Tom, when you said that using batts to supply high power systems is not ready for prime time, do you mean, not ready for the consumer market? Just for the education of some of the list members, we have a battery backup system here at CMU that will sustain our server room, at least the machines, for about 30 minutes. Plenty long enough for the diesel generator to come on line, which should actually take less than two minutes. Our server room is approximately 1200 boxes with twin power supplies in each box. The battery backup is actually a room full of batteries.
Our counter-parts at The university of Pittsburgh have twice as many machines as we do, have dual battery backups, and two separate power feeds coming from two different power suppliers, as well as a diesel generator. Last year they were down for about 45 minutes when every piece of the system failed. It's amazing how the complexity in redundancy can negate the redundancy itself. *GRIN* -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (412) 268-9081
