What UPS for two servers?

[drjones]

Hi, got two Dell Servers; T410, T610, and need a new UPS battery backup for the both of them.

What should I get? Can I get one for both, or do we need two?

How many VA/Watts should I look for, etc?

Thanks.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Look at the selection chart at APCs website.

Factor in how many CPUs, how much RAM, how many HDDs.

Next..factor in how many minutes you'd like the server to run on battery.

I'd be considering an APC SU1500 minimum, better yet..a 2200.

 

[BadBoy House]

I've got our Dell T410's (two of them) plus an Untangle box plugged into an APC Smart-UPS 1000. Works fine - we had a few power issues a year or so ago and the UPS kicked in every time.

http://www.ebuyer.com/226949-apc-smart-ups-1000-lcd-ups-ac-230-v-670-watt-1000-va-smt1000i

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've got our Dell T410's (two of them) plus an Untangle box plugged into an APC Smart-UPS 1000. Works fine - we had a few power issues a year or so ago and the UPS kicked in every time.

What's your tolerance for uptime though?
1000 ain't gonna spin a pair of 410's for very long. Guess it's a matter of...do you want just 5 minutes? Or do you want 30 or 40 minutes?

I like enough time for people to realize that there's a power outage...and then ensure it's an outage for more than 5 minutes..and then get to the servers and ensure a graceful shutdown after 20 minutes have gone by. With time to let some honkin servers shut down services and fully power down.

Gives me time to be able to remote in and power off servers if I have to. (my own, or clients).

Have a bunch of clients on lightweight UPS's..and you have like 3 or 5 minutes to scramble like a chicken with its head cut off and gracefully power down a few dozen servers...before they get power cut and shut down hard.

 

[BadBoy House]

The 1000 gets us about 30 minutes with all three servers connected to it. I test it every month to make sure it's got enough juice to shut everything down properly.

 

[Markverhyden]

The 1000 gets us about 30 minutes with all three servers connected to it. I test it every month to make sure it's got enough juice to shut everything down properly.

Uptime on battery is what really matters. It's great you test. The two things that need to be regularly tested and rarely are, unless someone has a great tech, is the UPS and backups.

Can't tell you the number of times I walk into a site and I ask those two questions and the answer ranges from "never" to "tested when it was setup x years ago" to "a while ago" to "what are you talking about". Granted the newer UPS's actually have an audible alarm when the battery is gone but that is usually ignored.

Personally I would go with two UPS's for small sites with the servers the OP mentioned. Good UPS costs are relatively low so one per server. Problem with one UPS then they could use the other one for both servers until a replacement is procured.

 

[NYJimbo]

Up until Hurricane Sandy we ran all of our servers in house here on Long Island. Each had a 1500 or 2200 watt UPS. These had LCD screens on them so we could see things like the amps drawn, time left (in theory), events, etc.

I would not go below 1000 watts per server. I like seperate ones rather than buying a very big one and putting mulitple computers on it.

 

[tankman1989]

The only thing you really need to know is the peak wattage consumption and how long you need the system to run without power. I would buy one of those wattage use monitors (Kill-a-watt comes to mind) and check out the readings when the system is booting and running a full load.

My Poweredge 1950 has a 650w PWU but usually uses under 200.

When looking at the specs, check out the VA (volt amps) which is basically how long the UPS will put out power. The higher the longer.