Looking for a UPS suggestion

[steamace1]

Well after browsing the forums for a while and seeing some issues that were caused by not having a UPS I have decided maybe I would look into one, but I am not very sure where to start.

The nas server I will be powering uses around 45-60 watts idle and maybe 100 at max load
( drives are included ). I was wondering what kind ups would work for my system. All I would like to see from it is running the server long enough for it to automatically shutdown.

Questions:
-Can I use any kind of ups? ( not sure if they all have the auto shutdown feature )
-Is there a difference between a "battery backup" and a "ups"
-What is a good UPS to consider for my needs?

 

[Wyl]

I can clarify a few things... but the actual FreeNAS questions, i'll leave to someone else to answer.

1. The UPS does not actually shutdown... It is connected via USB, and the UPS sends signal to the server when power is lost. Then a shutdown sequence begins within FreeNAS.

2. An Uninterrupted Power Supply is generally designed two way...
You have UPS that are battery backup, other wards if power is lost, the automaticly switches to battery, and will provided the spec power for as long as it can.
The second kind of UPS is a power conditioner. Where the power coming in goes through the battery, thus conditioning the power. In North America, we are generally 110v - 120v. The advantage of this UPS is if your community does not have clean power, it will take the high and low power fluctuations and always output a clean 120v.

3. A simple UPS with USB should be fine. Look for a UPS with minimum 400va, and you'll get a great product. I like APC, but since I am unfamiliar with the UPS jail... I can not recommend a product to purchase.

Edit...
To expand on question 2... differences your are referring to are just different companies marketing the same UPS... generally in the consumer and prosumer products, they are all the first UPS I described.

 

[steamace1]

I can clarify a few things... but the actual FreeNAS questions, i'll leave to someone else to answer.

1. The UPS does not actually shutdown... It is connected via USB, and the UPS sends signal to the server when power is lost. Then a shutdown sequence begins within FreeNAS.

2. An Uninterrupted Power Supply is generally designed two way...
You have UPS that are battery backup, other wards if power is lost, the automaticly switches to battery, and will provided the spec power for as long as it can.
The second kind of UPS is a power conditioner. Where the power coming in goes through the battery, thus conditioning the power. In North America, we are generally 110v - 120v. The advantage of this UPS is if your community does not have clean power, it will take the high and low power fluctuations and always output a clean 120v.

3. A simple UPS with USB should be fine. Look for a UPS with minimum 400va, and you'll get a great product. I like APC, but since I am unfamiliar with the UPS jail... I can not recommend a product to purchase.

Edit...
To expand on question 2... differences your are referring to are just different companies marketing the same UPS... generally in the consumer and prosumer products, they are all the first UPS I described.

I have looked down the driver list for freenas for apc models, I just dont see an easy way to find exactly the ups that is on the list. If i got one that is similar with usb what are the odds that it would work with another models driver? ( been mainly looking off amazon, since i get free two-day shipping )

Edit:
I am looking at something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019804U8/?tag=ozlp-20

or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000Z80ICM/?tag=ozlp-20

 

[cyberjock]

Both of those are probably okay. Considering your wattage I'd probably go with the smaller one just because the larger one is overkill anyway.

I can tell you that I have an APC Back-UPS ES 750 and I'm 99.9% sure it was used on my FreeNAS server at one time. Not sure of the exact settings I used though but it worked out of the box with one of FreeNAS' default configurations.

 

[survive]

Hi streamace1.

Take a look at the "NUT" page for a list of supported UPS's: http://www.networkupstools.org/

My advice is you can't really go wrong with an APC Smart-UPS. One thing to consider when you size it is if there are other systems you have that would be close to the UPS you can plug into it...there's no reason you can't get a single beefier unit & power your whole office off it. Don't go too big, as you lose a ton of efficiency when you run a very light (>15%) load on it.

Personally I'm a big fan of buying refurbished UPS's. If you are in the US stuff "refurb UPS" into the google and you will get a couple of vendors that specialize in this.

I got one of these: http://www.upsforless.com/apcsua750ref.aspx a couple of weeks ago for my office....and then scored a Smart-UPS 1500 which replaced it, so the SUA750 moved up to my living room where it powers the XBMC box (AMD 790GX\4850e) , TV & associated equipment. Running all that I get a reported 40 minutes of runtime when I'm on the batteries.

-Will

 

[trionic]

So a APC Smart-UPS SC could be suitable:

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=sc1500i

I can get one of these refurbed with new batteries from UK EBay for £165 + £20 delivery (US$280 + US$34 delivery).

Rack mount too so could go in the same enclosure as the two other 4U servers.

 

[trionic]

scored a Smart-UPS 1500

Is that a serial or USB version?

 

[survive]

Hi trionic,

My Smart-UPS 1500 has both a USB port & a network management card slot.

-Will