[AusNOG] Experience with Global Switch, Sydney?

[Matthew Palmer]

On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 09:08:33AM +1100, Matt Perkins wrote:
> That's a good summary of what it's like at GS.  The only thing I can
> add is when you are man handling a large server from the dock 2km
> down to your suite through numerous doors and cage's  with no trolly
> after making your way back down to the dock you were only just at 10
> minutes before because you had to go through the stupid man trap.
> Just as you collapse without even some old cardboard to break your
> fall (cardboard banned)  You will be dreading the day you ever heard
> the name global switch.

Hence why all our suites have a trolley in them.  I don't know of a quality
DC that is small enough that hefting a server around under your arm is a
safe operation.

> Power/Air/Services are all second to none. But make sure you have
> redundant everything sitting ready to go in your rack. Allow 2 hours
> always once you get parking and stuff around with there procedures
> to get a new server in.

If you don't have spares on-site prior to an outage, you've either probably
already blown your SLA by the time someone's on-site, or the service isn't
critical enough that the extra time getting through GS' Kafkaesque
procedures isn't the end of the world.

- Matt