[ale] centralized vs separate UPS?

[jeff_hubbs at mcgraw-hill.com]

Eric -

I had to laugh when I saw your message - I just had a 12-KVA UPS unit installed
in my computer room.

It sounds as though you want a single large unit, with the caveat that you might
have a special case where a single smaller UPS powered off the mains (NOT off
the large UPS) works better because of software interfaces.

I've been working with Eric DeSandre at Power Technology Group in Stone
Mountain.  I can definitely recommend them.  They're a reseller of Exide
PowerWare UPSses, which had come highly recommended and also do have at least
some degree of Linux support.

We run mostly VMS machines here - a mix of Alphas, VAXen, and MicroVAXen.  I
also have one NT server.  The VMS/Alphas - two 1000As, one 300, and a 4100 as of
this coming weekend - run COBOL software and serve well over 300 people in our
company's offices nationwide.  This UPS we just got, maxed out on battery
cabinets, will run everything by itself for somewhere between 2 and 3 hours.
The UPS does have a serial port, and I plan to connect a Linux PC to it and use
Expect to automate the handling of power outages among the machines.

I've put the NT server on its own 1500-VA UPS because I don't really have a good
way to pull NT into that scheme yet.

Hope this info helps.

- Jeff