2026.09.07Home Server

Why I Added a UPS to Protect My NAS from Power Outages— Even When the Breaker Trips, My NAS Stays Up

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In this post, I’m writing about how I added an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to protect the NAS I use as a home server from power outages. My previous post covered what led me to set up the NAS, but this time I’m focusing on the power concerns that came up afterward.

After setting up the NAS, there were a few times when the power went out unexpectedly or the circuit breaker tripped. Each time, I had to restart the NAS, which was a minor hassle.

RAID Still Can’t Protect Against Power Loss

My biggest concern was the NAS losing power without completing a clean shutdown. Without a clean shutdown, the internal drives could be damaged or fail, and I didn’t think RAID alone was enough to keep my data safe. RAID is generally meant mainly to protect against the failure of a single drive, not against writes being interrupted by a sudden power loss. Having redundant drives gave me some peace of mind, but power was a separate issue.

It’s also widely known that failing to shut down properly during an outage can leave the file system inconsistent and corrupted, potentially leading to drive failure or a system that won’t restart. That’s why I decided to add a UPS to keep the NAS from abruptly losing power.

Even During an Outage, the NAS Stays Up

Since adding the UPS, it’s really come in handy. During an outage, its built-in battery keeps supplying power, so at least the NAS stays up instead of immediately going down. Synology’s official documentation says DSM can work with a USB-connected UPS through “Control Panel > Hardware & Power > UPS,” automatically shutting down during an outage and restarting after power is restored. Not having the NAS take the full brunt of a sudden power loss has been a big relief on its own.

Security Cameras Come Back Automatically with Static IPs

In my setup, peripherals such as security cameras reconnect automatically after power is restored as long as they’re wired or have static IP addresses. In general, a device configured with a static IP resumes operation at the same IP address after power is restored or it restarts, without waiting for reassignment as it would with DHCP. Once the NAS is back, not having to manually fix the peripheral connections has been a big help.

That said, a UPS runs on a battery, so it can basically handle only short power outages. During a prolonged outage, there’s a limit to how long it can keep supplying power, and I had to accept that it can’t keep the power on forever.

Summary

Adding a UPS resolved the power-related worries that the NAS’s RAID alone couldn’t cover. The NAS stays up during outages, and peripherals with static IP addresses come back automatically after power is restored, so recovery takes less effort too. Although there are limits during prolonged outages, the biggest benefit in my setup has been being able to maintain uninterrupted power to the NAS.