Uninterruptible Power Source FAQ
Archive-name: UPS-faq
Version: 1.9
Uninterruptable Power Source (UPS) FAQ.
VERSION 1.9, July 11, 1995
Sections:
01: What is this document all about?
01: What is this document?
02: How is this document made available?
03: Who maintains this?
04: Where did this information come from?
05: How can I contribute?
06: How may this document be distributed?
07: Got anything else you'd like to add?
08: Glossary.
02: What is a UPS and how does is work?
01: What is a UPS?
02: How do you pronounce "UPS"?
03: Vendor X says that (description) is a UPS, is it?
04: Describe the types of UPS's?
05: How can a UPS help me?
06: What sort of stuff does a UPS do?
07: How long can equipment on a UPS keep running?
08: What is a "good" UPS?
09: Support contracts on UPS's.
10: Self maintenance tips.
11: Is a UPS a glorified power strip?
12: How important is the UPS output waveform?
03: UPS monitoring/shutdown software.
01: Can a UPS shut the computer down when power is low?
02: Can I write my own shutdown routines?
03: What freely distributable solutions are there?
04: No UPS software works on my machines, what to do?
05: What other software is out there.
04: How big a UPS do I need?
01: How are UPS sizes determined?
02: What VA rating do I need?
03: How do I determine this?
04: What else should I consider?
05: Can I use an UPS with a laser printer?
06: What UPS sizes do you use on what equipment?
05: Specific manufacturer's info.
01: What vendors are there?
02: UPS Hardware.
03: UPS Software only.
04: Other companies.
06: Bibliography
07: Acknowledgments
-----------------------------
01:
TOPIC: What is this document all about?
01.01
Q: What is this document?
A: This is a FAQ document on Uninterruptable Power Sources. It is
intended to provide a starting point for those people that want
to find out what they are, what they do, and what's available.
Note that most of this document is very US-centric. The power
numbers, companies and services all emphasize US consumer
needs. Sorry, but that's what I have to work with. All the
principles discussed here should be applicable just about
everywhere.
01.02
Q: How is this document made available?
A: Currently, its "home" is comp.misc. It is also crossposted to
comp.unix.admin, comp.sys.sun.hardware, comp.sys.hp.hardware,
comp.sys.sgi.hardware, comp.sys.next.hardware,
comp.sys.ibm.hardware, comp.sys.dec, comp.answers and
news.answers. This posting is automated and will occur on or
near the 10th of each month. If there are other groups to
which this document should be posted, please let me know, but
if I post it to every group where UPS questions get asked, that
would be a lot of groups. I'm open to suggestions.
This document is also available via anonymous FTP. The master
sits on navigator.jpl.nasa.gov (128.149.23.82) in pub/doc/faq
as the file UPS.faq. It is also available via anonymous FTP
from rtfm.mit.edu in:
pub/usenet-by-group/comp.misc/Uninterruptable_Power_Source_FAQ
01.03
Q: Who maintains this?
A: Right now, this document is maintained by Nick Christenson. My
preferred email address is npc@minotaur.jpl.nasa.gov, and I
would like it very much if questions regarding this document
could have the word "UPS or UPS FAQ" or some such in the Subject
line. Note: I am maintaining this on my own time, so please
don't be upset if it takes a while for me to respond to your
queries. Also none of the information in here represents the
views or has the blessing of any organization whatsoever. The
maintainer of the FAQ is to be held solely responsible for its
contents.
01.04
Q: Where did this information come from?
A: Thankfully, many people have rallied to my cry to fill in
the many gaps in my original draft. This is now a group work,
although I claim full responsibility for misstatements and
inaccuracies.
01.05
Q: How can I contribute?
A: You should mail new information, corrections, suggestions, etc.
to the current maintainer of this FAQ. If you provide a suggestion,
make sure you reference where the information is located in the
document. I guarantee that suggestions of the form "Change the
word 'always' to 'almost always' in the part about surge suppression."
will be ignored.
01.06
Q: Are there any restrictions on distribution of this document?
A: This document is copyright by the author. You are encouraged
to distribute this document for any non-commercial purpose
as long as the contents remain unchanged and a pointer to
an up-to-date version is included.
01.07
Q: Got anything else you'd like to add?
A: Yes, now that you mention it. The people who contribute to this
document can speak only about equipment they have experience with.
This may reflect a bias toward or against certain brands, features,
functions, etc.. Please keep in mind that the suggestions, brand
names and functions here are by no means exhaustive, or even
necessarily applicable to your situation. Also, if you have
information that is not in this document, please submit it to
the maintainer listed above. If you submit information, please
say whether you'd like it to be attributed to you or not. I am
more than glad to give credit to the fine people who helped with
this document, but I want to respect the anonymity of those
people who would prefer it.
One more caveat: While the principles of UPS design and
maintenance are likely to be fairly universal, the power
figures in this FAQ are *very* US-centric. Sorry, but
they're the only numbers I have.
01.08
Q: Glossary
A: This was contributed almost entirely by some kind soul. I just
cleaned it up a bit.
Blackout: Complete loss of power. Some literature considers a voltage
drop below about 80V to be a blackout as well since most
equipment will not operate below these levels.
Sag or Brownout: Decrease in voltage levels which can last for
periods ranging from fractions of a second to hours. Can be
caused by heavy equipment coming on line such as shop tools,
elevators, compressors etc. Also occurs when utility companies
deliberately do this to cope with peak load times.
Spike: An instantaneous and tremendous increase in voltage often
caused by a direct lightning strike on a power line or when
power returns after a blackout.
Surge: An substantial increase in voltage lasting a small fraction
of a second, often caused when high powered appliances such as
air conditioners are switched off.
EMI/RFI Noise: ElectroMagnetic Interference and Radio Frequency
Interference. Caused by, inter alia, lightning, generators,
radio transmitters, industrial equipment.
MOV: Metal Oxide Varistors used to control spikes. These are
common in Power Strips. If you see more than two, you likely
have a fairly decent Power Strip. They look like largish disk
capacitors.
