UPS Advice

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platinumjsi

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Oct 13, 2015
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Ok so I am getting power outages a few times a week (out of my control) and whilst I have surge protectors I am looking at putting a UPS in place to further protect my NAS.
I have has a look around and cant find a list of freenas compatible UPS's so thought I would ask here.

It wont need to handle much, I was thinking of putting the following kit on :

FreeNAS box (Pentium Dual core with 6x WD Reds)
Airport extreme router
GS105 switch
Openreach modem.

Power usually comes back on within a minuit so ideally something that can handle about 5 mins outage and can perhaps wait 2 mins to see if the power comes back on before shutting the NAS down.

Thanks
 

Bob-Mnemonic

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Mar 17, 2015
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Word of advice, don't skimp on a UPS.

With that said, how much do you value your data? (If its a lot see previous advice)

Things to consider;
1) Use a UPS calculator such as http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm to help gauge the size of UPS needed.
2) Spec the UPS to accommodate the maximum combined load of the systems attached to it + some overhead. You don't want it to overload and shut down on you at the 1st hint of load.
3) Consider how many devices you want protected by the Battery and make sure the UPS has enough ports. (The one you have linked above only protects 2 of the ports with the battery)
4) Maximum Runtime
5) VA is not equal to Watts
6) Frequency of power outages, length of power outage, and recharge time.

Not all UPS's are created equal, Some take so long to switch to battery after a power cut that the equipment reboots anyway, and if there isn't a lot of runtime on the UPS it may run out before the devices have finished booting, resulting in two bad shut downs. I currently run 2 of these http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SMT1500I, the company I work for uses these as the entry level UPS for our clients, the battery lasts around 5 years and they can provide 900 Watts each. (I'm currently running my main rig, a 27in monitor and my NAS off of one of them, should probably move the NAS to the 2nd unit but hey...) Yes they are expensive but what price do you put on your data?

Here is an example that had to deal with recently;
A self-employed neighbour of mine recently almost lost all of the files related to his design business, including past and present jobs, when a brown out blew his NAS's power supply, while we attempted to fix the issue the external esata drive he uses for all his current jobs lost its partition table. As you can imagine he was extremely freaked out by this incident, but unfortunately has failed to head my advice and invest in a UPS or two. He now has two NAS boxes and even more data but he can't see the logic of buying a battery and then replacing it every 5 years... :confused: despite almost losing all his data.

From the information you provided above I would recommend this one http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SMT750I&total_watts=50 there is still a delay when switching between mains and battery but not as long as the Backup-UPS will take. You can get the Kettle lead to UK standard socket adaptors off of Amazon to allow you to plug in devices that don't use a Kettle lead, this unit will also provide a cleaner power supply to the devices which is good, and it can take a network management card if you are feeling flush in the future :D. In my personal opinion I wouldn't trust the Backup-UPS with network equipment let alone a Computer or NAS.

This is one of those complicated topics that a lot of people overlook until it is too late, so hopefully I have provided you with some helpful information.
 

platinumjsi

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Only need to protect the NAS, its pulling 66w under normal usage, the above UPS claims to do 25 mins on 100w so should be fine power wise.
 

Bob-Mnemonic

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Agreed. As long as the peak watts across both battery protected outlets don't go over 185 watts you should be OK. The graph on the APC page does say around 6 minutes at 100 watts though. Just be aware that depending on how sensitive your NAS's power supply is the unit may restart in the event of a power failure, before the battery kicks in.
 

Bidule0hm

Server Electronics Sorcerer
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Just be aware that depending on how sensitive your NAS's power supply is the unit may restart in the event of a power failure, before the battery kicks in.

If the PSU give up then either it's very crappy one or the UPS is a very crappy one (or both), in any case you shouldn't use it if you care about your data.
 

Bob-Mnemonic

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If the PSU give up then either it's very crappy one or the UPS is a very crappy one (or both), in any case you shouldn't use it if you care about your data.

Yes and No. Offline UPS's like the Backup-UPS that Platinumjsi is looking to get take a while to switch between mains and battery (talking anything up to 25ms) as a result some kit will reboot some won't. Line-Interactive UPS's like the one in your signature an the ones I'm running usually take less than 4ms to switch, and most modern power supplies won't bat an eyelid at this.

I've run offline UPS's before and would never use them again for computer equipment as every time I had a power cut the PC rebooted which defeats the object of the UPS.
 

Bidule0hm

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Yes and yes in fact. The ATX spec says the PSU must not drop out for as long as 17 ms of AC loss at full load, this is a full cycle for 60 Hz and almost a full one for 50 Hz. If the UPS (even an offline one) take more than that to switch then it is very very crappy (even a crappy relay can switch in a few ms) and you shouldn't use it, it's as simple as that.

Actually my UPS is an offline one and it switches in half a 50 Hz cycle (or 10 ms), and it's not a very good UPS (I'd say it's even a low end one), the UPS manual says 5 ms typical but I've measured it with an oscilloscope so I'm sure of the 10 ms.
 

Bob-Mnemonic

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Yes and yes in fact. The ATX spec says the PSU must not drop out for as long as 17 ms of AC loss at full load, this is a full cycle for 60 Hz and almost a full one for 50 Hz. If the UPS (even an offline one) take more than that to switch then it is very very crappy (even a crappy relay can switch in a few ms) and you shouldn't use it, it's as simple as that.

Ah that would explain why I've seen kit reboot on some offline UPS's. I knew there was a delay but didn't know that was the reason thanks for that.
 
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