Shutdown *without* poweroff on power failure with UPS?

From: Christopher Hill (minkus_at_ntlworld.com)
Date: 11/23/04 

Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 08:53:41 -0800

When a UPS is connected to a server, it is currently
possible to configure the server to perform certain
actions and then either 'Shut down' or 'Hibernate',
through the Power control panel.

However, it would be helpful if there were an option to
tell the computer to 'Shutdown without poweroff' - ie to
go all the way to the 'It is now safe to turn off your
computer screen' without telling the computer's power
supply to actually power off.

The reason for this is that some servers will only switch
back *on* again after a power outage if their 'last state'
was switched on. On some computers you can change this
option in the BIOS - however, in many servers (including
most Dell servers) you can't. If you have a setup where
you want to use a UPS to shut down the servers when there
is a power outage, and then start them back up when the
power returns without having to visit the servers
yourself, it is impossible to do so with the current
Windows options, because Windows powers the computer off
after the shutdown process.

If there was an option to tell Windows not to power off,
but instead to shutdown but leave the power running, then
the UPS could shut down (and take the server's power down)
when it needs to, but when power returns the server's BIOS
would see that the last state was 'switched on' and switch
the computer back on to match.

This would greatly aid in 'hands-off' management of
servers, or where it is not desirable to visit every
server after a power outage (e.g. if the server is in a
remote, possibly unmanned location)

It would be nice if it were possible to expose this option
through the Windows interface as well, and/or to have a
registry key that tells the computer never to power off
after shutdown, as some might find this useful.

Thanks!

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