DUMMY-UPS(8)

NAME
dummy-ups - Driver for multi purpose UPS emulation

NOTE
This man page only documents the specific features of the dummy-ups driver. For information about the core driver, see nutupsdrv(8).

DESCRIPTION
This program is a multi purpose UPS emulation tool. Its behavior depends on the running mode:

Dummy mode
    looks like a standard UPS driver to upsd(8) and allows to change any value for testing purposes. It is both interactive, controllable through the upsrw(1) and upscmd(1) commands (or equivalent graphical tool), and batchable through script files. It can be configured, launched and used as any other real driver. This mode is mostly useful for development and testing purposes.

Repeater mode
    acts as a NUT client, simply forwarding data. This can be useful for supervision purposes. This can also allow some load sharing between several UPS instances, using a point-to-point communication with the UPS.

ARGUMENTS
The port specification depends on the running mode, and allows the automatic guessing of it.

Dummy mode
    Port is a definition file name for dummy-ups. This can either be an absolute or a relative path name. In the latter case the NUT sysconfig directory (ie /etc/nut, /usr/local/ups/etc, ...) is prepended. This file is generally named something.dev. It contains a list of all valid data and associated values, and has the same format as an upsc dump (<varname>: <value>). So you can easilly create definition files from an existing UPS using "upsc > file.dev". It can also be empty, in which case only a basic set of data is available: device.*, driver.*, ups.mfr, ups.model, ups.status Samples definition files are available in the "data" directory of the nut source tree, and generally in the sysconfig directory of your system distribution. Since dummy-ups will loop on reading this file, you can dynamically modify it to interact with the driver. You can also use the "TIMER <seconds>" instruction to create scheduled events sequences. For example, the following sequence will loop on switching ups.status between "OL", "OB" and "OB LB" every minute:
    	ups.status: OL
    	TIMER 60
    	ups.status: OB
    	TIMER 60
    	ups.status: LB
    	TIMER 60
    It is wise to end the script with a TIMER. Otherwise dummy-ups will directly go back to the beginning of the file.

Repeater mode
    Port is the name of a remote UPS, using the NUT form, ie:
        <upsname>[@<hostname>[:<port>]]

IMPLEMENTATION
You will need add to at least one entry in ups.conf(5) like:
[dummy]
	driver = dummy-ups
	port = evolution500.dev
	desc = "dummy-ups in dummy mode"
[repeater]
	driver = dummy-ups
	port = ups@hostname
	desc = "dummy-ups in repeater mode"
You can declare as many entries, and so run multiple instances, as you need.

INTERACTION
Once the driver is loaded in dummy mode, you can change any variables, except those of the driver.* and server.* collections. You can do this by either editing the definition file, or use the upsrw(1) and upscmd(1) commands. In repeater mode, the driver acts according to the capabilities of the UPS, and so support the same instant commands and settable values.

BACKGROUND
This driver was written in one evening to replace the previous dummycons testing driver. It was too limited and required to work from a terminal to interact. dummy-ups is useful for NUT client development, and other testing purpose. It also helps the NUT Quality Assurance effort, by automating some tests on the NUT framework. It now offers a repeater mode. This will help in building the Meta UPS approach, which allows to build a virtual device, composed of several other devices (either UPS, PDUs).

BUGS
Instant commands are not yet supported in Dummy Mode, and data need name / value checking enforcement, as well as boundaries or enumeration definition.

AUTHOR
Arnaud Quette

SEE ALSO
upscmd(1), upsrw(1), ups.conf(5), nutupsdrv(8)

  Internet resources:
The NUT (Network UPS Tools) home page: http://www.networkupstools.org/