No, we’re not talking about the big brown trucks. We’re talking about Uninterruptible Power Supplies — the battery backup unit that some of us have powering our Linux desktops and all of us should have powering our Linux servers. The problem is not all of the battery backup manufacturers have the foresight (or courtesy) to develop Linux software to help manage the systems.

As usual, Open Source comes to the rescue. This Crossnodes article discusses two Open Source packages — apcupsd and Network UPS Tools (NUT) — that will allow Linux users to monitor systems and batteries, gracefully shut down attached systems (and clients), and so forth. The former works with APC systems, the latter a variety of systems.

If you’ve already implemented UPS systems for your Linux boxes or are planning to in the future, drop on by and give the article a read. It may just save you some headaches in the future.