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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>A former employer’s clients all had UPS
setups at install to guard against power loss. The clients were supposed to
periodically print “emergency reports” so they’d have some up to date info in
the even the server went down for any reason so they could manually do things
for their customers. More than one of these clients decided they didn’t want
to waste the paper so instead plugged a printer into the UPS. We usually
found out they’d done that when they’d call in an complain how the computer “crashed”
during a power outage and they decided that was the right moment to print the
reports.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
ale-bounces@ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org] <b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Jim Kinney<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, March 22, 2011
11:37 AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Atlanta
Linux Enthusiasts</st1:PersonName><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [ale] Hard Lessons -
was Re: how do I list big files</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>heh, heh. Many years back
I started a complicated scp process between several remote machines from my
home office. I went and reloaded the coffee cup and then proceeded to stub my
toe on the UPS power switch on the way back to happy geek remote control
nirvana. In the microseconds it took for all the power to drain from all the
devices, main linux box, monitor, ISDN modem, and for the depth of horror I had
just created for myself to sink in, I could see the need for a protective cover
over the power switch much like the springloaded box that protects the EPO
switch in a data canter.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 11:00 AM, Ron Frazier <<a
href="mailto:atllinuxenthinfo@c3energy.com">atllinuxenthinfo@c3energy.com</a>>
wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Been there, done that, except for the 5 years part. I have my
desktop PC attached to a 750 VA UPS, which says 15 minutes run time on the
box. Well, AT THIS LOAD level, the run time on that battery is 3 minutes,
which I didn't know because I had fallen for the market speak on the box.
I happily pulled the plug, then nearly fainted as the PC abruptly lost power
after 3 - 4 minutes.<br>
<br>
My favorite backup is a cloned hard drive, which I can swap around in two
minutes. Didn't know that, didn't have that at the time. I did have
an image backup, but it was about a month old. I had to restore Windows
AND Linux (dual boot), and then recover data from an online backup and resetup
everything within the last month. So, my simple happy UPS test turned
into a long grumpy sad 2 day system building exercise. NOT FUN!<br>
<br>
I learned a valuable and painful lesson. That is that you have to
customize the UPS settings to the situation. If I let the computer drain
this particular battery to 10%, or even 1%, which I think Gnome defaults to, it
would literally have only 5 - 10 seconds to shut down. This is not enough
time, even for Linux. I set my Windows UPS controls on that machine to
warn me at battery level of 85%, which is about 36 seconds into the power
failure. Then, I set it to shut down at 70% battery level, which is about
1.1 minutes into the power failure. At least, this way, it will have
about 2.5 minutes to complete the shutdown, and it stands a fighting chance.<br>
<br>
I still haven't figured out to control the shutdown settings in the Gnome power
manager. I don't think you can.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Ron<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 03/22/2011 10:00 AM, Jim Kinney wrote: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"hard" is when
you have to do the first test of the recovery system: make backup, pull the
plug, restore from bare iron 5 years worth of critical data.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 9:31 AM, Derek Atkins <<a
href="mailto:warlord@mit.edu" target="_blank">warlord@mit.edu</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Lightner,
Jeff" <<a href="mailto:jlightner@water.com" target="_blank">jlightner@water.com</a>>
writes:<br>
<br>
> What is scary is there are still people today who don't see the need for<br>
> regular backups until something goes belly up on them.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>coming up with a backup system is *hard*<br>
implementing it is even harder.<br>
<br>
-derek<br>
<font color="#888888"><span style='color:#888888'>--<br>
Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory<br>
Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board
(SIPB)<br>
URL: <a href="http://web.mit.edu/warlord/" target="_blank">http://web.mit.edu/warlord/</a>
PP-ASEL-IA N1NWH<br>
<a href="mailto:warlord@MIT.EDU" target="_blank">warlord@MIT.EDU</a>
PGP key available</span></font><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<pre><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>-- <o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>mailing lists and such. I don't always see new messages very quickly.)<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Ron Frazier<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><a
href="tel:770-205-9422" target="_blank">770-205-9422</a> (O) Leave a message.<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>linuxdude AT <a
href="http://c3energy.com" target="_blank">c3energy.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></pre></div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><br>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><br>
<br clear=all>
<br>
-- <br>
-- <br>
James P. Kinney III<br>
I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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