UPS recommendation for proxmox host

[rudolf]

Hello
I'am a new member in this forum. My first proxmox Host is setup so far.
Now, i'am looking for a recommendation for a UPS. I would like to prevent the host from Power failures.
Did not find any hints in the howto/wiki about UPS Model/Brand or recommendations.

Does anybody or the mod's have some hints for me?

kind regards
rudolf

 

[t.lamprecht]

Hi,

Did not find any hints in the howto/wiki about UPS Model/Brand or recommendations.

Just FYI, every device which works with linux (e.g. to cleanly shutdown the node if the battery gets empty) works also with Proxmox VE.

Also it depends on your need, how much power does you system use, how long do you want to run the server without power.

Personally I have almost only experience with APC which I used for personal computers (had a really unstable power source some time ago), they worked good for me.
But PCs are not servers thus maybe someone other can help you with better recommendations.

 

[mir]

If you have not bought one yet you might as well look for an UPS which can be remotely managed so it can be used for fencing. If this is want you want search PDU + rack

 

[rudolf]

@t.lamprecht
I also have APC model in my mind. This case is for home use and should also protect the NAS. I will look for a APC model with linux support.

@mir
At home, there no rack just a server with proxmox.
Thanks for your reply

 

[t.lamprecht]

I also have APC model in my mind. This case is for home use and should also protect the NAS. I will look for a APC model with linux support.

They normally should have no problems with Linux, AFAIK, the apcupsd daemon is available in the Debian repos so also for Proxmox VE.

 

[LasseKongo]

If you decide to use NUT instead of apcupsd, there are quite a lot of options, check their hardware list here: http://networkupstools.org/stable-hcl.html
I use Eaton UPS:es with NUT, they are really well supported and unlike APC, Eaton also seems to be more open source friendly by providing the NUT project with the hardware protoclols.

 

[mattlach]

Personally I have almost only experience with APC which I used for personal computers (had a really unstable power source some time ago), they worked good for me.
But PCs are not servers thus maybe someone other can help you with better recommendations.

IMHO, for server applications you'll probably want APC's true sine wave enterprise/professional models marketed as "Smart UPS", not the lower end client models with stepped approximation, typically named "Back Ups".

APC used to be the best IMHO, but they have gone downhill since Schneider acquired them. If you can find the older Smart UPS models on eBay, and replace the batteries, these are great UPS:es and will last forever. They just don't make them like that anymore. I have two of these, one SUA1500 which gives my server 50+ minutes of uptime if the power goes out, and one of the smaller SUA750 models for my switch, pfSense router and some other smaller stuff. For reliability, I'd bypass the USB interface, and control them with a serial cable using APCUPSd. (take note, they do require a special serial cable that is wired differently than standard cables, but these are easy to make yourself or cheap to buy on eBay)

If you want to go with new products I'd avoid APC. They just aren't the same anymore, and use prorpietary standards that are sometimes more difficult to get to work well with Linux, etc. I've heard really good things about Cyberpower's higer end true sine wave models, but I have never experienced using them myself, so that's about the extent of my knowledge.

 

[BuffaloBrent]

For what it's worth -

I DO NOT suggest CyberPower. After a bunch of rigamarole, I found through their tech support that the Linux software they have will not work with Debian Jessie/8. They actually had the gall to recommend that I revert back to Debian 7. There is nothing in their literature about this. Perhaps they will fix this in the future, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

The unit itself (PR1500LCD) is otherwise a great true sine wave UPS. Perfect for the dual power supply of my HP blade. But it's just a paperweight to me if it can't communicate with the OS so that it can properly shutdown the VMs during a power failure.

Now I've got to spend the time to see if NUT will work on this. Otherwise, I'm on the lookout for something besides CyberPower and APC.

 

[mattlach]

For Linux based systems like Proxmox, I wouldn't even bother with the software any of thr UPS makers provide, and instead jump straight to either NUT or apcupsd.

None of these companies support Linux well but I find that either Nut or apcupsd usually do the job.

 

[mir]

Now I've got to spend the time to see if NUT will work on this. Otherwise, I'm on the lookout for something besides CyberPower and APC.

Why not APC?
I you by an APC with USB interface it will work with NUT. Older APC's with serial interfaces will only work with apcupsd but that works flawlessly with Linux. If you have a choice I would recommend an APC with USB interface.

 

[BuffaloBrent]

I'm going off of other suggestions to not use APC, ever since Schneider Electric bought them out. But I've got nothing to really go off as far as hard evidence. I'm still open for suggestions.

I've looked through the NUT documentation - it looks really complicated and overbearing. Plus it won't pull all of the info correctly from my particular UPS (which isn't a dealbreaker). But what I do need to have it do is the ability to run a script (that I wrote) when a the battery reaches a certain percentage or after X minutes of battery runtime. Does anyone know if apcupsd gives the user such ability? I don't mind purchasing a different UPS is the software can run such. I can use this C.P. one for other use.

 

[mir]

With apcupsd the script to run for each event is configurable.

From apccontrol:
#
# This piece is to substitute the default behaviour with your own script,
# perl, or C program.
# You can customize every single command creating an executable file (may be a
# script or a compiled program) and calling it the same as the $1 parameter
# passed by apcupsd to this script.
#
# After executing your script, apccontrol continues with the default action.
# If you do not want apccontrol to continue, exit your script with exit
# code 99. E.g. "exit 99".

 

[Rhinox]

For Linux based systems like Proxmox, I wouldn't even bother with the software any of thr UPS makers provide, and instead jump straight to either NUT or apcupsd.
None of these companies support Linux well but I find that either But or apcupsd usually do the job.

Agree with this. Problem is some vendors (i.e. APC/Schneider) are switching to proprietary communication protocol for new UPS. NUT/apcupsd-devs can only try to reverse-engineer it and yet NUT/apcupsd works sometimes better than native software-tools.

 

[BuffaloBrent]

With apcupsd the script to run for each event is configurable.

From apccontrol:
#
# This piece is to substitute the default behaviour with your own script,
# perl, or C program.
# You can customize every single command creating an executable file (may be a
# script or a compiled program) and calling it the same as the $1 parameter
# passed by apcupsd to this script.
#
# After executing your script, apccontrol continues with the default action.
# If you do not want apccontrol to continue, exit your script with exit
# code 99. E.g. "exit 99".

Follow up for those interested - I bought a rack.mount APC unit. The linux software they provide works perfectly well with PM 4.x/Debian 8. I've been able to configure it to shutdown all of the VM gracefully after 10 minutes of running on battery. Works great! Too bad CyberPower wasn't able to provide support for Debian 8.

 

[jena]

Follow up for those interested - I bought a rack.mount APC unit. The linux software they provide works perfectly well with PM 4.x/Debian 8. I've been able to configure it to shutdown all of the VM gracefully after 10 minutes of running on battery. Works great! Too bad CyberPower wasn't able to provide support for Debian 8.

Hello,
Great! Could you point me to a tutorial of how to set up the shutdown.
I am in a process of getting an APC UPS. Thanks!