NAS: Do I really need a UPS?

[absinthe]

Recently purchased a Buffalo Linkstation, and have read indications that I should get an Uninterrupted Power Supply in case of power failure. The APC brand units I'm looking at at Amazon, in the $50-$80 range, seem to indicate that they will only provide power from battery for several minutes.

I have no experience whatsoever with these units, but this doesn't seem very useful. What if I'm not home when the power goes out? What potential damage can be caused to my home multimedia NAS or files due to power outage? If the best these units can do is 5-13 minutes, I almost think I'd be just as well off without one.

Advice?

-a

 

[thiggins]

Yes, you do need a UPS. It protects against over/under voltage, temporary dropouts and surges. It is not meant to keep the NAS up long term.

The most important thing is that the UPS can initiate a clean shutdown of the NAS and keep it powered for as long as it takes for the NAS to shut down. That is only a few minutes. So even a 500W or so UPS should be plenty.

 

[absinthe]

Thanks! Order placed.

 

[claykin]

Be sure to connect the USB monitoring cable that comes with your new APC UPS to the Linkstation. This way it can properly monitor the battery condition and perform shutdown prior to battery exhaustion.

I do recommend you login to your Linkstation after connecting the APC USB cable and make sure its properly detected and reported in the Linkstation log files. I've seen many cases where UPS units aren't properly detected on some NAS appliances.

 

[stevech]

be sure your NAS has software compatible with the UPS you choose. Not like Windows where most any UPS is supported and there's a common API.

 

[claykin]

be sure your NAS has software compatible with the UPS you choose. Not like Windows where most any UPS is supported and there's a common API.

NAS appliances don't allow you to install UPS admin software. It either works or it doesn't unless they offer a network attached UPS option.

 

[kanewolf]

Synology NAS units know how to deal with UPS units when directly connected via USB. They will recognize the power failure signal from the UPS and gracefully shut down. They can even broadcast the shutdown to other units on the same UPS and shut them down.

 

[claykin]

Synology NAS units know how to deal with UPS units when directly connected via USB. They will recognize the power failure signal from the UPS and gracefully shut down. They can even broadcast the shutdown to other units on the same UPS and shut them down.

Most NAS appliances support these same features. Most, not all especially some older ones where the OS has not been maintained/upgraded in a while....