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Managing your Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Important, sensitive electronic components in your office, or at home, should be protected against damage from the public power grid.

Some people attempt to provide this protection by turning off appliances and equipment when not in use, some going as far as to disconnect the power cord from the general power supply. Others get by for years without a care in the world.

From the beginning, computer equipment required stable, constant (conditioned) power to perform work reliably and to protect their components from damage. Today’s PCs are little different. An erratic power supply can cause issues with the manipulation of data and damage components.

Most businesses will protect their servers with a device called an uninterruptible power supply, or UPS. Very few sites protect their workstations, modems, data switches and printers.

Purpose

The UPS is designed to protect your connected hardware from surges or depressions in the power supply, or its complete failure.

The UPS is connected to the power supply and your hardware is connected, in its turn, to the UPS. Inside the UPS, the electronics are on the alert for either a drop in the amount of power, called a brown out, or an increase in the amount of power, called a surge. When a surge is identified, the electronics will suppress the increase and maintain a constant 240 volts. If a brown out is detected, the internal batteries are used to ensure an ongoing supply of 240 volts.

If the external power supply ceases, the internal batteries are adequate, when new, of supporting the operation of the server for a period of time, usually greater than a typical blackout if configured properly. So the server just keeps running. If the typical time is exceeded, software, generally supplied with the UPS, will close your server down elegantly to avoid damage to your data and hardware.

Some don’ts

A CRT monitor normally uses more power than the server to which it attached. Thus, the duration of your protection against a power outage is enhanced by not leaving the server screen turned on when you are not in the office to respond to any blackout.

When the power fails or browns out, the UPS will beep to indicate a lack of power to charge the batteries and change over to battery power to support your attached equipment. Have a look at your manual. It is usually possible to stop the beeping using the buttons on the front of the UPS. However, when the beeping returns it is probably to alert you to the fact that the batteries are almost out of power and the server will be shutting down sometime soon. The low battery alarm usually cannot be silenced.

The lights on the front of the UPS are significant. If the status changes, usually accompanied by a beep of some sort, consult your manual for guidance as to why the lights are different. It is unwise to ignore any change in the status lamps.

Some dos

•      Like most rechargeable batteries, your UPS batteries like to be exercised. To exercise a UPS, ensure no user is connected to the server and no utility, like a backup, is running on the server. Turn the power off at the wall to simulate a power failure. Silence the alarm and leave the power off until the alarm starts again. Then reconnect the power. The batteries will begin to charge again and the server will revert to using the direct, filtered supply for its operations.

This should be done monthly.

•      To optimise convenience in case of a power outage, connect your screen to the UPS but keep it turned off when not in use.

•      You should check the UPS shutdown software operation. Before you do this, ensure you have a complete backup of your server. I stress that this is a precaution, rather than a requirement, but we would never do this test without a backup. Then remove the power from the wall and allow the system to run on battery until the UPS shuts the system down. Check that the shut down is elegant.

Attach the power again, allow a few minutes for some charge to build up in the battery, then restart your server.

•      Keep the space around the UPS clean and tidy to allow air circulation. Do not allow a build-up of dust and dirt which can cause the UPS to run at a temperature which is higher than recommended. Occasionally, vacuum all vents and surfaces to remove excess dust and dirt.

•      Always close down and power off the UPS if the audible beep is continuous. While the issue may be simply fixed, the problem may be more serious and a risk to your data does exist.

Some cautions

There is a distinct lure about some of the baby “surge protectors”. Many are very inexpensive and make the purchaser feel that at least an attempt has been made. We feel this is an unwise approach to securing your hardware and data.

We recommend you evaluate commercial strength equipment if your data has real value. Losing an album full of photographs on a PC is just like burning a paper album of prints. Losing the draft of a book or a letter is just as time wasting at home as in the office.

Buy a quality UPS and rest comfortably in your bed at night.

WANTED TO SELL

We have available a Toshiba Tecra S1 laptop available for sale. It is virtually as new and about 10 months old. P-M 1.5 processor, 512Mb RAM, 60Gb HDD, DVD reader, CD/RW, 15" TFT monitor. Comes with carry bag.

$3,000.00 inc GST

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STOP PRESS

Late in April, Stephen Marron left us to pursue his long term interest: IT communications. We wish him well in his new role.

We recently secured the services of Lucas Humphries, who was working at the Wimmera Health Service in IT Systems installation, maintenance and support. Lucas has settled in well and is taking much of the technical load from the rest of us. Please make yourself known to Lucas when he comes to visit if we have not managed to bring him by in the meantime.