Buying a new UPS

[yancho]

Do you think this 1000VA - Centralion Blazer Line Interactive UPS http://www.scanmalta.com/item.php?WebCategory=&ProductCode=UPS-1000-BLAZER

can survive a powercut if I plug 2 computers with it?

One of the computers will just have the tower plugged to it, most of the times the monitor is Switched Off, specs :

AMD 1500+ XP
512 MB Ram
1 IDE HDD
1 CDRW
No PCI cards

and the other is my Windows machine which will off course have the monitor switched on with these specs :

AMD 3200+
2GB Ram
2 HDDs, IDE + SATA
DVD RW
DVD Rom
No PCI cards
9 Fans
LG Flatron 775 FT Monitor <- taking electricity from the AC Socket

Thanks for your comments

[mewt]

well i dont know about the specs, but today there was a powercut here (prolly oyu had it too yancho in iklin) and my ups beeped and died..fucken shit ups i bought from scan :/ lost half an assignment


so get a good one, and overkill in this case is usually a good one

[yancho]

Originally posted by mewt
well i dont know about the specs, but today there was a powercut here (prolly oyu had it too yancho in iklin) and my ups beeped and died..fucken shit ups i bought from scan :/ lost half an assignment


so get a good one, and overkill in this case is usually a good one

hence why i need a ups .. was putting in a quite complicated gis query and apart from fucking the query .. ok nothing big. .. i thought i fucked one of the hard disks .. so to hell with money .. if the data gets damaged i CRY

whats ur make mewt?

[mewt]

i havent heard many good comments about those ups's tbh, actually about any ups bought from scan..I'd say look elsewere..1kVA should be enough for those rigs imo but mine (800va) should atleast give me 30sec when it didnt..so look for something with a good reputation to give you atleast 5mins with both machines on so you save and power off properly.

I remember the first ups me dad bought was an apc (id ditta) used to allow 3 computers to stay on for 3/4 of an hour (pentium 3's). Cost Lm150 tho..then it's management card burnt out due to lighteneing and it died (too expensive to repair).

[yancho]

apc had one .. fucken good ups those .. what do you think about this one http://www.sirap.com.mt/components/details.asp?comp=20&id=1246
PW3110 700va + Auto shutdown software and cables

[G-lock]

yhe purpose of a ups is to shutdown while you still can during a power cut not to fiddle around . besides with todays power hungry hardware it doesnt last long maybe 5 mins which is ample time to switch off .

i think 1000 is enough yancho providing you dont attach any other stuff like printer , monitor etc .

[hex4]

toqodu iklin u mandkomx ups?

that insane

[mewt]

Originally posted by hex4
toqodu iklin u mandkomx ups?

that insane

I had a "UPS"



gives you long enough to say oops tho

[Polter]

tijaj 1000va, comp naqra dghajjef, qisu dak li semmejt lewwel, pero lahhar darba li nqata tani cans nissejvja fuq warcraft u nitfih bis shoutdown process normali lolz.

[BravoDGr8]

i have a mustek 1000W one bought from forward tech about a year ago (around lm50-60), holds 3 pcs, 2 monitors (1 tft, 1 crt), modem for around 5 minutes (all of them)

with only 1 pc on it holds for 20mins + so its great for me :0

[Pirvy]

Originally posted by yancho
apc had one .. fucken good ups those .. what do you think about this one http://www.sirap.com.mt/components/details.asp?comp=20&id=1246
PW3110 700va + Auto shutdown software and cables

if you want a good ups, i strongly reccomend the PW5110/5115. They cost a little bit more but they are extremely tough. Also the 5115 has battery monitoring and ABM which means that your batteries last circa 50% more and that you are warned if they are about to fail. I've had a 5115 for i think over 5yrs and all i had to do is a battery change this yr - still going strong.

When buying a UPS the only 2 decent brands which i would spend money on: Powerware and APC (first used to get these - dunno who does any more). Its true i'm biased in favour of powerware since we import them but only because i've seen these things take beatings and still keep working (one got hit by a truck - true story). They do cost more though

[dynamited]

Dude.... speak to sirap for a ups. Powerware ups`s are not cheap... but damm they are good.

I bought one from them and when the power goes out.... i have a good hour with my 2.2kva. Its not totally inline ( the really expensive ones) but its not a shitty imitation, trust me.

