Not All UPSs Are Created Equal – Surge Let-Through

As Chris Knight pointed out in a comment on our post on a failed APC BR1500LCD and both power supplies in an SC5295BRP chassis, the Surge Let-Through value is a very important one when it comes to determining what UPS needs to be put in front of expensive and critical IT equipment.

So, here we have three APC UPS products set up in an online comparison on APC’s site:

APC Smart-UPS 1000VA SMT1000RM2U $559.00

APC Smart-UPS 1500VA SUA1500RM2U $719.00

APC Smart-UPS 1500VA SMX1500RM2U $779.00

Now, out of the above units, which unit or units would have a better Surge Let-Through number?

The answer was actually a bit surprising:

APC Smart-UPS 1000VA SMT1000RM2U 0.3%

APC Smart-UPS 1500VA SUA1500RM2U 0.3%

APC Smart-UPS 1500VA SMX1500RM2U 5.0%

What caught us off guard was the fact that it was the most expensive unit that had the lesser surge let-through rating.

Now, considering that the BR1500LCD unit also shares in the 5% rating, if we had the SMX1500RM2U in its place we probably still would have had two blown power supplies.

Thanks to Chris, we will be paying a lot more attention to that rating on any of the UPSs we supply our clients or purchase for our own use.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Primary A/C Breaker Fail – APC BR1500LCD and Intel SC5299BRP Dual PSU Fail

One of our clients had a primary breaker pop on Friday last week when an appliance was turned on while someone was running an oven’s self-clean cycle.

When the power failed it somehow managed to kill the APC BR1500LCD UPS protecting the server. The end result of the UPS being taken out was that both power supplies in the redundant PSU setup also failed.

The server was configured as follows:

• Intel Xeon X3220 Series CPU
• Intel S3210SHLX Server Board
• 4GB RAM
• Intel RAID Controller SRCSASRB + BBU
• 500GB Seagate ES series drives in dual RAID 1 arrays.
• Intel SC5299BRP with both PSUs.

Intel sent out a pair of replacement PSUs which fired up the hardware with no issues.

The BR1500LCD’s onboard display normally shows about 20 to 30 minutes of runtime on any given day. It now reads 1 minute so it will also be replaced.

We were fortunate that the spontaneous shutdown of SBS 2003 R2 Premium with ISA installed did not in some way mess up Exchange or Active Directory.

We ran a few reboot cycles and an update cycle checking to make sure that the Exchange database was happy in between each cycle which it was. We had their ShadowProtect backup on standby if there was a need to recover the server.

The final reboot happened in about 1/3 the time the first boot up after plugging in the new PSUs did. We will be keeping a close eye on this box to make sure everything stays happy.

It just goes to show that even with a good UPS in front of a system that includes line levelling that there are no guarantees.

Nothing replaces having a good backup that is known to recover without issues. The stress levels are so much lower when we know we have a fall back in the midst of a server down situation.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Display Flicker - Change the Refresh

With the advent of LCD monitors, image flicker has become a thing of the past ... at least relatively speaking.

For the most part, a screen set to refresh at 60 Hz will provide a clear and flicker free image.

Some LCD monitors are a little more sensitive to outside electromagnetic interference (EM) than others. It used to be that one could change the refresh rate in the video card driver to 70 Hz or even 75 Hz to eliminate any EM interference.

On the newer and larger LCD monitors this does not seem to be the case.

Electricity cycles at 60 Hz. Sometimes, when the monitor is set to refresh at 60 Hz, the image will flicker.

Some may never notice it, but for those of us with relatively sensitive eyes we pick it up immediately. In the case of CRT monitors, the refresh rate was the first thing to get adjusted due to the annoying characteristics of the CRT's image flickering.

In this case, the monitor in question is a new Acer X243w. When the ATI driver was set to refresh at 60 Hz, there was no end to the amount of flickering in the monitor's image.

But, there was no option on that monitor to bump up the refresh rate to 70+ Hz.

There was however an option to bump it down:

Acer X243W Refresh at 59 Hz

Once the setting change was made and applied, the flickering was gone.

