[AusNOG] Global switch Level 4 Hard disk's

Ben Buxton bb.ausnog at bb.cactii.net
Mon Jan 13 17:32:58 EST 2014


Inergen is an inert system. It's just Nitrogen, Argon and CO2, perfectly
safe for humans to breath the resulting atmosphere post-discharge, as it
still contains enough oxygen to support life but not fire.

BB


On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 5:22 PM, Tony de Francesco <tonyd at pue.com.au> wrote:

> 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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