UPS independently broadcast across the network upon a status
issue, for any device to receive? If the UPS can both broadcast and be
polled, does nut use both capabilities?

2. What users/passwords provided/created/usual in nut -> Ethernet UPS? For
example, does 3rd party software need a user/pw for a nut client to
communicate with the daemon, and *also* the daemon need a separate user/pw
to login and get status info from the UPS? Is a user/pw combination needed
just to get status info from the UPS, such as if power is OK, or to be
alerted if there is a power issue? (I'd expect so, but worth checking
explicitly)

3. What would be the basic config params needed to establish a data link to
an ethernet-connected UPS (other than user/pw) when using nut in a simple
way to communicate with the UPS?


FREENAS/FREEBSD SPECIFIC:

4. Does anyone already use FreeNAS/FreeBSD with an APC UPS+AP963x network
card? If so, what nut config do you use - either FreeNAS GUI fields or nut
main config file entries that are important, would help. Are there any
crucial setup points you find important/necessary to get it working well,
or other comments on your config?

5. The FreeNAS UPS service GUI has fields marked "monitor user+pw". Some
web references seem to suggest they contain the users defined externally in
the UPS through Powerchute/WebUI, other sources suggest they are used
internally by the nut client to communicate with a nut daemon. Nobody
(including the team itself) actually seems to be very sure which is
somewhat intriguing! To save dabbling in the codebase, does anyone happen
to know for sure what the data in these fields is used for, off the top of
their head?


Thanks for any help you can give. Any assistance appreciated!

Stilez
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