UPS recommendation


JWMutant

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Hi, Im looking at getting a UPS (Better to be safe than sorry) but have no idea what size I should be looking at.

I just want something that in case of a blackout will give the system time to power down safely.

I have a 1000W PSU at the moment but am looking at upgrading to 1200W at some point. But am not sure what the total load is at peak.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

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7 hours ago, JWMutant said:

But am not sure what the total load is at peak.

Until you know, you really can't size a UPS accurately.

 

In a nutshell, once you pick a load value to shoot for, you find the number of minutes needed to shut down your system from a worst case scenario, i.e. all your containers and VM's busy, and look at load charts for various UPS models. Cross from the number watts to double the number of minutes, so hopefully your system will be fully shut down before the batteries are 50% depleted.

 

https://www.apcguard.com/Smart-UPS-Runtime-Chart.asp

That's an example of the type of data you are looking for. Say your load peak is 400W, and it takes 5 minutes to shut down. The smallest UPS I would recommend would be one of the 1000VA models.

 

This assumes that your shutdown will be started within a minute or so of the power outage. Keep in mind that a battery backup is meant to provide a safe controlled shutdown ASAP when the power goes out. It is NOT meant to power your equipment through an outage, unless you upgrade to the multi kilobuck models that have extended battery modules.

 

Also make sure that any necessary network infrastructure like switches and modems are accounted for in your load calculations. Depending on how you use your server, you may also need to have battery backup on desktops that use the server so they close out properly and don't leave the server with open sessions and file handles. In general power outages aren't planned, so assume it will happen at the worst possible moment and calculate from there.

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