Review and Giveaway: Eaton 5PX1500RT UPS

We have seen many networks fail because of poor power considerations. A UPS is a key factor in keeping up with a 99.9999% uptime. UPS or Uninterruptible power supply kicks in when there is a power failure. These UPS’s can safely shut down your equipment to keep them from going down hard.

Eaton sent over there 5PX1500RT UPS for review and for us to keep (consider this our disclosure.) It is a 1500VA-class Line Interactive Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS). This rack-mountable UPS weighs in at 65 pounds and is made by a 100 year old company! We will be giving away our review unit so please chime in below in the comments as to why you should be the proud recipient of the device (you will have to pay for shipping though!)

 

The device arrived from a struggling freight delivery gentleman. It comes with a rail kit for 2U rack mounting, two pedestals feet for tower orientation, quick start guide, RS-232 serial cable, USB cable, user manual CD, software CD and a Phillips head screw driver.

After un-boxing the big guy the first thing I noticed was the LCD screen on the front panel. I feel this is a must for appliances nowadays! You can monitor the device right from the LCD which is great. You can see from the image below that it shows the current load information, battery charge percentage and run time. The LCD is orientated to either a rack mount situation or if you stand it up besides your rack. 

Let’s take a look at where the action happens. The back panel of our UPS:

We have 8 total outlets. The black ones are standard battery protected outlets. The Grey ones allow for more configuration and management. There is the option to connect up 4 additional external batteries. The slot all the way to the left allows for an optional web management interface card.

We plugged in two servers, one firewall and one router into our unit. We simulated a power failure and we were able to keep our devices running for close to 15 minutes before the IPP software kicked in and started shutting down our server. Letting the servers run without the software caused the devices to completely die at the 22 minute mark.

Talking about the IPP software – we should explain what it is. The software is called “Eaton’s Intelligent Power Software Suite.” The IPSS includes two powerful tools to help you manage your power. These tools are the IPM and the IPP. Don’t you just love an acronym?

Intelligent Power Manager (IPM) is the “supervisory software” that facilitates management of power and environmental devices through a Web-based interface that can be accessed from any PC, anywhere on your network. Eaton’s IPM is compatible with network-enabled power devices such as UPSs, PDUs and environmental sensors. It even supports some non-Eaton UPS units. Through IPM you can monitor battery conditions, load levels and runtime. You can also perform mass firmware upgrades, customize views, centralize alarms and track equipment. So, what about virtualized environments? Intelligent Power Manager easily integrates with VMware’s vCenter, bringing power management right to your vCenter dashboard [in its own tab]. It even allows for remote shutdown of servers in clusters. There’s more, it integrates with vCenter’s vMotion and SCVMM’s Live Migration applications so you can transparently move virtual machines from a power affected server to a non-affected server on the network.

Intelligent Power Protector (IPP) is the “protection software” that monitors and protects connected devices during power events. It can be configured to automatically save any work or open files and conduct a graceful shutdown of computers and network devices. It communicates with the UPS via serial port, USB or via network (with optional Web/SNMP card) and acquires information that can be monitored, configured and updated via a web browser or through IPM.

All in all, the device is solid and reliable. We have had no issues with the device thus far in around 45 days of testing. It is backed by a full 3 year warranty and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

We have received the UPS device as compensation for this article. The article/review was not biased. The device will also be given away on our website. Let us know why you want and/or deserve it!

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