Hi all,
I just wanted to let you know that I have found the solution. It was referenced on another website
The suggested configuration contained within that blog worked in my environment and I wanted to share it here in the event that if anyone else happens to have the same issue, they can find the resolution quicker than I could come by it:
Thanks to Canabalooza for his help in this:
Instructions on how to configure PCNS for ESXi (Free Version):
Boot the vMA machine, setup the network settings, and change the vi-admin password from the console window.
At this point I suggest you log out of console and use a telnet client to connect to the vMA so you can copy/paste commands and avoid mistakes.
Connected to the vMA virtual machine press Alt+F2 and login as vi-admin with your password.
Download the new ESXi PCNS 3.0 package from the APC website. You can find it by going to their website and selecting the Software & Firmware link under Popular Links to the left of the page. Once the page loads select the "Software Upgrades - PowerChute Network Shutdown" from the top drop down and click submit. Under the 3.0.0 section click the download button to the right. Select the download button for the ESXi package and login to the APC site. Select the download button on the next page to download the file.
Using SCP or WGET transfer the ESXi PCNS 3.0 package to the new vMA machine. I used /home/vi-admin to avoid permission issues.
Browse to the folder you transferred the package to and extract it from the console window,
tar -xzvf pcns300ESXi.tar.gz
cd ESXi
Run the installer,
sudo ./install_en.sh
Enter your vi-admin password and agree to the license terms.
Press Enter for default install path.
Type Yes and press Enter to install.
Now press Enter to install the included java package.
Next it should ask for the IP and credentials of your ESXi. You can press "q" to skip. If you put your IP in it will still work but you will get an error that it wasn't able to add and that you should manually add your host using vifp addserver. This is for vCLI functionality only and is unimportant when using SOAP. Just ignore it.
Edit the shutdown.pl file attached to the end of this post and enter your ESXi host credentials.
Use SCP or WGET to transfer the shutdown.pl and shutdown files to the vMA machine.
Still connected the the terminal change to the directory where you transferred the files, if same location as the PCNS package use,
cd ..
Copy the shutdown.pl and shutdown files to the default setup of PCNS
sudo cp shutdown.pl /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1/bin
sudo cp shutdown /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1/bin
Create a host file and add the ESXi host IP, for multiple hosts use new lines for each IP,
sudo nano -w /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1/bin/host
Contents should look similar,
10.0.0.4
10.0.0.5
Press Ctrl+X to quit nano, Y to save, Enter to keep same file name.
Make sure the files are owned by root and set chmod 0744.
sudo chown root /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1/bin/shutdown
sudo chown root /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1/bin/shutdown.pl
sudo chmod 744 /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1/bin/shutdown
sudo chmod 744 /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1/bin/shutdown.pl
Next configure the ESXi shutdown order. Access the vSphere client, select the ESXi host, then the configuration tab.
Click on the Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown link. Click properties at the top right and use "Move Up" to move the VMs in the order you want leaving the vMA VM at the top. Note that the startup order is the only one displayed. Shutdown uses the startup list in reverse. If you want the VMs to start on
their own move them all the way up to Automatic Startup still leaving the vMA VM at the top.
Connect to the IP of the vMA machine ex. https://10.0.0.9:6547/login and setup your connection and events as needed. Make sure you remove the check box in the "Turn off UPS" box under Configure Shutdown unless you have the "Restart when power is restored" option set on the APC.
To test you can either unplug utility power to your APC and use the "UPS: On Battery" event or run the following command from the vMA console window,
cd /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1/bin
sudo ./shutdown.pl host
This will gracefully shutdown the VMs in the order you set before telling the ESXi host to power down. You should see the shutdown commands in the log start when connected to the ESXi host with the vSphere client. Also note that each VM must have VMWare Tools installed for the shutdown to work gracefully and make sure you give each VM ample time to power off before your battery power runs out.
NOTE: As pointed out by Andy some hosts have an issue shutting down the VMs gracefully if you don't touch the order on the startup list. If you don't want to access the ESXi host with the vSphere client whenever the power is restored to manually power on the VMs I suggest you move them all to the Automatic Startup section and setup the APC to power off at the end of the PCNS shutdown and power back on when power is restored in the APC settings. You can find the VMWare article here.
Also a note that PCNS and most management cards do NOT accept special characters in the password. Please see this article on the APC site for details.
Credits to lamw for the SOAP script here.
