Looking for some kind of Notification Sender if/when power is lost.

[SSSJDanny]

I'm working at a school district and there server went off last night and they had no idea. They called me in (Electrician) to find out what the issue was. A breaker had tripped causing the Servers to go down.

They want me to find something to send notifications of any Power Failures, but what I've seen through Google searches aren't great.

I was hoping to find something that can send out email or text or push notification, possibly over cellular (in case the internet also goes down).

 

 

The only thing I've ever used that was close what im looking for is the Ring Alarm, but thats because it has a cellular backup. It sends me push notifications that power was lost or restored. 

I was also thinking of using something with a Raspberry Pi, but I'm sure someone in IT would freak out if they saw it and didn't know who set it up.

[Eigenvektor]

For servers you'd typically use an UPS to ensure they can keep running (at least for a short while) when the power goes out. A good UPS should come with monitoring software that allows notifications to be sent, e.g. via email or SMS.

[SSSJDanny]

I know they recently got rid of a lot of there old UPS's. I have to see what they replaced it with and I'll ask IT to look into it seeing what software it comes with. Or I'll see if I can find a Model Number and look into how difficult it is to setup.

[wseaton]

Before anyone asks why the electrician is doing sysadmin work let me describe the dozen or so school districts I've been in and you get a high five from me. Just be sure to hide the crayons....the IT staff might eat them

 

I Would use an external monitoring site like 24x7 or uptimerobot or a host of others to do this. They might charge $5-10 a month or so. Since it's cloud based a power outage doesn't affect the gear you have set up to send the alert email. Web capable UPS units tend to be pricey, and an alert through the server connected to the UPS defeats the purpose. 

 

 

[Mortenrb]

RPI with a GSM modem attached to it, many of the "USB dongle"-type GSM modems supports AT commands, and those are fairly easy to execute through any script language you desire.

Then just use a contactor or relay hooked to one of the phases that feeds the UPS/server.

If you don't use an UPS, just use a battery-backup for the raspberry pi.

 

Oh, and as other people state here, some UPSes has some sort of software you may use that detects power loss.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Mortenrb
Because I just read the other messages