[AusNOG] Global switch Level 4 Hard disk's

Mon Jan 13 17:22:38 EST 2014

Not all data centres use fire supression gases like FM200 or Inergen,
although the Australian DC market seems hooked on these gas solutions.

Such systems are actually banned throughout much of Europe where instead
they deploy an oxygen reduction system, which operates by filling the room
with an inert gas to reduce the oxygen levels in order to stop a fire but
still support human life (with no effect on electrical equipment!).

Regards

Tony de Francesco
Technical Director
P.U.E. Pty Ltd
On 13/01/2014 4:22 PM, "Jared Hirst" <jared.hirst at serversaustralia.com.au>
wrote:

> Must be a very good reason, they have 100+ DC's all the same :(
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nathan Brookfield [mailto:Nathan.Brookfield at simtronic.com.au]
> Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 4:21 PM
> To: Jared Hirst; Joseph Goldman; ausnog at lists.ausnog.net
> Subject: RE: [AusNOG] Global switch Level 4 Hard disk's
>
> Yeah so it just means when/if a fire starts your equipment is completely
> SCREWED instead of just some blown drives.  I wouldn't say this is an
> advantage at all.
>
> Kindest Regards,
> Nathan Brookfield (VK2NAB)
>
> Chief Executive Officer
> Simtronic Technologies Pty Ltd
>
> Local: (02) 4749 4949 | Fax: (02) 4749 4950 | Direct: (02) 4749 4951
> Web: http://www.simtronic.com.au | E-mail:
> nathan.brookfield at simtronic.com.au
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AusNOG [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of Jared
> Hirst
> Sent: Monday, 13 January 2014 4:17 PM
> To: Joseph Goldman; ausnog at lists.ausnog.net
> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Global switch Level 4 Hard disk's
>
> " but the generality of the fault means it could happen in any major data
> center really."
>
> Wouldn't happen in Equinix... They use Dry Pipe and manual fire supression
> to alleviate any 'accidental' systems going off :)
>
> I would class that as a pretty major Data Centre.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AusNOG [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of Joseph
> Goldman
> Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 4:15 PM
> To: ausnog at lists.ausnog.net
> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Global switch Level 4 Hard disk's
>
> It's not quite so funny when you realise some people may have hours - or
> days - worth of headache's ahead of them restoring back to production.
>
> It is an odd circumstance, and one that I would not have thought of
> personally in risk mitigation (beyond accounting for fire anyway). Are
> there drives rated against this kind of 'shock'? Obviously one should have
> Disaster Recovery in place, as the gas suppression going off may indicate
> your servers being doused in fire and unusable anyway, but when one can
> avoid DR one would, and I'd rather not break on a false positive.
>
> Luckily I don't use Global Switch, but the generality of the fault means
> it could happen in any major data center really.
>
> On 13/01/14 16:08, Tim March wrote:
> > Lol. Awesome.
> >
> > So, does the incident report look something like;
> >
> > 12:01 "CCTV records HVAC maintenance punter smoking cigarette"
> > 12:03 "Suppression system dumps 987165128973465891723412352643345^2
> > liters of gas in to machine room in ~ 0.000000001675 seconds"
> > 12:03 "Sonic boom recorded at BOM monitoring station 50km from facility"
> > 12:04 *picture of engineer crying / HDD parts strewn all over floor*
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > T.
> >
> > On 13/01/14 3:22 PM, Pinkerton, Eric (AU Sydney) wrote:
> >> It's not unheard of, it's to do with the noise created when the fire
> suppression system deploys...
> >>
> >> http://www.bvfa.de/pdf-download/en-3/
> >>
> >> http://www.buildingtechnologies.siemens.com/bt/global/en/firesafety/e
> >> xtinguishing/about-sinorix/latest-technical-findings/Documents/White_
> >> Paper_Potential%20damage%20to%20hard%20disk%20drives%20during%20disch
> >> arges_en_September2012.pdf
> >>
> >> There is even a market for nozzles on fire suppression systems that
> lowers the sound in order to prevent this happening..
> >>
> >> See the WWW.FIKE.COM  PROINERT(r) HUSH NOZZLES
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: AusNOG [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of
> >> Matt Perkins
> >> Sent: Monday, 13 January 2014 2:26 PM
> >> To: ausnog at lists.ausnog.net
> >> Subject: [AusNOG] Global switch Level 4 Hard disk's
> >>
> >> Hi All,
> >>    I have quite a few people today with hard drives fail in suites on
> level 4 at global switch.  GS tell us the Gas was dropped in response to
> some smoke from some plant. Not sure how inergen would effect hard drives
> but there are many people wondering around on level 4 looking like there
> dog just died.
> >>
> >> Anybody have any more info.
> >>
> >> Matt
> >>
> >> --
> >> /* Matt Perkins
> >>           Direct 1300 137 379     Spectrum Networks Ptd. Ltd.
> >>           Office 1300 133 299     matt at spectrum.com.au
> >>           Fax    1300 133 255     Level 6, 350 George Street Sydney
> 2000
> >>           SIP 1300137379 at sip.spectrum.com.au
> >>           PGP/GNUPG Public Key can be found at  http://pgp.mit.edu */
> >>
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