Dell/EMC AX100 UPS

We've just bought an AX100 on ebay and have it running in our test
environment. Cheap and cheerful...

While we can run it on a UPS we don't have any signalling set-up so
the AX100 does not know it's on a UPS and does not enable the write
cache in the storage processors.

Does anyone know what third party UPS (I assume Dell/EMC badge engineer)
I could use - if any - to get the UPS signalling to work?

TIA!

Guy
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Guy Dawson I.T. Manager Crossflight Ltd

On Jun 10, 10:55 am, Guy Dawson wrote:
We've just bought an AX100 on ebay and have it running in our test
environment. Cheap and cheerful...

While we can run it on a UPS we don't have any signalling set-up so
the AX100 does not know it's on a UPS and does not enable the write
cache in the storage processors.

Does anyone know what third party UPS (I assume Dell/EMC badge engineer)
I could use - if any - to get the UPS signalling to work?

According to Dell (http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pvaul/
en/infoworld_ax100.pdf), APC Smart UPS works when you connect it to
the RJ45 on SPA.
I have no experience with the AX100, but I thought it either came with
an external 1U UPS, or had a battery-backed cache module. With a UPS,
the CX-series powers the vault drives during
power problems, so the cache is dumped onto the vault before the
battery goes low. With battery-backed cache I imagine all you can do
is hope that the power comes back in time.
But I would think both configurations let you enable write caching.

belpatCA wrote:
On Jun 10, 10:55 am, Guy Dawson wrote:
We've just bought an AX100 on ebay and have it running in our test
environment. Cheap and cheerful...

While we can run it on a UPS we don't have any signalling set-up so
the AX100 does not know it's on a UPS and does not enable the write
cache in the storage processors.

Does anyone know what third party UPS (I assume Dell/EMC badge engineer)
I could use - if any - to get the UPS signalling to work?

According to Dell (http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pvaul/
en/infoworld_ax100.pdf), APC Smart UPS works when you connect it to
the RJ45 on SPA.

Good spot - thanks.

I have no experience with the AX100, but I thought it either came with
an external 1U UPS, or had a battery-backed cache module.

Looking at the above URL the AX100 was bundled with what looks like a
stock APC 750 Smart-UPS. Hopefully with the right cable - AP9613 DB9 to
RJ45 I think - and a Smart-UPS we should be in business.

With a UPS, the CX-series powers the vault drives during
power problems, so the cache is dumped onto the vault before the
battery goes low.

Indeed. We have a CX300 together with two 'SPS' UPSs and a signalling
cable in another rack.

With battery-backed cache I imagine all you can do is hope that the
power comes back in time.

Yup. Typically the batteries are sized to hold the data for several
days.

But I would think both configurations let you enable write caching.

It does on our CX300. We've run HP RAID cards with DAS and the
RAID cards have a battery backed write cache. Just don't have the
power off for too long!

Guy