Having the refresh rate on the monitor set to 60 Hz along with the A/C being at 60 Hz when having EM issues is a bit like having two fans, one directly behind the other, spinning at the same rate but not synchronized. One will notice the lack of synchronization in the way of a flicker.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Intel SR2400SYSD2, SR1530AH, and SR1560SF Power Consumption

We have an APC BR1500LCD UPS unit that we leave sitting on our bench.

It has the facility to provide live readouts on its LCD panel of various power and UPS events.

One of them is the amount of watts that a device uses while connected to it.

So, to get an idea of what each unit uses for power we plugged each unit into the BR1500LCD on its own and fired it up.

Here are some of the results:

• Intel SR1560SF 1U with Dual E5440 Quad Core Xeons and 3x 750GB Seagate ES SATA
• Power Up POST: 205 Watts Peak
• SBS Boot: 175 Watts on average
• SBS Online: 145 Watts on average
• SBS at rest: 110 Watts on average
• Intel SR1530AH 1U with Intel Xeon X3230 Quad Core Xeon and 2x 750GB Seagate ES SATA
• Power Up: 175 Watts Peak
• Server 2008 Core Boot: 125 Watts on average
• Server 2008 Core online: 80 Watts on average
• Server off but plugged in: 8 Watts
• Intel SR2400SYSD2 2U with dual Intel Xeon 3.0GHz HT and 6x 500GB Seagate ES
• Power Up: 525 Watts Peak
• POST Initialization phase: 235 Watts on Average
• Windows Server 2003 scroll Portion of OS startup: 250 Watts on average
• Windows Server 2003 network and computer startup portion: 205 Watts on average
• SBS at work: 225 Watts on average
• SBS at rest: 205 Watts on average
• Server off but plugged in: 30 Watts

It looks as though the newer technology really shows its efficiency when running full tilt or at a relative idle as can be seen by the above numbers.

Obviously the 2U will consume a bit more power due to the additional hard drives and a more powerful fan setup. However, the older 2U still has a big hit against it in the form of power savings relative to the new 3000 and 5000 series Xeon setups.

In a high density data centre situation, that 50 watts at idle on the newer technologies spread across hundreds if not thousands of servers means a huge savings in power consumption for the server systems themselves as well as the power required to cool the centre.

The neat thing is, there are even better power efficiency enhancements coming down the pipe in future versions of Intel CPUs, the server boards they plug into, and the plug in peripherals. All of this translates into a bit of relief for those data centres already pushed to the limits on their floor space per compute capability, power consumption, and cooling capacity.

For us, it means we have seen a significant drop in our power bill with every NetBurst Xeon server we have replaced with a Core Xeon technologies based server.

That practical experience for us translates into a good selling point for the newer technologies with our clients. A server that saves them money even when they are not in the office is a good thing!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS - What Server Redundant Power can do for you

While server power supply (PSU) failures are relatively rare, they do happen.

Sometimes, a failing power supply may not cut out immediately. It may, over time, start fluctuating the power it is sending down to the various components within the server.

When a server is behaving badly, erratically, or strangely, the power supply is sometimes the last thing on the technician's mind.

We will look at things like memory, or perhaps a set of bad sectors on one of the RAID array disks, or even the server board itself before considering the PSU.

For those of us who have been around long enough to see a few of the irratic behaviour types caused by a failing PSU on either a server or workstation, the problem gets a little easier to figure out by the server's behaviour patterns.

For servers without redundant power, things are a little more difficult. We will need to find a like PSU that is matched to the server we are working on. In some cases, we may be able to get away with plugging in a Delta or like PSU with all of the right connectors.

In the case of proprietary systems though, we are looking at trying to purchase a PSU from the manufacturer and find out they are in that mysterious class of metal: unobtainium. That is, they are not made anymore, and may not even be found on auction sites and the like.

The critical aspect to no redundant power is the need to down the server while troubleshooting or changing out the PSU. This can be sticky for clients who are into their peak season or just plain busy.

A server that is behaving erratically reflects badly on us and our abilities to provide a trouble free I.T environment for our clients.

