Comment On Half Empty

Were Peter's hands broken? Get yo' own damn paper towels jerk.

Not half full.
Not half empty.
Large enough to contain some more water.

SECOND!!!!!111!!!1113##@$@!#!!eleven

I'm an engineer: There's simply too much glass. :)

Lysis:

Were Peter's hands broken? Get yo' own damn paper towels jerk.

I'd think Peter would be frantically trying to shut off the server to help save as much of the equipment as possible

Is a hair dryer normal for an office setting? Apparently they are readily available?

It's unfortunate that often times a catastrophe must occur before people take action.

Google's 'keyword algorithm' is stellar.
The ad on the page is for a rack mounted server!
At first I thought that was Alex's brilliant choice of a graphic to go along with the story.

Am I the only one left wondering wtf happened that caused 2 servers and a keyboard tray to fill with water? Water pipe burst? Seriously, I can't fathom how a broken AC would leak water like that, unless it's the most piss-poor AC desgin and room layout ever.

FredSaw:

The damaged servers were replaced, as was the faulty air conditioner.

How about the faulty boss?

He was promoted for managing the successful server recovery.

he eventually went after being discovered to have been doing things with company money that were not entirely appropriate.

Condensation builds up until it overflows. This used to happen every couple of weeks at a place I once worked. All of a sudden water would pour out of the AC. There should be a pump to get rid of it but they tend to fail.

evanm:

Am I the only one left wondering wtf happened that caused 2 servers and a keyboard tray to fill with water? Water pipe burst? Seriously, I can't fathom how a broken AC would leak water like that, unless it's the most piss-poor AC desgin and room layout ever.

I imagine the evaporator drain line became clogged. At that point, if any part of the AC unit was located over the servers...

evanm:

Am I the only one left wondering wtf happened that caused 2 servers and a keyboard tray to fill with water? Water pipe burst? Seriously, I can't fathom how a broken AC would leak water like that, unless it's the most piss-poor AC desgin and room layout ever.

The AC had been installed for about 3 years when I got there and had never been serviced, the boss refused to pay for maintanance and it eventually screwed up. The design was crap as it sat directly above the three racks of hardware we had.

Personally, I would be worried that the water would be at 240 volts (or 110 if it is in the wimpo, non-standard US)

Do they even use volts? or some body-related unit like Nervous Impulse (~10mV) or Elbow Hit (~100mV) ...

evanm:

Am I the only one left wondering wtf happened that caused 2 servers and a keyboard tray to fill with water? Water pipe burst? ...

Actually, the tray was filled with tears.

ok, the same happened to me at my job. but there was one diference. water was leaking from the ceiling on the testing hardware because of a big storm and roof reconstruction.

I was waiting for the boss to deny the expense report. "Hair dryer?! You know that anything that has a personal use can't be expensed!"

ok, the same happened to me at my job. but there was one diference. water was leaking from the ceiling on the testing hardware because of a big storm and roof reconstruction.

Good thing you also had hairdryers in the supply cubboard!

-dZ.

I could have easily seen the tarps being the "permanent" fix until somebody's complaints about them blocking ventilation went unanswered.

At which point the new permanent solution would be to cut holes in the tarps, leading to the next water hazard and so forth.

akatherder:

evanm:

Am I the only one left wondering wtf happened that caused 2 servers and a keyboard tray to fill with water? Water pipe burst? Seriously, I can't fathom how a broken AC would leak water like that, unless it's the most piss-poor AC desgin and room layout ever.

A/C's create a lot of condensation. We had an a/c that was about the size and shape of an oven installed to cool the back room where we had one server rack that controlled a bunch of big screen TV's (smushed together to make one bigger screen). The a/c had a little hose coming off of it that spit a stream of water into a bucket from the condensation. We would usually empty the bucket every couple days and it was fine. Then spring came and we started emptying the bucket every day. Then summer came and we had to replace the bucket with a waist high garbage can and empty it at least once a day.

And *that* is a poor design for a server A/C. What is this, a window air conditioner? The evaporater coil should not be placed in the server room, it should be ducted (with insulated ductwork) from somewhere outside the server room. Whether a real central air type or a portable type, doesn't matter. Just get the evaporator coil out of the server room. Then use pvc to route the condensation either outside or to a drain.

