Comments on: So the battery backups only last that long, huh?

By: AAfter Search

AAfter Search — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:33:45 +0000

At AAfter Search we have real problem with the off-the-self battery backups. They are un-reliable.

Apparently, their voltage waveform is not good enough to satisfy the servers. Hence, if there is an interruption, the server restarts even though the UPS passes all self-tests. Any suggestion?

By: David Szpunar

David Szpunar — Mon, 21 May 2007 03:40:57 +0000

I do agree that a building-wide generator would be an excellent idea to have. I'm not sure it would actually be as helpful in an emergency to the congregation, which is actually spread out pretty widely (by distance, although there are a lot of close members as well), as it would be to the local community since we're surrounded by literally thousands of apartments. But it's not likely something we can stomach in the budget right now; we just came off a new building addition campaign and finances are very tight. We're only purchasing necessities. Right now, I'd call a generator a luxury. We do need to fix the battery backup issue with the servers, I'd all that a necessity. If we do that, and have it set up so the UPS is set to shut down the servers gracefully without risking data loss, that's going to be good enough. Exchange will still be there; everyone's still got an offline copy in their .ost, and our spam filtering company will queue email while our server is unreachable (and they've told me they can set up webmail for emergency access if our server is down for an extended period of time). We would have trouble functioning normally without the servers running, but unless there was a catastrophe beyond the power being out, we'd wait it out and move on. I do see the benefits to off site backup in a recovery situation, which is why I'm investigating Mozy and MozyPro right now, on Jason Powell's suggestion. A generator is something that might be worth looking at again in a few years when we may have the resources to do it, and perhaps a larger infrastructure to support, assuming congregation and ministry growth over that time frame.

By: Hunter French

Hunter French — Mon, 21 May 2007 01:53:48 +0000

Wow, that stinks. I can understand the cost issue for a church (or any SMB for that matter). However, I think it is crucial for any organization. Perhaps on the back of a building-wide generator. You would want your congregation to have a place to go in an emergency, right? That would be my selling point. The continuity of power and data connectivity are extremely important as a rule and as a ministry. :)

By: David Szpunar

David Szpunar — Sun, 20 May 2007 20:59:59 +0000

If only! No generators…I was lucky when they expanded the server room in the last year that they ran a dedicated circuit (I think) for the servers. And the battery backups are (currently) the $150 units from the local warehouse club across the street…two of them for all the servers.

By: Hunter French

Hunter French — Sun, 20 May 2007 20:28:16 +0000

Do you have a natural gas generator for the building? If so, do you have generator circuits in your server room?

By: Brett

Brett — Wed, 09 May 2007 05:56:19 +0000

One of the best things I did at CLC was install an APC Smart UPS (XL 3000, I think) with a network management card. It’s definitely not cheap – $1800 or so – but there are lower end models that might be fine for you. The network card in the UPS signals all connected servers to shutdown in the event of a power failure. Graceful, unattended shutdown – very important, especially if you’re running Exchange!