Given the cost difference between a chassis with the redundant power option (plus the extra PSU) over a standard chassis with only one PSU, we suggest redundant power as the default choice for server configurations. As with any client related situation, your mileage will vary. ;)

Here is a screen shot of the Intel SC5300LX series chassis with both PSUs installed:

Intel SC5300LX with Redundant Power Supply Installed

And, here is a screen shot of a similar setup in the Intel SC5295/9BRP chassis:

Intel SC5295/9BRP with Redundant Power Supply Installed

The SC5295BRP was the previous generation to the now in production SC5299BRP chassis.

Some of the benefits of redundant power on the server:

• The ability to pull one or the other PSU module while the server is online to eliminate the PSUs as a possible source of trouble
• The ability to move the A/C power cords, one at a time, between power sources such as when replacing or upgrading an existing UPS while the server is online
• The ability to replace a defective PSU while the server is online
• The ability to test the server monitoring software's ability to detect a faulty PSU before the server goes online at the client by pulling each PSU one at a time here in the shop

Keep in mind that just pulling the A/C cord out of the back of the PSU may not illicit the behaviours we are looking to diagnose. We need to pull that PSU out of the supply cage.

When justifying the extra server cost to our clients, we can put the matter forward about keeping the server online while working on the power modules, making changes to the A/C infrastructure, UPS units, and more.

To explain downtime costs to our clients, we use the arbitrary number of $100/hr per user on the network as far as what the theoretical costs to the company are for downtime.

For some clients that are in key industries, those costs can approach $1,000/hr per user.

On top of that, there is the cost associated with having a technician dispatched to diagnose and take care of a power related problem on the server. Again, the PSU may be the last thing on the technician's mind.

Once there are some concrete numbers in front of the client as far as the benefits versus the up front costs, we see most of our clients go with redundant power on servers. Redundant power is a little extra insurance that pays off huge in the event of a problem.

In our experience, there is no better way to outfit a server setup.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS - No Graceful Shutdown? Be Prepared ...

If the server does not have a UPS capable of at least shutting the server down gracefully ... what happens?

Well, if one of the hard drives in a RAID 1 array was just a little flaky, then it is very likely that the shock shutdown may kill it.

Or, if there were some sort of OS corruptions hanging in the balance, they may show themselves with a no boot situation.

How do we know that one of the drives is flaky after the power outage?

The OS will take an inordinately long time to boot, and may, or may not, have a service failed error after the outage.

So, in this scenario we can discover very quickly two of our weakest links:

• UPS is not big enough to gracefully shutdown the server after a predetermined amount of time
• Our backup restoration method has not been tested yet and it fails.

Or, if the UPS has no A/C power filtration capabilities at all, it may let the subsequent series of spikes through to the server when the power comes back up. This in turn may cause a problem. Keep in mind that the initial spikes may get filtered out by the existing UPS, but the smaller subsequent ones may not.

So, we learn a very valuable lesson:

1. Have a UPS in place that is big enough to allow for a graceful server shutdown
2. Have a UPS or UPSs in place that properly filters all A/C power or other power sources heading into the server including:
• Telephone for fax and/or DSL
• COAX for cable Internet
• CAT 5E for all server ports
• Network switches, DSL/cable modems, etc protected.
3. Workstations have at least a 3K+ Joule surge arrest in place on their A/C, CAT 5e, and telephone if needed.
4. Workstations used for database work have at least a 1000VA UPS with filtration in place for graceful shutdown of the database.

After installing a new UPS, one of the first things to do beyond the UPS' own self-test routine is to test it. We need to know how that UPS is going to behave in the environment it will be protecting. Unplug it after at least 24 hours after delivery and setup to give it enough time to go through a charge cycle.

Sometimes a factory defect may not show itself until the UPS flips over to battery mode for an extended duration. So, it is better to know that the unit is going to fail before an actual power event brings a defect out and causes even more grief.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS - Some Real World UPS - Power :) - Experiences

We have a really insane storm going on outside right now. Lots of lightning with the thunder literally shaking the building.

We have been having unusually hot weather here, and that has lead to some really neat storms.

So, what happens when the power goes out?

Have you tested your UPS setup to see if the "shutdown the server" after so many minutes actually gives the SBS box time to shutdown properly?

We all may know that if we don't stop the Exchange services before a reboot, that reboot can take a long time. Especially on the older SBS installs and hardware boxes.

