OK... I'm going to try with a BK650EI (CS series) from APC...

( http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BK650EI )

It's got USB and RS232 cables, so the RS232 drivers should work direct.

And it'll drive 200 W for about 10 minutes... and 400 for about 2 
minutes... so plenty of time to shut down the server even if it's at 
full load (less than 300 W I gather).

And it's cheap. :)

I'll feedback here once the device is plugged in, and drivers (ups-nut) 
built and configured and running...

Wish me "uninterruptible" luck!

Gilles.

Geert Hendrickx wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 20, 2007 at 08:48:28AM +0200, Martin Husemann wrote:
>   
>> I use APC UPSes a lot, and pkgsrc/sysutils/ups-nut. I like this pkg because
>> it allows me to connect multiple machines to the same ups, have one of
>> them run the ups monitoring server and the others clients. When power fails,
>> the clients shutdown first, then the server. I only have UPSes with serial
>> connection so far, I think people had problem getting the USB connected ones
>> to work - but that should be a solvable problem if you are ready
>> to do a bit of hacking on the pkg (or wait for success stories).
>>
>> There is a small window where power can return (after the machines shut down
>> and before the ups shuts off), but my power failures in general have been
>> very short (ups survives), or significantly longer than battery time, so
>> this was never a problem.
>>     
>
> Same here; SMART UPS from APC powering multiple networked machines (and their
> switches of course), serially attached to one, combined with Network UPS Tools
> (sysutils/ups-nut in pkgsrc).  No bad experiences.  I also second the comment
> about the power race time window.
>
> 	Geert
>   

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