Posted on 07/08/2023 9:08:13 AM PDT by eyeamok
I run my own DNS servers and Mail server, I have purchased a few battery backups that are available, they work but they only work for a limited time. With one backup per computer, which I have 3, they will run for about 45 minutes if the power goes out. None of them work properly with Windows Server 19 to shut down system then restart when the power comes back on. I have had to make multiple emergency trips to my home in Arizona where they are setup, just to turn them back on. Yes it sucks.
I decided to make my own battery backup system modeled after my Solar powered well that has been working for over 10 years flawlessly. Here is what I did to overcome the crappy battery backup systems made.
I took one of the over the counter battery backup systems and plugged the 2 routers into it, it will run both for at least 24 hours which is generally more than enough time for the power to come back on.
Now for my 3 servers I bought a (110 Volt/ 24 volt DC) Magnum MS 2024 Grid Tie Inverter, 4, 6 volt 225 AmpHour Golf Cart batteries from Costco, some wiring,cables,... and set it all up. Total cost about $2500 Since it is a Grid Tie Inverter, I have it plugged into the wall socket to keep batteries fully charged.
With this setup, when the Power goes out, it will run for at least 24 hours without a hiccup, the switching is fast enough to not affect the computers and doesn't even flinch when the power goes down, NO more emergency trips, I still come here every 2 weeks for updates and maintenance and usually the power has gone out while I was gone, but EVERYTHING stays up and running.
Just hope this helps anyone else that runs their own servers
Onan or Generac? 😉👍
Almost forgot, you need the Magnum remote also to make it work properly
APC, Cyberpower but they only run one computer each for 45 minutes or so
Thanks. I have a home Synology NAS for video and audio via Plex in addition to the router and wifi access point. I have one CyberPower UPS dedicated to the server and a second CyberPower UPS dedicated to the comms equipment. We have regular winter outages here in the north woods due to storms and tree falls. Our outages can run from minutes to hours and sometimes to days.
I initially wanted the power on for comms when we were away in the winter to keep tabs on the house, but I faced the same limited time problem you did with the built-in batteries in the UPS units.
I finally decided that the best solution was a whole-house emergency generator and an Automatic Transfer Switch. About 18 months ago, I had a 26 kW Briggs & Stratton unit installed and hooked to our natural gas supply line.
Of course, as soon as we installed the generator, our area invoked “Yhprum’s Law” (the inverse of Murphy’s Law — “Everything that can work, will work”). Since installing the generator, we’ve had a single one-minute outage.
You should take your method, patent it and take it into production. 🙂
Generac is expensive, but worth it in my opinion. You don’t have to worry about turning anything on, but it kicks in automatically after 15 or 20 seconds. Peace of mind is worth a lot if you are on vacation or away from your home for a few days. Mine runs on propane and I figure that I can run full power in the house for at least a month. There have been many times where my house is the only lit one for a few days because of a brown out.
👍. Just wait until they make us use wind and solar to power back up generators. 😂
... Only for as long as the iNet is up. Given the license of Chief Showers-with-daughter to have our electricity-generating dams precisely located by an enemy state, you better be on STARLink and plan to be bumped for government use.
I was going to go with the Generator backup, it would have been about $7K by the time it was all said and done, the power is usually up in 4 hours or so. But it would still need the 3 APC backup UPS hooked to the servers during Gen Start and Transfer. I will install 4 Solar Panels in the future so it doesn’t rely on the power coming back up to keep everything running. but it will go for 24 hours the way it is, once I put the panels in it will run FOREVER.
Geez - what kind of power system do they got down there where the power goes out that often?
Pretty pricey to get Static IP from Starlink, pretty sure it was $2000 per month, I have it at my California homes, My home in Arizona was the only place I could get static IP’s at a reasonable price $150 per month
Remember to ventilate the room (potential for hydrogen accumulation).
4 squirrells in a cage running on a wheel. We never had this problem until the Feds forced them to shut down the coal fired plant we had. Which has a pipeline to Utah feeding it.
That sounds like a great solution for you.
Up here 48 degrees North, there isn’t much sunshine in winter, our solar panels would be blocked by 150 ft fir and pine trees, and our panels would often be covered in snow (that doesn’t stop the solar panel companies from pushing solar hard here).
I was also worried about an extended outage happening just when we have family get-togethers for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I decided to spend the big bucks and go all-out with the emergency generator.
The other factor was preventing the house from freezing up if we go away in the winter and we got multi-day or week-long outage knocking out the forced air furnace during a zero degree deep-freeze. There are lots of horror stories of that happening up here.
Good grief -- how big is your tank?! We have a 325 gallon tank, and they estimate it'll run the house for 3-4 days, depending on usage, maybe 5 days if we're really conservative. Or is your house fairly small?
Do your inverters have an emergency power feature? My inverters let me have 3 electrical panels for 3 purposes: 1) one is the main panel, 2) one is called the "critical load panel" which it'll power if the grid power is down, and 3) one is the "smart load panel" which it'll power when the home batteries are charged to X percent (currently set to 70%).
I have virtually all of my circuits on the "critical load panel" and only a couple of hardly used circuits on my "main panel". The idea being that if the grid is down (which doesn't happen often), my solar and batteries will provide whole house backup. You could do the opposite. You could put the power circuits for your servers on the "critical load panel" so that your solar and batteries would power the servers even when the grid is down.
Unless, of course, you sell power to the grid and your inverters don't have the feature to automatically not put power onto the grid if the grid is down. My inverters aren't like that. My inverters are tied in between the grid and my electrical panels and can power my home panel separately from the grid (I'm not selling power to the grid anyway). Some inverters are tied so the electrical panel is between the inverter and the grid (thus the inverter can't power the panel without also powering the grid, which the power utility can't allow when the grid is down for fear of harming linemen, which means you inverter has to be set to automatically shut off when the grid is down, which means you don't have power to your home when the grid is down even if there's plenty of sunlight).
Remote access?
I probably would use AWS or Azure instances
Both have pretty decent uptime and are really cheap.
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