[Hidden-tech] Seeking advice on protecting a Linux box from failures

[Daniel Belmont]

I have a special purpose Linux machine that is used to run musical
instruments and is
used frequently in concert settings ... so preventing failure is of
importance ... I am
looking for advice on two things :

1) I need a UPS that produces pure sine waves, has reliable battery backup
that will
instantly kick in during voltage dips, isn't too heavy (or wildly
expensive), rack
mountable would be nice (but I can deal with something that is around 25
pounds
even if it is not rack mountable), and does voltage regulation ... someone
suggested
that there are UPS's that always provide power from the constantly
recharging
battery -- that could be interesting ...

The reason I am asking for something with these specific qualities is that I
had a
power outage at a concert this past weekend -- the LInux box was plugged
into a
UPS that puts out simulated sine waves (and the power supply on the Linux
machine
does active power factor correction which needs pure sine waves), there was
a voltage
dip, the UPS battery kicked in and the Linux box shut down as if it lost
power due to the
sine wave mismatch ... apparently this kind of thing can destroy the hard
drive (which
would be a big problem) as well as causing problems for Linux startup (this
did happen
but that problem seemed to correct itself within a few minutes) ...

2) what kind of care do I need to provide to the Linux box so that it works
like
a mission critical computer ? the right kind of UPS seems important, backing

up the hard drive is a given (I am doing this now) ... are there other
things I need
to do to treat this computer well ? again, since it is a musical instrument
I am
very desirous of eliminating all of the possible causes of failure (to the
extent that
I can) ...

Thanks !

Dan Belmont
The Soul Sensations
www.TheSoulSensations.com
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