Recommended UPS for Home Server(s)?

[NeverDie]

So, having a UPS with at least two batteries sounds ideal. That way periodically the UPS could automatically drain them individually to determine runtime while the other battery stands guard in case there's a power outage during the drain test. Which UPS's do that?

Once more, how are you guys getting your servers to power back on after the power failure is over? Is everyone here just doing it manually? What am I missing? Surely this is a common enough need that there's already an off-the-shelf solution?

 

[T_Minus]

1. Most UPS have multiple small batteries, the home ones normally 2. The APC rackmount 120v have 4. Doing what you want to do isn't possible.

2. The REALLY cheap cards are for the older/enterprise UPS. The home cards probably are always expensive since there's not 1000000s in use.

3. You can configure BIOS to "return to previous state" after AC power failure. or you can use a PDU that lets you have control over each outlet. This is what I do, there is a cheap $180 unit on amazon that can do this too, from what I've heard it's awesome for the $$. (I got 4 of them used to use for outdoor lighting controlled via their GUI and my phone.) I have an APC PDU that controls ports, and a Rackable PDU that meters+controls both are over IP so you can control remotely, etc... The higher end units will cost as much, if not more than the UPS itself

 

[Chuckleb]

Most of the UPS systems have a USB port and you can monitor with that. You can also install NUT to communicate UPS shutdown with other devices plugged in.

 

[chinesestunna]

Most of the UPS systems have a USB port and you can monitor with that. You can also install NUT to communicate UPS shutdown with other devices plugged in.

That's what I use, even with ESXi you can pass that USB device to a VM and manage/monitor. In my case my NAS gets access to the UPS and will shut itself off first but just before firing off a command to ESXi to shut server off

 

[Chuckleb]

I think the cyber power systems distributes a VM for this purpose.

 

[chinesestunna]

I do think remember seeing something along those lines, their Linux power manager was pretty good as well. Unfortunately my current UPS is an APC X1000 which isn't exactly the best supported product from APC

 

[TuxDude]

That's interesting. First I've heard about external battery expansion units. By "tuning", are you saying there exist UPS's where the wattage can be easily upgraded too, not just additional runtime? After all: plans change, future growth, etc. Upgrade flexibility without being forced to replace would be nice--provided it's cost-effective that is.

Yes, you can get UPS's that also allow adding/swapping power modules so that you can increase the wattage, though that is definitely an enterprise feature and will come with an enterprise price. As an example, the UPS I would love to have at home (I want lots of power, and it would be nice to stay in the same product line we have at work) is the APC Symmetra RM, which is a 8U rack-mount UPS, and can take up to 4 power modules (2kVA each, or up to 6kVA max with N+1 redundancy, the modules are hot-swap), and also up to 6 internal battery modules (3 slots are shared with power-modules, so if you have the full 4 power modules max 3 internal batteries) as well as support for additional external rack-mount batteries.

Just like our UPS at work, far higher up in the Symmetra line it takes up 4 racks in the datacenter. Two racks of batteries (mostly empty still now, brand new datacenter with room for growth), a rack for power-modules (also mostly empty still), and a rack that has the power input/output, breakers, bypass module, intelligence, etc. That one can scale up to 250kVA (or 225kVA with N+1 redundancy on the power modules), and thats still very small by datacenter standards. I've toured datacenters and seen megawatt-class UPS's that get entire specialized rooms just for the batteries.

 

[T_Minus]

Yes, you can get UPS's that also allow adding/swapping power modules so that you can increase the wattage, though that is definitely an enterprise feature and will come with an enterprise price. As an example, the UPS I would love to have at home (I want lots of power, and it would be nice to stay in the same product line we have at work) is the APC Symmetra RM, which is a 8U rack-mount UPS, and can take up to 4 power modules (2kVA each, or up to 6kVA max with N+1 redundancy, the modules are hot-swap), and also up to 6 internal battery modules (3 slots are shared with power-modules, so if you have the full 4 power modules max 3 internal batteries) as well as support for additional external rack-mount batteries.

Just like our UPS at work, far higher up in the Symmetra line it takes up 4 racks in the datacenter. Two racks of batteries (mostly empty still now, brand new datacenter with room for growth), a rack for power-modules (also mostly empty still), and a rack that has the power input/output, breakers, bypass module, intelligence, etc. That one can scale up to 250kVA (or 225kVA with N+1 redundancy on the power modules), and thats still very small by datacenter standards. I've toured datacenters and seen megawatt-class UPS's that get entire specialized rooms just for the batteries.

The APC BACK UPS are not enterprise, and they have external battery packs. They're both around $200 or less each. For run-time it's rather affordable.

Then again, knowing what I know now I'd just get an ebay APC unit and battery pack for around the same price but it would be enterprise grade-gear... not that I'm sure there's a huge difference in UPS internals on 120v unit (other than sine-wave vs. others), maybe one day I'll check!

 

[TuxDude]

The APC BACK UPS are not enterprise, and they have external battery packs. They're both around $200 or less each. For run-time it's rather affordable.

Then again, knowing what I know now I'd just get an ebay APC unit and battery pack for around the same price but it would be enterprise grade-gear... not that I'm sure there's a huge difference in UPS internals on 120v unit (other than sine-wave vs. others), maybe one day I'll check!

Ya, lots of UPS's can add external battery packs. I only meant that removable/scaleable power modules are an enterprise feature.

 

[T_Minus]

Gotcha, ya if you want scalable with extra units... big $$ \\

 

[TuxDude]

So I was curious and did some quick searching on e-bay, and there is a single symmetra RM listed right now - I have no idea if that is a good price or not as I haven't been shopping around or anything.