Hard drive failure is what i always feared... plus feeling ridiculous when a client phones and i go "my computer is off". Then I have a cheap ass UPS from Scan, with a four in line adapted to power up the ADSL modem and router.

I have another UPS (tal-lm15 from scan) which powers an energy saving bulb and a fan ( for summer).

Dont stick any laser printers to a ups... as soon as it kicks in to print.. they draw alot of power. True the UPS had cost me approx lm200.... but whats that to a fried TFT or HD with my data?

Last week our TV at home got burnt, power cut and power surge straight after. Enemalta replied back that they were not responsible. :cens:

Dont go cheap on a UPS. Pirvy... ara taghmel xi special offer tajba man! :dance:

Whilst at it... ill also chuck my xb360 on a UPS... dammit xi lm200 down the drain jonqos.

[Pirvy]

Originally posted by dynamited
Pirvy... ara taghmel xi special offer tajba man! :dance:

I know all the old school gamers know this, but since i'm not that active in the community any more i'll just recap :):

i dont work there and i get no commission etc from anyone buying from sirap, my only interest is helping the gaming community - if you ever need anything from there, just PM me and i will give you my father's email.

All you have to tell him is that you are my friend from gaming and he will give you a discount (amount varies depending on product etc).

[DavE]

jin andi fujitech smartups 650 tant kemm hu tajjeb s software tijaw l hin kollu jikrexja O_o

allinqas meta jinqata d dawl jiqba mixghul ( mma peress li ma andux s software nstallat ax bbugjat al ustja ma jintefix) u nitfih jin l pc imbghad heq

[G-lock]

im considering buying a small UPS for my LCD TV and AMP and DVD after reading Dyna`s comments coz all i have is a 5 Way Mains Surge Protector ............

[Avenger]

Originally posted by Pirvy
if you want a good ups, i strongly reccomend the PW5110/5115. They cost a little bit more but they are extremely tough. Also the 5115 has battery monitoring and ABM which means that your batteries last circa 50% more and that you are warned if they are about to fail. I've had a 5115 for i think over 5yrs and all i had to do is a battery change this yr - still going strong.

When buying a UPS the only 2 decent brands which i would spend money on: Powerware and APC (first used to get these - dunno who does any more). Its true i'm biased in favour of powerware since we import them but only because i've seen these things take beatings and still keep working (one got hit by a truck - true story). They do cost more though


trust him on the word, got one myself, its simply superb and rock solid

[johnmaclane]

Got myself a powerware UPS (thanks pirvy) however the driver doesnt like vista.. what software shoudl i download to get stuff like autoshutdown etc?

thankyou

[Pirvy]

Originally posted by johnmaclane
Got myself a powerware UPS (thanks pirvy) however the driver doesnt like vista.. what software shoudl i download to get stuff like autoshutdown etc?

thankyou

i use their software called lansafe, then again mine is old and works over the serial port so no drivers :S

[yancho]

got a 5110 1000va .. seems really nice :)

cheers pirvy.

now on the protected I just put up the two towers only .. no monitors .. i setted up the drivers and the controler for lansafe on my windows pc. but should I install something on the Ubuntu Server? I setted it to switch off after 1 minute of powercut, does it mean it starts shutting down only the usb one or both of them? and if just one any way I can do to shutdown the ubuntu one too please?

thanks and regards

[johnmaclane]

go to www.powerware.com

they have ample sorftware for most OS's..

this UPS is great! yesterday in the thunder i wasnt worrying about anything...

[yancho]

il problema li ghandhom huwa tal linux .. issa jien installajt tal-windows bil WINE .. liem irrid niftah biex nghid lil controller (li huwa dan) li qabbadtlu pc iehor mieghu?

ie liema file?

[johnmaclane]

not folliwing dude but i think for multi pc configurations u need to donwload the other software available on site...

[yancho]

le lansafe jahdem suppost .. il haga li ma nistax nirranjah :(

[Tako]

Dude... a 1000VA should handle even 3 pcs... except if they are 1k power supplies...then yes.... anke 2 ibbaghtu...

Powerware are great....expensive...but you should not have any problems what so ever....

[yancho]

ma ghandix problema bih .. li ghandi problema bis-software tal-Ubuntu .. din l-email li bghatt lil cusomer support :

Hi,

I bought a new Powersafe 5110 1000vA UPS this morning. I am trying to set it up so as to make sure that the 2 PC’s I have connected with it get automatically shut downed.

