The SDM web server will be unavailable for a short time on Thursday, June 7.
I've purchased a brand new UPS for the server closet, but its much larger than the old one so in addition to swapping out the UPS units, I'll need to punch out the back panel on my cabinet/stand and redo the cabling. The work shouldn't take more than about an hour. I'll do it during daylight hours, so those of you who work or or are still in school shouldn't even realize it it's happened - unless you're peeking in from those locations (which would be pretty awesome)
I've been a little unhappy with the old UPS performance since replacing the server over Christmas. The battery is getting up there in age and even though the CPU draws less power than the old one, the dual Velociraptor drives eat a lot juice more than the old one does, and the UPS doesn't really do its job anymore. It's only rated at 500VA (an APC Back-UPS ES 500) and the battery's probably down to under 200VA capacity remaining on a full charge, so it basically keeps the server closet running for about 30-40 seconds tops in an outage. It also doesn't condition the power, so spikes and browns tend to trip the surge protector and that shuts down the whole system.
The new unit is 1500VA (APC Back-UPS Pro RS 1500) which should give alot more runtime during power outages and it will also provide power conditioning to reduce unexpected outages. Granted, when the power is out the fiber network between me and the ISP is down so it makes little difference to all of you. But it means when power is restored, the server is still running and not waiting for me to push the power button to boot it back up or restore it from standby.
The new UPS cost me about $215, so if you appreciate me spending that kind of money to keep this site up and running at peak performance, help offset the cost by visiting the
For Sale page and buying something.