Inverter: Circuitry that converts DC battery power to AC power
required by most computer equipment.
Surge Protector: Circuitry consisting of MOVs, capacitors, rod-core
inductors etc. for suppressing surges and spikes usually embedded
in a power strip.
Line Conditioner: A transformer that attempts to smooth out
fluctuations in input voltage to provide near uniform output
voltage or voltage waveform.
02:
TOPIC: What is a UPS and how does is work?
02.01
Q: What is a UPS?
A: An Uninterruptable Power Source is a device that sits between
a power supply (e.g. a wall outlet) and a device (e.g. a computer)
to prevent undesired features of the power source (outages, sags,
surges, bad harmonics, etc.) from the supply from adversely
affecting the performance of the device.
02.02
Q: How do you pronounce "UPS"?
A: I pronounce it "ups", but most of the literature seems to favor
"you pee ess", since they use "a UPS" instead of "an UPS". This
document will try to follow the literature.
02.03
Q: Vendor X says that (fill in description) is a UPS, but it's
different that what you describe above. Who's right?
A: There really is no standard definition of what a UPS is.
Anything ranging from a 9 volt battery backup in a clock radio
to a building/compound wide backup generator has been called
a UPS by someone. The majority of this document refers to
objects larger than a beer can and smaller than a desk that
help devices remain temporarily operational when changes to the
power they receive would otherwise interrupt their function.
Maintaining power to a minicomputer (like a VAX 11) is beyond
the scope of this document. This FAQ deals with UPS equipment
that can be installed by a computer owner/administrator. If you
have requirements that large, you need to talk to a qualified
electrician.
02.04
Q: Can you give me some more information on this?
A: (Kindly provided by Don Deal, Don.Deal@oit.gatech.edu, my additions
are in [square brackets] )
The UPS industry is made up of many manufacturers, and there is
a lack of standard terms within the industry. I think this
sometimes borders on deliberate misdirection. (It's a jungle out
there!)
There are basically three different types of devices, all of
which are occasionally passed off as UPSs.
1. Standby power supply (SPS). In this type of supply, power is
usually derived directly from the power line, until power fails.
After power failure, a battery powered inverter turns on to
continue supplying power. Batteries are charged, as necessary,
when line power is available. This type of supply is sometimes
called an "offline" UPS.
The quality and effectiveness of this class of devices varies
considerably; however, they are generally quite a bit cheaper than
"true" UPSs. The time required for the inverter to come online,
typically called the switchover time, varies by unit. While some
computers may be able to tolerate long switchover times, your
mileage may vary. [ Some articles in the trade press have claimed
that their testing shows that modern PCs can withstand transfer
times of 100ms or more. Most UPS units claim a transfer time to
battery of about 4ms. Note that even if a computer can stay up
for 100ms, it doesn't mean that 100ms switchover is okay. Damage
can still be done to a computer or data on it even if it stays
up. ]
Other features to look for in this class of supplies is line
filtering and/or other line conditioners. Since appliances
connected to the supply are basically connected directly from
the power line, SPSs provide relatively poor protection from
line noise, frequency variations, line spikes, and brownouts.
[Some SPS's claim to have surge/spike suppression circuitry as
well as transformers to "boost" voltage without switching to
the battery if a modest voltage drop occurs. An example is the
"APC Smart UPS" which claims it will switch to this boosting mode
if voltage drops below 103V (from the normal expected 120V) and
switches to battery only at 90V and below. This, it is claimed,
allows operation of the equipment indefinitely under brownout
conditions as long as voltage does not drop below 90V. I have
not tested this, and would be interested in independent data.
There are other vendors products that make similar claims.]
2. Hybrid UPS systems. I only know one vendor who sells them -
Best Power, Inc. The theory behind these devices is fairly simple.
When normal operating line power is present, the supply conditions
power using a ferroresonant transformer. This transformer maintains
a constant output voltage even with a varying input voltage and
provides good protection against line noise. The transformer also
maintains output on its secondary briefly when a total outage occurs.
Best claims that their inverter then goes online so quickly that
it is operating without any interruption in power. Other UPS
vendors maintain that the transition is less than seamless, but
then again it's not in their best interest to promote Best's products.
Best has a sizable part of the UPS market.
[ Note: According to some sources, ferroresonant transformers in an
UPS system can interact with ferroresonant transformers in your
equipment and produce unexpected results. The Moral: Again, test
before you buy. -npc ]
3. What I call "true" UPS systems, those supplies that continuously
operate from an inverter. Obviously, there is no switchover time,
and these supplies generally provide the best isolation from power
line problems. The disadvantages to these devices are increased
cost, increased power consumption, and increased heat generation.
Despite the fact that the inverter in a "true" UPS is always on,
the reliability of such units does not seem to be affected. In
fact, we have seen more failures in cheaper SPS units. [ Note,
though, that given the same quality inverter, you'd expect the
one that runs least to last longest. ]
02.05
Q: How can it help me?
A: A UPS has internal batteries to guarantee that continuous power
is provided to the equipment even if the power supply stops
providing power. Of course the UPS can provide power for a while,
typically a few minutes, but that is often enough to ride out
power company glitches or short outages.
Advantages:
1) Computer jobs don't stop because the power fails.
2) Users not inconvenienced by computer shutting down.
3) Equipment does not incur the stress of another (hard)
power cycle.
4) Data isn't lost because a machine shut down without
doing a "sync" or equivalent to flush cached or
real time data.
02.06
Q: What sort of stuff does a UPS do?
A: A UPS traditionally can perform the following functions:
1) Absorb relatively small power surges.
2) Smooth out noisy power sources.
3) Continue to provide power to equipment during line sags.
4) Provide power for some time after a blackout has occurred.
In addition, some UPS or UPS/software combinations provide the
following functions:
1) Automatic shutdown of equipment during long power
outages.
2) Monitoring and logging of the status of the power supply.
3) Display the Voltage/Current draw of the equipment.
4) Restart equipment after a long power outage.
5) Display the voltage currently on the line.
6) Provide alarms on certain error conditions.
7) Provide short circuit protection.
