I recently installed APC’s PowerChute Network Shutdown so that my desktop could be alerted via a network connection from a SmartUPS 1500 with an on-board AP9630 Network Management Card to shut down when the power got low.

Installation went fine (apart from having to manually install the latest version of the Java JRE), until it came time to connect to the client via HTTPS and configure the authentication settings. Loading the interface (which is by default http://[youripaddress]:6547) resulted in a “sorry, nothing’s here” type message.

A quick peek at the Control Panel’s Services interface revealed that there was no PowerChute Network Shutdown service running, so this is what’s required to manually fire it up from the command prompt (running as Administrator, natch):

cd Program Files\APC\PowerChute\group1
pcns.exe -install
net start pcns1

The service started, and I was able to continue configuring the PCNS client via the web interface.

However, when it came time to apply the settings and test communication with the NMC, I got a “PCNS is NOT receiving data from the NMC” error. I also had to manually configure the Windows Firewall settings to allow PCNS to communicate through ports 6547 and 3052.

Hopefully, these nudges might someone else — although the person it’s most likely to help will be me… a year from now… when I have to do this again on another system. 🙂