I don't think the situation is the same for both machines. The real test comes when the UPS and the CPU batteries fail. Yes you can build a better mouse trap, but the 3k has the mouse trap built in so that 10 years from now, when the CPU battery barely holds 5 minutes worth of juice, it will still save your data and will not require you to bring back files from backups.

NT requires a UPS for this kind of power fail recovery. If that UPS ever looses one of the batteries (and it will) the real test begins.

Just my point of view.

-----Original Message-----
From:   Duane Percox [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, June 04, 1997 12:30 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        hp3k/nt/powerfail recovery

We are a 3k shop, tried and true. However, we do use NT and I
thought I'd share a recent powerfail experience.

hp3k systems: 917 & 937 both with built-in battery backup.
   nt system: p-100 with UPS (20min. battery from APC) connected
                         to serial port for control
The chronology
--------------
all power goes off
hp3k systems revert to battery
nt system displays a dialog box: utility power off, using battery, nt
                                 will shutdown soon

after 1 minute, power comes back on
hp3k systems powerfail recover, dtc's download
nt system displays a dialog box: utility power back on. off battery.

The lesson
----------
It is possible to have a pc server like NT setup to maintain
similar levels of protection as our hp3k systems. In fact, since we don't
have our hp3k systems all plugged into a UPS we have less protection
then our nt system. (and I didn't get any pretty dialog boxes from my
hp3k systems!)

This probaby isn't *news* to many of you, but all the traffic about the
3k's powerfail resilency might give the impression you couldn't get equal
security in another computing environment. That isn't always the case
as this example shows.

duane percox

Duane Percox ([log in to unmask]  v/415.306.1608 f/415.365.2706)
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