02.07
Q: How long can equipment on a UPS keep running after the power
goes?
A: How big a UPS do you have and what kind of equipment does it
protect? For most typical computer workstations, one might
have a UPS that was rated to keep the machine alive through
a 15 minute power loss. If you need a machine to survive
hours without power should probably look at a more robust
power backup solution. Even if a UPS has a very small load,
it must still operate it's DC (battery) to AC converter,
which costs power. A rough extrapolation from APC's
documentation, leads me to guess that a 2000 VA UPS can
operate it's own converter (with no extra load) for just
over 8 hours. A 1250 VA UPS could run its converter for
about 5. These are *very* rough guesses based on information
provided by one vendor for one vendor.
02.08
Q: Given the same vendor claims, how can I tell a "good" quality
UPS from a "poor" quality UPS?
A: Testing, testing, testing. I can't emphasize this enough. There
are many good and bad units out there that call themselves UPS's.
There are many good units that are wrong for your situation.
Caveat Emptor.
Some properties you might look for are:
1) Sinusoidal power output. In general, the closer the AC output
of the UPS is to a sine wave, the better it is for your equipment.
Many UPS units, especially the cheaper ones, deviate a great
deal from a sinusoidal output. Some of them generate square
waves. Waveform effects are dealt with in section 2.12.
2) Does the UPS have a manual bypass switch? If the UPS is
broken or is being serviced, can you pass power through it to
your equipment? The last thing you want is for a broken UPS to
be the cause of extra downtime.
3) The more information about a UPS's operation you can get from
watching the unit itself, the better. How much power (or
percentage load) the equipment is drawing, how much battery
life is left and indications of the input power quality are
all very useful.
4) Some newer UPS's can communicate with their monitoring software
via network connection and SNMP! This is wonderful *if* your
network is on a UPS! Also, beware, I have heard of dealers
advertising "Network UPS" monitoring where the network is
the normal serial connection (no SLIP or PPP).
5) Does the UPS vendor offer support/maintenance contracts. If
they don't even offer them, I would suspect the quality of the
equipment.
If you do have a UPS that does not output a sinusoidal waveform,
some manufacturers *strongly* urge you to not put a surge protector
between the UPS and the computer. The surge protector might mistake
the non-sine waveform as a power surge and try to send it to ground.
This could be bad for your UPS. I don't know if this has happened
or not, but I wouldn't chance it.
02.09
Q: Should I make sure I have a support/maintenance contract for my
UPS systems?
A: Some people strongly recommend this, but to be honest, I don't
know how important it is. I haven't had any UPS's long enough
to have enough of them fail to know what the failure modes are
likely to be. Some people, with more experience than I in these
matters, insist that a UPS support/maintenance contract is as
important as your computer support/maintenance contract. I can't
argue with them. In any case, it's almost certainly worth
pricing at any rate.
02.10
Q: What sort of maintenance can I perform myself?
A: One good thing you might want to do is periodically test the
UPS's and their failure modes. A good time to do this might be
right after after a periodic level 0 backup. Nobody is logged
in and you've got full backups of the machines. Throw the
circuit breaker with the UPS on it to simulate and outage and
see how the transition goes. Note that some UPS vendors suggest
that testing an UPS by pulling the plug from the wall is *not*
a good idea (Tripp Lite is one of them). These UPS units like
to have a good idea of what ground looks like. It is likely that
unplugging just about any UPS for a short amount of time would
not be too dangerous (don't take my word for it, though!), but
in all cases, throwing a circuit breaker would be a better thing
to do.
It might be useful to install a GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter)
socket to facilitate this testing without having to pull the plug,
especially if you don't have your UPS protected machines on
an isolated circuit (which you probably should). These are the
sockets found in most modern kitchens and bathrooms with a red
and a black button. You push the latter to cut power and the
former to restore power.
Those UPS units that use lead-acid batteries (that's most of
them, I'm told) do not have a battery memory and should be run
dry as few times as possible. It's probably not a bad investment
to do this once on one UPS out of a largish batch to learn how
much UPS time you can expect in a real power outage. Note:
depending on the manufacturer, UPS batters can be expected to
last between about 1 and 5 years before they ought to be replaced.
As a UPS gets older, its battery life will become shorter. Of
course there's no way to reliably test how long it is without
running the battery down and you don't want to do that because
they have lead acid batteries. <Sigh.> All of these are very
good reasons to get a support contract for them that includes
periodic battery replacement. At the very least, you can figure
that the batteries will still be good at the end of the UPS
warranty figure, so that's a good place to start guesswork.
02.11
Q: Isn't a UPS just a glorified power strip/surge protector with
some batteries and a little power conditioning thrown in?
A: Basically. It's also got a power inverter and some other circuitry.
It may also have a timer, thermometer or other gadgets.
02.12
Q: How important is the UPS output waveform?
A: That's a good question, and one is worthy of some debate. One
school of thought holds that one should always run equipment on
the best approximation of sinusoidal input that one can, and that
deviations produce harmonics which may either be interpreted as
signal if they get through a power supply, or may actually damage
the equipment. Another school holds that since almost all
computers use switching-type power supplies, which only draw
power at or near the peaks of the waveforms, the shape of the
input power waveform is not important. Who's right? I don't
know. My *opinion* is that sinusoidal output is worth the
extra money, especially for on-line UPS systems that continually
provide their waveform to the computer. Also, if you don't *know*
that your equipment has a switching-type power supply, you might
want to think twice before buying a low quality UPS.
[ Some of this information from a great article in the October
1994 issue of LAN Magazine, check it out. -npc ]
03:
TOPIC: UPS monitoring/shutdown software.
03.01
Q: If the power is out for a long time, I would like to have my
computer automatically shut itself down gracefully before the
UPS batteries die. Can I do this?
A: Yes. Most UPS manufacturers support software that will do this
for some UPS's on at least some platforms. Ask your UPS vendor
for details.
Q: Okay, how about restarting the system for me once power returns?
A: Fewer software products do this, but many do. Again, ask your
vendor. I do not know of any freely distributable products that
will do this. It doesn't mean that they can't be built, but
vendor software is cheap enough (usually) that it's probably not
worth building.
