Server UPS Recommendations
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@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
It certainly does not. I do not understand @scottalanmiller's logic in that statement. A UPS housing is much more than a chassis. There are a lot of circuits in there that allow the UPS to properly do its job.
Sure, but not stuff that is wearing out. If there is damage, absolutely. But getting decades of reliable work out of a UPS chassis is normal. If you need new features, of course, that would change.
Temperature will also kill UPS's as they contain nice big fat capacitors. The cooler you keep your UPS units the longer they will last. If you run your data center very cool (15-20c) and you bought the units new I would be comfortable with a 10-15 year life span.
Obviously the batteries are another story all together and should be replaced every 2-3 years, depending on manf specs.
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
It certainly does not. I do not understand @scottalanmiller's logic in that statement. A UPS housing is much more than a chassis. There are a lot of circuits in there that allow the UPS to properly do its job.
Sure, but not stuff that is wearing out. If there is damage, absolutely. But getting decades of reliable work out of a UPS chassis is normal. If you need new features, of course, that would change.
Temperature will also kill UPS's as they contain nice big fat capacitors. The cooler you keep your UPS units the longer they will last. If you run your data center very cool (15-20c) and you bought the units new I would be comfortable with a 10-15 year life span.
Obviously the batteries are another story all together and should be replaced every 2-3 years, depending on manf specs.
Yes, of course, if they need to be replaced, replace them. I'm not saying that they will never die or get damaged just that you generally don't replace them until they are. Our UPS units from the 90s are generally still fine.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
It certainly does not. I do not understand @scottalanmiller's logic in that statement. A UPS housing is much more than a chassis. There are a lot of circuits in there that allow the UPS to properly do its job.
Sure, but not stuff that is wearing out. If there is damage, absolutely. But getting decades of reliable work out of a UPS chassis is normal. If you need new features, of course, that would change.
Temperature will also kill UPS's as they contain nice big fat capacitors. The cooler you keep your UPS units the longer they will last. If you run your data center very cool (15-20c) and you bought the units new I would be comfortable with a 10-15 year life span.
Obviously the batteries are another story all together and should be replaced every 2-3 years, depending on manf specs.
Yes, of course, if they need to be replaced, replace them. I'm not saying that they will never die or get damaged just that you generally don't replace them until they are. Our UPS units from the 90s are generally still fine.
I'm still using my UPSs from 8 years ago.. not the 90's but not young either.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Our UPS units from the 90s are generally still fine.
Providing you load test them once a year (or more!) I can't see anything wrong with that. Also stuff was built better in the 90's than you see today, YMMV with newer gear.
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
It certainly does not. I do not understand @scottalanmiller's logic in that statement. A UPS housing is much more than a chassis. There are a lot of circuits in there that allow the UPS to properly do its job.
Sure, but not stuff that is wearing out. If there is damage, absolutely. But getting decades of reliable work out of a UPS chassis is normal. If you need new features, of course, that would change.
Temperature will also kill UPS's as they contain nice big fat capacitors. The cooler you keep your UPS units the longer they will last. If you run your data center very cool (15-20c) and you bought the units new I would be comfortable with a 10-15 year life span.
Obviously the batteries are another story all together and should be replaced every 2-3 years, depending on manf specs.
And how many times the units have had to run.
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@gjacobse surprisingly that can actually increase their life span
edit: Running the batteries down I mean - for best results I'd do it a few times a year but ain't nobody got time for that. Our new Eaton unit does it auto-magically on a schedule.
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We currently are switching to EATON UPSes here. I really like them. They're easy to get into the racks and they don't weigh 5 tons.
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Personally I'd say for for 240v instead of 120v if you can. 240v will use less amperage for the same energy. If it requires a whole new circuit run and you don't plan on buying any more than one server it's not worth it though.
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Our UPS units from the 90s are generally still fine.
Providing you load test them once a year (or more!) I can't see anything wrong with that. Also stuff was built better in the 90's than you see today, YMMV with newer gear.
I'd get a Always Online UPS for servers if it were me. You are always load testing then. It will fail over to line power if needed on most but you'll hear plenty of alarms going off and hopefully get emails about it too.
