Just a few days ago I got a used UPS, it's a rather basic Back-UPS RS 550G but it's enough for my needs. The only setup information I could find was this mere 1-2 pages: https://download.schneider-electric.com/files?p_File_Name=EALN-7PTMAJ_R0_EN.pdf&p_Doc_Ref=SPD_EALN-7PTMAJ_EN&p_enDocType=User+guide

 

There's a picture showing two cables connected to the router. For some reason when I do that, my entire network goes down (go figure). I tried connecting the usb data cable to my unraid server and both UPS settings and NUT settings appear to work fine under certain parameters. UPS settings needs (apcupsd) cable set to USB and type to USB as well. NUT works as as standalone or netserver but only with usbhid-ups driver and 127.0.0.1 master IP address.

 

I would like to address a few things:

 

1) what is the purpose of the ethernet IN and OUT ports? and how come when I plug both of them to the router (as per the manual) my network freezes? As soon as I disconnect them, it all resumes.

 

2) I have two servers I would like to shutdown when a given % of battery is left. One is my unraid (primary) and the other is a Synology I only use to store backups. How could I achieve both of them to be shutdown when the UPS is running on battery, if my UPS is connected to my unraid via USB? I attempted to use the snmp driver option in NUT but it failed to start. My knowledge about UPS setup is very limited.

Ignore the gigabit in/out sockets. That is merely intended to be a surge suppressor for your WAN cable to protect your router. Wall to Gigabit In. Gigabit Out to Router WAN. The only cable you need to connect for regular use is the "USB & Serial" one. That allows the UPS to communicate with your server. Be aware that the max load of the UPS is relatively small (550W) and being a discontinued product are you certain the battery is in good condition?

 

I can't answer your second question as I only have the one server on my own UPS.

2 hours ago, Mad_cyclist said:

I have two servers I would like to shutdown when a given % of battery is left. One is my unraid (primary) and the other is a Synology

I have no experience with synology, so you will need to research whether there is an apcupsd or NUT package available for synology. If there is, it's relatively straight forward to configure apcupsd or NUT as a slave, and configure it to shut down completely before the master starts the shutdown process.

 

However, in order for that to work, the network must remain up, so all routers and switches involved must be on battery backup as well.

 

This brings up another issue, I seriously doubt that particular UPS is big enough for both servers and all your network equipment, it's only rated for 330 watts, and at that output it can run for about 3 minutes, which is barely enough time to get shut down in the best of unattended shutdown scenarios.

 

You need to get a real world watt consumption figure on each piece of equipment that needs battery backup, and see if this model is capable enough. Keep in mind that you need to use maximum instantaneous power figures, not idle power, because during shutdown everything gets ramped up to close all the open files and programs, and save any data that's still in RAM before it can safely shut down.

3 hours ago, DanielCoffey said:

Ignore the gigabit in/out sockets. That is merely intended to be a surge suppressor for your WAN cable to protect your router. Wall to Gigabit In. Gigabit Out to Router WAN. The only cable you need to connect for regular use is the "USB & Serial" one. That allows the UPS to communicate with your server. Be aware that the max load of the UPS is relatively small (550W) and being a discontinued product are you certain the battery is in good condition?

 

I can't answer your second question as I only have the one server on my own UPS.

Thank you about the in/out sockets reply! I managed to find similar information from anther UPS, so I'll just ignore these ports from now on.

 

About your power consumption concerns, my router+switch+unraid+synology combined pull between 70W and 130W. The estimated runtime at 130W is about 15 min, which is more than enough to turn off both servers (that is my primary goal, orderly and clean shutdown to avoid data loss). Regarding the battery health, I purchased a new battery along with the used hardware and replaced it right away.

 

I managed to setup NUT on Unraid so that the UPS can be shared on the network with other devices. Follow step 1 and 2 from this guide: 

 

then go to your synology in Control Panel under Hardware & Power > UPS. Check "Enable UPS support" and select "Synology UPS Server" in the UPS type dropdown list. Set your unraid server IP in the "Network UPS server IP" box and you should be all set.

Edited August 17, 20241 yr by Mad_cyclist

Highly recommend doing a test run by throwing the breaker to kill power and see how the system reacts. DON'T yank the UPS power cord out of the wall, bad things can happen.

3 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

Highly recommend doing a test run by throwing the breaker to kill power and see how the system reacts. DON'T yank the UPS power cord out of the wall, bad things can happen.

The UPS power cord is connected to an outlet that has a switch, can't I just flip that to test it?

2 minutes ago, Mad_cyclist said:

The UPS power cord is connected to an outlet that has a switch, can't I just flip that to test it?

