My APC Backup (UPS) battery will be beeping to be replaced in the near future and I’m considering not having a UPS
I bought it to protect the NAS HDD’s if power fails during read/write
Plus its been a useful addition to power landline to keep phone calls and broadband hub running until call/connection can be finished and PC work saved.
I no longer have a landline phone and rarely have power cuts.
My question to the forum - How many of you have a UPS, reading between the lines on posts I have the impression its not that many.
But the important question - how many have suffered damage to NAS drive(s) because of a power failure
Dear Mike
We have a small one in the UK for NAS Router and Imac, it has a traditional lead acid battery so we replace it yearly, it will run for about 5 hours with no supply, unfortunately needed in south Gloucestershire
Cheers
Martin
I too have an APC UPS for similar reasons to yourself. It protects the NAS which not only has my music, videos and photos on but also my (and my partner’s) personal data. It also protects the broadband router and a switch which powers the WAPs. A further consideration is that my partner is currently half way through an Open University course with all her work saved to Office 365, so it enables her to reach a natural break point in her work before shutting down in the event of a power cut (her laptop battery keeps that going).
We probably get power cuts every couple of months but when they happen we can get the power going off and coming back on two or three times very quickly. Therefore I intend to maintain my UPS for the foreseeable future.
I don’t have a UPS but do run two NASs with the same music files on and keep one switched off, except when adding files. That said, whilst power cuts are not unknown here (SE Cheshire) we don’t get them very often and they have not led to any NAS issues.
I have 3 APCs at home, couple of little ones and a biggie on my main rack…I wouldn’t be without them.
I also regularly install them as a matter of course for client installs, especially on MDF and IDF racks…
At home I have a small one dedicated on my Core – I basically had it spare, but I would have got one anyway…We do have power cuts here fairly often, especially in summer, and there certainly has been a few times I’ve heard it kick in in the middle of the night…As well as the cost of the Core itself (which could easily suffer a PSU failure), there’s the WD Red SSD ($600+) in there and of course all the files…Ok, it’s all backed up across x2 USB external drives as well as a NAS, but I’d rather just have that extra layer and try to prevent the sudden ‘shock’ of a cut….
Personally, I’ve only ever lost one HDD caused by a power cut in 30 years or so working directly & indirectly in IT areas…But that’s not really the point, why chance it?
I did have a client with a 7 bay UniFi UNVR have a 18Tb Purple Pro crap itself on a power cut (actually, I’m not so sure it was the actual ‘cut’ but the on/off re-establishing of power from a huge generator they’d brought in to cover the whole site during the planned outage from the power supply)…that was fun rebuilding all that RAID and at the time 18Tb HDD we’re not cheap…!
I just see them as a basic and fairly affordable layer of defence and buys you 1–X hours of time, and if need be a controlled shut down….
What do you have, something like a 1500/1600…? I think the batteries for them are about £100. I’d also consider the external battery add-on, extra Watt capacity and run time……
I have one and my modem router and NAS are on it. I lose power about 20 times a year, so essential. If I’m home, I shut off the NAS before the battery runs out. One time I didn’t catch it before the battery ran out. The NAS was ok, but it complained that it wasn’t shut down properly.
Depending on your model of UPS and/or NAS, you should be able to set up a controlled shutdown routine for the NAS – i.e when the UPS is powering the NAS off its battery and nearing the end of its available power, it will send out a signal to the NAS and initiate a shutdown….There are various ways this can be done via SNMP, NUT, etc over different connections, typically USB or ideally over LAN…I’m fairly sure even the basic APC models all include a USB option and almost all NAS from Synology/Qnap etc will have the relevant UPS power options in the settings….
Whilst it’s fairly standard for NAS, not all connected devices on a UPS can be power controlled like this – the Naim Core unfortunately being one of them (which is a strange omission from the settings imo) ….
I wouldn’t use a NAS without a UPS as it not only protects against complete power outages but also regulates voltage fluctuations, which can also harm the NAS hard drives. I have the reasonably priced CyberPower BR700ELCD which is detectable by my Qnap NAS.
I have a APC UPS (Smart 750 model) serving my NAS units, Virgin Media router (in Modem Mode), Cisco VPN router, Netgear switches, IOT, WAP and Roon ROCK server.
In the event of a power trip/outage there is a few minutes of power for the NAS units to shutdown gracefully, following signalling from the UPS unit and the remaining components, including internet & Wifi are maintain for a little longer, up to about 20 minutes or so.
It also provides some supply smoothing & conditioning to the power supplies.
I find it useful. more for when I have to knock-off the mains or it is tripped.
The power supplies for my Naim NDS, in particular the 555DR on power on and the current inrush, can trip the circuit breaker for the sockets, and just one circuit for the 2 floors of this duplex apartment. It means restoration of the NAS units & therefore the music volume is much faster, on standard power up without any volume checking procedures following a hard power interruption.
I do have to replace the batteries in the UPS every couple of years.
These are easy obtained, there is a good company in Stockport, I used for many years, that offers recondition UPS units and bulk buys generic replacement batteries.
Unfortunately exports from the UK are now less competitive, more expensive with the additional tariffs and export processes harder on UK businesses, so as with many of my purchases I have now sought alternate EU based suppliers, as I imagine many EU residents have in recent years.
Assuming electrical rules are the same as UK, you should ideally change your circuit breaker from a type B to a type C, which will instantly stop this, and is exactly what the Type C is for.
Yes, I know. But I have found a power-on sequence that does prevents it, i.e. Amp off, CHC-555-A off, Naim 555DR off, then reverse.
However, if the power does trip and then comes back, before I can switch these 3 off, to allow the sequenced powering, it does trip the type B.
I have 2 UPS. 1 in the garage on a backup NAS and 1 in the house on 3 NAS, router, switch, house alarm and cameras. We get regular short power cuts which they bridge the gap. I have replaced the batteries in both of them which is fairly easy to do. Batteries are available on line or from screwfix. There is info available on line as to specific batteries for models and how to change them. There is also a USB connection from UPS to NAS so you can set the NAS to shut down normally if the power failure goes on for a time and the UPS battery is likley to go flat.
Thanks all, I am a little surprised (so far) on not having posts saying peeps don’t have a UPS - and indicating no problems - or problems.
I’ll let it run to see what else comes in before I decide.
And thanks for the tips on how to operate them and battery changing, but I’ve worked with quite a few and different makes over the years, so I am well up to speed on the op/service side. I was hoping this thread would confirm (or not) my experience.
Well I’ve never had a UPS, and haven’t had any casualties that would have been saved by one. Occasional power cuts haven’t caused any problems to network storage or hifi.
The only damage I’ve had was from a lightning strike that completely destroyed a Unitiserve, a router and an Airport Extreme through the phone line, but it would take more than a UPS to prevent that.
I have a Synology NAS as additional server and backup, but it’s old now and owes me nothing, so if it gets fried I’ll just replace it.
Having installed solar PV recently I’ll probably add a battery soon. If I do this I’ll have a socket running from it which could be used to run a few essentials such as the router.