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@BRRABill said:
Well, I'm not sure what new features I would need.
I have two of them, and they both need new batteries. So I am going to be spending, just trying to decide the best place to spend.
I would seriously take this time to go get a pair of Eatons. We had them in for a Spicecorp a while back and the gear is really solid and the monitoring is awesome.
http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/ProductsServices/Electrical/ProductsandServices/UPS/
Edit: This is the best UPS gear for the price and features. All around solid gear. I am seriously looking forward to needing to replace gear so I can get some in to use.
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@Jason said:
I'd get a Always Online UPS for servers if it were me. You are always load testing then. It will fail over to line power if needed on most but you'll hear plenty of alarms going off and hopefully get emails about it too.
That's not really how that works, but I agree it's a better design than previous ones. You still want to do a full "real McCoy" load test every year as part of your DR testing plans.
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@JaredBusch said:
@BRRABill said:
Well, I'm not sure what new features I would need.
I have two of them, and they both need new batteries. So I am going to be spending, just trying to decide the best place to spend.
I would seriously take this time to go get a pair of Eatons. We had them in for a Spicecorp a while back and the gear is really solid and the monitoring is awesome.
http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/ProductsServices/Electrical/ProductsandServices/UPS/
Edit: This is the best UPS gear for the price and features. All around solid gear. I am seriously looking forward to needing to replace gear so I can get some in to use.
We use Eatons as well. I have to say they surpassed my expectations considering their price (affordable!)
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@MattSpeller said:
@Jason said:
I'd get a Always Online UPS for servers if it were me. You are always load testing then. It will fail over to line power if needed on most but you'll hear plenty of alarms going off and hopefully get emails about it too.
That's not really how that works, but I agree it's a better design than previous ones. You still want to do a full "real McCoy" load test every year as part of your DR testing plans.
Ours the load has to be disconnected to do a load test. It connects the load straight to the mains/Automatic transfer switches when testing.
I think our facilities staff does it quarterly.
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@Jason said:
Ours the load has to be disconnected to do a load test. It connects the load straight to the mains/Automatic transfer switches when testing.
I'm a bit more old school - I flip breakers
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@MattSpeller said:
@Jason said:
Ours the load has to be disconnected to do a load test. It connects the load straight to the mains/Automatic transfer switches when testing.
I'm a bit more old school - I flip breakers
The breakers are after the UPS here. No idea if/where the main disconnect is for the UPS itself. I'm sure there is one but all that's left to the facilities staff.
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@Jason said:
@MattSpeller said:
@Jason said:
Ours the load has to be disconnected to do a load test. It connects the load straight to the mains/Automatic transfer switches when testing.
I'm a bit more old school - I flip breakers
The breakers are after the UPS here. No idea if/where the main disconnect is for the UPS itself. I'm sure there is one but all that's left to the facilities staff.
There will absolutely be one between the UPS and the telephone pole - for a proper test I highly recommend flipping it. Sometimes you find little surprises that would completely screw you. Also you learn how long your UPS actually lasts and you can test your graceful shutdown setup.
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@MattSpeller said:
There will absolutely be one between the UPS and the telephone pole - for a proper test I highly recommend flipping it. Sometimes you find little surprises that would completely screw you. Also you learn how long your UPS actually lasts and you can test your graceful shutdown setup.
We don't touch that kind of stuff. Yes I know there is a three phase main breaker for it somewhere but we don't mess with the UPS, Breaks or anything. It's not IT. it all gets tested by Facilities. IT would get fired for messing with electrical stuff.
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@MattSpeller said:
Also you learn how long your UPS actually lasts and you can test your graceful shutdown setup.
We don't worry about the Graceful shutdowns too much. We have multiple three phase feeds from two different utilities. two Generators and two UPS systems.
We can run forever (as long as there is natural gas lines still working) on generators. and up to 48hrs on UPS power.
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Was there ever a comment/decision on whether to run both power supplies into 1 UPS, 2 UPSes, or 1 UPS and a regular surge protector?
In my location there is just the one circuit. I have no other options.
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@BRRABill ideally you split the power supplies across 2 UPS so a ups failure doesn't take your stuff out.
