UPS Recomendations

[rwba50]

Does anyone have any good UPS recommendations? I have used APC in the past and the batteries seem to fail within a year.

[danioj]

Does anyone have any good UPS recommendations? I have used APC in the past and the batteries seem to fail within a year.

 

I have 2 of these: CyberPower PFC Sinewave Series 1500VA Tower UPS CP89129

 

I have not set them up yet as I liberated them from a friends setup (Running Windows Server 2003 NOT unRAID) who didn't want them anymore. I can't speak to how they will run with unRAID BUT I see nothing to suggest they wont. FWIW he used them for 2 years and had multiple power outages. They worked great.

 

Whatever you choose Id ensure you purchase a UPS with Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). As I understand it this capability stabilises the AC signal and maintains a safe voltage. This I believe then allows the UPS to maintain safe power levels for the connected equipment without resorting to battery power.

 

I do tend to defer to garycase on such H/W matters though ..... let's see if he chimes in! 

[PeterB]

The last APC I purchased was a BX1100CI - it reported failed batteries after three or four months.  APC swapped the unit three times for exactly the same problem. That model also had dodgy communication with apcupsd.  In the end APC replaced it with a BR1200GI (a significantly more expensive unit).  The BR1200 has been problem-free for more than a year.

 

My older BK650CS is still working well (relegated to powering my router) after about six years and has only had one battery replacement.

 

My (slightly newer) ES500 is on its third battery, but that is a dumb unit with no shutdown control.

 

My UPSs get well exercised, with an average of two powercuts a day.

[danioj]

Does anyone have any good UPS recommendations? I have used APC in the past and the batteries seem to fail within a year.

 

I have 2 of these: CyberPower PFC Sinewave Series 1500VA Tower UPS CP89129

 

I have not set them up yet as I liberated them from a friends setup (Running Windows Server 2003 NOT unRAID) who didn't want them anymore. I can't speak to how they will run with unRAID BUT I see nothing to suggest they wont. FWIW he used them for 2 years and had multiple power outages. They worked great.

 

Whatever you choose Id ensure you purchase a UPS with Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). As I understand it this capability stabilises the AC signal and maintains a safe voltage. This I believe then allows the UPS to maintain safe power levels for the connected equipment without resorting to battery power.

 

I do tend to defer to garycase on such H/W matters though ..... let's see if he chimes in! 

 

Another note - IF you're going to use a UPS with an RJ45 port be mindful that many off them are NOT Gigabit passthrough.

[ken-ji]

Actually for a UPS for use with a PC or servers, you really want one with the output always on the inverter with an excellent sine wave generator.

 

What's the difference? The UPS is designed to do nothing but recharge from the input voltage (so spikes and dips, and over and under voltages mean absolutely nothing) and the protected devices will always draw from a clean generated AC sine wave.

 

The Cons? The UPS (at least here in the Philippines) - cost like 3-4x the usual units. Additionally, the AC sine wave generator needs to be very good, otherwise devices plugged in get really "noisy" power signal. That said most PC power supplies should be able to handle that easy enough but why risk it.

 

The last APC I purchased was a BX1100CI - it reported failed batteries after three or four months.  APC swapped the unit three times for exactly the same problem. That model also had dodgy communication with apcupsd.  In the end APC replaced it with a BR1200GI (a significantly more expensive unit).  The BR1200 has been problem-free for more than a year.

 

My older BK650CS is still working well (relegated to powering my router) after about six years and has only had one battery replacement.

 

My (slightly newer) ES500 is on its third battery, but that is a dumb unit with no shutdown control.

 

My UPSs get well exercised, with an average of two powercuts a day.

Yeah, it seems my APC BK650CS - is a bit more sensitive as it detects low voltages too easily and switches back and forth the battery at least once a day for only one to two seconds. I should really work on getting a BR1200 so I can relegate the 650CS to other stuff...

 

[landS]

Both at home and at work we have had numerous UPS failures (we are between 3 massive switching stations and have lots of noise/brown outs).... Now we use APC Smart-UPS C1500 and not a single failure .

[Endy]

 

I have 2 of these: CyberPower PFC Sinewave Series 1500VA Tower UPS CP89129

 

 

That's the one I am using. No issues with it so far, but I've only had it for 2-3 months and as far as I can tell, I've only had one power issue that triggered the alarm, but wasn't enough of a power failure to shutdown my desktop pc (which is not on a UPS at the moment).

