Backup Power (UPS)

UPS maintenance bypass installation best practices

When deploying a fully redundant system isn’t in the budget, Eaton recommends installing a maintenance bypass. Adding a maintenance bypass to a backup power system provides additional redundancy to keep your system online through outages, UPS maintenance or replacement.

Using a maintenance bypass for maximum reliability

Incorporating a maintenance bypass alongside a UPS is an easy way to increase the reliability of your backup power system.

Traditional UPS installation scheme

In most traditional power designs, one uninterruptible power supply (UPS) supports your servers, switches and storage devices. The single UPS is connected to utility power and then power flows from the UPS through a power distribution unit (PDU) into the connected equipment. This type of environment is prone to equipment shutdown during a power failure, UPS maintenance or UPS replacement.

Maintenance bypass installation scheme

Traditional installation schemes don’t meet the requirements of business network closets today. And single-corded IT equipment, which only allow for a single UPS or PDU to be connected, represents a single point of failure.

Moving beyond traditional installation schemes, a maintenance bypass or automatic transfer switch (ATS) can dramatically improve system reliability without incurring the cost of adding another UPS.

With a maintenance bypass (MBP), utility power runs through the MBP via the UPS and then to the PDU and out to the rest of the equipment in the rack. Should the UPS need to be replaced, the power can be switched away from the UPS without having to shut down your equipment.

Dual power feed installation schemes for single UPS or dual UPS systems

Automatic transfer switches (ATS) provide power redundancy to systems with only one power supply. Power flows from the utility into the UPS, for dual-UPS systems, or directly into the ATS, for single-UPS systems. At the point when the ATS detects a problem with utility power it automatically transfers power from the primary source to a secondar source, in this case a UPS.

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