Yep, that's fine. The possible issue happens when the cord is pulled and the ground leg is disconnected. As long as the cord stays in the outlet you are good.

45 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

Yep, that's fine. The possible issue happens when the cord is pulled and the ground leg is disconnected. As long as the cord stays in the outlet you are good.

Good thing I tested it. Obviously, for the ups server to trigger the shutdown signal to the other devices, the network must be up... Since only 3 out of the 6 outlets run on batteries, will have to re-arrange some and likely group switch+router+ONT into a single one to connect to the UPS. The other two will be for the Unraid and Synology NAS.

2 hours ago, JonathanM said:

However, in order for that to work, the network must remain up, so all routers and switches involved must be on battery backup as well.

🤣

Any routers or switches with a mains transformer (wall wart) should be fine to put on a normal 4-way adapter and then put that into the UPS... but you may have to modify the plug of the adapter so that it fits into the UPS.

These work best with my UPS.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-2-Pack-Outlet-Splitter/dp/B01K3ADZ76/

I managed to plug the router, switch and ONT with a 3 way adapter. Performed a second test, and this time the Unraid server shutdown gracefully and so did the router. The Synology server entered into standby mode but didn't shutdown completely, from what I read, it's safe to power off at that stage anyways. I'll call it a partial success because there are a couple of issues:

 

1) the switch is a "dumb" switch, so it doesn't have the capability of having a NUT client listening for a shutdown command. Which means it'll run on batteries until it drains the UPS. Should I set the UPS to turn itself off? The hardware is not very accessible and I'd like to avoid having to go turn on the UPS every time this happens (yeah I know it shouldn't be very often). As far as I know, the UPS can't be configured to turn on automatically after the mains is restored?

 

2) I've got the router BIOS configured to always power on after the power is restored. When performing the test I didn't let the battery drain out completely and switched the mains back on when the battery was at 60%. The router didn't turn on automatically which was unexpected. I guess that only happens if the power is cut off, instead of it being commanded to power off?

1 hour ago, Mad_cyclist said:

1) the switch is a "dumb" switch, so it doesn't have the capability of having a NUT client listening for a shutdown command. Which means it'll run on batteries until it drains the UPS. Should I set the UPS to turn itself off? The hardware is not very accessible and I'd like to avoid having to go turn on the UPS every time this happens (yeah I know it shouldn't be very often). As far as I know, the UPS can't be configured to turn on automatically after the mains is restored?

Very few UPS do turn back on when power is restored.  For good reason - Not every power failure is a simple "Power Is Off - Power Is On - All Is Done Now".  The power could go out again.  Maybe during your system's reboot.  Even a few minutes running on battery power uses a good percentage of the battery's stored capacity.  Should it use the same power down rules as before (when you had 100% charge)?  Best practice is to restore system to service once everything is recovered - Main power, recharged batteries, clear skies.

 

1 hour ago, Mad_cyclist said:

2) I've got the router BIOS configured to always power on after the power is restored. When performing the test I didn't let the battery drain out completely and switched the mains back on when the battery was at 60%. The router didn't turn on automatically which was unexpected. I guess that only happens if the power is cut off, instead of it being commanded to power off?

 

Did the UPS power to the router go off?  Or just NUT having the router shut down?  If the UPS didn't cut power to the router, it never met the BIOS condition to power on when power is supplied to the router system.

1 hour ago, ConnerVT said:

Very few UPS do turn back on when power is restored.  For good reason - Not every power failure is a simple "Power Is Off - Power Is On - All Is Done Now".  The power could go out again.  Maybe during your system's reboot.  Even a few minutes running on battery power uses a good percentage of the battery's stored capacity.  Should it use the same power down rules as before (when you had 100% charge)?  Best practice is to restore system to service once everything is recovered - Main power, recharged batteries, clear skies.

I see, that makes sense, thanks for the clarification! I did not mention it in my first post, but we have PV panels and a 10kWh battery back at home. This is enough for us to be self-sufficient pretty much every day, which going back to your explanation, the mains power being cut off from that UPS may potentially indicate something serious happened. The UPS is now set to be powered off, so that both switch and Synology will also power off.

 

1 hour ago, ConnerVT said:

Did the UPS power to the router go off?  Or just NUT having the router shut down?  If the UPS didn't cut power to the router, it never met the BIOS condition to power on when power is supplied to the router system.

It was just NUT having the router shut down. Now that I changed the UPS settings to shutdown the unit, I guess the router BIOS condition will be met because the power to the router will go off when the UPS shuts down.

Edited August 18, 20241 yr by Mad_cyclist