Battery Backup for Mulitple Machines?

[jlpoole]

I run two Gentoo servers (and eventually three, although two are 8 watt ARM based) and a Windows XP box.

I'm looking for a power battery back up solution and wonder if I can have one battery source and run all three machine of it. The power specifications on various models suggest there are units to handle the power requirements (but see the CP1500AVRLCD touts 900 watts for 11 minutes and confess that they only provide 3 minutes at full load), what brings me to this forum is the question of what solution is there for handling multiple machines off one unit. I'm guessing a daemon running on one of the Linux servers where the other Linux server listens and the the Windows box listens. I'm not seeing in the sales descriptions and specifications software solutions that suggest network ready compliance.

Any opinions on which products lend themselves well to network solutions that can protect Linux and Windows machines?

It seems wasteful to have a power unit each for the Linux servers and one for the Windows box.

[jathlon]

I've been doing it for a couple of years. I use a APC Back-UPS XS 1300 LC. Software is in portage for APC; sys-power/apcupsd and there is even a windows client that can connect to the daemon, to shut down your windows machine if it's plugged into the ups. If you are using gnome or are willing to install a bunch of gnome libs, you can set the gnome use flag and get a gui monitor. (Not great but better than nothing I suppose). You have command line status tools, or you can set up a web monitoring interface.

http://www.apcupsd.com/ for more info/docs and windows download if you're so inclined. There is even a howto on the gentoo wiki.

joe