[Nut-upsuser] Advice on small office UPS

[Doug Parsons]

Alastair,

The short answer is that the two tools are approaching the problem from two 
different directions. The models are in completely different classes with 
different features.

My personal suggestion for your application is the Eaton EX 2200. There are 
several reasons for this.
Cost
Features needed
Outlet needed (building power) (at least is true for US. 20 amp opposed to 
30 amp for the 3kva)
Double conversion (no switching from line to battery)

The Eaton models below are higher end data center units as compared to the 
APC models that are more like the EX and the Evolution lines (but not even 
close in quality and performance).

I would go with the 2200 and if you need more run time add an external 
battery or two. I usually shoot for a max load of 75 to 85% with an external 
battery. This give extra capacity for inrush at startup and plenty of time 
for shutdown. If you load the UPS too high there may not be sufficient 
battery to properly shutdown all the devices.

You can add a management card or talk USB/Serial to the unit. With the Linux 
box as the master you can use the WinNut Client (or the new Nut Windows 
port) as a slave to shut it down.  The Windows box will simply ask the Linux 
box how the UPS is doing and the Linux box will report it's status.

Doug


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alastair Sherringham" <sherringham at gmail.com>
To: <nut-upsuser at lists.alioth.debian.org>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 10:22 AM
Subject: [Nut-upsuser] Advice on small office UPS


> Hello Folks,
>
> I have a couple of questions - one about a basic UPS choice I am to
> make for a small UK office environment and the second about NUT
> Windows support. For the UPS, I have 2 or 3 servers, a phone system
> and a switch i.e. a basic :
>
> - Dell R410 1U (2x IEC)
> - Dell SC1425 1U (1x IEC)
> - Mitel 3300 CXi phone system (1x IEC)
> - Netgear GS748T switch (1x IEC)
>
> It would be good to also be able to plug in another couple of servers
> e.g. Dell PE1800 (2x IEC) and HP Proliant micro (1x IEC) but the above
> is the minimum required.
>
> Given the current status of NUT and the compatibility list, I was
> looking at Eaton, and specifically the :
>
> Eaton 5PX 2200IRT
>
> However, before realising Eaton have a UPS selector to gauge
> rating/size, I was using the APC UPS selector to check. With my
> servers, switch and phone system, it was suggesting UPS systems like :
>
> Smart-UPS 2200VA LCD
> Smart-UPS XL 2200VA
> Smart-UPS 3000VA LCD.
>
> This includes adding the 2 extra servers I list above (Dell PE1800 and the 
> HP).
>
> The Eaton UPS selector is very similar but seems to be suggesting
> quite different, larger, more expensive UPS systems like :
>
> Eaton 9170plus 3kVA HW
>
> Not only larger, but quite a bit more expensive.
>
> The Eaton 5PX 2200IRT seemed to be (roughly) equivalent to the
> Smart-UPS 2200VA, but without the experience or knowledge of this
> area, I don't know and the different results suggested by the  tools
> would concern me.
>
> Any advice or thoughts on the above?
>
> Lastly, one of these servers runs Windows 7 64 bit. I see NUT has a
> Windows installer for version 2.6.1. I was a little surprised to see
> this - but would be happy if it works on Windows as well. Does anyone
> use NUT on Windows 7? It would be a "slave" to the UPS attached to a
> Linux (Debian Stable) system (R410). I am not sure how to integrate
> the Windows box into the NUT UPS system otherwise - native vendor
> driver/tools?
>
> Any feedback would be very welcome.
>
> Cheers,
>
> -- 
> Alastair Sherringham
> http://www.sherringham.net
>
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