is there any way to monitor a UPS via Ethernet (instead of USB or RS232)?
In my case I have an “APC Smart UPS SMT1000I” which is equipped with an “APC UPS Network Management Card 2” and I would like to connect from the UPS module in RouterOS to my UPS via Ethernet. Is this somehow possible or is there any plan to implement this in the future?
Well, asking for future support here on forum is not exactly guaranteed to get any feedback from Mikrotik staff (and those are the only who matter). You should probably contact them directly (via e-mail or support portal).
As to my opinion: I don’t see it coming for a few reasons:
UPS supervision via router is a niche usage to begin with. Most SOHO users don’t have UPSes, of those who do have only a few are supervising them and only a fraction of those UPSes have network communication card built-in (USB connection is much more frequent). For corporate users, where UPSes with network connectivity are a norm, monitoring via router is a no-go, most have some sort of central monitoring system installed.
UPSes implement a plethora of different control and monitoring protocols. So it’s a nightmare to support most of them and since you’re asking for support in Router OS, this should be pretty low on the list of features to implement (personally I never understood why the limited support for UPSes is in ROS already, probably some developer had some spare time in ancient past).
with recently introduced possibility to run 3rd party software on ROS devices by running containers, it should be possible to create a container which runs NUT server … in this case, the support for the particular UPS make and communication means should be readily available from mainstream NUT software. If it’s not available, then chances to get your UPS/protocol natively supported in ROS are even slimmer.
But I’d take this path only in case the router is the only device capable of running some sort of UPS management software in your network running 24/7. Otherwise I’d install proper monitoring software on whatever device is running 24/7 (OS doesn’t matter, UPS companies usually provide something for most popular OSes).
I suppose that the UPS network module supports SNMP. Then in theory you could use /tool/snmp-get and some scripting to regulary ask the UPS of its state.
