• (cs)

    I once worked at a data center with a mainframe. One day, there was a small fire in a trash can, which set off the alarm, and the sprinkler system. Yep, A data center with a sprinkler system. Anyway, the sprinklers didn't use water, they used a highly corrosive compound which made all of the computer equipment look like it had been in the ocean for 20 years. At least we had offsite backups....

  • Jake Cohen (unregistered) in reply to akatherder
    akatherder:
    Then summer came and we had to replace the bucket with a waist high garbage can and empty it at least once a day.

    That must've been rough. A waist-high garbage can would probably hold about 25 gallons of water, which would weigh about 200 pounds.

  • David Cameron (unregistered) in reply to Troy McClure
    Is a hair dryer normal for an office setting? Apparently they are readily available?

    It was in mine for around 3 years after I spilt a glass of water on my thinkpad.

  • Mark (unregistered) in reply to Patrick

    TRWTF is that there is no WTF.

  • JohnFx (unregistered) in reply to Patrick
    Patrick:
    Now would you kindly f*ck off?

    Somebody's been playing Bioshock...

    Okay, that deserves a ROTFL and a SPOILER ALERT! Damn that Atlas!

  • (cs) in reply to el_oscuro
    el_oscuro:
    I once worked at a data center with a mainframe. One day, there was a small fire in a trash can, which set off the alarm, and the sprinkler system. Yep, A data center with a sprinkler system. Anyway, the sprinklers didn't use water, they used a highly corrosive compound which made all of the computer equipment look like it had been in the ocean for 20 years. At least we had offsite backups....

    I see ... I hope no-one was actually in work that day ...

  • (cs) in reply to Daniel Beardsmore
    Daniel Beardsmore:
    el_oscuro:
    I once worked at a data center with a mainframe. One day, there was a small fire in a trash can, which set off the alarm, and the sprinkler system. Yep, A data center with a sprinkler system. Anyway, the sprinklers didn't use water, they used a highly corrosive compound which made all of the computer equipment look like it had been in the ocean for 20 years. At least we had offsite backups....

    I see ... I hope no-one was actually in work that day ...

    What the hell was that "highly corrosive compound?" Zyklon B? And why?

    About twenty years ago, I worked in a converted pie shop. Yup, that's right; it was Jacobean. There was a plague burial ground round the back, and vestigial remains of ovens, pie counters, etc, on the first floor. Naturally (in Britain) it was a Grade II listed building, which basically means that you can't do anything to the structure; ever. Naturally, we chose to site our £500,000 mini-computer in the servants' quarters, upstairs. It wasn't a question of cost. The only airco we could apply was some sort of rinky-dink thing with an outlet hose and a bucket, which was basically designed (so far as I could tell) for use in something like a broiler chicken barn.

    I remember with something less than fondness having to come in, during the summer, at 9am and 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays to empty the bucket.

  • An oppressed mass (unregistered) in reply to akatherder

    Or in our case the builder managed to install the AC so it sloped upward at the end with the drain hose - so the water dripped, then ran, out of the other end of the unit.

  • (cs) in reply to akatherder
    akatherder:
    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

    So in other words, you dumped the heat out for the building A/C to handle? Might as well have closed off vents in the building and added some vents to the server room.

    Having the bucket of water in the same room means a lot of moisture was evaporating back into the room... I think a ventilation fan to the rest of the building and airflow management with the existing A/C would have been more effective.

    Those self contained units are a joke, unless installed properly.

  • (cs) in reply to real_aardvark
    real_aardvark:
    Daniel Beardsmore:
    el_oscuro:
    I once worked at a data center with a mainframe. One day, there was a small fire in a trash can, which set off the alarm, and the sprinkler system. Yep, A data center with a sprinkler system. Anyway, the sprinklers didn't use water, they used a highly corrosive compound which made all of the computer equipment look like it had been in the ocean for 20 years. At least we had offsite backups....

    I see ... I hope no-one was actually in work that day ...

    What the hell was that "highly corrosive compound?" Zyklon B? And why?

    ABC Dry Chemical probably is what they used. And the why is because it is non-conductive, so you don't electrocute anybody while containing the fire.

    Electrical fires are a little bad in that you can only use powders (which are corrosive and messy), or gases (Halon, Inergen, Argonite), which are very pricey, dangerous to personnel, and bad for the ozone-layer.

    One could use CO2, but it's difficult to do in a safe and effective manner.

  • sweavo (unregistered) in reply to Kiss me I'm Polish
    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.

