I decided to create a real thread about the server UPS and power discussion on the chat box. This way we can track it.

Anyway, a few days ago I installed a 30A 125V circuit and connected a 3000VA UPS to it. I purchased the UPS about 2 years ago from Ebay on a special buy. Two of these bad boys for about $300, it was a steal. Anyway, they were NOS units never delivered to customers and in perfect shape (including batteries).

The old power schema shared a single UPS alongside some other server equipment I have in the office. Runtime on that UPS was only about 15 minutes or so. I wanted to extend the runtime of the club in the event of a power failure, so, I figured a dedicated 3000VA should give us at least a few hours. Looks like I was right, according to my calcs, this thing should give us 10 hours of runtime on a single charge (knock on wood).

The UPS is working great so far. We'll see what happens this winter when the power starts to become an issue.

Just a record of the shout box messages. Arne warning me to install a 2nd power supply in the server.

Yesterday, 06:08 PM

Arne The second UPS isn't a lot of good without a second power circuit. I wouldn't worry about that, but a second PS might be useful. I've seen more than one of those HP PSs fail.

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Yesterday, 11:01 AM

Mike I do have a 2nd UPS... hmm...

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Yesterday, 10:50 AM

Arne Of course, if the single PS fails, the server goes down hard...

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Yesterday, 10:50 AM

Arne perhaps, but if you only have one UPS, the benefits of a second PS are not as great. All you are worried about in that case is PS failure.

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08-29-2010, 09:27 PM

Mike just a single, we should look at another

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08-29-2010, 09:18 PM

Arne Dual or single power supplies, Mike?

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08-29-2010, 09:18 PM

Mike geeze, over 10 hours runtime

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08-29-2010, 08:46 PM

Mike The CZCC server now has its own dedicated 3000VA UPS.

"Warning" you might be a little strong. Although as I noted, I've experienced two outright failures, and one "flakiness" on the power supplies in our DL380s. All of the problems have been on our DL380-G5s. No issues on our G6s or the single G7 so far. We spec all of ours with redundant PSs, so the failures have not caused us any service interruptions, and HP has replaced them under our 4-hour service contract.

I am running approximately 160 HP DL360 and 380's (G4-G7) and about 40 BL460/480's and have not had a PS go out yet in 4 + years. I do spec all with redundant PS and have 2 UPS units and 2 PDUs so each cabinet has 2 power sources. Also have redundant AC systems but that is beyond the scope here.

I would recommend a second PDU but to do it correctly you need a separate feed from the power company going to a separate breaker box. I am not sure where you are housing the server mike but that might not be workable.

I have assisted in designing enterprise class data centers with connectivity to disaster recovery sites. If you ever have any questions that you and the admins cannot resolve let me know and I will gladly help out where I can.

John

Oh, and dont forget that the T1 line and all the switching equipment needs to be on UPS too or it won't help.

We use these APC Automatic Transfer Switches for single power supply equipment:

http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=AP7750

John

Weird. I only have a half dozen G5s, but two failures. Can't even blame the power, as the failures were at different data centers. But I guess that's why we spec redundancy, isn't it?

I'm not much help with the UPS, but I think I speak for all of us here in expressing our appreciation of your work so that we can continue to indulge our addiction.

Thanks for the help, guys. I'm not sure why I went with a single PS in the first place. I think it's due the fact that our server was a donation but it was a brand new bare-bones unit. We decided to spend our money on hard drive and memory upgrades at the time.

Anyway, now that we have better A/C and UPS, it's time to look at buying another PS to help keep any problems away.

I did remember to put the Internet circuit on the UPS to keep that online in case of a power failure.

Actually, today I am going to relocate the panel so it's easier to install new circuits and we'll be totally redundant. The only thing we won't have is a backup generator.

Oh, and PS, if anyone knows or wants to mess around with the Sun Fire X4500 box (just above the UPS's) please let me know. That box was a huge disappointment....

What is the exact HP model and generation of the server. I am getting ready to recycle 9 servers. Might be able to salvage a spare power supply and some ram if you need it. I run at least 4gb in each of these and like I said earlier they have redundant power supplies. They are also dual cpu xeon processors. Probably around 3 ghz dual core.

Not sure what I can salvage but if you let me know what you want I will see what I can do.

And Arne, yes, that is why we spec the redundancy.

John

I wouldn't touch the Sun box unless you gave me some chain to go with it so I could use it as an anchor. ;-)

What is the exact HP model and generation of the server. I am getting ready to recycle 9 servers. Might be able to salvage a spare power supply and some ram if you need it. I run at least 4gb in each of these and like I said earlier they have redundant power supplies. They are also dual cpu xeon processors. Probably around 3 ghz dual core.

Not sure what I can salvage but if you let me know what you want I will see what I can do.

And Arne' date=' yes, that is why we spec the redundancy.

John

I wouldn't touch the Sun box unless you gave me some chain to go with it so I could use it as an anchor. ;-)[/quote']iLO says it's a DL360 G5. Has one 2.0GHz dual-core proc (1 empty socket), and 4 GB RAM (4 empty slots), and (as noted) only one PS.

I'm with you on the Sun box, not my cuppa tea.

What OS are we running? Windows 2003 32 bit = 4gb max. Not sure about Linux.

Linux - RHEL5, to be precise. Looks like Mike loaded the 32-bit version, but it's a piece of cake to install the PAE kernel to support more than 4GB.

Edited September 1, 201014 yr by Arne

OK. I am a windows guy so you lost me on the PAE kernel but it sounds like we could benefit from more ram. I like to run all matching modules so I will see if I can find 4 2gb sticks for a G5. Also, cpu's need to be installed in matched pairs so I will see if I can get a couple 3Ghz matches and a power supply.

Give me a couple days to take inventory and do the paper work.

John