Emergency Power PE-11

Physical and Environmental Protection · Moderate baseline ✗ Not implemented

Status — program-wide

What references this control

No risks name this control in their Framework field yet.

No policies reference it yet.

Link a risk or policy to this control

Attaching adds PE-11 to the item's Framework field; the ✨ AI button suggests the best match. You can also edit the Framework field on a risk / policy directly.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev.5, Physical and Environmental Protection family NIST SP 800-53 Rev.5. The baseline shows the lowest SP 800-53B baseline (Low / Moderate / High) this control appears in NIST SP 800-53B.

Control guide — plain-English, per NIST SP 800-53

PE-11 (Emergency Power) is about riding through a loss of primary power with a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply — a battery backup that keeps the system running for a short time) so the system can shut down cleanly, or move to longer-term backup power, instead of dropping dead mid-write. On a Linux server this is a real, configurable control: the server can watch the UPS and shut itself down before the battery dies. It is a Moderate-baseline Physical and Environmental Protection control.

What good looks like

Put the server on a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply — a battery that keeps it running briefly when the wall power drops).
Wire the UPS so the server does an orderly shutdown before the battery dies — a sudden power cut can corrupt files and databases.
Size the battery for enough runtime to shut down safely, or to bridge to a generator at higher tiers (enhancement PE-11(1)).
Test the battery on a schedule — a UPS with a dead battery protects nothing.

Framework mapping

NIST CSF 2.0 — PR.IR-02 — The organization’s technology assets are protected from environmental threats

How to move it toward Implemented

Connect the UPS to the server by USB (Universal Serial Bus) or serial, then install monitoring — NUT (Network UPS Tools) via apt install nut, or apcupsd for APC units.
Set NUT to standalone in /etc/nut/nut.conf (MODE=standalone), define the UPS in /etc/nut/ups.conf, and confirm it is seen with upsc.
Set the low-battery shutdown behavior in /etc/nut/upsmon.conf (or BATTERYLEVEL/MINUTES in /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf) and test with a real unplug so the server shuts down cleanly.
Attach the upsc output and your shutdown-test note as hardening evidence on the asset, naming PE-11 in the Requirement field — that moves it from ‘To assess’ toward ‘Completed’.