SYRM4 APC Symmetra 4000 UPS SYH4K6RMT 4KVA 208 240V Rack 208 Volt RM Newbatts | eBay

4kVA UPS (2 power modules + 2 battery modules) with room for growth, listed for just under $1900 US. But the really interesting thing I noticed about it, is that they only want $35 to ship it from Florida to western Canada - has to be something wrong about that part.

 

[Entz]

Then again, knowing what I know now I'd just get an ebay APC unit and battery pack for around the same price but it would be enterprise grade-gear... not that I'm sure there's a huge difference in UPS internals on 120v unit (other than sine-wave vs. others), maybe one day I'll check!

That is what I did, not super high end but I managed to pickup a new in box SMX1500RM2UNC for 260$ (based on a link PigLover put up last year). and can add battery packs to that to get the runtime up as desired -- i.e. for my load ~4-5 hours maxed out (not that I wan't that many batteries).

Having a management card in the UPS really does make things easier. No fussing with VMs or pass-thru , remote access to the outlet groups and monitoring etc.

 

[T_Minus]

The ones I picked up were:
APC UPS: 1440VA 120V SUA1500RM2U

All for <200$ 2 came with the cards in them too, some with batteries (not the best quality left) some w/out batteries, and I made the mistake of buying 1 without a tray and had to spend $40 on a tray elsewhere. Still on avg. <$200 each. And ~$50 shipped for the batteries (new) from various online shops.

I think the ones you mentioned are newer as they're both "Line Interactive".

 

[T_Minus]

I plan to add a large UPS in front, but it will be DIY.

Something like: Amazon.com: Tripp Lite APS2424 Inverter / Charger 2400W 24V DC to 120V AC 14A / 55A Hardwire: Electronics (or larger or 2) and then my own battery bank as large as I want kept charged, and auto switches to battery. This way higher up I have my transfer switch and when I swap to generator it auto charges them and uses AC while they charge too.

Maybe, someday instead I can just integrate it all in a whole-house solar + battery array... dreams

 

[Entz]

That would be amazing. Running my rack off solar/battery bank at night would be my dream as well Step one get out of a condo

 

[T_Minus]

That would be amazing. Running my rack off solar/battery bank at night would be my dream as well Step one get out of a condo

Yeah, the batteries are a huge chunk if you want any amount of real run time for your house, let alone your house + network/server gear. Our house is already minimal electric; I imagine 90% use more than we do and I can't imagine how much solar for an entire house like that would be :-X

Fingers crossed, within the next few years solar drops another 50% and we have new technology for batteries!

 

[NeverDie]

3. You can configure BIOS to "return to previous state" after AC power failure. or you can use a PDU that lets you have control over each outlet. This is what I do, there is a cheap $180 unit on amazon that can do this too, from what I've heard it's awesome for the $$. (I got 4 of them used to use for outdoor lighting controlled via their GUI and my phone.) I have an APC PDU that controls ports, and a Rackable PDU that meters+controls both are over IP so you can control remotely, etc... The higher end units will cost as much, if not more than the UPS itself

Either I'm misunderstanding, or it just doesn't work as needed on my motherboard (SuperMicro X10SL7-F). I changed the BIOS setting "Restore on AC Power Loss" to be "Power On":

Now, it's true that if there's a sudden, unexpected loss of power (which the motherboard should not experience if it's connected to a UPS), then yes, when power is restored the motherboard will boot. However, if the motherboard is shut down in a controlled manner, such as by shutting down from IPMI or FreeNAS or (presumably) the UPS instructing the board to shutdown, then removing power and then restoring power does not cause the motherboard to boot. Hence, given that, I don't see how a PDU would help.

Maybe it would work if the computer is "hibernating" (so, perhaps, not precisely "shut down") when the power cycling happens? Hibernating seems more common on a Windows platform, and I haven't tried that scenario. If not that, then I'm out of ideas as to how people are commonly doing it.

 

[NeverDie]

The ones I picked up were:
APC UPS: 1440VA 120V SUA1500RM2U

All for <200$ 2 came with the cards in them too, some with batteries (not the best quality left) some w/out batteries, and I made the mistake of buying 1 without a tray and had to spend $40 on a tray elsewhere. Still on avg. <$200 each. And ~$50 shipped for the batteries (new) from various online shops.

I think the ones you mentioned are newer as they're both "Line Interactive".

This does seem like a better value for money than buying something new. I notice there are deals very similar to it on Ebay even right now. Are there any downsides? Is it outputing a pure sine wave or a simulated sine wave? The APC website just says "sine wave," which in this context seems ambiguous.

 

[T_Minus]

This does seem like a better value for money than buying something new. I notice there are deals very similar to it on Ebay even right now. Are there any downsides?

Certain versions have the FAN on all the time, I believe the older ones DO NOT have it on all the time I'm not 100% but that's 1 thing I've ran into. I have 1 running behind me can't even tell it's on but if I turn on another it's got the fan going, it's not a screamer but you don't want it running desktop style. I doubt anyone clearing these out has any idea what they are or how to check for the fan, most are recyclers. Pretty much any rack-mount UPS I've tried has a fan 80mm? always on, so it's a bit loud in a non-rack /basement type environment. I may do some mods to mine to add a 120mm fan to the loud ones, or just disable it all together and do a custom forced cooling system just for the 4 APC UPS on the rack I like to build stuff, so I may go with some lexan, and cheaper but larger fan just for the UPS to keep them cool when I have free time to get in the shop and fabricate

 

[Chuckleb]

Not all UPS systems will power up when power is restored... I don't think the cheap cyberpower ones do.