And for the HVAC challenged, the condenser coil (the hot end) should be placed *outside* the building.

Now, you're right, an A/C can make a lot of water. However, it may also be a sign that you have too much air flow coming in from outside - ideally you should be able to dry the air out and keep it that way. A better room design may help seal the conditioned air in the room. (The bucket of water in the same room doesn't help any either) Restrict entry to the room to limit the flow of more moist air into the room.

Managing the moisture in the air will also result in a more efficient A/C. As long as it is busy condensing water from the air, it's not really cooling the air. If you can get it to dry out, the air temp will drop much faster. Of course, you also need to be sure the A/C is sized properly to counteract the heat output of the servers (and some spare capacity)

That's funny.
I've got an entry for a "dryer" and a "drier" in my dictionary. It says they mean the same thing.

Dryer pastures.

...thats what you call water cooling

This reminds me of my old job, our server room had big time power issues, we had extension cords dropping in from the ceiling tiles...oh yes good times.

evanm:

Am I the only one left wondering wtf happened that caused 2 servers and a keyboard tray to fill with water? Water pipe burst? Seriously, I can't fathom how a broken AC would leak water like that, unless it's the most piss-poor AC desgin and room layout ever.

For maximum A/C efficiency, it was placed above the server rack.

notromda:

And *that* is a poor design for a server A/C. What is this, a window air conditioner? The evaporater coil should not be placed in the server room, it should be ducted (with insulated ductwork) from somewhere outside the server room. Whether a real central air type or a portable type, doesn't matter. Just get the evaporator coil out of the server room. Then use pvc to route the condensation either outside or to a drain.

And for the HVAC challenged, the condenser coil (the hot end) should be placed *outside* the building.

Now, you're right, an A/C can make a lot of water. However, it may also be a sign that you have too much air flow coming in from outside - ideally you should be able to dry the air out and keep it that way. A better room design may help seal the conditioned air in the room. (The bucket of water in the same room doesn't help any either) Restrict entry to the room to limit the flow of more moist air into the room.

Managing the moisture in the air will also result in a more efficient A/C. As long as it is busy condensing water from the air, it's not really cooling the air. If you can get it to dry out, the air temp will drop much faster. Of course, you also need to be sure the A/C is sized properly to counteract the heat output of the servers (and some spare capacity)

You won't find any arguments from me on poor design of the a/c. However, the cooler was intended to be used for exactly this purpose. It was self-contained and could run with all of the components internal to the room. It was able to vent through the duct work but we had no access to a drain and we were in the dead center of the building. We had a work order in to get PVC or some drainage system, but the facilities people said it was completely unfeasible (i.e. too much work) to access a drain from where we were. The room was never used except or when we were draining the bucket.

Everybody knows your supposed to use blue tarps.

Kiss me I'm Polish:

That's funny.
I've got an entry for a "dryer" and a "drier" in my dictionary. It says they mean the same thing.

Dryer pastures.

They're not the same. A dryer is a machine for drying or a person who dries things. The word "drier" is used to compare one thing to another (less wet). "Dryer pasture" does conjure up an interesting mental picture, though!

peter:

The AC had been installed for about 3 years when I got there and had never been serviced, the boss refused to pay for maintanance and it eventually screwed up.

Even without the proper servicing, doesn't 3 years seem like a short working lifespan for an AC system? I'm not sure - I don't really know much about them. Is that a normal time to failure, or was it a cheap low-quality unit to begin with?

FredSaw:

The damaged servers were replaced, as was the faulty air conditioner.

How about the faulty boss?

Now you're asking for miracles. Faulty bosses don't get replaced.

Patrick:

Now would you kindly f*ck off?

Somebody's been playing Bioshock...

I've been playing Bioshock, and I don't talk like that...

