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Server Room Smells Can Be an Early Warning

Posted by timothy on from the ever-smelled-a-starter-motor-burn-out? dept.

Barence writes "As embarrassing as it may seem, an eggy smell in a server room needn't mean broaching the delicate subject of hygiene with a colleague. It can actually be a signal that something is about to go wrong with your server setup, as this consultant discovered after days of assuming questionable personal habits were to blame. The culprit? An expiring UPS device, sending out its own unique warning signal."

2 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Ooooga Booooga oh S#!t by voodoo+cheesecake · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sulfur Dioxide. Ventilate, replace or recondition battery. If the egg smell is strong and you quit smelling it, that's olifactory fatigue and lethal levels of the gas exist.

  2. The admin gene [BOFH] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the clasic BOFH :)

    "The admin gene," the PFY explains. "The ability to recognise things that users don't. A slight flicker of lighting, a whiff of hot component in the air, a fractional change in the pitch of a cooling fan - all of which the garden variety user misses in the headlong rush to read their email."

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/04/bofh_2008_episode_24/