APC UPS battery back up - which one???

[tazman]

Hi

 

I dont know much about battery backups and could do with some advice. My manager has assigned me the task of researching a new UPS battery backup for our three RM servers, LTO 4 superloader, RM Diskbox and one IBM server. Now Ive been on the APC website and tried to use the selector but it doesnt contain any RM servers and trying to fill in the details is difficult!!

 

Currently we have one APC Smart-UPS 1000 connected to all four servers (not the superloader or RM diskbox). The load at the moment is 3/5.

 

I know that the smart-ups 1000 on its own wont be capable so I just want to get a rough idea of what else to add or replace it with.

 

Your help is much appreciated

 

Thank you

[Ric_]

UPS ratings are in VA (Volt-Amp) which is pretty similar to the measure for Power (W) - they aren't the same but I've never really looked into why not. Because of the similarity, it's safe to take the power rating off the back of your server/device and use that in your calculations. THe power rating will be the maximum draw so you will probably end up over speccing but that will just give you more run time. Talking about run time, you'll need to decide how much of that you need too

 

To give you can idea of capacity, I have an APC SmartUPS 3000 XLM in my office running a 1u server, Sun 7110, Sun StorageTek SL24 autoloader, 2 PCs (with their four monitors), an Avaya IPOffice PBX and 3 HP switches. That's probably a similar load to what you are talking about (without knowing the exact server models). In my server room I have a 7500VA SmartUPS with extra batteries but that runs considerably more kit!

[powdarrmonkey]

UPS ratings are in VA (Volt-Amp) which is pretty similar to the measure for Power (W) - they aren't the same but I've never really looked into why not. Because of the similarity, it's safe to take the power rating off the back of your server/device and use that in your calculations.

 

In DC circuits, they are the same. In AC circuits, the difference between VA and power depends on the load: for a reactive load the difference can be quite wild, and in a purely resistive load they will be within fractions of a percent of each other.

 

PCs and other electronic kit are much more reactive than resistive, so you can use the VA as an estimate of power available but don't expect to be able to draw it all. The precise difference will depend what you hang off the UPS.

 

edit: for reference, the real power available in circuit is measured in units of Watt, and the apparent power available is measured in units of volt-amps.

Edited June 4, 2010 by powdarrmonkey

[tazman]

Ive looked around the outside of the servers and can't find any information. However RM's website tells the following information:

 

echnical Definitions

CPU and Chipset

Intel® Xeon® Quad Core Processors (up to 2)

Intel® Server Chipset 5500

Memory

Up to 16GB DDR3 with ECC.

Hard Drives

Up to 8 x hot-swappable drives.

73GB/147GB/300GB SAS drives (15,000 rpm) or 500Gb (7,200rpm) SATA drives

SCSI Controller and RAID compatibility

LSI 8708EM2 RAID Controller Optional LSI 20320 SCSI Controller

Network Interface

Intel Pro/1000PT Network Connection (up to 2)

Expansion Slots

4 x PCI Express (two of these are used by the SCSI and RAID controllers if selected)

1 x PCI card

Optical Drive

DVDRW Drive

Input/ Output Ports

2 x Intel Gigabit Ethernet Connections

5 x USB (4 at back, 1 at front)

1 x VGA

Tape Backup Drives

Internal Hard Disk Drive Backup

Internal LTO3 Tape drive (400GB Native/ 800GB with compression)

Internal LTO4 Tape drive (800GB Native/ 1.6TB with compression)

Maximum capacity assumes 2.6:1 data compression. Actual capacity may vary.

Graphics

64MB DDR2 Onboard graphics

Power Supply

650 Watt PSU (optional redundant)

Temperature Range

5-35 degrees Centigrade operating

Room Temperature

25 degrees Centigrade

Humidity

20-80% operating

Dimensions

5U (Rack or Pedestal) - One 'U' is equivalent to 1.76"

Pedestal format - H420mm x W220mm x D650mm

Rack format- H220mm x W420mm x D650mm

Rack mount- Minimum rack length of 650mm and maximum of 1000mm

RM Software

RM Community Connect 3 and Community Connect 4 Licenses and software packs must be purchased separately

Warranty

1 year Onsite next day

A range of Server warranty upgrades are available

 

I have 3 of these servers. LOL i presume the information in bold is what i need??

[Ric_]

RM use Intel chasis for there servers... the closest one on the APC list is 'Intel SC5400BRP Chassis'. If you plug your details in with that chasis selected as the server, you should get a good idea. I don't have a clue what a RM DiskBox looks like but your superloader should be on there somewhere.

 

I'd recommend choosing an UPS with the network management card too... it gives you a temperature probe in case the room gets a bit warm and will allow you to shut down all those devices sensibly (I'm guessing you haven't got everything wired up with serial cables at the moment!). I'm pretty surprised that a 1000VA UPS is showing so little load... have you tried doing a runtime calculation or testing that the setup works by disconnecting the mains power?