We Got Served

So, you have your new Windows Home Server all set up, with your precious digital memories (photos, videos and music) safely backed up. Well done!

Then, one night, there’s a big storm and your house gets hit by a big power surge. What happens? Well, if you’re lucky, your fuses trip, the power cuts and when you wake up in the morning, all of your home computers are switched off, as well as your Windows Home Server. You switch them back on, to find that everything’s fine.

This is known as getting away with it.

What often happens is that you press the switch on your computer and get no response - the power surge has taken out your PCs, and with them, go your digital memories.

So, it’s a very very wise move to invest in some protection - a battery back up power supply is a little like a bigger, more intelligent power strip than the one you currently use. It can detect and protect you from power surges, but best of all, has a battery back up that keeps your PCs powered for up to an hour, and if the power hasn’t been restored by then, very gracefully shuts down your computer in the way it’s supposed to. Net result? No damage to your computers and your files are safe.

Having invested in Windows Home Server, it’s well worth protecting the hardware that’s protecting your files, so in this “How To”, we’re going to install and configure  a battery back up power supply to our Windows Home Server machine.

The power supply in question is an APC Back-UPS BE-700 (UK). I already have one of these protecting my office desktop, and it’s already been put into use a couple of times in the past few weeks. There’s lots of power supplies to choose from, but this is the one I recommend.  It cost around £ 70 brand new.

So, away we go with another How To…

Step 1: Unpack the Power Supply

Here’s the contents.

1 (Very Heavy) Power Supply
1 USB Cable
1 Telephone/Modem Cable
1 Instruction Manual
1 CD-ROM

Step 2: Connect the Power Supply Battery

See that big yellow sticker? Yep, that one - that’s telling you to stop what you’re doing, and connect the battery up to the power supply.

So, flip the power supply over to locate the battery back - it’s behind this flap.

 Step 3: Remove the Battery and Attach the Black Connector to the Battery

There’s a black and a red wire. The red wire is attached to the battery. The black wire isn’t. This is a bit like 24. Ok, grab the black wire and attach the connector to the battery. 

That’s the connector on the top - you can see the red wire is already connected.

All connected nicely. Now place the battery back into the power supply and close the flap.

Well done, you’ve connected the battery!

Step 4: Power Down Your Windows Home Server

The Power Supply is ready to be plugged in. So, log into the Windows Home Server Console on any home computer and select Settings > Shut Down to power down the server.

Step 5: Plug the Power Supply Into a Wall Socket

You should always plug battery back up power supplies directly into the wall, rather than into another power strip.

In the photo here, you can see the old power strip to the right, which will be replaced by the battery back up power supply to the left.

Step 6: Plug the Home Server into the Battery Back Up Section of the Power Supply

The APC comes with 8 sockets - all 8 are surge protected, but only 4 get battery back-up. So, it’s a basic request, but make sure you plug the server into one of the battery backed-up sockets. Like this….

Step 7: Attach the USB Cable from the Data Port Socket of the Power Supply to Your Home Server

Now you’re glad you went with the one with those extra USB ports, aren’t you? Okay, here’s where it starts to get interesting. Yep, you actually have a data connection between the power supply and your home server. That’s so they can talk to each other if there’s any power problems, and, most importantly, so the power supply can tell your server to power down if there’s a power cut and the supply is running out of battery life.

Step 7: Press the Power button on the Power Supply, Then Power Up Your Home Server

You should get a green power light firing up on your power supply, and hear a short beep to tell you everything’s cool. So go ahead and power up your home server.

Step 8: Create a Remote Desktop Connection From a Home Computer to Your Home Server

I love doing this. A Remote Desktop Connection enables you to use the Home Server on another computer just as if you had a monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged into it. Not just the Windows Home Server Console, but the whole machine! Whoa!

I’m sure you’ve done this yourself before, but just in case, here’s the steps (for Windows Vista - you have upgraded, right? :-))

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection

Unless you’ve freestyled a little when you set-up your home server, it’ll probably be called “server” - type it in and press “Connect”

Welcome to Windows Home Server on your Home Computer!

Step 9: Insert the Powerchute Personal Edition CD Into Your Home Server

The APC Power Supply has Powerchute Personal Edition bundled with it. Powerchute monitors and controls the shutdown of your server if it’s required.

The CD may not autorun, so click Start> My Computer and then double click on your CD drive to run Powerchute setup. 

Click through the license agreement, and the software will install without any trouble, and then ask you to register, Go ahead and complete registration.

Step 10: Configure Powerchute Personal Edition

Start> All Programs > APC > APC Powerchute Personal Edition

Hurrah! It’s a set of very easy to use wizards! Simply run through each of the options to configure how long you would like to leave the server running on battery power before shutting down, along with Notification Options (and some more technical stuff about Voltage sensitivity that I leave well alone). It’s very straightforward.

Should you have a power failure, the battery backup will kick in, and Powerchute will leave a little note for you in the System Tray telling you that there was a power failure, and how long it lasted. Your server won’t have been fried though at this point

And that’s how to install a battery back up power supply on your home server!