[mythtv-users] UPS's (was Re: ext3 suitability (Was: Re: Block size for ext3 partition))

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/06/2008 05:29 PM, Tom Dexter wrote:
> Same here...ext3 with slow deletes on over and LVM2 partition works
> great for me.  I definitely wanted to use a journalized file
> system...I no longer use UPSs in my home ever since the battery in an
> APC SmartUPS went bad on me and almost caught fire in my home...never
> again.

Since I took my systems off UPS's my network/system reliability has 
increased significantly.  I've found that the UPS's aren't nearly as 
smart as they claim and would often refuse to resume sending power to my 
systems or would start sending power just as the system was about to 
shut down, so the BIOS/ATX PS would see there was power at shutdown and 
would stay shutdown.  That doesn't work so well when you're on a 
week-long business trip.

At least without UPS's, when there's power at the wall, my systems get 
power, so they run or boot up whenever they can.  Other than the unclean 
shutdown (which is handled pretty well thanks to the filesystem's 
journalling) and unclean power, I haven't found any disadvantages to 
this approach.  ;)

I'm currently looking at building my own UPS to clean the power and get 
me through the few power blinks/outages I tend to get, but I like the 
idea of a non-traditional approach to get an efficient online power 
supply (rather than a standby power supply).  I'm trying to decide if 
using http://opussolutions.com/index.php?p=product&id=49 with a nice 
deep-cycle marine battery (currently looking at Concorde Lifeline AGM 
batteries) so that the system always runs off the battery would be a 
good approach.  I'm just afraid of getting a "smart" battery charger as 
in the past, the "smarts" are what have killed me.  And since I know 
nothing about battery chargers or even "dumb" power supplies, I've been 
afraid to begin the purchasing so I can figure it out.

Mike