nanog mailing list archives

Re: Famous operational issues


From: Seth Mattinen <sethm () rollernet us>
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2021 08:23:27 -0800

On 2/18/21 1:07 AM, Eric Kuhnke wrote:
On that note, I'd be very interested in hearing stories of actual incidents that are the cause of why cardboard boxes are banned in many facilities, due to loose particulate matter getting into the air and setting off very sensitive fire detection systems.



I had a customer that tried to stack their servers - no rails except the bottom most one - using 2x4's between each server. Up until then I hadn't imagined anyone would want to fill their cabinet with wood, so I made a rule to ban wood and anything tangentially related (cardboard, paper, plastic, etc.). Easier to just ban all things. Fire reasons too but mainly I thought a cabinet full of wood was too stupid to allow.

The "no wood" rule has become a fun story to tell everyone who asks how that ended up being a rule. The wood customer turned out to be a complete a-hole anyway, wood was just the tip of the iceberg.


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