[ale] centralized vs separate UPS?

[Pete Hardie]

Eric Webb wrote:
> 
> And now for something completely different...
> 
> I'd like to open a small discussion on your theories for computer room UPS
> systems.  I'd like to see how you would configure a computer room backup
> system if you were designing it.  Consider such a computer room to contain
> nearly a dozen machines, some at 110V and some at 220V.  This computer room
> is not at a corporate HQ, but a regional site which also happens to be the
> company's national call center and largest distribution facility.
> 
> I guess the biggest thing that I am curious about is would you configure a
> centralized, redundant mass backup system or would you configure each
> server with its own UPS?

I'd say it depends on the purpose of backup.

If the room is set up for a bunch of systems that need 24/7 availability,
I'd probably go for a centralized power backup, since most of the machines
would need to stay alive.

If outages are acceptable, but the power backup is for preservation of
delicate systems (DB need to be shutdown cleanly, etc), I'd look into
individual backups with good power management systems (PowerChute is a
brand name that comes to mind [not an endorsement, just an ad meme])

OTOH, looking at the costs for individual UPS vs one big one (both
installation and maintaining them), and it might be cheaper to go with
a central system.

-- 
Pete Hardie                   |   Goalie, DVSG Dart Team
Scientific Atlanta            |
Digital Video Services Group  |