Advice Please: Looking to get a UPS


DavidIrwin

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Hi all, I hope I am posting this in the right place.

 

I am about to move house and there is potential for the power supply to be unreliable based on where we are moving to. I am planning on buying and installing a UPS to protect my unRAID server, core switch and router and wireless, however there is one critical requirement I want to make sure I get right:

 

I want to ensure that if the UPS goes into battery operation then after a time (or when the UPS gets low on battery) that the unRAID server does a clean shutdown including stopping all the dockers, etc.

 

Are there specific UPS which will work with unRAID? Has anyone got experience of setting this up and would you recommend something specific?

 

Thank you

 

David

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If you are in the US then CyberPower / APC is the way to go.  If you are outside the US then whatever brand is readily available should be fine.  A lot of people here are using different brands of UPS with no problems.  The integrated apcusbd software, while made for APC UPSs, is pretty universally compatible with others. 

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I bought a CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD PFC Sinewave UPS System, 1000VA/600W for my system.  It plugged right in and was recognized and controlled by UnRaid.  It is a small form factor so very unobtrusive.  It gives me about 40 minutes of run time, though I have it set up to shutdown at 75% of battery level.  I am fortunate my system idles at around 78 watts.  The price was 139.95 so not expensive to buy.

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I experienced the problem below with my Cyberpower 685AVR and had to switch to the NUT plugin to work around it, which took some work. It's only an issue if you want your UPS to turn on after shutdown when power returns (so your devices boot automatically.) Otherwise I've been happy with it.

 

From what I understand APC units don't have this problem.

 

Edited by CS01-HS
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  • 2 weeks later...
53 minutes ago, SirReal63 said:

We had a power outage last night, the CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD shut down the server exactly as I have it set to, no problems at all.  When power was restored the server came back up, which I wasn't expecting, but am pleased about.

Is this due to a change in unraid or a change in their upses.

 

Id be interested to know if others who buy the CP1000PFCLCD can reliably expect this, because I've been pouring over options trying to figure out what to get without unnecessarily overspending.

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4 minutes ago, CS01-HS said:

Using the built-in UPS management with Turn Off UPS set to yes?

Interesting, it didn't work with my cheaper model but good to know.

Correct, Turn off UPS is set to YES.  Perhaps it is a firmware issue with the smaller UPS?  That is a guess, but it makes sense.

2 minutes ago, NasOnABudget said:

Is this due to a change in unraid or a change in their upses.

 

Id be interested to know if others who buy the CP1000PFCLCD can reliably expect this, because I've been pouring over options trying to figure out what to get without unnecessarily overspending.

I have no idea, but in this instance it worked as expected.

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3 hours ago, trurl said:

This would be a setting in your BIOS

Right, the BIOS has to be set to start automatically when powered but that won't be triggered unless the UPS (a) cuts power after the computer shuts down and (b) restores power when the outage ends.


For example, if he'd set Turn off UPS to NO and the outage ended after the computer shut down but before the UPS was depleted the computer wouldn't know to boot because the outlet never lost power. (At least as I understand it.)

3 hours ago, SirReal63 said:

Good to know, thanks.  Under normal conditions prior to the UPS, it would not auto restart after a power off event, I would have to manually power it on.

This doesn't make sense to me. The unRAID UPS setting doesn't change your BIOS.

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4 minutes ago, CS01-HS said:

Right, the BIOS has to be set to start automatically when powered but that won't be triggered unless the UPS (a) cuts power after the computer shuts down and (b) restores power when the outage ends.


For example, if he'd set Turn off UPS to NO and the outage ended after the computer shut down but before the UPS was depleted the computer wouldn't know to boot because the outlet never lost power. (At least as I understand it.)

This doesn't make sense to me. The unRAID UPS setting doesn't change your BIOS.

The BIOS is set to to automatically start when power is on, but it never worked.  In the rare instance when we lose power I would have to manually start the computer, prior to having the UPS, this time with the UPS it started up when power was restored.  I don't really care how or why, the important thing is it powered down when it was supposed to.

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18 hours ago, NasOnABudget said:

Is this due to a change in unraid or a change in their upses.

 

Id be interested to know if others who buy the CP1000PFCLCD can reliably expect this, because I've been pouring over options trying to figure out what to get without unnecessarily overspending.

Fancier options are plug-and-play but I have automatic restart working on my low-end Cyberpower. It requires the NUT plugin and some custom configuration. I wrote a how-to for my networked setup but the NUT plugin provides all the necessary files on unRAID so adapting it for a direct (USB) setup shouldn't be difficult.

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