03.02
Q: How does it work? I'm a starving (fill in the blank) and I really
don't want to pay for software unless I absolutely have to.
A: Usually, there is a serial connection running from a UPS into
your computer. The UPS sends information along the serial line
as it goes. If you can decode which pins contain which information,
how the information is formatted and figure out what it wants to
hear from the computer side, you're all set. Make sure you have
the right serial cable and know how the pins map between DB9 and
DB25 as both your computer and your UPS may take either.
Since UPS units with network based monitoring capabilities are
appearing on the market, we can hopefully get something that will
communicate with those units.
Here is a skeleton script provided by Joe Moss, joe@morton.rain.com.
Definitely check this out as a starting point, but don't expect
it to do anything meaningful without some work.
---------start upsd.sh-------------
#! /bin/sh
# Shut down system in case of extended power failure
# This should be the serial port to which the UPS is connected
# This port must be set to block on open until the DCD line
# is asserted - many UNIX systems have this determined by
# the minor device number, if not, see if there is some way
# to enable this behavior on your system
PORT=/dev/ttya
# Ok, this should block until there is a power failure
: > $PORT
# If we reach this point, we've lost power
wall << EOF
The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!!
EOF
# call shutdown (or init or whatever)
exec shutdown
-----------end--------------------
03.03
Q: Hmmm... that sounds kinda complicated. Has someone already done
this?
A: Any solution would almost certainly be vendor specific. However,
some brave souls have provided partial functionality for certain
vendors' UPS's. I don't know the original source, but I have a
copy available for anonymous FTP at navigator.jpl.nasa.gov in
the pub/src/UPS directory as upsd.tar.Z. I haven't tried it and
I don't honestly know if it even works.
Note: Different UPS's produce different sorts of signals. Just
installing this already built package may require a great deal of
work. The cabling can be complicated, etc.. I would be
interested in hearing where this software does/doesn't work.
Another good example, that probably works straight away for
SunOS 4.1.X machines using APC Back-UPS devices, is also
available on navigator for anonymous FTP in the pub/src/UPS
directory is pf.c. It was written by Ronald Florence
(ron@mlfarm.com). It looks like a nice framework for expansion
to other OS platforms and UPS implementations. Give it a try.
03.04
Q: I can't find monitoring software that will work on my configuration.
What should I do?
A: Well, it seems you have a few choices:
1) Build your own. See item 03.02.
2) Use something freely distributable. See item 03.03.
3) Lean on your UPS vendor to port to your platform.
4) Try a different vendor that supports your platform.
See item 05.01.
03.05
Q: What other software is out there?
A: Software packages for UPS machines are getting more sophisticated.
Most provide some level of power and status monitoring, but
lately there are more GUI's, more interactive packages, SNMP
support, and even call-out paging. See the software section
05.03 for more info.
04:
TOPIC: How big a UPS do I need?
04.01
Q: How are the "sizes" of UPS's determined?
A: Typically, a UPS has a VA rating. The VA rating is the maximum
number of Volts * Amps it can deliver. The VA rating is not the
same as the power drain (in Watts) of the equipment. Computers
are notoriously non-resistive. A typical PF (power factor:
Watts/VA) for workstations may be as low as 0.6, which means that
if you record a drain of 100 Watts, you need a UPS with a VA
rating of 167. Some literature suggests that 0.7 may be a
good conversion factor, but this will depend heavily on the
machine. WARNING: Don't take my word for it! Note: Some UPS's
can continue to deliver power if the VA rating is exceeded, they
merely can't provide above their VA rating if the power goes.
Some can't provide power above their VA rating at all. Some may
do something really nasty if you try. In any case, I *strongly*
recommend not doing this under *any* circumstances.
04.02
Q: How can I tell what VA rating I need for my equipment?
A: First, when possible, get VA rather than wattage ratings. See
Q04.01 above.
There are a couple of ways:
1) Direct measurement. You can get equipment to measure
the current draw of your equipment directly. You may
or may not have access to this. If you are part of an
organization that has it's own facilities/electrical
type people, they're likely to be able to do this. They
might help you out if you ask nice.
2) Compare notes. If you know someone with the same setup
you're using, ask them what they use and how close they
are to the maximum VA rating.
3) Use a chart. Most vendors can help you out for common
equipment. If you have an unusual setup, or mix
vendors a lot, you're probably out of luck here.
4) Use the equipment rating. Most pieces of computer
equipment have a power rating on some back panel. This
number is usually high, as it is necessary for the
manufacturer to play it safe or they'll get sued.
Note: Method 1 is by far the best, method 2 and 3 are secondary,
method 4 is usually overkill, but pretty safe. There are some
examples in section 4.6, but the information is probably worth
what you paid for it :-)
04.03
Q: Hmmm... seems like a tough thing to determine.
A: Yeah, it can be. It's also very important. If you get a UPS
that's too big, then you've overpaid, but your equipment can
survive a longer outage. If you get a UPS that's too small,
then you could be in deep trouble. Therefore, I recommend that
you be conservative in buying these things, unfortunately, this
costs money.
04.04
Q: What else should I consider?
A: It would be nice to know how long your site's typical power
outages are. In some places, with nice weather and a flaky
power grid, the power is almost never out for more than 5 minutes,
but this could happen quite frequently. In this case, you may
as well use a UPS with a VA rating close to your equipment
rating with no extra batteries. If your area has longer outages,
in the half hour or hour range, as is often the case in
thunderstorm country, you can either buy UPS's with multiples
of the VA rating of the equipment, since oversizing a VA rating
for a UPS has the effect of lengthening the amount of time your
equipment can stay up in case of a power outage, or you can buy
additional battery units for a smaller UPS. You can probably
get away with doing simple math to determine how much longer a
larger UPS will keep your equipment running, but I recommend
running a few tests before committing to a large purchase
order. Also, your UPS vendor will almost certainly be glad
to help you size the equipment you need. If all else fails
and you guess wrong, or move equipment to a location with
different power status, you may be really, really glad if you
bought a UPS that can have additional battery packs added.
