UPS Configuration for servers with Redundant Power Supplies

[Anonymous user]

I have 8 servers in a small server room with 2 brand new Smart UPS's. I know each of the UPS units have enough capacity for 4 of the servers.

I have also purchased the Network cards for the ups units as I want the ability to shutdown the servers upon detection of a power cut.

I also have 2 spare HP R3000 XR ups units (these are the units that are currently running the servers) but these do not have the ability to shut down multiple servers.

I am unsure what to do about the redundant power supplies on the servers that have these. I understand that if both PSU were plugged into 1 ups then that ups is the single point of failure. I do not need the servers to stay up, I just want them to shut down cleanly.

The power sockets in the room are all on the same circuit, i know each ups should probably go on a seperate circuit etc but i dont have that luxery at this time.

Should a server with two power supplies be plugged into thr APC ups for the network shutdown ability and then plug the second PSU into one of the HP3000RX UPS units. Would this cause any problem with the automatic shutdown etc?

Thanks

[BillP]

Hi,

You can split the servers between the to Smart-UPS and install PowerChute Network Shutdown on each OS with a single UPS configuration. Or you can keep 1 of the  PSUs plugged into the HP UPSs and split the remaining PSUs between the to Smart-UPS and install PowerChute Network Shutdown on each OS with a single UPS configuration. If the Smart-UPS go on battery it will inform PowerChute and PowerChute will shutdown the OS. If 1 of the HP UPSs go on battery PowerChute will not know so OS will stay running and the entire load will be shifted to the Smart-UPS. You must be sure that the Smart-UPS can sustain the entire load without relying on the HP UPS. If the Smart-UPS cannot sustain the load then the OS could possible crash due to UPS overload.

[Anonymous user]

Thanks for your reply.

So basically, dont plug both server psu's into the same ups.  Plug one server ups into the new SMART APC ups and use the network shutdown to shutdown the server. Plug the remaning

server psu into the spare HP3000 ups that I have. This will ensure the UPS are only at about 50% capacity. Aslong as the SMARTUPS loses power then it will shutdown the server.

Having the HP UPS units on wont affect the shutdown etc.?

On the Management card, how do I configure the card to shutdown the servers upon power failure or wait for 5 mins etc.

Is it under Configuration > Shutdown

Is there a list of what the options are? I just want it to shutdown when there is perhaps 50% of the battery remaining?

Thanks

[BillP]

Hi,

Can can plug both PSU into the same Smart-UPS That is what I wrote here "You can split the servers between the to Smart-UPS and install PowerChute Network Shutdown on each OS with a single UPS configuration." You wrote that each Smart-UPS should be able to handle 4 of the 8 servers so that is why I said to split the servers between the Smart-UPS. If you want to continue to utilize the HP UPSs then you can split the server btween the Smart-UPS and the HP units and it will not affect the Smart-UPS or PowerChute.

As for configuration, you configure PowerChute to shut the OS down after the UPS has been on battery for X minutes. After installing PowerChute the help file/s will guide you through configuring events.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

If you want to be successful at providing truly redundant UPS power to your dual corded servers, you have to use all four of your UPS to handle the load sharing and keep everything up in a failover situation. If you only use the APC ups redundantly (Eg "PS1" power supply cords from the 8 servers go to APC UPS-A and "PS2" cords go to APC UPS-B) if either ups has a hardware fault and drops the load the full load of 8 servers will be entirely riding on the other ups and since you stated one ups on its own can only handle four servers it will be overloaded and shut down as well.

So take the first four servers and have their PS1 power cords go to APC UPS-A and PS2 cords go to the first HP R3000. The other four servers are handled similarly by the second APC and second R3000. Then you can either do IP based network shutdown from the APC's UPS's management cards, or if you have an old APC Share-UPS box you can do old-school serial shutdown to up to 8 ups from one card/box off the Share-UPS.

Good luck!