..we have exactly the same problem with our HP UPS. We need real ssh access (hello Open-E ) to shutdown the Open-E iSCSI remotely with plink.
Another Point is that we have to monitor the RAID-Controller (Adaptec 3805 , we dont't have an IPMI-Card )). I think the only way would be the command-line-tool aacli. Therefore we need real ssh access, too.