Seeking UPS recommendation

[SchneiderIS]

Not sure if this is the best place to post this question so please feel free to let me know.

I am looking for recommendations on good UPS companies/boxes for Fedora or Linux in general. Specifically one that has a software solution to automatically shut down (and restart if it can) the machine when power gets to a certain level.

[bob]

moved to Hardware .

[Chilly Willy]

I favor APC - what I used to get where I worked as a SYS. ADMIN. I mostly used the 700 as the main criteria was to shut the servers down gracefully, not so much to run them. But we didn't want them shutting down at every little brownout either. IIRC the 700 allowed about 10 minutes.

Here is a site that I just found that answered a few questions for me, as I haven't used any UPS's since '03 & not at all on LINUX, hope it helps you, too.

http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/128099

[StephenH]

APC has always worked for me with Linux. I can't say with all models, but I have an XS-1500 sitting beside this one. It has been performing well for a number of years now. Of course, batteries don't last forever, so I will probably have to look into replacing them in a year or two. However, Fedora has recognized it, even before I installed apcupsd and gapcmon.

I can't say that I have had so easy a time with non-APC brands. The best advice I can give is that when you look at an UPS, go on the manufacturer's web site and see if they have Linux software. Some do, some don't, and some may charge for the Linux software while providing Windows software for "free."

[jwmueller]

APC has been very good to me. I just recently replaced an underpowered 650w unit with BX1300G. My battery run time was only 2.5 minutes on the old 650w unit but geets 15+ minutes on the newer, larger unit. The apcupsd and gapcmon software works well. I did have to tweak the apcupsd script (/etc/apcupsd/apccontrol) to do a "shutdown -h now" instead of "shutdown -H now". The difference being I wanted full power down of my system, not a halt with the displays showing a dead fedora logo until the battery was completely exhausted.

I also have a couple unmonitored APC units I use for my main dsl modem/router and another for the external displays attached to laptops. Those handle the infrequent, brief power drops without impacting any of my work.

Properly configured, the software claims to notify other systems when the monitoring system detects the outage. I haven't tried this yet, as my "other" systems are all laptops that use their own power management systems to shutdown or hibernate on low battery alerts.

jw

[StephenH]

Originally Posted by jwmueller

APC has been very good to me. I just recently replaced an underpowered 650w unit with BX1300G. My battery run time was only 2.5 minutes on the old 650w unit but geets 15+ minutes on the newer, larger unit. The apcupsd and gapcmon software works well. I did have to tweak the apcupsd script (/etc/apcupsd/apccontrol) to do a "shutdown -h now" instead of "shutdown -H now". The difference being I wanted full power down of my system, not a halt with the displays showing a dead fedora logo until the battery was completely exhausted.

I also have a couple unmonitored APC units I use for my main dsl modem/router and another for the external displays attached to laptops. Those handle the infrequent, brief power drops without impacting any of my work.

Properly configured, the software claims to notify other systems when the monitoring system detects the outage. I haven't tried this yet, as my "other" systems are all laptops that use their own power management systems to shutdown or hibernate on low battery alerts.

jw

Thanks. I took a look at apccontrol, and found that it was written as shutdown -h -H now. I am not sure why it has both upper and lower case, as one means halt or power off as the system making the choice whereas -H just halts the system, but does not power down. In any case, I deleted the -H. I decided to look at the man page for shutdown, and it might be better to issue a -P instead. That one specifically tells the system to power down.

-P Requests that the system be powered off after it has been brought down.

[SchneiderIS]

Thanks everyone.

I have used APC in the past exclusively but have looked at the triplites and others with their fancy LCD displays wondering if APC might not be the best choice anymore. Running Linux now also meant trying to make a software work.

By the sounds of it though APC still has the votes. Unfortunately that means they still draw the premium price. You get what you pay for though.

Thanks again all.

[pete_1967]

+1 for APC

I got APC Back-UPS RS800 giving power to my sever and desktop, set up to incremental shutdowns (server goes first, then the desktop). Powering the desktop, server and monitor gives me about 20 - 30 minutes uptime depending on what's running. I used to have the apsupsd applet installed as well, but now only use the default status page. For just over £100 it has been well worth it as we have power cuts quite often - especially kind that last between 1 - 3 minutes.

[SchneiderIS]

How about CyberPower? Has anyone any experience with these units. They have a command line version of their control software available and the spec's look pretty good to me.

[StephenH]

I did a bit of searching and found out a few things.

Tripplite does have a Linux version of their software, but the latest Fedora listed is Fedora 8. I suspect it would work still. It is 32 bit.

http://www.tripplite.com/en/support/...lert-local.cfm

CyberPower does work. I got one from Tiger Direct for use by the church where I am a member. It supports our server which hosts our audio files. It seems to be working well.

http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/pro...tware/ppl.html

I have also used a Belkin one, but that one was a bit more tricky to set up.

http://en-us-support.belkin.com/app/...-plus-software

Hope this helps.

[SchneiderIS]

Thanks Stephen,

I think I will try out the CyberPower. I can get what looks to be a decent 1350 unit for $133 Canadian.

Thanks again for all your responses.

[jjthomas]

I have a Smart UPS 2000. I had the batteries replaced in June 2000, It runs all my electronics at home. It is still running fine.

As far as other UPS go and Linux Support check out nut, http://www.networkupstools.org/stable-hcl.html. I've used it on an off over the years, generice, but functional. It works with several brands of UPS.

I've used several APC UPS's there is no other as far as I am concerend.

-JJ

[assen]

Hi,

+1 for APC and the SmartUPS series. Very much Linux-friendly, very stable and predictive, excellent support.

WWell,