I searched for Battery Backup and UPS, but barely found anything worthwhile (I may have missed the good stuff by not looking back through hundreds of pages of posts). If there is anything there, please feel free to point out what I've missed. Thank you.

The personal budget now has a little money in it for a UPS/Battery Backup device, so I'm starting to look at some of the available models - I'd prefer to keep my cost below $200. I only want this to be used on the server, and really only to shut it down when the power goes down, so it doesn't have to be expensive, as long as it will do that. It would be a bonus if it brought the server back up when the power came back on, but not nearly as necessary as having reliable power protection and shut-down. The server is a home server, so it's not mission-critical to a money making machine. But, I want it protected because I don't want to have to worry about all those digital pictures, etc. and I don't want to have any data on our desktop machines - they run much better in a server/client environment rather than as a total desktop workhorse.

Hardware on the server is an Asus M3A78-EM motherboard w/AMD Athlon dual core 6000 u-processors running at 3gb/sec, & 4 GB RAM, a single 80 GB HDD for the OS, and 4 raid5'd 250 GB drives (which will be upgraded to 1tb as prices continue to fall). I'm running a 1 gb/sec network, so 100 mb/sec ethernet protection will be wasted, but it doesn't have to protect against surges on the lan.

Software is Ubuntu Server 8.10 with no GUI. It's also running completely headless with no mouse, no keyboard, no monitor, tho all could be connected & used, if needed. I'm running Putty on my WinXP Pro desktop, so I've got admin access to the server.

If you're still with me by now, I'm really appreciating your patience. So, here's my question: Which battery-backup/ups will do a shut-down and reboot of the Linux server?

THANK YOU,
David Labens
San Antonio, TX, USA.

APC stuff is well supported with apcupsd

+1 for APC. I've had one for just over year and it's been very good. Integrates easily with Linux via apcupsd (which should be easily installable)

I prefer APC UPSs too but there is also NUT which supports many different make/models.
http://www.networkupstools.org/

So you can find something that best fits your budget. UPSs can be configured to turn on after main power returns but it is also a function of the BIOS.

I had figured that APC would be one of the supported ones.

Does it matter if it's USB or Serial (NEMA 5-15P ???) connection?

acpupsd supports both USB and RS-232(serial port) units. Although finding a unit with a RS-232 interface might be rare these days for the home market. I suggest looking at NUT's supported hardware page to verify a particular make/model.


BTW NEMA 5-15P is a standard US AC power plug.

Thanks for the clarification. I SHOULD have realized that.

I have gone back & looked at some of the APC online retailer sites and have seen that they show a drawing of the plug, and it's the standard 3 prong, 110 VAC, US power plug.

Another vote for APC and NUT. If you can afford some variant of the Smart UPS rather than the BackUPS, they provide better protection. We've had some nasty power incidents at work, and equipment behind BackUPS's got fried right along with the UPS. The SmartUPS's dropped the line and shutdown without any damage either to themselves or to the equipment behind them.

I'd prefer to keep the price under $200. I've barely got that much in the raid5 array, but it's the data that's priceless. Here's the info on the two models:
Judging by this comparison, the SmartUPS suffers in every category except joules protection. And, I expect that a high-enough joule spike (ie: lightening hitting our electrical service drop) should normally fry everything regardless of which unit we have. HOWEVER, when we bought the house, we had the electrical service upgraded from 70 amp to 125 amp, AND, we had the electrician install a "secondary surge protector" inside the meter. When they did that, we have no dips in power from oncoming loads (AC to cool 2,000 sq') or anything blowing when power comes back on after the transformer (on the pole in the back yard) gets hit by lightening (BEAUTIFUL GREEN FLAMES!!!).

Will BOTH do the required shut-down?

Actually except for the watts and joules they are very similar.
Both will do the required shutdown.

NUT's page (http://eu1.networkupstools.org/compat/stable.html) appears to show support for both models.

Considering that APC provides a lifetime $150,000.00 equipment protection policy, I'll probably take the BR800BLK Back-UPS and use the extra money to buy a 1 TB backup drive so that the data is also stored in the safety deposit box at the bank. That way, even if the server gets completely fried, the data is safe & the hardware will be replaced.

Ok, I've done it. ctistore.com has it (BR800BLK Back-UPS) for $122.00 with free (slow turtle) shipping. I've placed the order. I should find out tomorrow when I can expect it to arrive.

Meanwhile, I have found two websites (I LOVE the Internet!!!) that appear to be very informative with regard to UPS & Linux & NUT.

The first is this article Linux UPS Without Tears.

The second appears to be THE source for NUT: http://eu1.networkupstools.org/

Hopefully, between the two of them, I'll be able to figure things out & then document them for future use when I eventually have to redo the whole system from scratch (just because that's the way computers work).

I appreciate everyone's help, and I especially welcome any other comments, thoughts, & ideas regarding this step in my Linux server education. THANK YOU!!!