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Date:      Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:40:02 -0500
From:      Ryan Coleman <ryan.coleman@cwis.biz>
To:        Al Plant <noc@hdk5.net>
Cc:        David Brodbeck <gull@gull.us>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: UPS question
Message-ID:  <D04386F5-C6C5-4C4C-BEE3-1F209FB85A49@cwis.biz>
In-Reply-To: <4C6434E0.20801@hdk5.net>
References:  <E1B44814-1433-4FBE-902B-BCC1944FBFCD@cwis.biz>	<3135A83C-6FD9-4C3B-958F-11EE85221061@mac.com>	<5304A319-0406-4510-B6B2-8FD609239FF9@cwis.biz>	<43a2b1b16a03a5c58dfb7beaadd0c535.squirrel@www.gull.us>	<3AB9F23A-B56C-4176-83C9-F248161066B9@cwis.biz> <cc009d380d95eaa9fee8328a6bbfe4fe.squirrel@www.gull.us> <4C6434E0.20801@hdk5.net>

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On Aug 12, 2010, at 12:52 PM, Al Plant wrote:

> David Brodbeck wrote:
>> On Wed, August 11, 2010 1:18 pm, Ryan Coleman wrote:
>>> On Aug 11, 2010, at 3:06 PM, David Brodbeck wrote:
>>>=20
>>>> On Wed, August 11, 2010 12:25 pm, Ryan Coleman wrote:
>>>>> He thinks that at 500W needed it would give me about 12 minutes on =
a
>>>>> 1400VA. My consideration is, then, give the server 2 minutes on
>>>>> battery.
>>>>> If full power has not been returned, shut down the server but =
leave the
>>>>> modem (w/ wireless) and switch running with power for up to 6 =
hours.
>>>> A bit of advice: If this is an unattended system, give some thought =
to
>>>> how
>>>> you will boot the server back up if the outage is longer than two
>>>> minutes
>>>> but shorter than six hours.  Most UPS installations have *some* =
kind of
>>>> race condition issue if power comes back after the servers have =
begun a
>>>> shutdown, but in your case it's an unusually long window.
>>> Meaning that my 2-minute window is unusually long? If the UPS can =
support
>>> the system for 12 minutes, I say give it 20% of the life of the =
support
>>> because our power outages here are usually spikes that kill my =
current web
>>> server (but amazingly *not* my file server). In fact, one of those =
power
>>> fluxes occurred last night. I love storms for the light shows, but =
hate
>>> them for the toll they take on my servers.
>> Nope, 2 minutes is fine, maybe even short depending on how long your
>> system takes to shut down.  What I'm asking about is this scenario:
>> 1. Power goes out.
>> 2. Server shuts itself down after 2 minutes.
>> 3. Power comes back on before the UPS batteries are exhausted.
>> The server never sees a power cycle, so it doesn't boot itself back =
up
>> until someone physically goes and pushes the button.
>> ##########
>=20
> I have had these power dips and surges here in Hawaii. I have =
installed  UPS power from two stationary batters that will run the =
servers for 12 hours. We have experienced extensive outages in the past =
and this was our only solution. Surges are almost impossible to stop. I =
have them jump cross a surge protector. I have recently  had several UPS =
Desktop backups fail from a surge and then a drop below 70 v. This =
caused the UPS to have the charging diodes blow. It was cheaper to =
replace the UPS 's than to repair them.
>=20
> #3. The motherboard bios can be set to stop a server from self booting =
from a power outage.
>=20


Yes. The downside comes from when the BIOS is told to turn on the server =
at, say, 10pm and the power is still out... it starts the process and =
runs out of battery mid-way through the boot before it gets the chance =
to load the UPS controller.

--
Ryan=



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