I will be bringing brought down my blog server on Saturday to re-organize my server rack in order to fit in a new rack-mounted UPS.
I am not setting a specific time, but hopefully no more than two or three hours sometime in the afternoon. I’ll update this post when the outage is complete. The outage started at 1:00 PM pacific time and completed at approximately 1:50 PM. More details can be found in the rest of this post.
What was changed
I have a small wall mounted server rack where the blog servers and the bulk of our household network hardware lives. The UPS I was using was over a decade old and was no longer working reliably. Installing a replacement backup power supply that is actually designed for a rack was today’s plan.
I probably could have finished the update in 15 minutes or so if all I wanted was to slap in a new UPS. But I also wanted to re-organize the rack a bit. I have plans for some future changes (see below) and wanted to ‘pre-allocate’ some free space. I also like to keep the heaviest ‘stuff’ in my rack down low, and the UPS is definitely the heaviest thing in there.
The UPS that I installed is a CyberPower CP1500PFCRM2U which provides 1500 VA/1000 Watts of power. This isn’t big by any means, but it is sufficient to give my current rack of gear about an hour of up time during a power outage.
Things I want to do later
I’m not done with the upgrades I want to compete to our home computer services, but the following items will probably take me a while. The things remaining in my ‘list’:
- SNMP management for UPS: I have an SNMP management card for the UPS on order. Once installed, this will allow multiple devices on our LAN to be alerted when the UPS detects state changes. Those devices can then do things like shut themselves down in an orderly fashion before the power runs out
- Rack-mount KVM: I want a rack mounted slide out keyboard-video-mouse ‘tray’ for those rare times that my blog server has problems. On those rare instances I have to scrounge displays and keyboards (usually from Irene’s computer), hook up wiring, and balance things on cardboard boxes near the rack. This is definitely a ‘first world’ problem, but it has been an irritant during trouble-shooting in the past
- Upgraded NAS: the ReadyNAS network attached storage device was great… 15 years ago when I bought it. These days it is unsupported and its firmware and configuration web interface is mostly toast. I’m just lucky that I can still use the storage for backups and the like without the whole thing falling down. A ‘modern’ NAS like a Synology device is on my wish list
- Upgraded network switch: the Netgear network switch is the ‘heart’ of our home LAN, but it is limiting the network’s performance. I’d like to upgrade it to a multi-gigabit device capable of supporting 2.5 and 10 Gbps speeds, which means spending a lot more than the $300 bucks or so that the current switch cost
- Clean up the wiring: the wiring to the rack is a bit of a dog’s breakfast at the moment. What I’d like to do is cleanly route the cables around the utility room and label at least the primary links e.g.: the ones to our WiFi mesh hubs
I am optimistic that I will be able to complete these changes over the next year or so.
Oh no! My weekend is ruined! 😉
The sad part is, if Facebook were down you would probably be upset. But the blog of a real human being who has been your friend for over 40 years instead of an algorithm goes down and you chortle.
And I probably would feel similarly. Kind of makes you think… Zuckerberg, Musk, and Bezos maybe own just a bit too much of our lives.
And yeah, I get that you were making a joke. But it still bears considering.
Hey, I actually read your post and made the effort to make a reply. I even read your comfy chair posts. Would I be angry if meta went down? No. Would it take me while to adjust to not having cat videos on tap, sure. I reserve angry for the guy driving 30 in a 60 when I’m late for work 😀
I really do appreciate that you check out the blog, Chris- thanks for supporting my lonely voyage 😉 I do try to keep the blogs running, and they do receive some traffic.
Facebook: good for cat videos and saying “Hi!” and “I’m still alive!” or “Here’s a funny meme!” to friends and family. For everything else it is almost but not quite as bad as Twitter/X. It fills heads with hatred and fear, and normalizes toxic cruelty. And Zuckerberg bows to Trump, just like the other billionaires.
Unfortunately, Facebook is the primary news source for something like 50% of people of the three billion people who have an account, which means a lot of folks are being fed a lot of scary lies. Old fashioned blogs and RSS feeds are an easy way to ‘disconnect’ from the corporate social media mind-fuck, but apparently that is too difficult for the vast majority of people.
It is, however, apparently ‘too hard’ to navigate to a different URL or login (and Facebook authentication is even an option here!) to post a comment.
I mean really: navigating to a different URL or logging in is hard? Back in my day, we had to build our modems from flint, bone scrapings, and the dust of ancient meteorites. Then we had to connect to the each BBS individually with separate phone numbers using hand-pulled cables carried on the backs of mules! 😀