PBX advise (UPS related) needed....

[ABAMOTO]

Dear all:
I have a PBX running in my company but the system is fairly old (about 5 yrs and its running Win95 or Win98). Today before I came to my office my HR already called me and told me that the phone system is completely down. My first impression was that it was probably the power surge occured last night (there were a couple thunders and strikes).

I currently have PBX connected to UPS. In addition, there was no power surge recorded recently that could possibly affect my PBX. I have a few questions:

1. For those of you who use/maintain PBX, how do you determine whether it is outdated and needs to be replaced with a new unit?

2. UPS is intervened when voltage/current coming through falls outside the "safe range" (< 97volts or > 138 volts). However, does UPS supply a stable power to the devices attached to it? Or the current / voltage may still have spikes but within 97~138 volts range?

I am trying to determine whether my UPS protects my PBX 100%, or my PBX is getting too old / unstable and needs to be replaced.


Thank you all for your comments. =)

 

[kmcferrin]

A couple of points:

1. Most UPS devices have two kinds of power outlets on them, those that are surge protected and those that are battery backed up. Make sure that your PBX is plugged into the battery backed outlets.

2. I've never heard of a PBX that runs on Windows 95 or 98, and with good reason. Both operating systems are notoriously unstable, and neither were designed for enterprise use. That means neither of them have the security features to protect your PBX, and they weren't designed to allow for continuous uptime. Even if your hardware is OK, I would definitely look into upgrading the PBX system to something more reliable.

 

[ABAMOTO]

kmcferrin:
Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry but it is actually running on Windows NT 4.0.

Is Windows NT ok or?

for UPS power outlets, both surge protected and battery backed up have surge protection right? I assume that the reason you would go for battery backed up outlet is that when the power is shutdown, the phone system will still be running?

However, in my case our UPS is fairly for small business use. The system itself will not even last 10 minutes. However, I will keep that in mind; after all, 10 minutes is better than nothing.

Thanks for your comments. =)

 

[garebo]

The battery backup plug is both surge protected and battery backup and therefore the battery backup is the only plug that keeps your power at a certain level, so you want the pbx connected to that plug, not the one that is only surge protected. If the pbx is or was only connected to the surge protection plug then the voltage could have dropped or gone over and not protect your pbx.
I learned all about this the hard way. That is, i learned its wise to use a UPS for any computer hardware and other hardware such as a pbx system as well. I suffered a lot of hardware loss due to very poor power delivery in my area and im not alone in this.





Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[kmcferrin]

Garebo is right. The battery backed up outlets have surge protection as well as being battery backed, and with a decent UPS they also provide line conditioning that helps compensate for power sags. Several times I have gotten pager notifications from my UPS systems telling me that they detected low incoming line voltage from the mains, in which case the battery is able to make up the difference.

Regarding uptime, I would look into a UPS that lasts a little longer than 10 minutes, especially if it is a critical system like phones. To prevent hardware damage, I would recommend using the power management software that comes with the UPS that automatically powers down the PC when the power is cut. That prevents the hard resets that can kill your system.

Regarding the OS, Windows NT4 is light years better than 95 or 98, but it still pales in comparison to Windows 2000, 2003, or any of the Linux/Unix variants that power other PBX systems.

 

[ABAMOTO]

kmcferrin and garebo:
Thank you for your comments. It is very valuable.

Currently I have two APC UPS 1500VA 865Watts taking care of all the servers. Because it's a small business so we have like three to four main servers protected by the UPS. That should be enough but I also connect my routers and switches and that is what takes up the rest of the power.

I will definitely make a change on distributing power and let my PBX last longer than 10 minutes.

By the way, for PBX hardware and service, do you have any recommendation? Thank you =)

 

[garebo]

Since you mentioned my name, i dont want you to think i was ignoring your request. Problem is, i know so little about PBX that im not qualified to answer your question.
But others are, like maybe Edfair? He's forgotten more than i know, lol.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[ABAMOTO]

garebo:
It is alright... I appreciate your obligation to reply lol

It is just that PBX seems to be a system that once you set up in the server room you really wouldn't pay much attention to it until it crashes (then that is a big disaster for most business).

Anyone feels free to add any comments =)

 

[kmcferrin]

It depends on how big your company is. We use a Nortel Meridian for our main office, with tie line to Nortel Norstar boxes for remote sites. It sounds like that would be overkill for you though. We're also pretty lucky on the power req's too though, because we have automated backup generators that our infrastructure is plugged into. In the event of an outage, our UPS systems only have to carry the load for about 6 seconds before the generators are running at full steam. But since we get lots of short power flashes in our area, we do get quite a benefit from the line conditioning.

 

[garebo]

I feel the same way,kmcferrin. For me, its the line conditioning that saves my computer hardware from getting destroyed before its time. Hard drives, vid cards, external boxes, mobos, dont last forever but now that i use UPS's I find that they do last a long time. I harp about UPS's but if just one person reads this, trusts this, and goes out and gets themself a UPS and plugs it in right and uses it all the time, then its worth it!
I just know I woke up in the morning too many times to find fried hardware. A few times i lost most of a whole system. Luckily I was so angry that I went out and found a great deal on 3 UPS's and then bought 2 more used ones. I went home and installed them and now i never plug any electronics into a standard wall plug, only i plug them into the battery backup side of the UPS. Now i dont suffer fried parts or whole system loss and things run for years and keep running, amazing!
I guess you can see i feel very strongly about this.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

I feel the same way about the short power flashes, kmcferrin. For me, its the line conditioning that saves my computer hardware from getting destroyed before its time. Hard drives, vid cards, external boxes, mobos, dont last forever but now that i use UPS's I find that they do last a long time. I harp about UPS's but if just one person reads this, trusts this, and goes out and gets themself a UPS and plugs it in right and uses it all the time, then its worth it!
I just know I woke up in the morning too many times to find fried hardware. A few times i lost most of a whole system. Luckily I was so angry that I went out and found a great deal on 3 UPS's and then bought 2 more used ones. I went home and installed them and now i never plug any electronics into a standard wall plug, only i plug them into the battery backup side of the UPS. Now i dont suffer fried parts or whole system loss and things run for years and keep running, amazing!
I guess you can see i feel very strongly about this.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

wish there was an edit key. I didnt even know the above 2 posts made it, i ended up with an error on my side.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[kmcferrin]

Heh. I guess a double post means that you feel really, really strongly about it, eh?

 

[garebo]

Sounds good!
I do feel that strong but i wouldnt waste that post. You know how sometimes you post and get a blank page, or mostly blank, white page with some writing, or some sort of error message. This had been pretty notorious here back a while but hasnt happened much lately. Anyway, thats what happened, i posted but got an error message so i figured my post didnt post. So i tried again and again. On getting back i see it posted twice.
And, of course, there is no editing features around here.

But i do honestly feel that we should all have at least one UPS protecting our pc, at least our pc, better to protect monitor and printer etc, but at least our pc.
But then again maybe there are areas in which the power at the wall is that good that there are never any brownouts, power lows, power surges, etc. I just know what i know about the very poor quality power in my area plus what others have posted when this was the main topic of discussion, not just part of another thread. So i know there are a ton of people out there that have had the same experiences i have had, lost too much hardware, installed a UPS, now dont lose hardware. Voila!!




Good advice + great people = tek-tips