UPS on a Notebook PC ?

[Anonymous user]

Can an APC - UPS be used on a Notebook PC to provide Unattended "Hibernation" Shutdown of the Notebook PC ???

.....since when I have the Notebook pc docked at the Desktop I am using it as a desktop pc replacement with a Backup External Hard Drive (a Drobo hard drive, uses a type of raid for protection.

Therfore, to ensure that during the process of normal Backing Up/Writing Access (or during a Raid Rebuild period) that corruption does not occur, should a Power Outage occur during this period, I would like to connected both the Notebook PC and the Drobo - External Raid Drive to a UPS.

Although, many people say that there is no need to use a UPS on a Notebook PC, I think it is necessary to provide integrity protecting when backing up to an external raid hard drive, like the Drobo, in the following configuration/for the following stated reason:

1) Both the PC and Drobo should be connected to a UPS.
2) The UPS software should be set to shut down/hibernate the PC on a power loss.
3) Following your computer shut down, the Drobo drive will go into standby mode. During the shutdown process data in filght to the Drobo is transferred safely.
4) Follwing your PC shuts down, the UPS then runs out of power and the Drobo drive safely shuts down from the standby mode.

Questions:

1. I have my Drobo attached to a Notebook pc which when docked at the desk, acts as my desktop pc replacement.
..... So, Does anyone know whether a UPS can be used on a notebook/laptop pc without issues, to provide Unattended "Hibernation" Shutdown of the Notebook PC?

2. Which type of UPS is recommended and/or best for protecting the Drobo, - A Standby UPS or Line-Interactive UPS

[Anonymous user]

buzz wrote:
I'm not entirely sure I understand every aspect of your post, but couldn't you just adjust the notebook's power settings to go into Hibernate when the battery is low? You shouldn't need a UPS to do that for you, though it would give you some additional battery time to wrap up the backup that's running. Of course, you could if you really wanted to, but it seems redundant if the laptop can do that by itself without the help of any additional software or hardware.

In regard to #3, does the Drobo automatically go into standby when the computer it's connected to turns off or goes to sleep? And then, in #4, it automatically turns itself off from sleep? Or are you saying it will simply shutdown from sleep mode when the UPS runs out of battery and turns itself off?

......Does Drobo automatically go into standby when the computer it's connected to turns off or goes to sleep?
Yes

..... in #4, it automatically turns itself off from sleep? Or are you saying it will simply shutdown from sleep mode when the UPS runs out of battery and turns itself off?
I meant it is safe for the Drobo to have its power siwtched off when it is sitting idle in its Standby mode, because it is not doing any accessing or housekeeping to its Raid Hard Drives.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
buzz,

_So, basically what I am thinking is the following: (Note: Below is based on some discussions I had with some expert drobo user's on the potential for problems they could see occuring when power fails with a Laptop pc and external drobo drive, (however, they are using the external drobo raid drive array with a desktop pc and a UPS setup)

I. With a UPS connected to Both the Laptop PC and the External Drobo (Hard Drive Raid Array):

Let's say that ........

1. OS of PC is writing to Drobo.

2. Power goes out. Drobo remains connected, running off the UPS battery.

3. OS of PC completes write to Drobo.

4. UPS (which has PC connected to it), runs low. PC's shuts down gracefully, by hibernating.

5. Pending writes (from OS to Extenral Drobo Drive and peinding Raid activity, within Hardware of Drobo Raid drive is completed.

6. Drobo Drive goes to its internal standby mode (Drobo drive normally does this automatiaclly upon detection that pc is shutdown) which indicates it is safe to shutdown drobo because no Raid activity or write activity is occuring within it.

7. UPS cuts power to both Laptop PC and Drobo External Drive.

In above sequence of events, the pending writes are completed, and so there's no danger of corruption.

