Hi forum,

 

I wanted to buy a UPS since my house has been losing power every now and then. It's not a complete black out, just my house. I thought it would be a good idea to look into UPS's.

 

Since we don't have the luxuries you guys have in the States We're stuck with one distributor. I found one for APC and he selling the Smart UPS 1000VA for over $700, which I know is a rip off. I usually buy from the US and UK and get it forwarded to me, However shipping a 20KG(~44lbs) unit isn't practical.

 

But what I noticed is that they had an EATON Nova 1250AVR and it's 1/3 the price of the APC. I don't know much about EATON since it's the first time I heard of it. I'm also unsure whether the apcupsd package could control this particular UPS.

 

What do you guys think, if you were in my shoes, would you pay much more for the APC or get the cheaper EATON. Financially I can buy either one without any problems, it's just I'm not sure what the benefits are with either one, and I don't like to get ripped and that's a main reason I rarely buy locally.

 

I will be running 12 drives initially (mostly WD greens) but will expand in the future.

 

Sorry, /End Rant  

 

 

I've never heard of EATON either.  If you find a manufacturer specs page or similar, post a link here.

 

Here's the primary considerations in purchasing a UPS:

 

1) Does it have a USB or serial data connection?  If not, then it cannot communicate with unRAID and initiate a clean shut down during an extended power outage.  However, it could still be useful to get you past little power blips that only last a few seconds.  In general APC brand works best for this, but some CyberPower are OK as well.

2) Is the battery replaceable?

3) Is it powerful enough to run your server at full load for a few minutes?

 

If all you need is something to get you past power blips, then the EATON is likely to be fine.  However, if you need something to actually initiate a clean shut down on the server, then you might need to spring for the APC.  I also wouldn't want to spend that much on an APC.  Is there really no other option?

Although the batteries are specially packaged,  believe that they can be bought over the counter in hardware/electrical shops (that's certainly the case here in Philippines, where rechargeable lanterns sell in large numbers).  Just a thought that it might be possible to ship the UPS without batteries, making it lighter and, therefore, less expensive to ship.

it might be possible to ship the UPS without batteries, making it lighter and, therefore, less expensive to ship.

 

Here's a hodge podge thought.

if there would be significant savings.. I might.

 

1. Get the higher powered UPS locally so my machine was protected from temporary issues.

2. if the UPS cannot communicate with apcupsd or NUT.(Which is an alternative).

3. get a small used APC ups without batteries.

4. find a local supplier for batteries.

5. keep the machine on the higher powered UPS.

6. plug the low end APC which is capable of USB or serial commnications, Wire that into the machine, install apcupsd.

 

Now if power fails for a length of time, apcupsd will trigger a power down.

 

But all this work depends on how much money you would save.

$700 for a large APC ups is an awful lot of money.

 

Hi Rajahal,

 

Here's the link : http://powerquality.eaton.com/Brasil/Products-services/Backup-Power-UPS/Nova-AVR-UPS/BR-Nova-AVR-specs-i.asp?CX=9

 

Here's a link for the specs sheet and user manual, I hope you or any of the other experts take a look at it and tell me if it might work with apcupsd and unraid.

 

http://lit.powerware.com/ll_download.asp?file=mau-00046ad%20(web).pdf

 

http://lit.powerware.com/ll_download.asp?file=eaton_nova_avr.pdf

 

Apparently the 1250 AVR USB model does have USB.

 

Here's the thing, I have no way of knowing if that specific type of UPS can be made to work with apcupsd, and in my country (Qatar) once goods are sold they're nonreturnable.

 

Yes I believe the batteries are replaceable according to the specs page I linked.

 

 

Hi PeterB,

 

I have never heard of shops that sell those kind of batteries.  Thanks for the suggestion, I haven't thought of that.

 

I believe the demand is nonexistent on a consumer level here that shops don't even bother. I will definitely look around.

 

 

Hi WeeboTech,

 

The EATON unit looked nice and would prefer it if it would work. Your options seem logical to me. I would have to see if I would save anything by doing that.

 

And yes, $700 is a lot of money for that UPS. I just hope that EATON model would work.

 

 

I have never heard of shops that sell those kind of batteries.

 

Perhaps Qatar never suffers power outages, but here in Philippines, where the power goes off once per day on average, every shop sells rechargeable torches and emergency lights.  Most of these devices use a battery of this type.

 

I'm sure that the my UPS battery is one of these.

Hmm, I still can't guarantee that the Eaton unit will or won't work with apcupsd.  It claims to be compatible with Linux, so that's a good sign.

 

Do you have another Windows or Linux computer that you leave on 24/7?  One option is to try the Eaton unit with unRAID, and then if it doesn't work you could install the Eaton software on your other computer and then configure that one to shut down the unRAID server if the power fails.  A bit of a round-about solution, but it should work.

 

The APC unit just feel like such a rip-off, I can't recommend it.

FYI, the EATON's are nice UPS's. You'll see them more in industrial use than home use (since EATON is a large industrial equipment supplier). A quick web search shows that it is supported by NUT.

 

Peter

 

You guys are amazing. I'll get the EATON and will update whether I get it to work or not.

Hi Peter,

 

I'm sorry but I searched and couldn't find how would I use NUT with unRaid ? Is there a thread that explains how to do that ?

Hi Peter,

 

I'm sorry but I searched and couldn't find how would I use NUT with unRaid ? Is there a thread that explains how to do that ?

 

I have no idea how to do it. I was just pointing out that NUT could be used.

 

Peter

Don't know what all has to be done but:

 

http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware-12.1/utilities/nut/14.1/

Don't know what all has to be done but:

 

http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware-12.1/utilities/nut/14.1/

 

Is that really the same NUT we're talking about ?

 

Read this description :

 

http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware-12.1/utilities/nut/14.1/nut-14.1-i486-1sl.txt

 

   

Don't know what all has to be done but:

 

http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware-12.1/utilities/nut/14.1/

 

Is that really the same NUT we're talking about ?

 

Read this description :

 

http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware-12.1/utilities/nut/14.1/nut-14.1-i486-1sl.txt

 

   

 

Well damn, that's what I get for not reading the file before I post the link.

 

Just do a google search for NUT slackware and see if you can find a package that is already compiled.  You will probably manually have to configure it but it should get you started.

Don't know what all has to be done but:

 

http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware-12.1/utilities/nut/14.1/

 

Is that really the same NUT we're talking about ?

 

Read this description :

 

http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware-12.1/utilities/nut/14.1/nut-14.1-i486-1sl.txt

 

   

Now that's funny... never heard of that version of "nut"' 

I have an Eaton 5110 UPS but can´t get apcupsd to work.

There is however software for linux included on the CD that came with the UPS.

I tried to install it but ran into a "segmentation fault", a problem related to glibc as far as I understand.

I did get it to send a mail to me though.

 

The software is available at http://www.kglarsson.se/SoftW/Lansafe.zip

(Unzip it to the flash share and install it from there)

Perhaps someone here can make it work on unRaid. If so please notify me.

 

Regards

Gunnar_L