The same goes for the shutdown sequence initiated by the UPS software.

An improper SBS shutdown can have unpredictable consequences.

Once the power comes back up, is the server's BIOS setting changed from "Last State" or "Power Off" to "Power On"? If that setting has not been changed to power the server back up after the power outage, someone will need physical access to the box or we are on our way down to the client's location to power it up and make sure that everything comes up normally.

Here is our typical experience with the APC UPS products we install with our SBS servers:

• 2U SUA1500 VA: Dual Xeon 51xx 5U Series + 6-10 drives: ~9-14 minutes.
• RS 1000 VA: Pentium 4 HT + 4 drives: 7-10 minutes
• RS 1500 VA: Pentium D + 4 drives: 9-12 minutes

Those numbers are on the somewhat conservative side as server power consumption, therefore run time, can vary by the time of day when the power outage happens.

We typically install a separate 700-1500 VA UPS for the ADSL/Cable modem, router if there, and other network infrastructure leaving a dedicated UPS to each server.

Power backup solutions vary by client and their needs. Always be aware of how much revenue a client looses for each hour of downtime! For some of our larger engineering, architectural, and accountant firm clients the cost of downtime can be in the thousands of dollars per hour range.

This is a great opportunity to generate some billable time with your clients. Also, having an inventory/audit of the client's infrastructure will provide a quick method to run through and see who has what UPS installed where and how old they are.

Give the client a call about the need to test the UPS infrastructure, and pop in when the time is convenient for the client and start pulling those UPS plugs.

A short battery life is essentially a dead battery. It is then time to replace the battery if the UPS is younger than 2-3 years or replace the UPS if it is older than 2-3 years.

WikipediA for UPS: Uninterruptible Power Supply.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

System Builder Tip: Have dirty power? Will blow up!

The summer is a bad time for us in St. Albert. It is guaranteed that someone somewhere will be putting a shovel or something through our power lines at least twice or more.

When we build systems, we are responsible for the immediate warranty fulfilment. We must keep enough system parts around to support our warranties. This is especially important as various components within the system may not be available at a later time if we are supporting a two (2) or even a three (3) year warranty.

Ever have a piece of equipment blow up from power spikes? We have.

Ever have a database get so badly corrupted because one workstation went boom during a high intensity lightning storm and it wasn't properly protected? We have. It was a door through which A/C current could hit the network.

Any power bar that is does not have a Joule suppression (eP Joule) rating on it is NOT a surge suppressor. It don't matter if it says so on the box! No eP Joule suppression rating? Then it ain't no surge suppressor.

The higher the eP Joule suppression rate, the better the surge protection. An eP Joule rating of 2500 or more is where to start when protecting workstations. Preferably one with RJ45 and/or RJ11 connectors too. This provides another level of protection for the network.

Every avenue that power gets into the network infrastructure, that includes RJ45 Ethernet, RJ11 Phone, AC receptacles, and any other external power source must be protected.

Think network switches plugged into the wall. Think ADSL or cable modems plugged into the wall. Think of the cable Internet COAX plugged into the cable modem that heads outside! Think phone lines providing ADSL. All are paths through which sensitive network infrastructure equipment can be killed by A/C.

Here is what a typical summer day looks like in St. Albert as far as power is concerned:


The 20 minute power outage was very recent. Somehow a transformer got popped and that wiped out the power for an entire city burrow. Our client's offices were in that burrow.

Fortunately, all of their systems were protected by both surge protection for the workstations as well as UPS with line conditioners for the servers, switches, and Internet connectivity equipment.

The overages show just how dirty the power is here in town. We are a small city of about 60K bordering on Edmonton with around 800K.

We always highly recommend that any workstation where an employee is working on databases, whether SQL, Access, QuickBooks, Simply Accounting, CCH programs, and more must have a UPS with power conditioning capabilities attached to their system. The UPS must provide enough battery based up time to safely shut down the database application attached to their system.

Just to repeat: Working with databases? A UPS with line conditioning is mandatory on the workstation as well as the server and network infrastructure.

And yes, we only use APC UPS and Surge Protection products. We have had great success with their products and have never been given a reason to switch. We have no qualms with recommending them.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists