UPS for Branch/Small Offices

MitM

What's your UPS brand of choice for branch/small offices for network equipment?

I'm currently using Tripp-Lite. I install the SNMP/Web Management card in them. They work fine, except the web management is awful since it requires a very old version of Java

Just curious what others use

Queue

We use APC by Schneider Electric. Then Struxtureware DCE for configuring/monitor management cards. The size varies based on uptime requirement and load. Alot of 1500RM for the small branch locations, and all the way down to smart UPS 750.

--chris--

APC Smart UPS 3000VA LCD RM 2U 120V with 12FT CORD - APC - United States

We use these. Buy a spare NIC for them just in case, otherwise they simply work.

MitM

cool, thanks for the replies. I will check out the APCs

thomas_

I've always thought an UPS was a waste on a network device. The UPS battery is going to go bad in 3-5 years if the entire unit doesn't crap out before then. I've always wondered if a power conditioner would be a better option. You still get surge protection, brown out protection, power conditioning. The only thing you really lose is battery backup. You wouldn't have to worry about going out and finding and resetting/bypassing all of your bad/failing UPS units that didn't come back online after an extended power outage.

Queue

Without a reliable power source I can see a power conditioner being great. Dirty power is annoying when you get traps "site wiring fault exists", "low voltage input", "high voltage input", "resolved etc..... But to mention the battery backup as not a big deal is a mistake. A full stack of 3850's I believe takes close to 10-12 minutes to come up. So you could lose power for 2-3 minutes and the whole stack goes down, now the place you take care of doesn't have phones or data for 15 minutes. Not to mention that you presumably wouldn't put the providers circuit on a backup either which if that goes down fast enough I don't even believe you would get a trap from the site letting you know it was down. Battery backup for uptime!

thomas_

Yes, that's a good point about the short power outages. However, if an UPS goes bad and/or the batteries go bad then it will remain offline after the power comes back online. At which point your 12 minute boot time will be shadowed by "insert however long it takes you to make it to the UPS and reset/replace/bypass it". At that point you're looking at a 30 minute outage at least.

I'm sure it varies from place to place, but my experience has been that 2-3 minutes of power loss are pretty rare. Usually if there is a loss of power it's for much longer. If there are frequent, short power outages(lasting a few minutes) I can see an UPS being a good idea, but beyond that I start to doubt the benefit of an UPS over just a power conditioner.

It just seems like it's pretty common for UPS units not to be maintained and/or replaced. After a few years they really are just glorified power conditioners just waiting to go offline at the next power outage.

CodeBlox

We use the rack mounted APC Smart UPS 1500. The battery backup is nice for when the power outage is brief.

dstock7337

MitM wrote: »

What's your UPS brand of choice for branch/small offices for network equipment?

I'm currently using Tripp-Lite. I install the SNMP/Web Management card in them. They work fine, except the web management is awful since it requires a very old version of Java

Just curious what others use

We use APC batteries at work. Can't really go wrong with them.

snokerpoker

+1 on the APC 1500 for small branch office.