nanog mailing list archives

Re: Never push the Big Red Button


From: Callan Banner <me () callan im>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2021 22:39:35 -0400

Totally agree @billy, could've put it better myself. Though it's much more
entertaining (and terrifying) to wince at the audible difference between
just the hardware whirring to a silence, and all of the temp and humidity
controls whirring to a halt with the hardware. The fear in the air is
literally palpable, because it's immediately 90 degrees and your lungs cave.

On Wed, Sep 15, 2021 at 7:51 PM Billy Croan <BCroan () unrealservers net>
wrote:

Indeed. Few sounds in the data center haunt me quite as much as a
sensation that the decibel level has just decreased significantly.

On Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 4:14 PM Keith Stokes <keiths () salonbiz com> wrote:

The bigger thing to notice is the *lack* of noise as every server, switch
and storage system spins down.

---

Keith Stokes



On Sep 15, 2021, at 3:50 PM, Stephen Satchell <list () satchell net> wrote:

In the data centers I've worked in over the decades, those Big Red
Buttons would activate a normally-closed contactor in a breaker panel. When
pushed, the contactor would open, and turn off all the circults in said
breaker panel.  Not affected are lights, convenience outlets, door locks,
and other non-data loads.  Resetting the contactor to the working position
was done after throwing all the breakers to the off position, and then turn
on each breaker, one at a time.

The only noise that I have ever heard when the Big Red Button was pushed
was the loud BANG as the contactor operated.  You hear a similar bang in
movies in scenes where lights in a large area are turned on and off.

Nothing like the BANG of a 600-amp 3-phase breaker tripping --
experienced that at University of Illinois Center for Advanced
Computation.  You immediately look for the person holding a gun.




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