[gundamguy]

 

I have 2 of these: CyberPower PFC Sinewave Series 1500VA Tower UPS CP89129

 

 

That's the one I am using. No issues with it so far, but I've only had it for 2-3 months and as far as I can tell, I've only had one power issue that triggered the alarm, but wasn't enough of a power failure to shutdown my desktop pc (which is not on a UPS at the moment).

 

Same. Works like a champ. I've had it for about a year now, so I can't comment on the batteries life to much... but I'm pretty happy with it.

[benflux]

Is this CyperPower compatible with the UPS settings in UnRAID?

[Furby8704]

cyberpower been working great for me for the last couple of years

[BrianAz]

Another vote for CyberPower. I have had this model running my ESXi box for ~ 3 years. Works great and am about to buy another for unRAID. I'll do a forum search before clicking buy.... but IIRC CyberPower works fine with unRAID.

 

CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD PFC Sinewave UPS 1000VA 600W PFC Compatible Mini-Tower

[garycase]

... Yeah, it seems my APC BK650CS - is a bit more sensitive as it detects low voltages too easily and switches back and forth the battery at least once a day for only one to two seconds.

 

This is why you should only buy quality units with AVR (automatic voltage regulation).    Note that some inexpensive units will only have "boost AVR" ... which means the AVR circuitry can raise a low voltage, but not lower a high voltage (some manufacturers call this "trim AVR").    You want "boost and trim" if they are specified independently.  i.e. listen to what Daniel said ...

 

Whatever you choose I'd ensure you purchase a UPS with Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). As I understand it this capability stabilises the AC signal and maintains a safe voltage. This I believe then allows the UPS to maintain safe power levels for the connected equipment without resorting to battery power.

 

Without AVR, the UPS can get in a mode where it's very frequently switching between battery and line power.    And to make matters a bit worse, the inexpensive units that don't have AVR also tend to have the worst output waveforms ... i.e. they are more likely to cause problems with sensitive electronics.

 

 

I have 2 of these: CyberPower PFC Sinewave Series 1500VA Tower UPS CP89129

 

These are excellent units ... they're the most affordable true sinewave output units I'm aware of.  I also have 2 of them.    I'm also a big fan of APC -- but NOT their low-cost units without AVR.    The best APC units are the Smart-UPS series, which are also true sinewave output units; but they cost significantly more than the CyberPower units, so for home usage the CyberPower is a more affordable alternative.    The SmartUPS series has more commercial grade features -- i.e. supports a network management card so it can be remotely controlled, and is designed to add additional battery packs to provide longer runtime, etc. => but for what you want for an UnRAID system the CyberPower unit is fine.    You could also use a less expensive (non sine-wave) APC unit -- as long as it has AVR these are fine ... e.g. the BR series units are fine (BR1000, etc.).  Note, however, that some computer power supplies with active PFC are known to have issues with non-sinewave power ... although I've only seen ONE case where I believe this was a problem [PSU failed; replaced it; replacement failed in 30 days; replaced it again and also updated the UPS to a sinewave unit; and it's been working ever since for ~ 2 years].

 

 

[michael123]

On 2/25/2016 at 12:35 PM, PeterB said:

The last APC I purchased was a BX1100CI - it reported failed batteries after three or four months.  APC swapped the unit three times for exactly the same problem. That model also had dodgy communication with apcupsd.  In the end APC replaced it with a BR1200GI (a significantly more expensive unit).  The BR1200 has been problem-free for more than a year.

 

My older BK650CS is still working well (relegated to powering my router) after about six years and has only had one battery replacement.

 

My (slightly newer) ES500 is on its third battery, but that is a dumb unit with no shutdown control.

 

My UPSs get well exercised, with an average of two powercuts a day.

 

Hello

 

I have BR1200GI. 

Which cable should I use to connect it to unRaid?

Then in unRaid, do I need to install anything else, or it is just supported by APC built-in module?

 

thanks

[garycase]

Just connect it to your UnRAID server with a USB cable.    UnRAID's built-in UPS module will automatically recognize it -- nothing else to do unless you want to modify the default shutdown parameters [Settings - UPS]

 

[michael123]

I get just warning communication lost..

How do I check it is detected by unraid?

[garycase]

Look at the UPS settings [Settings - UPS] and confirm UPS support is enabled.   Also try a different USB port on your PC.   If your system has both USB v3 and USB v2 ports, try a v2 port.