04.05
Q: How about I use one of these UPS thingies for a laser printer?
A: Don't *ever* do this. If you ever measured the current draw
of a laser printer during startup (and during printing) you'd
be stunned at what it pulls. All UPS manufacturers I know of
tell you not to do this.
Okay, I have to back down from this. I know APC, just as an
example, now does rate some of their UPS units for use with
certain laser printers. Not that I think this is a good
idea, mind you. In general, they are difficult to size and
rarely do they require the same level of uptime as servers.
In any case, don't do this without specific approval of
your UPS vendor.
04.06
Q: So, what sorts of UPS sizes do you use on your equipment?
A: BIG DISCLAIMER. I disclaim everything about these figures.
At best, they are very, very rough. Heck, I may be lying.
Don't trust them. Here they are anyway.
Note also, this is what the equipment apparently PULLS, not
the UPS sizes that are on them. Generally, I've been using
UPS's that are about 2X the VA ratings shown. At the very
least, I would using UPS sized 1.5X the VA ratings here.
400 VA:
Sparc 2 with 3 600 MB disks, 1 200 MB disk, 1 exabyte 8200
tape drive, 19" color monitor.
600 VA:
HP 750 with 4 1.3 GB disks, internal 4mm tape drive and internal
CD-ROM drive, external disk cabinet and 19" color monitor.
500 VA:
SPARC 2GX clone. 1 1.2 GB disk, 4 2.0 GB disks, 2 tape drives,
1 CD-ROM drive, "big" monitor.
300 VA:
Sparc 2 clone with 100W power supply, internal 424 disk, 16"
color monitor, external 1 GB disk drive.
These are U.K. numbers, based on 240 V wall current. Most of
these VA numbers are very close to "American" VA numbers, but
if my caveats weren't strong enough earlier... .
100 VA:
SGI Indigo R4400, 48 MB RAM, 1 GB int. disk, no graphics, no
monitor.
580 VA:
SGI Indigo R4400 configured as above with 17" Sony monitor plus
3 19" monochrome X terminals.
Another word of warning, don't assume that power requirements
scale with compute power and number of peripherals, ESPECIALLY
if they are different architectures. Older equipment, CPU's,
disks, monitors, whatever almost universally requires more
power than new equipment. For example, it seems that an HP
9000/425e with 1 internal 420 MB disk and 19" color monitor
pulls a lot more power than a much more modern and much faster
HP 9000/715 with an internal 1.3 GB disk, CD-ROM drive and
more modern 19" color monitor. Again, the moral is don't assume.
05:
TOPIC: Specific manufacturer's information.
05.01
Q: What vendors are there and what do they produce?
A: Here is a very incomplete list, based only on what I know.
Please give me information to expand it. I make no claims
as to the accuracy of this information. It is mostly based
on personal recommendations and vendor propoganda.
Note: The October 1994 issue of LAN Magazine has a great
vendor list. I have used it to update many of the entries
here. However, there is a lot of information available
there that I don't have space to include here. This
article is an excellent starting point for comparative pricing
on UPS equipment.
05.02 UPS Hardware (and software) manufacturers:
Company: Acme Electric Corp.
43 Argow Place
Nanuet, NY 10954
US Phone: 1-716-968-2400
1-800-833-1373
UPS Products:
250 to 1400 VA standby UPS products, 1000 and 2000 VA
on-line UPS products. Shutdown/startup and SNMP
software for LAN Manager, Netware 3.x, 4.x, UNIX and
VINES.
Contributed by: Robert D. Freeman, rdf@thermo.chem.okstate.edu
with additional information by npc.
------------------------
Company: Advanced Electronic Systems, Inc.
2005 Lincoln Way East
Chambersburg, PA 17201
US Phone: 1-800-345-1280
Email: None known
UPS Products:
Stediwatt UPS: Designed specifically for use with NeXTSTEP.
Contributed by: Robert D. Freeman, rdf@thermo.chem.okstate.edu
------------------------
Company: Alpha Technologies
US Phone: 1-206-647-2360
1-800-322-5742
UPS Products:
600 to 15000 VA line-interactive UPS systems, SW
with shutdown and SNMP support. 250 to 750 VA
standby UPS systems.
Contributed by: npc from LAN Magazine, October 1994.
------------------------
Company: APC, American Power Conversion
US Address: 132 Fairgrounds Road
P.O. Box 278
West Kingston, RI 02892
FR Address: 4, rue Ste Claire Deville
Zac du Mandinet-Batiment Espace
LOGNES
77447 MARNE LA VALLEE Cedex 2
FRANCE
US & CAN Phone: 1-800-800-4272
Europe Phone: (+33) 1.64.62.59.00
World Wide Phone: (401) 789-5735
Email: apctech@apcc.com
WWW: http://www.apcc.com
UPS Products:
Smart UPS in sizes up to 2000 VA. The Smart UPS's do
monitoring and can shutdown multiple machines using the
PowerChute software. I recommend putting these on
computers. SNMP adaptor can be installed.
Back UPS same as Smart UPS except that you cannot
communicate interactively with the UPS and it will not
support SNMP. I recommend putting these on dumb equipment
like network equipment, X Terminals and Macintoshes (sorry,
I couldn't resist.)
Matrix UPS a modular "fault-tolerant" system. Any
module, except the insulation unit, can be "hot-swapped"
at any time. Also additional battery modules can be added,
again, while the system is running. SNMP adaptor can be
installed.
Software:
PowerChute, PowerChute PLUS. They produce it themselves.
Supported on: SunOS, HP-UX, SCO, AIX, AT&T UNIX,
Interactive UNIX, XENIX, IRIX, and probably others by now.
Contributed by:
APC information contributed by Nick Christenson,
npc@minotaur.jpl.nasa.gov without consultation with
APC. Additional information provided by Joe Moss,
joe@morton.rain.com. I have no affiliation with APC
except as a satisfied customer.
Updates contributed by Grant R. Bowman, grantbow@netcom.com.
------------------------
Company: Best Power Technology, Inc.
