Supported APC UPS

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xy16644

Where I live we had 3 power failures in 2 days. Two were very short (less than a minute) and the one was about 30min in duration. During this time my FreeBSD 8.2 server got turned off (3 times). There was no problem powering it back up and everything was ok but I would now like to buy a UPS just in case this sort of thing happens again.

I was looking at getting this APC UPs:

APC BE700G-UK Power-Saving Back-UPS ES 700VA UPS W/ 8 Outlets

and using apcupsd with a USB cable to connect the UPS to my server.

My question is, is this APC UPS compatable with apcupsd and can it shutdown my server safely when the battery power of the UPS is about to run out? Run times not too important but I definitely want the server to shutdown properly so theres no filesystem corruption etc. When power is restored, does the server have to be manually powered backup again?

Thank you!
 
xy16644 said:
I was looking at getting this APC UPs:

APC BE700G-UK Power-Saving Back-UPS ES 700VA UPS W/ 8 Outlets

and using apcupsd with a USB cable to connect the UPS to my server.

My question is, is this APC UPS compatable with apcupsd and can it shutdown my server safely when the battery power of the UPS is about to run out?
Click to expand...

Yes. Ought to qualify that, but I can't recall an APC UPS that hasn't worked. Although I must admit that outages around here usually are under a minute, so the shutdown part hasn't come up much.

An alternate suggestion: try to get a Smart-UPS instead. The Back-UPS has a stepped square wave output. Fancier, more expensive Smart-UPS units have sinewave output, larger batteries, and better construction. (Business, school, and government excess equipment sales often have APC units with dead batteries selling for 10% or less of new price. Add new batteries and they're still only 20-40% of new.)

When power is restored, does the server have to be manually powered backup again?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
Thanks for the post! I had a look at the Smart UPS units online and they aren't too badly priced but damn they are big and heavy!

I should mention that my "server" is just a small HP dc7100 desktop running FreeBSD so I'm not sure if a SmartUPS is overkill? I chose the Back-UPS unit as it was small, can protect the server from power surges and can shut it down should the power be off for more than a few minutes. Run time isn't important for me but shutting down the server gracefully is!
 
It's not so much that the SmartUPS are overkill as that the BackUPS are underkill. Big and heavy means a better transformer and higher capacity batteries. Many of the SmartUPS have AVR, where they can handle low or high input voltages without going to battery at all.

BackUPS are meant for home users. But a BackUPS is certainly better than no UPS at all.

Oh, and some UPSs will come back on automatically when the power comes back. If the server BIOS can be set to autoboot when power is connected, it would come up automatically.
 
You should carefully check their datasheets, because the smaller SmartUPS models (SC420I and SC620I) provide stepped wave output only. Considering its size and weight, SmartUPS are similar to BackUPS but they are more expensive.

I own a used SmartUPS 700 with new batteries added and it works fine.
 
My APC BE700G-UK UPS arrived on Friday and I have it setup with apcupsd. It works amazingly well and I am impressed. I get about 21min of battery time with my HP dc7600 FreeBSD machine. In the BIOS I configured it so that when the power is restored (after the battery has run out) the machine will turn itself on. This is a nice feature as when I was travelling earlier this year and there was a power failure while I was overseas I couldn't get my server turned back on until returning! I also like the CGI apps for monitoring the UPS from a web site.

Overall I can highly recommend the APC BE700G-UK UPS and the sysutils/apcupsd port for FreeBSD.
 
Is there any easy way to determine which APC UPS works with sysutils/apcupsd. I don't what to buy a unit, smaller sized one especially, only to discover that their not compatible. I just need say 20 minutes to trigger a clean shutdown -p now. I can use BIOS to restore on AC if I want to. If it has a LAN management port does that mean I am good to go?
 
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