Battery Backup

KuJaX

[H]F Junkie
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Jan 8, 2001
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May have seen my other thread about backing up a server. I have a Dell PowerEdge T410 desktop server running some virtual machines. I want a uninterruptible power supply for the unit so that during electrical storm dirty electricity doesn't get to the server and also if an outage takes place that the server will run for 30 minutes (or ideally softly shut down).

I've always purchased APC in the past but was wondering if there are some great products out there that are very smart in determining when the battery inside is dying, how long something will last when power is out, only supply clean electricity to the server, etc.

Up for suggestions. Don't need anything mega, but willing to spend about $1,000 for something of high quality.
 
APC SMT2200 or SMT3000? Hard to say not knowing your load. And you didn't link the thread so I'm not looking for it.
 
What is the power draw of the server on average?

Dunno, it is a single Dell tower server with 4 hard drives, one power supply, Xeon.

We want enough juice to be able to have it gracefully shut down (20 to 45 minutes I would imagine).

APC versus Cyberpower? :)
 
Step 1. Buy yourself a Kill-a-watt meter and measure the actual draw of the server doing normal operations. Note both the watt and VA numbers. Make sure all equipment required for normal server operations are included in the power draw numbers. Switches, monitors etc.
Step 2. Find out if the server power supply is a PFC type PS.
Step 3. Find out if the base OS of the server supports auto shutdown and what cabling standards it supports.
Step 4. Re-ask the question.

That said, I have used both APC and Cyberpower at home. Where I last worked, we used APC for the servers and whatever brand UPS came with the Dells on state contract. (Our contract was a single vendor contract at the time.) The reason I ask about the PFC type PS is some PFC PS react poorly to some stepped sine wave UPS. I also think a Kill-a-Watt should be in every computer tech's tool kit. Too many questions involve knowing how much power something draws to keep guessing.
 
WARNING: For either of these you will need a 20A circuit and most likely a NEMA #5-20R receptacle. If this is for a home in the US I expect that you do not have this and will need to have a new circuit installed.

The NEMA #5-20R receptacle looks like this. Note the neutral looks like a T.
http://www.hometanningbed.com/images/5-20r.jpg

https://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SMT2200

Thanks for the heads up, i'll check into this.

Also I read some tutorials online about Cyberpower UPS to control vmware esxi. This is what we are looking for so that the esxi will shutdown the vm's safely and then shut the server down before the battery cuts power to the server.
 
If you just have a single server, you won't need to get 2200VA or 3000VA unit. You could get something much lower like say 1000VA and then just get extra batteries for it (a lot of units support this). My APC with an additional battery pack triples its runtime and lets my desktops and monitors run for about an hour.

Something like this should do the job and you might not even need to buy external battery packs for it since with a 350w load, it will last 40 minutes: https://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SUA1000XL
 
An APC SmartUPS 1500VA unit will give you a good runtime for a server that idles under 300W. I get over 1 hour of runtime on my servers. Also there are models that have an option for an external battery pack that doubles or triples that. You can get a refurbished SmartUPS 1500 for under $200 on ebay shipped with new batteries.
 
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