An uninterruptible power supply is the only way to make sure your servers receive clean, sufficient, and consistent power. You’d never set up a rack without one, but protecting a new XServe is often overlooked when it’s added later on. In the past, configuring a UPS for Macintosh required tedious fiddling with dubious third-party software. Now the functionality is built directly into the operating system, and the most challenging part of the process is finding exactly where Apple put the controls.

In the System Preferences, behind the insufficiently named Energy Saver pane, lies an innocuous pull-down menu. Select “UPS” from the available choices, and a bevy of previously concealed settings appear for communicating with an uninterruptible power supply. At the top is the current battery charge, along the model information for the attached device. Below that, you can choose to configure three shutdown options based on minutes you’ve been on battery power, minutes left on battery power, or the percentage of charge left in the battery (generally the most accurate of the three).

These options only become visible when your Macintosh is connected directly to a compatible UPS via USB, meaning they can be near-impossible to find. It also means that organizations with network-based power management may require a more complex integration solution that utilizes existing ethernet controls. Unless that describes your environment, APC offers a wide range of models which can accommodate Macintosh workstations and servers automatically through USB and still provide protection for the occasional XServe RAID via serial cable as well.