P.O. Box 280
Necedah, WI 54646-9899
US Phone: 1-800-356-5794
Email: None known
UPS Products:
FERRUPS: Ferroresonant-Based, Line-Interactive UPS, sizes
from 500 VA - 18 KVA.
Features: Standard power features, serial line
communications, runtime monitoring, logging,
automatic shutdown with optional software, user
configurable.
FORTRESS: Advanced, line-Interactive UPS, sizes from 360
VA - 2 KVA.
PATRIOT: Low-Cost Standby Power Systems, 250 VA - 850 VA.
Contributed by: Scott Pinkerton, spinkert@t4rta-gw.den.mmc.com
------------------------
Company: Clary Corporation
Address: Clary Corporations
320 W Clary Ave
San Gabriel, CA 91776
US Phone: 818 287-6111
UPS Products:
I'm not sure of the entire line, but their PC series includes
[ On-line -npc ] UPS ranging from 400 to 1500 VA [ 450 to 2400
VA -npc] with surge and noise suppression. Voltage regulation
to 3%, frequency to 1 Hz, RS232 signal output, LED load and
charge indicators. Sine wave output, Alarm, etc..
[ SW will do shutdown/startup and SNMP for LAN Manager, LAN
Server, Netware 3.X, 4.X, Unix, VINES, Windows NT, and OS/2.
-npc ]
Contributed by: Ron Tansky, ron.t@bix.com who has no relation
to Clary Corporation except as a user.
Additions by npc from October 1994 issue of LAN Magazine.
------------------------
Company: Controlled Power Company
1955 Stephenson Hwy.
Troy, MI 48083
US Phone: 1-800-521-4792
1-313-528-3700
US Fax: 1-313-528-0411
UPS Products:
UPS, AC regulators, power conditioners. They
will do custom work.
[ On-line UPS from 400 to 60000 VA. Software
with shutdown/startup and SNMP functions for
AppleShare, LAN Manager, LAN Server, NetWare
3.X, 4.X, UNIX, VINES and Windows NT -npc ]
Contact: David Gerds (Sales)
Contributed by: Donald McLachlan, don@mars.dgrc.doc.ca
Additions by npc from LAN Magazine, October 1994.
------------------------
Company: Data General
UPS Products:
Data General repackages another vendor's UPS's (from
Exide?) with some sort of special cable. They deserve
some mention since they provide UPS monitoring software
built in to the AViiON (their UN*X boxen) line. It can
be managed through sysadm(1M).
Contributed by: Morris Galloway Jr., mmgall@presby.edu
------------------------
Company: DELTEC
2727 Kurtz St.
San Diego, CA 92110-9980
US Phone: 1-800-854-2658
Email: None known
UPS Products:
"Most technologically advanced *true* on-line UPS."
[ 400 to 2200 VA line-interactive UPS systems.
Software with shutdown/startup and SNMP for
AppleShare, LAN Manager, LAN Server, NetBIOS,
NetWare 3.X, 4.X, UNIX, VINES, Windows NT and OS/2.
-npc ]
Contributed by: Robert D. Freeman, rdf@thermo.chem.okstate.edu
Additions by npc from October 1994, LAN Magazine.
------------------------
Company: Easy Options IBM Corporation
Address: IBM Corporations
Easy Options
Dept. WC3J
P.O. Box 2150
Atlanta, Ga 30301-9948
US Phone: Unknown.
UPS Products:
UPS ranging from 250 VA to 600 VA with surge and noise suppression.
Sine wave output, Test/Alarm, etc..
These UPS's come with an insurance policy. If your UPS damages
your systems, they'll pay you up to $25,000.
Software:
Works with APC's PowerChute software.
I doubt that IBM is making their own UPS's rather than repackaging
someone elses, but I'll be glad to post a correction if they are.
Contributed by: Dave Gruhn, dgruhn@fuzzy.eskimo.com
who has no relation to IBM, or Easy Options except as
a satisfied customer.
------------------------
Company: EFI Electronics
US Phone: 1-801-977-9009
1-800-877-1174
UPS Products:
400 to 1250 VA Standby UPS systems. Software
with shutdown/startup and SNMP for LAN Manager,
LAN Server, NetWare 3.X, 4.X, UNIX, VINES,
Windows NT.
Contributed by: npc, from October 1994 issue of LAN Magazine.
------------------------
Company: Elgar Power Systems Components
9250 Brown Deer Road
San Diego, CA 92121
US Phone: 1-800-733-5427
1-619-450-0085
US Fax: 1-619-458-0267
UPS Products:
UPS, Line Conditioners, AC regulators.
Contributed by: Donald McLachlan, don@mars.dgrc.doc.ca
------------------------
Company: Emerson Electric Co., Computer Power Div.
US Address: 9650 Jeronimo Road
Irvine, CA 92718, USA
UK Address: Elgin Drive, Swindon
Wiltshire SN2-6DX, England
FR Address: 8, Rue de l'Esterel
Silic 502
94623 Rungis Cedex
France
IT Address: SICE S.p.A. [Note national Name!]
Via Rossini 6
20098 San Giuliano Milanese
Italy
US Phone: 1-800-BACKUPS
UK Phone: +44 458 841898
FR Phone: +33 146 862336
EMail: n/a
Products:
Accupower GOLD Series:
UPSes for 750, 1000, 1500, 2100 VA, the latter with
external Batt Pack. Connector for {Power,Accu}Mon S/W.
5 yr Batt Life. Good Display (3 Status LEDs, Load
and Batt Charge LED Bargraphs). Switches positioned
wrong (Main Power Switch on Front, Batt Check/Alarm
off on Back - I'd prefer them the other Way 'round).
other UPSes?
PowerMon Software:
Triggers for Outage, long Outage, Batt low. Uses one
serial Connector. Logging and Warnings to Users.
Requires special Cable (included in PowerMon Kit).
NOTE: The "Batt low" Trigger does not work "on SunOS
4.1.1 and above due to OS Limitations". >:-C I don't
know whether this includes Solaris 2.x.
