Topic: Best UPS

[del]

Hi Paul,
Thanks again, I have followed your instructions to the letter and I am now waiting and waiting ........ as you said I would. I have looked on the NUT site and I can't seem to find any of the directories they say should exist, is this because I am using SME and not another Linux distribution? So one last (I hope) question where will I find the log files? Thanks for your patience.
Del

[del]

Hi Paul,
I still haven't found the log files but the server shutdown gracefully OK.
The good news is that the ups is a Belkin F6C800-UNV 800va 450 watts, connected via USB, so that's another make model we know works with NUT "out of the box" as it is suppose to! Once again thanks for all the help in this setup. Now if only we could get upsmon working.
Regards,
Del

[del]

Hi Paul,
Just a thought, are you running any sort of raid on your server? If someone was would they have to do anything different? I have a server running software raid that I would like to try this UPS and NUT on.
Del

[Ray Mitchell]

Whether RAID1 or not, the UPS & NUT should still behave the same.

I would try the automatic power on procedure to see if it works correctlty for your combination though, don't just expect that it will.

My P133 BIOS does not have a power on after AC loss setting, but a P233 from 1998 does have the setting, so that BIOS feature has been around for over 5 years.
Ray

[Paul]

del said:

I have looked on the NUT site and I can't seem to find any of the directories they say should exist, is this because I am using SME and not another Linux distribution?

The layout of sme is different in some ways.  The config files are controlled by the templates located in:

/etc/e-smith/templates/etc/ups

To make adjustments to these templates (which will in turn change the proper config files) you will need to create a directory and put custom templates in:

/etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/ups

If you don't understand the template and custom-template system that SME uses you need to read:

http://www.e-smith.org/custom/

del also wrote:

I still haven't found the log files but the server shutdown gracefully OK.

 Go to your web based server-manager and under "Administration" you will find "View log files".  Look at the bottom of the "messages" log and you should see things logged concerning your UPS (and a lot of other things).

And then del posted:

Just a thought, are you running any sort of raid on your server? If someone was would they have to do anything different? I have a server running software raid that I would like to try this UPS and NUT on.

Del, my SME system runs on a software raid1 that was installed during setup.  The upsmon signals a standard SME hault command after a battery low signal is received (see /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/ups/upsmon.conf/SHUTDOWNCMD).  This will shut down the SME box (including all running processes including software raid) as if you went to the server-console and did it yourself.

NUTups set up as a USB SHOULD work on any USB UPS (in theory anyway).

[Paul]

Ray,

I stand corrected,  I have about a 5 year old machine that has power on after AC loss.  I also have a 2 1/2 year old that does not.  I guess it just depends on the MB and bios combo.

My mistake, sorry.

Paul

[Dave Liquorice]

> ...the server will start up by itself once the line power is resumed and
> the UPS powers back on.  

Always assuming that the power outage has lasted longer than the batteries and the UPS has shut down. You need to check what happens if the power is restored before :

1) the shutdown has completed, can you cancel the shutdown and  restart the server?

2) the UPS has powered itself off. The UPS *has* to power cycle its output for the server to restart., even if the utility power is good.

Cheers
Dave.

[Scott]

>> ...the server will start up by itself once the line power is resumed and
>> the UPS powers back on.

>Always assuming that the power outage has lasted longer than the batteries and
>the UPS has shut down. You need to check what happens if the power is
>restored before :

>1) the shutdown has completed, can you cancel the shutdown and restart the
>server?

>2) the UPS has powered itself off. The UPS *has* to power cycle its output for
>the server to restart., even if the utility power is good.

I have had this happen. The server shutdown, but the power came back on before the UPS had totally shut down.  Because of this the server doesn't turn back on...

I am worried this will happen again & if I am away from home I cant turn the server back on.

I think I might disable nut and risk the problems I might have if the server doesnt shutdown.  At least then I know the PC will totally drain the UPS battery and *should* cause the PC to turn back on when power is back on.

Of course if there is a better way to get around this problem let me know!

[Paul]

I, Myself would NOT risk the possible problems associated with a hard shutdown.  If you are running a raid, then the raid might fail and it will take more time to fix that then to go home and re-start the server.  In either case, your server will be down for a while but going home and pressing the power button seems more logical than spending hours getting the server working properly again.

It also depends on your UPS.  Some are "smart" and some are "dumb".  if you can locate a smart one that is USB and your machine can re-start after power failure, then this would be the way to go.  You can configure the machine to send a delayed UPS power down when the machine shuts down and this will solve your problem.

There are other UPS's that have 2-way communications with the computer and can be configured to do many different power loss, shut down, power up combinations.  These UPS's are quite expensive and are generally in the "server" category.  Also, configuring these type of UPS's is way beyond me but I'm sure it can be done.

I have been running my UPS for 6 months and have only had to turn on the computer once due to the power outage being long enough to shut down the machine but not long enough to drain the batteries and shut down the UPS.  It has gone on battery power countless times for a few minutes or even seconds (this is where a UPS saves your machine).  It has gone full power down and restart 2 or 3 times.  One time the power was down for 6 hours.

Like I said, I have only had the machine not power up 1 time in 6 months.  I would much rather risk my server down for a couple of hours than doing a hard shutdown.

On a side note:  I am a strong believer in putting a UPS on every machine in my office.  I also sell and repair comps and advise my clients to do the same.  Since I have done this (about 5 years now) problems on my machines and the ones I service with UPS's have gone down dramatically.  My clients that don't/won't use UPS's need my services 4 time as often.  Computers need a good, clean and steady power source, your power company can't provide this.  

Power where I live is HORRIBLE.  My UPS on my desktop turns to battery power several time a day but I don't notice any dimming in the lights or anything that would show me the power is less that par.  I think power "brown outs" occur more than we realize and this is where a UPS really helps prevent problems.  Just my opinion.