[olug] UPS

[Ben Dinger]

I am in full agreement with their purchasing channel(s).  Hell, I had been buying PowerWare until I started working a lot with CDW.  Thankfully, CDW has "power" reps who seem to either know what they are doing, or actually know how to use the APC selection software ;). 

And, yeah, you should be able to swap out the batteries on all the Smart-UPS units.  I know that some of the lower-end lines you can't.  Also, from what I have encountered at least, APC batteries seem to be the cheapest between APC, TrippLite and PowerWare.  Dunno if it's just the specific models that I"m dealing with, but that's what I've found thusfar. 

I also didn't mention PowerWare, mainly because they are usually the most expensive.  They also are very, very nice.  

On Wed, Sep 22, 2004 at 05:48:32PM -0500, OBrien, Timothy  (Omaha Linux Users Group - OLUG) wrote:
> I have had the opposite experience, starting to hate APC. Their tech
> support is helpful & give me what I need every time I call, but some of
> their stuff just does not last as long as other vendors. Their purchasing
> avenues & pre-purchase support frustrated me to no end - the web based
> selection tool was crap, leaving off accessories I considered part of the
> unit/package.
> Typically, a APC unit will last 3-6 years (normally on the low end).
> Sometimes you can swap out the batteries (see a prior OLUG thread on this
> topic), and have the UPS for a few more years.
> I do like the APC Trade-UP program, where you get $$$ credit towards a new
> APC UPS for sending them an old UPS. The ones we just sent them were made
> in 1996, and they accepted them just fine.
> 
> We also have some TrippLite & Liebert UPSes. The Tripplite ones are small,
> desktop units which have been dying off as of late (the power switch
> breaks & the unit is left inop). No luck swapping batteries on these
> units.
> The Liebert have never caused me any issues (yet). IIRC, I met the local
> Liebert rep at InfoTec last year - knowledgeable fellow & more than
> willing to help. I wish I knew where I put his business card.
> 
> 
> Irish
> 
> Our
> <quote who="Ben Dinger">
> > At work I've grown very fond of APC, in fact now we use them exclusively.
> > Their PowerChute software (which they give you free if you buy any
> > SmartUPS) works very well with linux.  I have it in use on one Redhat 9
> > box, a couple of SuSE 9 and SLES 8 boxes, and a couple of SuSE 9.1 boxes.
> > Works great with all of them.
> >
> > If you are just using it on one box, a SmartUPS 420 would probably be
> > enough.  I think we pay about $160 for them, we use them on seveal
> > "critical" workstations.
> >
> > Also, I hear good things about the BackUPS 1000's.  They are priced very
> > cheaply, and have gobs of runtime.  I just don't know if they include
> > PowerChute or not.
> >
> > Finally, I *think* that TrippLite UPSes play nice with Linux.  We had
> > several TrippLites that died in the big October storm that were 5 or 6
> > (!!!) years old.
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 22, 2004 at 05:56:27AM -0500, William E. Kempf wrote:
> >> We recently had a power outage that caused my Linux box to shutdown
> >> abnormally.  Since then I've had some problems with my ReiserFS
> >> partitions.  I haven't done it yet, but I assume that an fsck will cure
> >> this and so I'm not overly concerned with that or data loss (I've got
> >> backups).  However, I suspect the issues are not coincidentally
> >> occurring
> >> after the abnormal shutdown, and thus I'm considering the purcahse of a
> >> UPS to prevent this in the future.  (The machine runs 24/7 and acts as
> >> my
> >> personal server, but there's nothing machine critical on there, which is
> >> why I've not considered a UPS until this point.)
> >>
> >> So... I'm looking for advice on an inexpensive UPS system that works
> >> well,
> >> is reliable, and is compatible with Linux (i.e. it can trigger a safe
> >> shutdown prior to loss of battery power in cases that the electricity is
> >> out for an extended time).  Anyone have suggestions?
> >>
> >> --
> >> William E. Kempf
> >> wekempf at cox.net
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> OLUG mailing list
> >> OLUG at olug.org
> >> http://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
> >
> > --
> > Ben Dinger
> > ben at mac-geek.com
> > "The Pope?  How many divisions has he got?" --Josef Stalin
> > _______________________________________________
> > OLUG mailing list
> > OLUG at olug.org
> > http://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Timothy "Irish" O'Brien
> Publicity & Social activities chairperson
> Omaha Linux User's Group (OLUG)
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-- 
Ben Dinger
ben at mac-geek.com
"The Pope?  How many divisions has he got?" --Josef Stalin