AccuMon Software:
Reported to support all Kinds of fancy Communication
Items (gathering Power Line and internal UPS Data,
test Batt Cap periodically and announce Batt Aging,
switch off UPS on Computer Command, Logging
Facilities for all these Functions)
Other Software?
Contributed by: Jochen Bern, bern@kleopatra.Uni-Trier.DE
who has no relation to Emerson.
------------------------
Company: Exide
8521 Six Forks Road
Raleigh, NC 27615
US & Canada Phone: 1-800-554-3448
1-919-872-3020
UPS Products:
800 to 1500 VA On-line UPS systems. Software
does shutdown/startup and SNMP for NetWare 3.X,
4.X, UNIX, VINES, Windows NT
Contributed by: npc from October 1994 LAN Magazine.
------------------------
Company: Gamatronic Electronic Industries Ltd.
P.O. Box 7369
Jerusalem 91073
Israel
Israel Phone: 972-2-821777
Israel FAX: 972-2-828875
Email: Gamatronic@Product.com
Goren@Vms.huji.ac.il
UPS Products:
250 VA to 750 VA stand-by UPS systems. On-line
Smart UPS systems from 250 VA to 80 KVA with
microprocessor controllers. Shutdown/startup
software for LAN manager, Novell, Unix, Windows NT.
Contributed by: E. Finegold of Gamatronic.
------------------------
Company: Hewlett-Packard
UPS Products:
HP used to resell Deltec and APC UPS units. They
will discontinue selling these as of April 1, 1995.
They now have their own line of UPS productcs
called "PowerWise UPS".
PowerWise UPS are on-line units and come in 1000 VA
and 2100 VA sizes. Shutdown software is available
for HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, SCO, UnixWare, Windows NT,
NTAS, OS/2, Lanserver and NetWare.
Contributed by: Tom Myers, tvmyers@icdc.delcoelect.com
Updated by: npc, on information from Hewlett-Packard.
------------------------
Company: Hipotronics Inc.
Route 22
Brewster, NY 10509
US Phone: 1-914-279-8091
US Fax: 1-914-279-2467
UPS Products:
UPS, Line Conditioners, AC Regulators.
Contributed by: Donald McLachlan, don@mars.dgrc.doc.ca
------------------------
Company: Intellipower
US Phone: 1-714-587-0155
UPS Products:
650 to 1100 VA On-line UPS systems with
software for shutdown/startup and SNMP for
AppleShare, LAN Manager, LAN Server, NetWare
3.X, 4.X, UNIX, VINES, Windows NT, AIUX,
NetWareLite, LANtastic
Contributed by: npc from October 1994 LAN Magazine.
------------------------
Company: Liebert Corportation
1050 Dearborn Drive
P.O. Box 29186
Columbus, OH 43229
US Phone: 1-614-888-0246
1-800-877-9222
US Fax: 1-614-841-6973
UPS Products:
250 to 600 VA Standby UPS, 600 to 2000 VA
Line-interactive UPS, 750 to 18000 VA On-line
UPS systems. Software does shutdown/startup
and SNMP for AppleShare, LAN Manager, LAN Server,
NetBIOS, NetWare 3.x, 4.X, UNIX, VINES,
Windows NT, OS/2. Communications interface for
SGI machines is available.
Contributed by: George Elkins, elkins@nmrlab.cabm.rutgers.edu
and npc from LAN Magazine, October 1994.
------------------------
Company: Minuteman
US Phone: 1-214-446-7363
1-800-238-7272
UPS Products:
300 to 425 VA Standby UPS, 500 to 2000 Line-
interactive UPS, 500 to 1000 VA On-line UPS.
Software does SNMP for AppleShare, LAN Manager,
LAN Server, NetWare 3.X, 4.X, UNIX, VINES,
Windows NT.
Contributed by: npc from LAN Magazine, October 1994.
------------------------
Company: Oneac
US Phone: 1-708-816-6000
1-800-327-8801
UPS Products:
400 to 1800 VA Isolated Line-Interactive UPS
with software that does shutdown/startup and
SNMP for LAN Manager, LAN Server, NetWare 3.X,
4.X, UNIX, VINES and Windows NT systems.
Contributed by: npc from LAN Magazine, October 1994.
------------------------
Company: Philtek Electronics Ltd.
2471 Vauxhaul Place
Richmond, BC
V6V 1Z5 Canada
Phone: 1-604-270-4642
Fax: 1-604-270-8343
UPS Products:
UPS's.
Contact: Bob Smedley
Contributed by: Donald McLachlan, don@mars.dgrc.doc.ca
------------------------
Company: Pylon Electronic Development
5020 Fairway St.
Lachine, PQ
H8 1B8 Canada
Phone: 1-514-633-8787
Fax: 1-514-636-1970
UPS Products:
UPS's/Power conditioners, modular/industrial
Contact: Graeme Turnbull
Contributed by: Donald McLachlan, don@mars.dgrc.doc.ca
------------------------
Company: Sola
UPS Products:
Sola apparently used to repackage Deltec systems.
They have merged with Best Power Tech to form the
new Best Power company, a unit of General Signal.
Contribued by: npc, with updated information from Michael
Reget of Best Power.
------------------------
Company: Square D-EPE/TOPAZ
US Phone: 1-714-557-1636
1-800-344-0570
UPS Products:
250 to 700 VA Standby UPS, 600 to 2000 VA
Line-interactive UPS, 900 to 10000 On-line
UPS. Software does shutdown and SNMP on
AppleShare, LAN Manager, LAN Server, NetBIOS,
NetWare 3.X, 4.X, UNIX, VINES, Windows NT,
OS/2.
Contributed by: npc from LAN Magazine, October 1994.
------------------------
Company: Superior Electric
US Phone: 1-203-585-4500
UPS Products:
400 to 2200 VA On-line UPS. Software does
shutdown/startup on AppleShare, LAN Manager,
LAN Server, NetWare, UNIX, VINES, Windows NT.
Contributed by: npc from LAN Magazine, October 1994.
