Summary of UPS boxes..

[Eric Ho]

Well, here we go for the summary.  Basically, my impression is that Best
Power Technology is probably the way to go.

==========================================

BPT can be reached at: 1-800-356-5794. Ask for Sales. Our salesman is
Dwight Quashnick.

The 15KVA unit is the biggest one they sell. It is BIG. Physically, it is
two cabinets about 40hx30dx24w. Together, they weigh about 1600 pounds.
That is not a typo - 1600 pounds. The cost was about $14K

Units this size do not come with receptacles. The output (which can be
120, 208, and/or 240 volts) goes to a circuit breaker distribution box.
The input itself has to be tapped off the building main feed.  15KVA at
208 volts is about 75 amps. Installing a unit like this MUST be done by a
licensed electrician.

They make smaller units (down to about 500 VA I think). Anything up to
about 2-3KVA is probably available in a "plug it in to the wall, plug your
stuff into it" box.

By the way, with this 15KVA unit, we have:

	Pyramid 9810, 2 disks
	Sequent S27, 2 disks
	Sun 3/160, 6 disks
	Sun 3/260, 2 disks
	Solbourne, 3 disks
	our company telephone system
	our communications rack (~15 amps)
	about 10 terminals/printers
	about 10 modems
	3 PC's with disks

... and this is only 60% capacity! 15KVA is big.

Andrew L. Duane (JOT-7)  w:(508)-685-7200 X122
Samsung Software America	 decvax!cg-atla!samsung!duane
1 Corporate Drive			  uunet/
Andover, MA.   01810		 duane at samsung.com

==========================================

I have a BEST 10KVA UPS that runs a 3/280 (2x575 SuperEagle, SMD-4
controller) and a 4/280 (2x892 Hitachi DK-815, SMD-4 controller).

The UPS will run them for about 25 minutes, and has a serial line
interface that allows the server to monitor status.  I got some software
free off the net that will do the monitoring.

As I recall, it cost about $10K for the UPS, but its been worth it.  We
have really frequent brown outs here in the summer because of the
humidity, so it kicks in for several minutes a few times every week.

They also offer us 3 or 4 additional years of maintenance at about $1K/yr.
I think we opted not to take it, but it still wasn't a bad deal.  The
reason we didn't take it is because it doesn't replace the batteries when
they wear out (however many years that may take).

Walter P. Rowe                                    ARPA: rowe at cme.nist.gov
System Administrator, Robot Systems Division      UUCP: ...!cme-durer!rowe
National Institute of Standards and Technology    LIVE: (301) 975-3694

==========================================

You can buy this stuff easily in the aftermarket.  Talk to Best Power
Systems, even their smallest UPS's include a serial port that you can hook
up to a Unix system (or VMS, or whatever) that will 'log in' to the system
and warn it about the problem.  You can of course set up the strings that
it logs in with, so that it will run whatever shell scripts you want, e.g.
wall to the users when you go on batteries, ask them to logout, wall again
when there's only 5 minutes left, kick them off at 2 minutes and shut down
clean before the batteries are dead.

There's no need for Sun to provide this as a 'standard feature' in the
servers, that would just add cost for people who don't need or want
battery backup.  Of course, if somebody came up with a good set of
scripts, perhaps those could be put in SunOS, or at least posted to the
net...

Best is at +1 800 356 5794 and they've been very responsive to me even
though I still haven't bought anything from them yet.

	John

==========================================

X-From:    stripes at eng.umd.edu (Joshua Osborne)

These are easy to write, and require no support from the OS.  This assumes
that your "UPS" has some way to tell you that the wall power is out...
(otherwise there is *no* way SunOS can do it either)

I wrote one for a 3b2 before, it waited for wall power to be out for 1
min, then it wall'ed everyone.  It waited 2 more min, then if the power
was still out it told everyone the system would go down if power was still
out in another min.  If it was still out in another min it would power
down the 3B (which would physicly power down the 'puter and drives).
Since the "UPS"es only had 8 min of power ('prox) my program also had to
estimate how much power was left after a few short power failures... 

stripes at eng.umd.edu

==========================================

X-From:    weru!wagner at ksuvax1.cis.ksu.edu (Larry Wagner)

We have used an ELGAR system on a 386i/250 system for about 9 months.  It
does use up a serial port.  The software does not require kernel
modifications, at least on a 386i with the software supplied with our
system.

The software allows the installer to set the shutdown time after a power
failure, power wink time (time without power that users are not notified),
which serial port is being used, and if desired, where mail messages and
log files about power winks, power outages less than the shutdown time,
etc are to be sent.

We have had several short duration, less than 30 second, power outages
since we installed the system, but not one that was long enough to have it
bring the system completely down.  I am sure that I tested it when we
installed it.  Since I don`t really remember, it must have worked as
advertised.

In summary, it has worked well for our situation so far.

==========================================

I'm currently looking at UPSs for a 490.  The Elgar intelligent boxes are
not big enough for the 490 (around 5kVA).  I've made contact with another
company who seem to have really good products, but they aren't cheap:

Best Power Technology
800-356-5794

We haven't made a decision yet but if I had my choices I would go
with them.

  Eric B. Durbin  (606) 257-4581      []                 ericd at ms.uky.edu 
  University of Kentucky              []                ericd at UKMA.BITNET 
  165 Markey Cancer Center            []      {rutgers, uunet}!ukma!ericd 
  Lexington, KY      40536-0093       []       eric.durbin at ukwang.uky.edu 


Eric Ho  
Princeton University
eho at clarity.princeton.edu