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Water Main Break Floods Dallas Data Center
miller60 writes "IT systems in Dallas County were offline for three days last week after a water main break flooded the basement of the Dallas County Records Building, which houses the UPS systems and other electrical equipment supporting a data center in the building. The county does not have a backup data center, despite warnings that it faced the risk of service disruption without one."
There should always be duplication of critical components of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe.
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
Sometimes it's cheaper to deal with it when it happens than to take precautions.
At least it wasn't a sewer line break, that would be real shitty.
About a year ago...
At the time, we had all our WLAN connections carried through Bell Canada VIA Frame circuits. I guess many of these circuits went through a facility in Edmonton. This facility was being rennovated, and some poor worker drilled through a pipe that they thought was empty... As it turns out, that pipe was filled with pressurized water, and so the water started spraying everywhere/everything and ended up taking down all our frame services north of Edmonton (about 30 sites). It took about 2 (very stressful) days for Bell to route our frame circuits through another data center.
It sucked, but I really feel bad for the poor guy that drilled through the wrong pipe.
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Probably not....
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Whose bright idea was it to put the UPS and backup systems in the portion of the building that is first to be flooded, and the most devastated in just about any natural disaster, AND the least accessible afterward? Sounds like something a government would do....
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
In a state as blessed as Texas, they were told that God would provide protection against acts of God. I imagine many of the faithful are confused, especially when Jesus day is only a few days away.
Maybe they didn't execute enough retarded people this year?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Day
Data center floods, Katrina, and the BP oil spill the Gulf. All have one thing in common - a government that was not prepared.
I chuckle when I hear my more conservative friends complain about the level of competence or disaster response times we find in government. These are the very same people who want less government and lower taxes.
You can not have a small, cheap, government that is staffed by geniuses and prepared for every possible problem. Smart people cost money, resources cost money.
While this flood was an avoidable occurrence, do taxpayers really want to pay for redundant EVERYTHING at the local, state, and federal government? Probably not.
-ted
It has now.
In what world do you live in that the government is ultimately responsible for a massive oil spill that was caused by a corporation?
While the government may be responsible for the fact that the regulations weren't followed every step of the way, the company that is behind the actions on the rig are ultimately fully responsible for not following those rules and regulations. I'm glad that the government can help in any way possible, but BP should foot the bill.
From the movie Contact: "First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" Load balanced and replicated no less. Basement + critical systems = bad idea. Not only for flooding potential, but bad sewer systems as well. Yes been there done that. Curious, is there a systems engineer that could make a good argument for building data center infrastructure in a basement. Two points already for shielding from severe weather; anything else?
That is a very false false dichotomy... and a very poor argument.
Your basic argument is that people who favor small government expect the government to do nothing.
It's like talking about small government, and someone says: don't you like safe food inspections?
Yes, I 'like' those things. I also don't mind the government doing them. That's why I believe in small government. Not no government.
Just take a look at the government's spending. The things 'small government' folks want the federal to do would cost next to nothing.
Our biggest costs are healthcare, military...
So go ahead and cut those things down to focus on small government. It will free up hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Then, I'd be more than happy if the government spent what it costs to have proper data centers.
First, this is Dallas County, not Dallas city.
Second, they knew about the potential for failure and were working on setting up a backup data center. TxDOT denied them rights of way to lay fiber along the highway into a facility in Tarrant county, so they were looking at other potential sites in Garland. Unfortunately this happened before they got it all resolved.
TxDOT might have had good reasons for denying the request, I don't know, but I would wager that the backup site would be a lot further along if they had been able to run that fiber. Sometimes you know there is a problem, management agrees, and you even have a budget to fix it... but someone else (another department, another company, a government agency, etc) stands in the way.
Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
From TFA: "The 90-year-old water main ruptured..."
90 years old because taxpayers (read: well-heeled conservatives) never want to pay for maintaining and replacing infrastructure until after the disaster occurs. No doubt they will somehow get federal funds to help defray the costs - all the while cursing the federales' very existence.