Discussion:
UPS units saved the day for some...
(too old to reply)
Dave Laird
2005-06-22 11:29:38 UTC
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Good morning, everyone...

It wasn't THAT severe a storm, but apparently it affected a really wide
area with power outages, downed trees and general havoc. It should be
noted that of the six clients whose systems are unresponsive this morning,
four of them had uninterruptible power supplies whose batteries had
expired after two or more hours, four had no UPS's attached to their
network server (very much against my recommendations), and one of which
appears to have lost a DSL router in the deal.

Since I have keys to most of the businesses, I will be leaving for my
first stop within an hour, and hopefully have everyone restored to service
by the time their businesses open.

Now as to the UPS units themselves, something interesting has already
manifested itself, as all but two were APC-brand units, all of which
lasted as long or longer than my conservative estimates when I installed
them. One of the two units that failed, located in a real estate office,
apparently took a near or direct lightning strike, as it has failed
entirely according to the first calls I took late last night, and no
longer functions, but everything behind it is functional.

However, the nearly brand-new Beldin UPS unit located at a Spokane Valley
eatery truly disappointed me, even though I didn't make the purchase. It
had a rating that *should* have kept it running for at least two hours,
but according to the log files, it died within twenty-five minutes of the
power dying.

I don't get paid for saying this, but APC UPS units ROCK, based upon last
night's experiences. They protected the servers behind them in a total
power-out situation, cycling the servers down safely when their batteries
started to fail and nothing got broken, although there were several
lightning strikes. The only way I could ask for more bang for the buck
would be if I had a HUGE Exide battery sitting by each unit, but then the
only time I would ever need it is in cases like last night, when it took
all night to restore the power.

What's YOUR favorite UPS and why? <Gasp!!!> What? You don't use a UPS?
Shame, shame... 8-)

Dave
--
Dave Laird (***@kharma.net)
The Used Kharma Lot / The Phoenix Project
Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 05/01/2005
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An automatic & random thought For the Minute:
I wasn't kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth.
-- Chico Marx
James Vahn
2005-06-22 12:54:28 UTC
Permalink
Post by Dave Laird
What's YOUR favorite UPS and why? <Gasp!!!> What? You don't use a UPS?
APC, but the thing is 10 years old and only lasted about 2 minutes.
Its main function is to protect against "the flickers", one of which
so many years ago cost me a filesystem.

Unfortunately it is not the serial port variety that will automatically
signal the computer to shut down gracefully. My next one will have this
feature.

This time it looks like my video card has suffered - pixels lit up where
they shouldn't be. :(


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