------------------------
Company: Toshiba International Corporation
US Address: Industrial Division
13131 West Little York Rd.
Houston, TX 77041
US Phone: 1-713-466-0277
US Fax: 1-800-321-1412
Canada Phone: 1-800-527-1204
UPS Products:
Single and three phase double conversion on-line UPS,
from 600 VA to 50 KVA. Serial line interface and
auto-shutdown software available.
Contributed by: Seth J. Bradley, sbradley@scic.intel.com,
a very satisfied customer.
------------------------
Company: Tripp Lite
500 N. Orleans
Chicago, IL 60610-4188
US Phone: 1-312-329-1601
1-755-5401
Email: None known
UPS Products:
On-line UPSs with pure Sine Wave output. [ 250 to 1250 VA
Standby UPS, 250 to 2000 Line-interactive UPS, 300 to
2000 VA On-line UPS. Software does shutdown/startup, SNMP
and RMON for AppleShare, LAN Manager, LAN Server, NetWare,
UNIX, VINES, Windows NT, OS/2, LANtastic. -npc ]
Contributed by: Robert D. Freeman, rdf@thermo.chem.okstate.edu
Additional info by npc from LAN Magazine, October 1994.
------------------------
Company: Waber, Inc.
(A division of SL Industries, Inc.)
UPS Products:
UPS 250, 500. No other information on this company.
Contributed by: npc, from an advertisement for Fry's Electronics
(of Manhattan Beach, CA) in the October 17, 1994 issue
of MicroTimes.
05.03 Software products:
Company: ResponseWare Inc.
US Phone: 1-800-673-4777
Email: responseguy@AOL.com
Products:
ResponseWare is software that performs a great number of
services for UPS users. ResponseWare uses a MS Windows
console as its control point. The console communicates
with both a UPS and the server. It has built-in out call
paging and they offer a remote monitoring service where
they can dial-in, diagnose problems and dispatch help.
The software also can monitor temperature, humidity,
security, life/safety, etc..
ResponseWare works on Novell (NLM), AS/400, HP 9000, Sun,
and VAX platforms.
It works with APC, Best, Deltec, Exide, Liebert and TrippLite
UPS products.
Cost is $99 per server and $199 for the MS-Windows Console
program. Monthly monitoring charges begin at $99/month.
Information provided by Bob Hunter of ResponseWare provides
this information.
------------------------
On the NeXTSTEP front, there is a company called BenaTong (?)
which sells a software package called PowerGuardian for NeXTSTEP
only. It will work with APC, TrippLite and UNISON UPS's. If,
for example, you call APC and ask for PowerChute for NeXT, they
will refer you to Power Guardian.
Contributed by: Chuck Bennett, (chuck@benatong.com) who works
for this company.
------------------------
Also for NeXTstep, Max Hailperin wrote a package for monitoring
Best Fortress UPS units called GACUPS. It consists of a daemon
and a GUI. The daemon will shut the NeXT machine down gracefully
and do logging. It also answers queries from the GUI. The GUI
displays status information. It should be available on the usual
NeXTstep anonymous FTP sites. One place you might want to check
is in : ftp://nova.cc.purdue.edu/pub/next/submissions/. Any
reports on how it works?
Contributed by Max Hailperin (max@kolmogorov.gac.edu).
05.04 Other companies: ITT Power System Corp
Digital Equipment Corporation. (They probably
repackage someone else's stuff, but
they're likely to support it and you
can order it from their catalog.)
I'd appreciate any information I can get on these.
06:
TOPIC: Bibliography
There are many good references and review articles on UPS
information. Some of the best sources can be found in
vendor information. There is great reference material woven
into their propoganda. Some other good sources are:
"The Dranetz Field Handbook for Power Quality Analysis",
1991, Dranetz Technologies, 1000 New Durham Rd.,
Edison, NJ 08818, 1-908-287-3680.
"National Electrical Code Handbook", 1993, National Fire
Protection Association, One Batterymarch Park,
P.O. Box 9101, Quincy, MA 02269, 1-617-770-3000.
"Grounding and Shielding in Facilities", 1990, by Ralph
Morrison and Warren H. Lewis, John Wiley & Sons,
New York, ISBN 0-471-83807-1.
"Battling Power Problems", by Alan Frank, LAN Magazine,
October 1994, pp 65-72, Miller Freeman, Inc..
"UPS Chart", by the LAN staff, LAN Magazine, October
1994, pp 74-84, Miller Freeman, Inc..
Hewlett-Packard has a White Paper on selecting a UPS.
You may be able to get them to send it to you.
A shortened version appeared as an aritcle in
the January 9, 1995 issue of Electronic Engineering
Times.
07:
TOPIC: Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Charles Rhoades (cwr@zeus.jpl.nasa.gov) for
his sage remarks on my draft of this document.
I would like to thank Kevin R. Ray (kevin@kray.com) for sending me
the freely distributable upsd software and Ronald Florence
(ron@mlfarm.com) for contributing the pf program.
Thanks also to Don Deal (Don.Deal@oit.gatech.edu) for a great
many valuable suggestions and that great section on the types
of UPS units.
The following people have all made valuable contributions to this
document:
Scott Pinkerton, spinkert@t4rta-gw.den.mmc.com
Morris Galloway Jr., mmgall@presby.edu
David E A Wilson, david@cs.uow.edu.au
Edward Hartnett, ejh@larry.gsfc.nasa.gov
Joe Moss, joe@morton.rain.com
Kurt Hillig, khillig@chem.lsa.umich.edu
Robert D. Freeman, rdf@thermo.chem.okstate.edu
Jochen Bern, bern@kleopatra.Uni-Trier.DE
Dave Gruhn, dgruhn@fuzzy.eskimo.com
Steve Welch, smw@columbine.cgd.ucar.edu
Ron Tansky, ron.t@bix.com
Andrew J. Templin, nosilla@ohionet.org
Chuck Bennett, chuck@benatong.com
M.V.S. Ramanath, ram@sclara.qms.com
Max Hailperin, max@kolmogorov.gac.edu
Larry Moss, moss@cvs.rochester.edu
Please note that I take full blame for any errors or omissions.