I have a custom built server at home that runs a number of important services for me 24/7. While it’s been fairly well behaved we had a short power outage last night and for some reason despite being on UPS the server still lost power. Though I believe the UPS to be at fault I’ve been meaning to replace the servers Corsair RMx 850W with something mini-redundant. The problem is anything near 850W capacity is really expensive.
I know from years past the server really only pulls something around 475W maximum load. With some headroom in mind I’d like a PSU around 600W+ but it will require dual EPS (dual socket server).
I don’t have a fixed budget but I’m hoping there’s a niche market of redundant PSU’s that aren’t $600 for a 800W…
The chassis I’m using is a NORCO RPC-4224 4U rack mount. It will accept ATX and has the bracket adapters for server 4U redundant PSU’s.
Ali gives me another place to look but I don’t recognize a brand name here I feel like I can trust and I’d need 600W+ 460W would really test the limit of the efficiency rating.
I’ve had this issue with some Supermicro PSU’s and an an APC SMX1500, apparently its something to do with the AVR in the UPS that can cause the issue. Turning it off helped
In the end, I just went with a double conversion UPS which of course has no problems
We hear you, it’s not a given that changing the PSU will solve your issue though so you would be spending money to find yourself in the same spot … it’s a though call
Anyways, if you can’t, you can’t.
Maybe an automatic transfer switch PDU would give you better price options with the current power supply and UPSes you have?
You can feed the two UPS power sources to the PDU and then power the server from it. It is specifically designed to provide redundant power to devices that have only one power supply and should handle power fluctuations/interruptions better than your interactive UPS, it may also help providing continuity in power supply as I think it has internal capacitors to handle switching between the two power sources …
On a side tangent… What about installing a 20 kWh home battery + solar panels?
I know, the point of an UPS is to have enough power left to do a soft shutdown not to keep services running forever, so both might still be a good idea. Still, if your power is fluctuating like that, a home battery + cells might be just what you need.
If you don’t own your house, that is a tough cookie though.
50k? In my country it’s a 20k investment if we do not count state subsidies (if we do, it is around an 8k investment) - well within means for most home owners in the U.S. and Europe, and it saves money overall. Here it is a no-brainer.
That said, I do not know your specific situation and I fully understand if this is beyond the means for you personally. Just trying to give a different perspective
Here in Italy current street price for solar is 2keur/kWh, plus batteries that go for around 1k/kWh.
I am talking installer prices with proper paperwork files and all electrical certified, not diy prices
I just helped a co-worker that lives near London evaluate an offer there, a solar PV install of 3.5kw plus a 5kw battery was quoted 9k pounds (10.5k Eur…) And looking around that was not the cheapest but definitely not the worst offer for the UK market
I am not the OP, and I am all for exploring different solutions for a given problem, just not for the op that needs his server not to shut down when the UPS should kick in
Yeah, that is the short term solution, long term you do want to get a full battery storage and PVs if you live in a house and risks for power outages are big. Your family will thank you for that, and given the cost curve trajectory of batteries we will see household batteries in every home this decade.
Wait until you can afford it though, no reason to wait if you can afford it now but there is no rush, either.
Yeah, I wasn’t there to observe what went wrong during the power outage but I have a hint that these UPS’s don’t always recognize that mains power has returned and continue to run off battery until it runs out. I contacted CyberPower about the issue a long time ago and their answer boiled down to “Meh, can’t do anything about it.”.
I didn’t think about using a PDU. That would cut my investment cost in half as I really disbelieve I’m having a PSU specific issue. Only problem with the one you linked is I’d have to attach a typical north american plug. UPS doesn’t support the one included. I’d probably also have to whip up a cable for the other connector.
I don’t mind the PDU idea as a possible 3rd option here. If there’s one that suits my setup a little better for the right price. Plus I’ve never played with one before so now it has my curiosity.
@MadMatt & @wertigon as a fun hobby DIY side project I have thought about exploring small scale solar. Couple panels, inverter, deep cycle car batteries or 18650 packs. Not with the expectation of it paying for itself necessarily but just for the fun learning and technology aspect of it.
Unfortunately I don’t see it being a be all end all solution for the problem at hand.
I’m thinking one of two things happened (again I didn’t watch what caused the shutdown) either the PSU has degraded and no longer plays nice with the line interactive and simulated sine wave nature of the UPS I have or as I discussed earlier in this post the UPS failed to see mains restored and ran on battery until it died. (I know the outage was <1min and the server load was low)
I’m leaning towards the latter personally. I have watched it happen in the past with these. It’s unfortunate.
Even though the PSU in itself does act as a single point of failure I do like and feel open to the idea of the PDU if there’s one that suits my setup. It sounds like it’d be fun to play with and already looks to be almost 1/2 the price of my other option.
You can save a bundle by going this route and because of the massive quantities of Supermicro gear that goes into recycling you are nearly guaranteed supply into the future.
Another tempting option. Except it looks as though the power board is normally built into the supermicro chassis so I’d have to rig up something custom in order to use them without a PSU enclosure.
I found an alternative listing that is similar but with standard north american plugs. Unusually cheaper despite having the same core features dual input support. Would you happen to have a reason to think this one would be a bad buy?
On a related note. Any idea where I might find rails or are these strictly ear mounted? They look too heavy for just ears.
Worse comes to worst I could just mount it ontop of the top most CyberPower UPS. It would hold.
It’s a bad buy only if it’s dead on arrival
It does not have network management, it has a lower amperage (15A vs 20A) and less plugs, but it is single phase as opposed as the one I linked
It is from the same line from Tripp Lite, just less features/power delivery capabilities …
