Which UPS?

[ATLien247]

I need to buy a UPS for two HP NetServers (LD Pro and E800) that I will be responsible for maintaining. How do I determine which VA/watts rating I need?

I'm leaning towards APC's Smart UPS product line, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Phil21]

IMO APC is pretty overpriced for what they sell. Try looking at MGE's product line before you make a decision.

As for VA? Crap.. I forget exactly how. I'm sure APC has a guide somewhere on it's website.

-Phil

 

[ScottMac]

VA is VOLT*AMPS. Look at the power plate on the boxes. The plate will say "120Volts AC, XX Amps"...multiply the two and you have VA.

If the plate says "120 volts, 2 Amps", that would be 240 VA.

For an average PC, a 300VA UPS is fine, it'll give you about ~10 minutes to shut down.

For a server-class computer, lots of hard drives, lots of RAM, lots of fans, 500-600VA is a good place to start, anything over that just buys you more time to shutdown. If you have the monitoring cable attached (UPS--> server)you can usually commence shutdown: 1.) when the power drops, 2.) when the battery hits a designated threshold, or 3.) after a certain time period, starting when the power drops.

I'm partial to putting 1300VA units on servers, and shutting down when the battery hits a threshold...but everybody has their own preferences.

I'd also recommend an Online UPS versus a standby. An Online UPS is always feeding the power to the device, a Standby UPS waits till the power sags or drops before cutting in (a very fast cutover with "no" affect on the device).

Good Luck

Scott

 

[ATLien247]

Thanks for the information, guys!

So far, the APC Smart UPS 2200 is the one that has caught my attention. I can get it for about $1200, but then I would also need the SmartSlot Interface Expander (about $90), since I would like to monitor both servers. This UPS will provide me with about an hour on battery (if my calculations are correct), but the management software will also allow me to down the servers as needed.

I took a look at MGE's offerings, and they seem to be comparable price wise, but note feature wise.

If anyone else would like to give me some input, I still haven't made my final decision...

 

[Garion]

APC does indeed have a UPS sizer on their website.

One word of caution, however. Most UPSes aren't designed to give you more than about half an hour of runtime - Anything more than that can be dangerous.. What I've found is that most small computer rooms heat up RAPIDLY when the power (and AC) goes off and the servers stay on. Unless you really need to have the servers up as long as possible, you don't need anything to run very long. In fact, the default shutdown config is "5 minutes after the power goes out, shut down the server", I believe.

I would actually recommend getting two UPSes - One per server. It would be MUCH cheaper than getting a larger UPS with an extra card. You can pick up a SmartUPS 700 for about $400 and save yourself some cash. Even a SmartUPS 1000XL (XL=extra runtime) is $589 from warehouse.com, not the cheapest place around. You can be a bit more flexible that way (IE, shut down the BDC first, then the PDC and bring them up in reverse order) too.

I've installed hundreds of servers and networks - 99% of them have been on APC UPSes. I've had a few go bad over the years (batteries die, etc.) but never anything that would take down a server. I heartily recommend them and wouldn't buy anything else. (In fact, I use two APC's at my house now!).

- G

 

[MWink]

Get an APC! They are worth the money. If you look hard enough you can get good deals on them. I got 2 Back UPS Office 280s for $35 each and a Back-UPS Pro 650 for $160. I have used other brand UPSs and they have done more DAMAGE than good!

 

[DocDoo]

Get the PRO... It intergrates with Windows 2000. It allows you to set up advanced "power" functions within Win2K.

 

[ATLien247]

An update on that APC Smart UPS 2200 I've been eyeing... I've found it for $850 at a local reseller. I still haven't found the Interface Expander for less than $90 (including both monitoring cables), however.

The reason I would prefer a single UPS rather than one UPS for each server is because I would like to save some space. That, and I have a KVM switch between both servers. A scenario could arise in which the UPS that the KVM switch is plugged into goes dead, thereby leaving me no way to control the other server(s).

It seems, though, that APC is the way to go from the feedback I'm getting. What do you guys think? Does anyone have experience with this UPS or the monitoring software (PowerChute plus) that comes with it?