Re: How do redundant power supplies in servers work?

On Sun, 2011-09-11 at 17:53 -0700, Seth Mattinen wrote:

> Yeah, any UPS that outputs a stepped approximation sine wave (rather
> than a pure sine wave) will probably not play nice. Always go for the
> pure sine wave models for important stuff. Of course, convincing a
> client not to cheap out on the UPS is a different story.

Note that this has started becoming a problem not just for servers but
also for newer desktop systems that have PFC supplies.  I recently
bought a pair of Dell XPS 8300 desktop systems and encountered this
issue.  One of my systems (my personal desktop) was installed onto a
Smart-UPS which provides pure sine-wave output while another was
installed on a newer Back-UPS.  The system on the Back-UPS would not
survive a UPS cutover to battery.  Until recently, I had only experience
with the Smart-UPS line (1400 and above) and presumed that the Back-UPS
line also provided a pure sine wave.

Luckily, I had just recently purchased the Back-UPS so was able to
return it.  Not having the budget for a new Smart-UPS (and my wife would
not have tolerated the noise of one anyways), I purchased a CyberPower
which was cheaper, quieter and did output pure sine wave power.  I
suspect that with the trend to use PFC supplies in modern equipment,
pure sine wave UPSes will start appearing at cheaper pricepoints.


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