Connecting a UPS ?

[netman]

Hi !

We just purchased one unit for 250 Users and we love it. It's awesome. The only question I have is...

The manual is stressing the fact that we should always shut down the unit properly to avoid corruption of the file system, which is fine by me. But there is nothing in the manual explaining how to connect a UPS to the box. Is it doable, and will the OS will shutdown gracefully in case of power failure ?

Else, what should I do to avoid problems in case of a power outage ?

[dzavasni]

Currently there is no means for the blocker to communicate with a smartUPS. (No physical UPS/RPS port) That said, a UPS cannot command the blocker to shut down in the event of impending power loss.

If you are using a smartUPS, many will have email alerting and/or SNMP monitoring built in. You can use the UPS's alerts to make you aware of a problem, and hopefully can have remote management or onsite staff that can manually shut the blocker down before the battery reserves run out if the issue is more severe than a brown-out.

[netman]

I'm not always there. There should be a way for the unit to shut down gracefully with a smart ups...

[dzavasni]

Understood. That is why I added the suggestions of remote management and SNMP. What model of managed UPS do you have?

[netman]

We don't have the SNMP management card in any UPS's currently. This option runs about a thousand dollars which is very expensive.

You can't expect SMB's to purchase this option and more importantly, have the technical knowledge to make it work properly. There is often no one onsite and there is a limited number of technical staff onsite. This unit is targeted at SMB's, and in my perception of the thing, many smb's don't have people onsite 24/7. Even without this card, my UPS units are sending me an email everytime there is a outage, but to rely on human intervention for proper shutdown is a recipe for disaster.

For me, right now, it is a bit frightening as:

1. Unlike the previous unit I was using to perform this job, there is apparently no way for me to reload the appliance in case of a crash. The only way to fix a filesystem problem would be to have the whole unit sent to service.

2. The previous product I was using had this option right in the web interface.

It should be added in the next software upgrade. I rate it as upmost importance.

[bethingt]

I will pass on to our developers your concerns and suggestions for improvement for the blocker. As to if the system crashes the only means is to send of to service is not all true. We can rebuild the Queue incase there is a power failure and the queue gets corrupted, if the drive it self gets damaged then service would be needed. If this does happen just give Cisco Small Business Support Center a call and we can assist. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/support/tsd_cisco_small_business_support_center_contacts.html#csb

Brian

[netman]

We are on our second unit as the first one failed in a weird way. The night prior it's integration, I received a weird RAID error message and then the user interface wouldn't be reachable. I then received lots of messages regarding python errors. The unit was two days old.

Plugging a monitor to the unit (even if we are not supposed to) would reveal a healthy raid after all, but trying to login to the text interface would generate tons of Python errors. I returned the unit to my reseller to get a new one, following the advice of tech support, but the fact that we can't reload the OS in case of a crash is really frightening in a way.

What's the turnaround time for a replacement in case of a problem ?

[bethingt]

The Blocker ships next day air if needs to be RMA.

Brian