[Sheflug] UPS for SuSE 7.2

[Barrie Bremner <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>>>> "Matt" == matt fairtlough <matt [at] fairtlough.net> writes:

    Matt> We have a circuit breaker that is very sensitive, so every
    Matt> so often the power goes down to our house.  Almost always
    Matt> when we are in (well, always unless it is a general power
    Matt> cut), and it is up again within minutes.  So I'm looking for
    Matt> a SuSE compatible UPS.  I've looked in the UPS how-to but it
    Matt> is a bit out of date so I'm interested in people's opinions
    Matt> about what I should get.  I have seen recommendations for
    Matt> APC products, of which the following looks interesting:

    Matt> APC Back-UPS, 650VA/400W, Input 230V/ Output 230V, Interface
    Matt> Port DB-9 RS-232 Price about £120 + VAT

    Matt> I understand that you can attach a cable from the UPS RS-232
    Matt> port to a serial port on my machine and that it should be
    Matt> possible to get hold of a connector cable and open software
    Matt> drivers for controlled shut-down such as Network UPS Tools
    Matt> are available.

    Matt> Fenton sounds better, but I don't know if there are any UK
    Matt> outlets for these.  Best?  I couldn't get any sensible info
    Matt> from a quick browse of their web sit.

    Matt> I've got 800MHz athlon, 256M memory, 45GB IDE hd, CD-R,
    Matt> CD-RW, zip, powered speakers, 19" monitor but I may want to
    Matt> put one or two other machine (PC and/or Mac) on the UPS.
    Matt> The back-UPS seems only to have one surge-protected outlet
    Matt> though...

    Matt> Does the APC Back-UPS sound a resonable choice?  Anyone out
    Matt> there with experience with this sort of setup?

Matt,

I'm running all the machines in my room (Dual PII, P200, P100, P75)
plus a 19" monitor, hub, modem, speakers and zip drive from an APC
Back-UPS 1400 which I picked up a couple of years ago for about £250
(B-grade stock from Dabs.com)

My workstation is linked via a serial port to the UPS, and I run
apcupsd (check Freshmeat) on all the machines.
There is other software that will monitor UPS, but the apcupsd is the
easiest one I've come across. As well as controlling the machines, it
will also give status reports, and report the battery condition after
the unit selftests. No fancy GUI, but it works.
The workstation is the master, and notices if the power goes down. It
in turn notifies the slave PCs that power has been lost.

I can config each machine to do one of the following:

Shutdown straight away (halt -n, essentially)
Keep running until there is a certain amount of run-time left (not all
UPS support this)
Keep running until the UPS signals the batteries are nearly out (most
UPS do this - gives about 2-5 minutes to cleanly shutdown).

I've always heard good things about the APC UPS, and I've had no
problems myself.

As far as only one outlet goes, although my unit has three, you also
get a female kettle lead plug that you can put onto a power strip -
I've got monitor on one plug, workstation on another, and a 6-way
strip on the third, with the modem and zip PSUs and other PCs
connected onto that.

On my 1400VA UPS, I've had 40 min runtime with my Workstation (Dual PII),
19" monitor, accessories and another PII machine.
With everything that is on there at the moment, I'd probably be closer
to 15-20 min, but I've not tried that yet :-)

One other thing - you might not get the serial cable with the UPS -
the pin setups are a bit funny. Don't worry about that however, APC
have a centre in Ireland, and I got the cable sent over for free.

Hope that helps.

Baz.

-- 
Barrie J. Bremner		OpenPGP public key ID: 5164F553
baz [at] barriebremner.com	http://barriebremner.com/


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