My 2 computers are : a Windows XP station, which is connected via USB with the UPS and another one with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Dapper Drake.

I am trying to install Lan Safe on the one with Ubuntu however I am having a lot of problems to configure it out. I tried installing the Linux Redhat version and got this error :

Installing license.txt to /home/yancho/powerware ...done
Adding PowerMonitor services in /etc/services.
sysv_startatboot
Ready to copy ls.init to install path
Installing ls.init to init.d ...done
Linking /etc/init.d/rc5.d/S89ls.init to /etc/init.d/ls.init ... ln: creating symbolic link `/etc/init.d/rc5.d/S89ls.init' to `/etc/init.d/ls.init': No such file or directory
Linking /etc/init.d/rc0.d/K89ls.init to /etc/init.d/ls.init ... ln: creating symbolic link `/etc/init.d/rc0.d/K89ls.init' to `/etc/init.d/ls.init': No such file or directory
Install failed. Exiting

And then I tried to install the Windows version using WINE, however, after I installed it and I opened the LanSafe.exe application, I added the Controller and it switched off the window after it found my controller, which resides on 10.0.0.1.


So do you please have any idea what I can do to fix my problem, since it is very imperative for me to have both computers switched on and have a peaceful switching off, hence why I bought this UPS.


Thanks and regards


Matthew

[BravoDGr8]

Customer support Answer:

I am an Indian working on a part time bejsis and I cannot understand a thing of w0t you are saying.

Thankyou for buying powerware! Hope that I have been of great help!

[Tako]

:dance: talalla

[dynamited]

Cant you make a custom trigger from the windows based pc... which sends a msg to the linux box and upon receiving, runs a custom script... ie shutdown?

Possibly a `net send` command from windows.... and the linux box waits for this to shutdown.

Thus avoiding the lansafe app for linux.

[yancho]

u kif ha nghamlu t-trigger?

[dynamited]

In Lansafe.... goto

Configuration -> Event Notification

Select which of the `variable situations` on the left..

possibly `Shutdown in 1 Minute`

Then on the right configure a Command.... make it run a Batch File..... or write a quick prog for it.

On the linux side, try check if there is a remote shutdown app and what it takes to trigger it off.

Im thinking aloud here, but you could have a script... telnet into linux.... logon as root and initiate a terminate all command.

Dont take me literally... im brainstorming, but im sure its possible like that.

[yancho]

will give it a try tomorrow :)
thanks for the idea ;)

[yancho]

Following dynamited advice .. this is a workaround that I made .. :)

Somewhere on your server .. create a .htpasswd file :
mine is /home/yancho/.htpasswd by
htpasswd -bc NAME username password


Somewhere else in your server .. create a PHP file .. find its directory and then in ur apache config do this :


<Directory "/home/yancho/public_html/blabla/abc">
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Authentication Required"
AuthUserFile "/home/yancho/.htpasswd"
Require valid-user
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 10.0.0.1
</Directory>


Change the bold .. the red is my IP .. do as u like .. more info here : http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_access.html#allow

The PHP file i created is turnoff.php .. in it there is just these lines:

<?
echo "Shutting down the Ubuntu Server<br>";
$result = shell_exec('sudo /home/yancho/turnoff.sh');
echo $result;
?>


Ok now we create the turnoff.sh


#!/bin/bash
echo "Powering off the machine"
sudo shutdown -h now


Save and chmod +x turnoff.sh

Now we need to give the www-data which is the username Apache with PHP is running . .check urs by echoing from PHP shell_exech('whoami');

type sudo visudo

www-data Ubuntu=(root) NOPASSWD:/home/yancho/turnoff.sh

My hostname : Ubuntu - find urs using hostname
root - i want it to run as root .. presuming u too .. else forgetting to shutdown

Now it is time to call the PHP file from the windows machine

LanSafe > Configuration > Shutdown in 1 minute > Command > iexplore.exe http://USERNAME_of_htpasswd:PASSWORD_of_htpasswd@10.0.0.2/~yancho/blabla/abc/turnoff.php

Testing it should see your machine powering off gracefully .. hope it works :)

Wouldn't mind if u stick it incase someone gets the same problem I got .. spent about 6 hrs playing wiht it :)

Cheers

[dynamited]

:clap: Nicely done there yancho.

And kudos again for the write up.