On Thursday 07 June 2001 10:59 am, Rusty Carruth wrote:
> David Rankin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I had my LM7.2 server go down for the 4th time due to a power
> > outage. I had to manually fsck /dev/hda7 to bring the system back up. I
> > am convinced that this is not a good way to treat the server and I am
> > going to buy an APC UPS to keep it from happening again.
>
> First, go get nut, and join the NUT mailing list.
Just what is nut, and why do we need it? Please explain.
> Second, DO NOT BUY APC! ESPECIALLY DO NOT BUY a BackUps! But I'd
> say just avoid them. (Sorry for yelling, but their supposedly
> RS232-C 'signaling' scheme is not RS232 compliant, and if your
> serial port requires valid RS232 signal levels you wont' be able
> to detect low battery (as it only goes to zero VOLTS - some (most?)
> pc hardware is really sloppy and will take a zero volt as a valid
> level, but that's not according to spec - and some hardware (like,
> say, Sun) actually meets spec and will NOT see LB from the UPS
> without a fair amount of hassle. why do I say all this, and
> where do I get my knowledge? I'm trying to get 4 stupid APC
> BackUPS' to work with our Sun Ultra5s - and if there was any
> way I could SEND THE RETARDED THINGS back and get something
> else I would do it in a nanosecond!)
Assuming the Ultra5s are being used for business purposes (I don't know
anyone who has four Sun machines in their homes), I'm a bit surprised you
didn't buy your UPSes from the same vendor who provided the Suns, or at least
get Sun's recommendation before buying anyone's UPSes. (The Sun website
recommends the APC SmartUPS, BTW -- I checked.) After all, Suns aren't
exactly "commodity" IBM-clones; I'd expect them to have somewhat different
requirements.
I suppose you can always use the BakcUPSes to provide backup power for items
that don't require automatic shutdown, or even use them with cheaper IBM
clones if their serial ports are more compatible with the BackUPS units.
Telephone equipment, audiovisual devices in the conference room, a
secretarial/wordprocessing PC -- there must be plenty of places they can be
useful even if they don't work in their originally intended application. If
nothing else, they make great surge protectors for sensitive (but
noncritical) electronic devices.
If not APC, which brand(s) do you recommend? I'm a home user with limited
funds, so my choices are pretty much limited to those available from
retailers. At the same time, because I'm a home user it isn't really a major
catastrophe if a UPS doesn't shut down my computer automatically before the
battery runs down.
I currently use an APC BackUPS on my computer, but only to clean up the
incoming power and provide a little time to complete a task and manually
shutdown -- both serial ports are already being used, so I've never tried
setting it up for automatic shutdown. Might be worth doing, though -- in
which case I'm wiling to get another UPS for the 'puter and use this one to
power something else.
> The APC BackUPS are mostly worthless, in my mind. Most of the really
> cheap ones are, really, as they use the 'simple signalling' method
> which means you get the following signals: on battery (or on AC mains),
> low battery (if you're lucky); and your control signal is "shut down".
Even this limited capability should be more than adequate for most home users
and some small business users. (But maybe not on Sun equipment?) A UPS that
does a graceful shutdown as soon as it goes onto battery power could be a
good thing. One that waits until the battery charge is low would be better,
although most of us would probably be happy enough if it offered a few
seconds' delay before it begins shutdown, so a system could ride through
transient events.
I went to the APC website (www.apcc.com) and searched through the download
area. APC offers both a simple shutdown daemon and various versions of its
PowerChute software for Linux. -- none specifically for Mandrake, but perhaps
one of the Red Hat downloads is generic enough to work. APC also offers a
Sparc version of PowerChute, if that's what you need.
> The better way to go is to get a 'smart' ups (again, I stronly advise
> against APC, but if you get the APC SmartUPS at LEAST it usually works
> with serial ports), which can give you all kinds of cool info, like
> loading, battery health (I think), temperature, and stuff like that.
No argument here that a "smart" UPS is bound to be superior to a more simple
UPS -- when comparing similar items, "You get what you pay for" is true more
often than not. But a home user may not need that much functionality.
Note to anyone still running without a UPS: My area is blessed with
reasonably reliable power, mainly because thunderstorms and tornadoes over
the years forced the utilities to upgrade their infrastructure. But I still
get the occasional spike or brownout.. Before I installed my UPS I just took
my chances and accepted the occasional fried hardware as an opportunity to
upgrade. Now the power entering my computer and peripherals is clean and
rock-solid, as long as the interruption isn't too long. Even without
unattended shutdowns I consider my UPS a very worthwhile investment. (I
still upgrade my hardware now and then, but now the old hardware is
usually in working condition so I can use it to upgrade even older equipment.)
--
Walter Luffman, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Medina, TN USA
Supercharged with extra glucose! (Type 2 diabetic 5/99, d/e/m)
"Sage", purple 1998 Honda VT1100C Shadow Spirit
