fred@fammed.wisc.edu (Fred Worley) (06/08/91)
I could use some advice on selecting a good UPS. We have eight sites, each with an AT&T 3B2/400/500 or 600 that have since their purchase been protected by an Onan IPS 1100 UPS (built by Elgar corp of San Diego, specs 1000W, standby power, no software). These units worked fine for about the first year, but some time before the second year they began causing more power problems than they prevented. I lost my faith in the product line when the UPS in our main machine room started belching smoke. Apparently, the battery failed and took the circuit board -- and our 3B2 -- with it. The importance of a low battery warning and software control/automatic shutdown took on a new meaning for me at that point. Has anyone had good experiences with a UPS that comes with software for a 3B2? I know that AT&T is coming out with their own, but I don't know who the OEM is. Best Technologies sells a UPS (Model ME1.4KVA, on-line power, surge protection, 3B2 software, lots of features on the software) for about $2000. I've heard good things about the company, and it looks like a nice box and some nice code, but the $2000 x 8 sites is somewhat daunting. I don't want to get cheap (we paid for that last time), but I have to justify the cost to my boss before we can buy. Is this a You Get What You Pay For market? Is there another good UPS with AT&T software for less money? (Is the Best Technologies UPS as good as it looks?) Any advice would be greatly appreciated, -- Fred Worley System Administrator University of Wisconsin - Madison Dept. of Family Medicine and Practice fworley@fammed.wisc.edu
flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett) (06/10/91)
If you are trying to protect a system from lightning, you ought to consider a couple of other things as well. Even when a system is fully protected by a UPS, it is not safe. Power spikes can come in over phone lines as well, and another source of trouble can simply be long runs of cable, which can be subject to induced currents if placed in a strong enough electric field. Even shielded cables can have problems, since the currents can be induced in the ground lines. We recently experienced a very close lightning strike here, and the UPS protections we had did no good-- nearly every serial port we had was fried, and every ethernet board, even in machines that were powered down at the time. Several telephones also were put out of commission. The ethernet is coax, and the serial lines all have shielded cable, so the best guess we have is that it was currents induced in the ground wires or shielding that got to things. The UPS devices are all still operational. -- Flint Pellett, Global Information Systems Technology, Inc. 1800 Woodfield Drive, Savoy, IL 61874 (217) 352-1165 uunet!gistdev!flint or flint@gistdev.gist.com