4 Essential UPS Secrets

Ironically only a few days after I posted my displeasure with the fact that Internap's sales organization is lacking (to put it gently), I found this post at Data Center Knowledge about an outage in their New York location at 111 8th Avenue. This suggests a reason behind the fact that they have yet to return my calls. They are failing. Any organization who does not return sales calls and who cuts corners has me concerned, so quite frankly I'm pleased that I did not connect up with them. I hope I'm wrong, however.

Over the years I've built several data centers and have designed critical power infrastructure. Based on my experience (which should be no different than Internap's) here are the key things everyone should keep in mind about UPS systems:

1. Power is the 2nd most volatile component in the data center, second to the network. Always have redundant power to your racks (that's 2N or better!) Yes Livestream, StackExchange, I'm talking to you. And if Internap said they provided 2N power to your rack(s) at 111 8th, they obviously did not.
   
2. UPS systems must have dual (parallel) battery strings. A single string is a problem waiting to happen, irregardless of how aggressive your maintenance program is.
   
3. Maintain your UPS systems well. Have them inspected at least twice yearly, which must include a complete battery check. Yes, that means disconnecting the batteries, putting the UPS into bypass mode while that electrical Bus is on Generator power and checking every one of them. Batteries are your weakest link.
   
4. Replace the batteries after 4 years. In the datacenters I've designed, we would install 10 year batteries, but replace them after 4 years. Yes, it is expensive, but that is the point where they begin to fail. You'll find a bad one during each inspection at that point. Don't risk it!

If you're not following these UPS guidelines, you're asking for trouble. When datacenters start to cut corners due to budget, critical power systems are not the place to do it. I sure hope budget is not the reason Internap had an issue.

Cheers,

CJ