SUMMARY: Need UPS vendor recommendation in France/Europe

From: Fergus O'Reilly (fergus@capsogeti.fr)
Date: Wed Sep 18 1991 - 13:40:30 CDT


THE REQUEST (posted Thursday September 5, 1991):

> [...] Consequently we have an urgent need to buy a UPS for
> this server and its disks. It should be rated to 5 kVA,
> providing 7 to 10 minutes of backup power, conditioning the
> supply in normal operation and equipped with an early-warning
> system which can communicate with a daemon running on the
> protected computer (a Sun 3/180 running SunOS 4.1.1) in the
> case of mains failure.
>
> I would be very grateful to receive any recommendations,
> especially for vendors/distributors in France or in Europe
> generally. [...]

Overwhelmingly, people recommend UPSs from BEST Power Technology.
They seem to have a wide range of models from 500 VA up to 18 kVA
with solidly long backup-power run times. They are recommended
for good technology, good communication capabilities with the
protected computer, good company service and support and `worth
every penny.' Some addresses for Best Power follow:

     France:
        Best Power Technology SARL
        5, Parc du Moulin
        B.P. 222
        91882 Massy Cedex
        Tel.: (1) 60.13.93.93

     U.S.A.:
        Best Power Technology
        P.O. Box 280
        Necedah, Wisconsin 54646
        Tel.: (800) 356 5794

     Canadian Dealer:
        JTS Computer Systems
        5000 Dufferin St., Unit G.
        Downsview, Ontario.
        M3H 5T5.
        Tel.: (416) 665 8910

I was also referred to a comparative article on UPS vendors which
appeared in the August 1990 edition of SunExpert, "The Low Down
on UPS."

Other vendors which received positive recommendations from users
with large servers to protect were:

        Exide Electronics
        3201 Spring Forest Road
        Raleigh, North Carolina 27604
        U.S.A.

        Emerson Computer Power
        Elgin Drive
        Swindon, Wilts
        England SN2 6DX.
        Tel.: 793 524121
        U.S. Tel.: (800) 222-5877

        Smart-UPS
        Tel.: (800) 541-8896

        American Power Conversion
        132 Fairgrounds Road
        West Kingston, RI 02892
        Tel.: (401) 789-5735

        Para Systems
        P.O. Box 815188
        Dallas TX 75381
        Tel.: (214) 466-7363

Some people also pointed out the existence of public domain UPS
monitor software called `upsd' which is available from good
archive sites worldwide. It claims to do the following:

> The UPS monitor daemon or "upsd" watches the serial port
> connected to an UPS and will perform an unattended shutdown of
> the system if the UPS is on battery longer than a specified
> number of minutes. Upsd needs to watch a tty with modem
> control properties, and expects the UPS to raise DCD when it
> switches to battery backup and drop DCD when it goes back to
> online. Upsd was developed and tested under ISC with the FAS
> 2.08 driver and an American Power Conversion SmartUPS 600,
> your milage may vary on other OSes and UPSes.

Many thanks to the following for their responses:

        Andrew Luebker <aahvdl@eye.psych.umn.edu>
        Jim Napier <napier@ames.ucsd.edu>
        Rick Mott <uunet!princeton!pgt1!rick>
        David Kuncicky <kuncick@mu.cs.fsu.edu>
        Paul DuBois <dubois@primate.wisc.edu>
        Ed Tinnel <ept@eptsun1.ctd.ornl.gov>
        Dan Butzer <butzer@pinnacle.com>
        Dale K. Newby <dkn@gmf.eds.com>
        Clive Beddall <clive@jtsv16.jts.com>

--
Fergus O'Reilly
fergus@capsogeti.fr



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