---------------------------------------------------------

II.Now, the problem with connecting the UPS only to the Drobo and relying on the Laptop PC's Battery to run the Laptop PC when the AC Power goes out is :

If the UPS cuts power to the Drobo, before the Laptop PC's Battery exhausts itself (a laptop pc's battery will usually outlast the UPS battery time by a large margin, when fully charged), then:

*1.* Theres the potential of corruption due to incomplete pending writes, because Drobo is disconnected when UPS cuts power to it, and internal Drobo _"RAID"writing_ may not have completed.

*2.* The Laptop PC which is still running on its Laptop Battery can not complete transferring pending OS writes from the Laptop PC to the External Drobo Drive because the Drobo Drive has been disconnected from UPS Battery Power, but Laptop PC can't talk to it anymore.

---------------------------------------------

Normally, if I was using a desktop pc both the desktop pc and the external drive would be connected to a UPS and there is nothing to worry about. But, I think the concept of using a Laptop PC with an External Drive when a Power failure occurs throws in another wrinkle because a Laptop only has its laptop battery protecting the Laptop PC itself when the AC power fails and not protecting an external hard drive which runs on AC.
....So, I feel that the potential for file system and external drive integrity/corruption problems exists, when power cuts out at different times for the Laptop PC and the External Hard Drive , when External hard drive is being written to, when using an external hard drive that is Not usb powered, but is powered by its own ac wall plug.


So, back to my original question:

.... Will an APC - UPS work with a Laptop PC, specifically will the Powerchute software successfully work and perform a "Hibernation - Shutdown" of a Laptop/Notebook PC ?

.... Has anyone tried it ?

Message was edited by: JosephB

Message was edited by: JosephB

Message was edited by: JosephB

[BillP]

It will work, but probably not in the sense you want it to. The laptop is going to see it still has power from the UPS, but the PowerChute software is going to know the UPS is on battery and command a shutdown accordingly. It doesn't talk to the laptop to determine what the total runtime (laptop battery & UPS battery combined) would be and then shutdown after that.

If you don't install PowerChute, the laptop will just keep running on its own battery after the UPS' battery expires. That way the laptop would put itself to sleep/hibernate based on its own power settings, independent of PowerChute. That sounds like what you're trying to achieve.

Either way, though, the external drive will shutdown when the UPS runs out of battery, regardless of whether or not it's in the middle of a job. Hopefully the runtime would be sufficient for it to finish, allow the Drobo to go to sleep, UPS turns off, Drobo turns off, laptop continues running on its own battery, laptop battery is exhausted and laptop puts itself to sleep. I would leave PowerChute completely out of the mix since the laptop can handle the graceful shutdown itself.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Can an APC - UPS be used on a Notebook PC to provide Unattended "Hibernation" Shutdown of the Notebook PC ???

.....since when I have the Notebook pc docked at the Desktop I am using it as a desktop pc replacement with a Backup External Hard Drive (a Drobo hard drive, uses a type of raid for protection.

Therfore, to ensure that during the process of normal Backing Up/Writing Access (or during a Raid Rebuild period) that corruption does not occur, should a Power Outage occur during this period, I would like to connected both the Notebook PC and the Drobo - External Raid Drive to a UPS.

Although, many people say that there is no need to use a UPS on a Notebook PC, I think it is necessary to provide integrity protecting when backing up to an external raid hard drive, like the Drobo, in the following configuration/for the following stated reason:

1) Both the PC and Drobo should be connected to a UPS.
2) The UPS software should be set to shut down/hibernate the PC on a power loss.
3) Following your computer shut down, the Drobo drive will go into standby mode. During the shutdown process data in filght to the Drobo is transferred safely.
4) Follwing your PC shuts down, the UPS then runs out of power and the Drobo drive safely shuts down from the standby mode.

Questions:

1. I have my Drobo attached to a Notebook pc which when docked at the desk, acts as my desktop pc replacement.
..... So, Does anyone know whether a UPS can be used on a notebook/laptop pc without issues, to provide Unattended "Hibernation" Shutdown of the Notebook PC?

2. Which type of UPS is recommended and/or best for protecting the Drobo, - A Standby UPS or Line-Interactive UPS