Questions about power and the necessity of UPS (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by BeardedBears@alien.top to c/homelab@selfhosted.forum

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Newbie here. I'm looking to set up a rack for better networking gear, my PC's, some Raspberry Pi's, and eventually a NAS. One thing I see everywhere are UPS battery backups.

I've never used a UPS in my entire PC life, and I've experienced a handful of power outages when I'm using my computer. I do use a (probably cheap) surge protector, though. Nothing bad has ever happened. Am I just lucky? Is an unexpected power-outage event for a NAS or Network gear any worse than for a PC? Or if I'm merely lucky, are the dice rolls for damage basically the same? Are there "smart" (ugh) UPS that detect power outages and automatically begin shutting everything down safely?

Also, I don't (think) I want or need my gear to be on all the time. I don't see why I'd need a NAS filled with recreational media to be on when I'm asleep. So what's all this hub-bub about continuous uptime on home networks? Do NAS drives prefer to be on 24/7? Do folks power down their servers every night?

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[-] thefirebuilds@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

the power coming out of my walls is terrible. really unpredictable, constant brown outs, and storms impact it badly. At the least a very small UPS will even out and correct the power. I've had electrical storms take out computers, firewalls, a TV, and a dvd player. Everything on my house is on at least a surge protector, servers are on dual UPS, on two separate circuits, my PC is on a battery, so is the internet gear, separately. I hear it at work frequently. We also have a whole house surge protector. I'm just outside a major metro. invest in UPS.

BTW if your pi crashes while writing it will almost certainly corrupt the SD card beyond use. I have moved to SSD or netbook (PXE) because I got tired of replacing the damn things.

this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2023

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