[143764] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: NANOGers home data centers - What's in your closet?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alex Rubenstein)
Tue Aug 16 22:07:55 2011
From: Alex Rubenstein <alex@corp.nac.net>
To: Leo Bicknell <bicknell@ufp.org>, "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:07:15 -0400
In-Reply-To: <20110817013905.GA40651@ussenterprise.ufp.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
> All the actual EE's I know are most impressed with the PowerWare (now
> Eaton Power) designs. For insance their 5110 is a line-interactive
> design built with quality components. The last I looked APC did not
> have a line-interactive design in this price range; they were all the
> "standby" design. Eaton does have some cheaper standby units, I can't
> make any comment about them.
Most EE's don't deal with day to day operations of datacenters.
We have been a long time (14 years) user of Exide / Powerware / Invensys / =
Eaton UPS systems. I have many 9315 and 9395's, ranging from 80 kva to 500 =
kva. They are generally good units. It is clear that as time as gone forwar=
d (9315 to 9395 transition) that the quality of build has gone done, cheape=
r components, etc. Simply look at the weight differences, that speaks a lot=
. Eaton service is expensive. Emergency parts availability is sometimes an =
issue. I have heard that because of less-than-stellar market acceptance of =
9395, they are modernizing the 9315, which was originally to be EOL'ed. I a=
m not sure what that means.
Our last build, after serious consideration, we decided to go with GE SG500=
's. In my experience, they are a much better engineered unit, with a consid=
erably more knowledgeable sales and service contingent.
I can't speak about the 5110.
> With any UPS the key is replacing the batteries at the appropriate
> time. Most batteries are rated for 3-5 years. If conditions are
> right, you might be able to push that to 6 or so. If your battery is
> older than that, replace it or you might as well not have a UPS.
This is an entirely different conversation. Battery monitoring is a require=
ment. Btech (and others) allow for daily visibility of battery health and f=
ailure trends. If you don't have this, you aren't serious about your datace=
nter.=20
Batteries can fail anywhere from 4 minutes to 10 years after they are insta=
lled, and they never fail all at once.. so why replace them all at once?