I can certainly vouch for the comment about A/Cs creating condensation. I was at one place, where we had just spent some £80K on brand new HP kit, and a whole load more on converting the room in somewhere fit for servers, i.e. power supplies, air con, security, etc. The day after the room went live, I came in to work and someone immediately grabbed me and said "Paul, there's something beeping in your room..." I went in and discovered a HUGE block of ice formed around the ceiling air con unit, which was dripping nicely onto our new servers. It's amazing how fast you can run when you spot something like that...

akatherder:

evanm:

Am I the only one left wondering wtf happened that caused 2 servers and a keyboard tray to fill with water? Water pipe burst? Seriously, I can't fathom how a broken AC would leak water like that, unless it's the most piss-poor AC desgin and room layout ever.

A/C's create a lot of condensation. We had an a/c that was about the size and shape of an oven installed to cool the back room where we had one server rack that controlled a bunch of big screen TV's (smushed together to make one bigger screen). The a/c had a little hose coming off of it that spit a stream of water into a bucket from the condensation. We would usually empty the bucket every couple days and it was fine. Then spring came and we started emptying the bucket every day. Then summer came and we had to replace the bucket with a waist high garbage can and empty it at least once a day.

So I guess the point of my story is that a much smaller cooler is capable of making 10 gallons of condensation. If it wasn't draining properly, then you'd have a lot of wet stuff.

I worked at a military base. For each entire building we had a single air conditioner apeice. These air conditioners were the size of a grey-hound bus, tilted on end. If you ever approached these ACs, the weather quickly turned bad. It literally rained constantly around these ACs. During summer it was like a monsoon. So yes, ACs produce a lot on condensation. A story like this one does not surprise me if the AC is kept indoors, wheras the AC I speak of was kept a short ways away from the building.

I wonder if he used one of those 'super ion shooting hair driers' on the equipment... always wondered what effect those would have on sensitive internal hardware...

jgayhart:

Troy McClure:

Is a hair dryer normal for an office setting? Apparently they are readily available?

I dunno. I have seen the contents of some women's purses.

How did that comment get "featured", and this comment gets nothing?

Lysis:

Were Peter's hands broken? Get yo' own damn paper towels jerk.

Heron:

Patrick:

Now would you kindly f*ck off?

Somebody's been playing Bioshock...

I've been playing Bioshock, and I don't talk like that...

You must not have gotten very far...

MM:

peter:

The AC had been installed for about 3 years when I got there and had never been serviced, the boss refused to pay for maintanance and it eventually screwed up.

Even without the proper servicing, doesn't 3 years seem like a short working lifespan for an AC system? I'm not sure - I don't really know much about them. Is that a normal time to failure, or was it a cheap low-quality unit to begin with?

It's not normal for an AC unit to fail like that in 3 years. Not even for a commercial unit. That doesn't mean it can't happen. In fact, it's expected (w/ calculable probability) that a percentage of units produced will fail in 3 years.

See the Bathtub Curve:
WikiPedia.org: Bathtub Curve

savar:

jgayhart:

Troy McClure:

Is a hair dryer normal for an office setting? Apparently they are readily available?

I dunno. I have seen the contents of some women's purses.

How did that comment get "featured", and this comment gets nothing?

Lysis:

Were Peter's hands broken? Get yo' own damn paper towels jerk.

The man is keeping me down I tell ya.

One of the guys here keeps a hair dryer under his desk. When he gets an itch he breaks out the hair dryer, gives it a quick blast and he's on his way...

Of course, the rest of us just scratch our itches. He claims the hair dryer doesn't damage his epidermis.

You know, the phrase "would you kindly" did exist before that game came out. No, really it did. It's sure amazing how people were capable of saying things even though they weren't part of a video game meme!

Liquid Computers are not better, I tell yaa.


http://io9.com/360532/liquid-supercomputer-has-a-meltdown

I'm surprised that Peter jumped into hyper-repair when he found the water. If his boss has such disdain for their "data center," I would expect Peter to show the same interest as his boss.

The real WTF is why some numbskull designed a server room where the computers were under a source of water without as much as a drip shield to protect them.

If you value your servers, do not do this.

mauhiz:

Do they even use volts? or some body-related unit like Nervous Impulse (~10mV) or Elbow Hit (~100mV) ...

Hmm... maybe I'm paranoid, but I get the impression you are making fun of me.... or maybe not... either way, the elbow thing went whooosh over my head.

jgayhart:

I dunno. I have seen the contents of some women's purses.

I'm pretty sure that's illegal in most states.