I've recently experienced a number of power outages, and decided that I should therefore protect my ReadyNAS (RN104) with a small UPS. However I've struggled to find out which UPS models (if any) are compatible, what coniguration I could or should use, and so on.
My initial Google searches highlighted a Netgear article here saying I could (only) add Remote to SNMP-enabled UPS.... so not the basic USB-connected model I was thinking about. Then I could find virtually nothing on supported brands and models. I did eventually find one post saying the Netgear webpage was wrong, and USB UPS will just appear (as if you try to "add" a UPS in the ReadyNAS UPS config page, USB-connected UPS are not an option you can select). Still nothing on supported models, so it was with only hope that I ordered an APC BackUps XS700UI - basically the smallest, cheapest, communicating UPS I could find (I've used larger APC UPS a lot in my day job so was keen on using an APC product).
I was therefore relieved when, after purchasing an C19-C8 IEC cable to connect the UPS output to the ReadyNAS PDU input, and digging a USB cable out of a drawer - the ReadyNAS swiftly identified and listed the UPS, even displaying its serial number and estimated runtime, as well as a green "on line power" blob! What it took a further 24h to find was the settings "cog" next to the UPS listing, which gives you a dialog to configure the shutdown period... in this case in terms of percentage of battery threshold. I've gone for 40%, which should give it at least 20 mins to shutdown (and around 40 mins of runtime before then). Before finding this, I was contemplating if I needed to connect the UPS to a PC with Powerchute s/w installed, so that I could reconfigure the "low battery" alert time, as all I'd found otherwise was that with Auto, the UPS would shutdown when it received a low battery alarm from the UPS.... and the UPS will send this with only 2 minutes battery remaining. Safe.... I think not!
Anyway.... now I'm happy I have a good configuration, though have not yet disconnected the mains and tested it. The BackUps XS700UI is a very similar compact size to the ReadyNAS 104 and they sit well together, and at about £60 was a reasonable price (compared with the investment in the RN104 and its 4TB Red drives).
So.... could I have been spared the headaches, is there actually any good source of information on compatible UPS models for the various ReadyNAS devices? On this forum I've subsequently found a few posts that would have given me more clues, but nothing comprehensive. There are a few discussions around NUT (network UPS tools) which is embedded into the ReadyNAS firmware as the way of enabling UPS compatability , and therefore any UPS on its compatibility list should work... however the compatibility list isn't an easy read, and doesn't really list specific models. APC BackUps are mentioned, but I couldn't see the XS700UI by model no. Also there's nothing to say which version of NUT is included in the APC firmware....
- create a telnet session to the ReadyNAS IP address on port 3493;
- issue commands such as "GET VAR UPS ups.status" .
You can also find the UPS firmware version (ups.firmware), manufacturing date (ups.mfr.date), the UPS input voltage, battery voltage and many more items. In fact LIST VAR UPS will show you everything supported by the UPS.
This includes the NUT version with the command GET VAR UPS driver.version (or just the simple command VER) - and see the f/w is 2.7.4. - which you can see here is actually the latest NUT release (dated Mar 2016).
We do support USB UPS, but the UPS must have a USB port, we don't support serial to USB.
There are multiple factors that may affect compatibility and there's far too many UPS models out there for us to maintain a compatibility list.
APC is a brand that on the whole is very likely to be compatible.
If you're wanting to test a shutdown what you can do is e.g. power down the NAS, connect the power of the NAS directly to the wall outlet.
Turn the NAS back on and unplug the UPS from the wall outlet. If things are working the NAS should be shutdown by the UPS when the threshold is reached.
The version of NUT included is shown in packages.log as well.
You can even share the UPS using NUT with other devices (e.g a second NAS) but if you do that the other devices and your router/switch would need to also be on the UPS so that the network is still up for the other devices (e.g. a second NAS) to be shutdown safely. The router/switch could be left to power off when the battery runs out.
Using a UPS is great, but there are still things that can go wrong e.g. the UPS battery failing (should be much less often than power outages though). If the NAS is used for primary storage of important data you should backup the NAS regularly.
Thanks mdgm for the additional info, and confirmation of USB support particularly for APC devices. If that could make it into the help pages that would be handy.
On the subject of backing up the NAS, as you mentioned at the end, I've been experimenting with using AWS S3 to do this, but have run into problems recently with unexpected costs. Are you or any other NetGear experts able to look at my post here (added to someone else's who's experienced the same issue) please?
