So this weekend a tripped circuit took out my unRAID / TV Server /  TV Client system.

 

(it happened when my wife was watching TV and the guy on Deal or No Deal was making the crucial decision - thank crunchie for +1 channels!)

 

So, to get things back up and running I had to;

 

-Manually power up the system

-Manually start the array (which wanted to do a parity check due to unclean shutdown)

-xl create my TV Server VM

-xl create my TV Client VM

 

At this point, the TV client VM (win 8.1), (which uses a passthrough VGA card) failed to start - it got stuck at 'setting up devices'. Therefore I had to;

 

-xl destroy TV client VM

-Shutdown TV Server VM

-Stop the array

-Shutdown the server

-Switch off power (to reset GPU)

-Power up the system

-Start the array

-xl create my TV Server VM

-xl create my TV Client VM

 

So, that's a lot of steps, and not something I want to be talking family members through over the phone if this happened again when I am away. I guess one of the downsides of consolidation is that several systems now rely on a single box working just right - and I haven't even got my whole-house audio system set up on this box yet!

 

It's got me considering investing in a UPS solution. Hwoever, I'm wondering if anyone has cracked this from an automation point of view. I'm thinking I'd need to set this up to;

 

-Cleanly shutdown any running VMs (to ensure gpu eject scripts run)

-Wait for VMs to disappear from XL List

-Unmount Array cleanly

-Shutdown 

-Wait for power to be restored

-Reboot system

-Mount Array

-Start Up VMs

 

This sounds like a lot of hardware / software voodoo. Anyone got this sussed or even a decent starting point?

 

Peter

I've said for over 20 years that a UPS should be a mandatory accessory for EVERY computer system !!    And that's doubly true for a server (e.g. UnRAID) !!

 

And of course a virtualized setup with multiple devices being handled not only needs a UPS, but one that's larger than you might otherwise have for the same hardware, since it needs enough run time to gracefully shut down all the VM's, and THEN shut down the server itself.

 

I'm sure you've now learned that lesson.    If all your individual "systems" had gracefully shut down; the reboot process would be much simpler (fully automated in fact if you have it set up that way).

 

Be sure you buy a UPS with AVR, and ideally Sine Wave output (although that's not strictly necessary).    I'd be sure it has a minimum of 15 minutes runtime at the maximum power draw of your system ... longer if you don't want to set a nominal 5 minutes before shutdown (a common setting ... and what all but one of my systems uses).

 

 

 

Hi Gary

 

A lesson indeed but on a test system that I'm still using for playing around with no real data on the unraid portion.

 

I guess the UPS hardware is the easier part - (though I would't mind some pointers to specific product lines that are reliable/effective)

 

The tricky part is any gotachs in unRAID and Xen in terms of getting everything to shutdown cleanly?

 

Peter

I like APC and Cyberpower units.  No mater what you buy, be sure it has AVR.

 

Here are a few good choices:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101381

(I have 2 of these => this is an excellent choice for most UnRAID servers, but you probably want a higher-end unit for a system that's also running several VM's to provide longer runtime.)

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101421

(I have 3 of these => this is probably a good choice for what you need)

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

(I have one of these => a slightly less expensive unit than the APC with the same rating ... and often on sale for $15-20 less)

 

Thanks Gary

 

I'll need to find the EU equivalents but it's a good start.

 

Peter

Consider also finding refurb UPS's on ebay.  And if not refurb, then used and get your own replacement batteries.  You can get a lot more UPS for your dollar. 

 

I'm about 3 months into my first try with that and am very happy with my SmartUPS750.  But I got the idea from some of the neck beards  here on the board who swear by it.

Here was the thread with the discussion http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30688.0 

Thanks for that. Well worth considering.

 

I guess the main question (and the reason why I posted in Virtualization) is I'm trying to figure out where should responsibility lie for shutting down the VMs in the event of power failure;

 

1. Is it possible to somehow tie multiple (windows) VMs into the hardware UPS so they shut themselves down?

 

OR

 

2. Is it better to have unRAID syncronise shutting down everything (given that I know what VMs will be running). Will the UPS plugin allow this?

 

Thanks

 

Peter

1. Is it possible to somehow tie multiple (windows) VMs into the hardware UPS so they shut themselves down?

apcupsd does exist for Windows and you can set it up to connect to your unRAID apcupsd.  That is how I had it setup in ESXi for a while so I don't see why it wouldn't work with unRAID as the VM server.

and there is a rather vibrant discussion about dealing with VM's and shutdown in the threads. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31735.0