Until recently I have never had a redundant PSU or a rack server for that matter. So, I think maybe I did this wrong? I have a Supermicro FatTwin 6026TT-HDTRF (CSE-827HD-R1400B case) that comes with a 1400 watt redundant PSU. I plugged both supplies into the same (APC 1500watt) battery backup. Recently, we had the UPS battery fail, replaced the battery and now I can only run one node (this is a two node server) at a time. Trying to run both servers causes some form of power failure and both server keep trying to restart but cannot. (I just read about check the BIOS for a power balancing setting. I will check that when I get back to machine.) Is it considered "proper practice" to plug the two power supplies into separate battery backups? Having plugged both into the same battery backup, I am thinking the battery failure may have damaged both PSU's causing them to now not have the (power output) capacity to carry the load of both servers running at the same time? Any ones general experience with redundant PSU's would be appreciated?
1 Answer
It is a bit late here for the OP, but for when others come across this... I generally recommend having two UPSes, one on each supply and having the mains for each UPS also on a separate circuit and ideally a separate phase. The idea here is to minimize the downtime by either UPS maintenance and faults, circuit maintenance and unexpected trips, and minimizing brown-outs and harmonics by keeping the supplies on different phases. And yes, having the power balancing setup in the BIOS is good if your redundant supplies support it rather than active/standby as it is less stress on all the electrical components.
