UPS with apcupsd support

[WannabeMKII]

My ageing (5 year old) UPS needs to be replaced before it stops working and now I have Grafana etc working along with apcupsd, it makes sense to make sure my new UPS provides this information as my current one doesn't.

 

Is there a list or way to find which UPSs' are supported? For example, particular manufacturers or model ranges within a manufacturer to enjoy I get a UPS with full reporting?

 

Many thanks.

[Frank1940]

First thing, How do you know it is failing?  Batteries will need to be replaced in all UPS's and you can find excellent prices if you don't purchase from the manufacturer.  You know the present one works with your setup...   That aside,  There have been some issues with APC units not working with apcupsd come up in the past several months.    You probably want to avoid anything that is intended for server room use.  The cheaper ones seem to work better with apcuspd.  You probably want to read this as it pretty much sums up the situation:

 

 

One thing to consider is to purchase any new ups from a vendor with a good return policy.  If it does not work with your setup, you have grounds to return it.

 

[WannabeMKII]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll have to do some more research and try to find some real world feedback, as I don't fancy the trial and error approach at the moment.

 

I think it would be really useful if either here, or somewhere else, there was a list of UPSs that people have used and has worked successfully? Perhaps a Google Sheet or something?

[Frank1940]

I can tell you that both of the UPS's listed on my server spec's do work.  And both are still available.  (However I suspect that the APC one is nearing at at end-of-life.)  They are both stepped-sine-wave but I only run the servers for 30 seconds after the power fails.  (From experience, I know that if is out longer than that, it will be out for a couple of hours.  Plus, it only happens a very few times each year (< five times) when a total shutdown of the servers are required.) 

[WannabeMKII]

I'm based in the UK, so it looks like the model numbers vary slightly. For APC, this looks similar to what you have?

 

With the CyberPower (minor typo in your footer of Cyperpower (unless it's a cheap Chinese knockoff)), it doesn't look like we have a UK equivalent, but this look nearest?

 

Decisions decisions...

 

Talking of which, is there a way that unraid can send me notifications whenever the UPS is triggered? My Synology NAS does in the showroom, but it would be great to have my unraid server in the office notify too as it's at a different location (about 5 miles away). Or is this also down to the UPS reporting it to unraid for the alert?

[itimpi]

I have the 1500AV version of that.    I DO get notifications when in is triggered.   I do not think I had to do anything special to make that happen.

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, WannabeMKII said:

Talking of which, is there a way that unraid can send me notifications whenever the UPS is triggered?

As long as the power outage doesn't effect your internet connection to the server, then you can be notified.

[Frank1940]

Yes, if you set up notifications AND  have the network set up on a UPS also.   Here is the link to the US version:

 

https://www.amazon.com/APC-Back-UPS-Battery-Protector-BR1000G/dp/B0038ZTZ3W/ref=sr_1_13?keywords=APC+BX1000G&qid=1571077628&sr=8-13

[WannabeMKII]

Well, I was feeling brave and thought I'd turn the UPS off at the wall and hey presto, an alert from unraid that it was running on UPS. Perfect.

 

Perhaps I'll hold fire on a new UPS as I left it off for about 13 mins when it hit about 50% before turning it back on. Also, as I've never seen an alert before in nearly 3 years of running unraid, I'm guessing things are pretty stable around here.

 

I just like the nice UPS load reports etc in Grafana, but mind appear very static compared to everyone else.

 

The fluctuations this evening are when it was running on battery. So it went onto battery about 6:30 for 1 min, then onto mains, then battery at 7:05 until about 7:15, then back to main.

 

Edited October 14, 2019 by WannabeMKII
Changed image & supporting text