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brianjmc1971
join:2003-01-22
Old Bridge, NJ

brianjmc1971

Member

Hurricane damage to office, need advice on battery backup

I was using an APC 3000XL with two battery packs for UPS. This gave me about an hour of uptime, and the network card - would email me when it went to battery and how long I had left. This way I could remote in and shut down all servers properly before the batteries failed. I have 8 servers, all Dell Poweredges, 3x 2650 and 5x 2850. My question:
Goging through APC and Dells UPS calculator is looks like its going to cost $7-$10k to replace the damaged system. I was thinking about a standby generator(we have natural gas). A $3k model would more than cover us, this would require electricians and plumbers. The good side is we should never lose power, the bad side is - more people and time are involved.

Does anyone have any experience with this or advice?

Thanks,
Brian
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

Standby generators and UPSs are not mutually exclusive. Each serve different purposes in a server environment. The UPSs, if chosen, installed, and maintained wisely, can provide no lost time conditions during electrical power outages, sags, or other short term situations to critical servers and other devices. The standby generators can get you through the longer periods of no regular electricity service. A well designed, maintained, and operated system that utilizes both sources in an integrated way can provide almost seamless transitions among different sources of electrical power.

stormbow
Freedom isn't FREE
Premium Member
join:2002-07-31
Simi Valley, CA

stormbow to brianjmc1971

Premium Member

to brianjmc1971
+1 You need a UPS to deal with the sag/interruption between when the power goes out and the generator comes online. While we may or may not notice it the computers most definitely will.
brianjmc1971
join:2003-01-22
Old Bridge, NJ

brianjmc1971

Member

agreed, a lot of standby generators come with battery for the time from when the electric dies and the generator starts up.

thanks,
Brian

shdesigns
Powered By Infinite Improbabilty Drive
Premium Member
join:2000-12-01
Stone Mountain, GA
(Software) pfSense
ARRIS SB6121

shdesigns

Premium Member

said by brianjmc1971:

agreed, a lot of standby generators come with battery for the time from when the electric dies and the generator starts up.

thanks,
Brian

The battery in most generators is just to start the generator. It does not provide power to the load; especially any $3k model.

I have a Generac 8kVA generator to run my office. I also have several UPS's on my servers and PCs.

The generator runs on natural gas and has an automatic crossover. The UPS's just need to run for 60 seconds until the generator starts.
tomdlgns
Premium Member
join:2003-03-21

tomdlgns to brianjmc1971

Premium Member

to brianjmc1971
said by brianjmc1971:

agreed, a lot of standby generators come with battery for the time from when the electric dies and the generator starts up.

thanks,
Brian

wait, i am confused?

why would a generator come with a UPS for your router, switches and servers?

my office setup:

-generator with a transfer switch to handle auto power hand off from the power company to the generator

-UPS devices in the server room (the two main UPS devices are on separate phases in the panel. if i lose a phase i only lose 1 UPS.

-each server has two power supplies. one goes into ups 1 on phase A and the other goes into ups 2 on phase b

each workstation has a UPS as well.

there have been times when we lost power and the only thing that shut off were the office lights (quick flicker when switching from power company to generator). users kept working since their PC and monitor is on a UPS.

i only bring this up because if you are going to do it, do it right (and factor in other trades work (which you have...electrician and plumber, i needed both to complete my setup).

also, the UPS sending you an email is nice, but what if a storm takes out your internet and power? you wont be able to login and shut them down.

doesnt APC have software that you can install on all your servers and have them shutdown properly? the only problem might be an exchange server (not virtual) those take some time to boot down. my old one took 30 minutes to shut down (this was on older hardware as well).

Da Geek Kid
join:2003-10-11
::1

Da Geek Kid to brianjmc1971

Member

to brianjmc1971
sorry, Is this a networking related issue?

Hank
Searching for a new Frontier
Premium Member
join:2002-05-21
Burlington, WV

Hank

Premium Member

Yes, it is one of the primary items to consider when it comes designing and preserving a network. A network design that does not take power, UPS and emergency power into consideration is one that is not well planned.