[geeks] Good thing I had a UPS...

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

So... eastern Virginia was selected to host a nor'easter this week.

Not a big deal, just a lot of rain and wind.  We have them all the time.

I also have a UPS, so everything is fine.

Or it was.

I don't expect a UPS to behave like a science-fiction AI, but some
pre-programmed prudence would seem reasonable.

For example, if your batteries are low and there is a 10 volt brownout,
maybe you should postpone your monthly diagnostic test. You know, the
one that puts a heavy load on the batteries to test their capacity?

Evidently that's an advanced option my UPS doesn't have, so with failing
batteries and a brownout, it switched to full diagnostic mode and
promptly failed.

When it started the test I remember thinking, "Now isn't a great time
for that...", just before I heard the rpm-drop on all the system drives,
as all my equipment powered off.

It was also at this moment the UPS batteries sent word they were leaving
for fiddler's green.

I can say this though: over the years this UPS has stopped literally
dozens of big surges and brownouts, plus who knows how much stuff I
never knew about, so it has paid for itself several times over. It's
just annoying when this kind of thing happens. It's also an older UPS
which doesn't have easy-maintenance battery trays, and you have to
disassemble the battery cabinet to replace them.

Since the batteries are so expensive, it might be cheaper to replace the
whole UPS. It's a 2KVA Compaq/Deltec unit and fairly good, but newer
ones are smaller. I suppose it depends on the battery costs, and how
paranoid I am about the stupid software doing this to me again.

Also, this event has permanently retired my 4mm "write only" backup
robot, which is perhaps a good thing.  What happened was when I powered
the UPS up again, the drive came on and the robot tried to eject.  The
tape carrier got stuck, but I didn't notice.  By the time I did notice,
the drive wheels had spun against the tape carrier until they melted all
over the four tapes inside.

Of all things I prepare for, that's one I hadn't thought about.

Not a big loss.  I can rarely read 4mm tapes I've written to anyway.




-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The trade of governing has always been
monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of
mankind.  -- Thomas Paine"]