[Asterisk-Users] UPS for Asterisk

[Shoval Tomer]

I have several Linux machines some running on really old hardware and
some on brand new, some run old distros (RedHat 6) and some new (FC3 or
CentOS).

All of them experienced power failure more then once, none of them has
failed to load after a reboot.

BUT,
Asterisk is running your PBX. Your PBX isn't your proxy server, it isn't
your web server, mail server, firewall, or whatever you're used to run
on linux.

Even though it would seem that down time on all of these production
machines is bad, these are all systems that have no counter part in the
legacy world, and that we all agree may have some downtime along the
road.

On the other hand, telephony down time is unacceptable. PBXs have a
counter part. Plain old PBXs are expected to run 24x7. real 24x7, with
uptimes of 99.999. And if you think about it, they actually do.

So people will expect your asterisk installation to do the same.

Besides, when a mail server goes down for ten minutes, when it comes
back up you still get your mail.
This is not true for your PBX.

Our asterisk installation has software RAID, has a UPS, has recover CDs
burnt and ready to be used
(http://www.builderau.com.au/architect/sdi/0,39024602,20269582,00.htm)

And still, my knees are shaking.

In short, GET 100$ and BUY A UPS. It's worth it.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Bachmann [mailto:asterisk at not-real.org] 
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 5:30 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] UPS for Asterisk

Andrew Kohlsmith wrote:

>  On January 23, 2005 04:04 pm, Mike Sander wrote:
>
> > Is the harddisk activity on a standard asterisk install such that I
> > don't really have to worry if the power cuts??
>
>  Not typically; there isn't much writing going on, this is true. Are
>  you that cash strapped that a $75 UPS with a serial port is out of
>  your budget?

No kidding... the cost of a server than won't come up again is much more

substantial than the countermeasure... the $75 (you can get a 350 Va for

$45 even!) and a slightly less energy efficient system. If you can 
afford to spend more, a decent active UPS would keep your power 
conditioned as well...

> > As I understand, if HD activity is minimal, the probability of HD
> > failure is significantly reduced.
>
>
>  HDDs don't fail because they lose power.

Unless the heads crash, which can happen if power fails. I know HDD 
manufacturers have done "head unloading" and such recently, but the risk

is still higher if power is suddenly lost during a write.

Nick
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