    ... but you're using a Polish dictionary

  • sweavo (unregistered) in reply to Jake Cohen
    Jake Cohen:
    akatherder:
    Then summer came and we had to replace the bucket with a waist high garbage can and empty it at least once a day.

    That must've been rough. A waist-high garbage can would probably hold about 25 gallons of water, which would weigh about 200 pounds.

    But it was summer so they could just tip it out on the floor and wait for it to evaporate.

  • Simon (unregistered)

    I can vouch for the amount of water air conditioners can push out. The server room at my old work was on a raised floor (roughly half a meter). When the air-con decided to leak the water level was at least 10cm. Network cables were submerged, and large industry sized power outlets were also underwater, power boards were peacefully floating on the surface. It got fixed but still happened way too many times for my liking...

  • (cs) in reply to Lysis
    Lysis:
    Lysis:
    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.

    Maybe moronic comments by lost /. trolls who can't find their way back there don'e get featured.

  • alive (unregistered) in reply to Sander Cohen

    You and Heron both fail to realize that just because one person talks like that after playing Bioshock, it doesn't mean that

    1. All people who have played Bioshock talk like that
    2. All people who talk like that have played Bioshock.

    Now, be so kind as to think before you type.

  • (cs) in reply to alive
    alive:
    Now, would you kindly think before you type.

    There, fixed it for you.

  • Luc (unregistered)

    Man, what a great story. It's even funnyer since I work in a university which also has an "umbrella" over the servers. It was installed in 2004 and is still there as of now... I guess they don't have money to buy duct tape.

  • (cs)

    My question is why would you have an AC handler in the ceiling above a server room. This design is just begging for disaster! AC handler should have been somewhere else in the building with duct work venting into the server room. Poor design if you ask me.

  • (cs) in reply to KenW
    KenW:
    Lysis:
    Lysis:
    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.

    Maybe moronic comments by lost /. trolls who can't find their way back there don'e get featured.

    Oh look. My fanbois have followed me to the front page comments. GTFO of my area. Your asshatery is not appreciated here.

  • Grobbendonk (unregistered) in reply to Patrick
    Patrick:
    Now would you kindly f*ck off?

    Somebody's been playing Bioshock...

    Yeah, but not quite enough...

  • doctorjones (unregistered)

    That little amount of water was nothing compared to the amount of water spouting into our server room when a water pipe directly connected to the building's central cooling system burst (8 months after the server room was built; due to a construction flaw). 6 bars of water pressure, 12,000 liters in a half hour. It happened on the 15th floor, and water poured along the walls up to the 7th. It was literally raining on the 13th floor...

    Some servers actually survived the 112% humidity :)

  • nolongerworkingforarecordlabel w00t (unregistered) in reply to jgayhart

    wanna know something funny. this actually describes my old, now defunct company Urban Box Office. The CEO called me for the third week in a row on sunday morning at 3 am to scream into my ear that the email server was down when in actuality he had forgotten the URL to OWA again (even after I had made him umpteen shortcuts too it all over his mac, and spent eon's getting entourage to work with exchange correctly. I told him to fck off and never call me that late/early again. 3 days later i couldn't log in because they were "reorganizing" the IT department (me and my college intern assistant) and i was being let go. (best thing that ever happened to me) got a call from the ntern exactly 2 weeks later asking me where the archive tapes were for the email system. The air conditioner that had been dying for 2 years, had dropped it's load on the exchange server, and no one had switched the tapes in the almost 3 weeks since i left which means that they were S.O.L. sadly, this asshat boss just bankrupted the company a 2nd time and it no longer exists. had to comment since this was so close to my real life story complete with the boss having an english accent (kindly fck off). -mike

  • China (unregistered) in reply to evanm

    I'm guessing that it was the most piss-poor room layout ever. ALWAYS assume that anything that can leak, will leak; put the AC to one side, over a runoff channel.

    Our 'server room' is a repurposed tea room, and comes complete with a sprinkler nozzle in the ceiling. So if our AC breaks and the (sealed) room's temperature gets to 63C, all the servers get a soaking.

  • JJ (unregistered) in reply to akatherder

    Also, keep in mind that not all that water condensaiton had to start out by accumulating there.

    I have a friend who's Kitchen wall ended up giving way releasing tons of water, and mold, all over their flooring.

    A small hole had accidentally been drilled in the AC condensation drip line allowing water to drip into the cavity in their wall. Finally the wall gave way at the floor ripping the wall apart at the seams. They had to stay out of the kitchen for three weeks while it was treated (mold sucks) and then repaired.

    All this from a 1/4" hole in a one inch PVC tube.

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