Network UPS Tools is a collection of programs which provide a common interface for monitoring and administering UPS, PDU and SCD hardware. It uses a layered approach to connect all of the parts.

Drivers are provided for a wide assortment of equipment. They understand the specific language of each device and map it back to a compatibility layer. This means both an expensive high end UPS, a simple "power strip" PDU, or any other power device can be handled transparently with a uniform management interface.

This information is cached by the network server upsd, which then answers queries from the clients. upsd contains a number of access control features to limit the abilities of the clients. Only authorized hosts may monitor or control your hardware if you wish. Since the notion of monitoring over the network is built into the software, you can hang many systems off one large UPS, and they will all shut down together. You can also use NUT to power on, off or cycle your data center nodes, individually or globally through PDU outlets.

Clients such as upsmon check on the status of the hardware and do things when necessary. The most important task is shutting down the operating system cleanly before the UPS runs out of power. Other programs are also provided to log information regularly, monitor status through your web browser, and more.

NUT comes pre-packaged for many operating systems and embedded in storage, automation or virtualization appliances, and is also often shipped as the software companion by several UPS vendors. Of course, it is quite normal and supported to build your own — whether for an operating system which lacks it yet, or for an older distribution which lacks the current NUT version; whether to take advantage of new features or to troubleshoot a new UPS deployment with a debugger in hand.

Given its core position at the heart of your systems' lifecycle, we make it a point to have current NUT building and running anywhere, especially where older releases did work before (including "abandonware" like the servers and OSes from the turn of millennium): if those boxes are still alive and in need of power protection, they should be able to get it.