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Stupid Data Center Tricks

Posted by timothy on from the ejector-seat-toilet dept.

jcatcw writes "A university network is brought down when two network cables are plugged into the wrong hub. An employee is injured after an ill-timed entry into a data center. Overheated systems are shut down by a thermostat setting changed from Fahrenheit to Celsius. And, of course, Big Red Buttons. These are just a few of the data center disasters caused by human folly."

3 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. bad article is bad by X0563511 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The summary reads like a digg post, and has two different links that, in actuality, link to the exact same thing.

    This needs some fixin'.

    --
    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    1. Re:bad article is bad by macwhizkid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Article also needs fixin' in the lessons learned from the incidents described. Look, I'm sorry, but if your hospital network was inadvertently taken down by a "rogue wireless access point", the lesson to be learned isn't that "human errors account for more problems than technical errors" -- it's that your network design is fundamentally flawed.

      Or the woman who backed up the office database, reinstalled SQL server, and backed up the new (empty) server on the same tape. Yeah, a new tape would have solved that problem. Or, you know, not being a mindless automaton. Reminds me of a quote one of my high school teachers was fond of: "Life is hard. But life is really hard if you're stupid."

  2. Re:Not using Cisco ACLs by blair1q · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or unplug it.

    The slow part is figuring out that that's the problem. The first time it happens to you.

    Which is why it's good to have oldbies around, to whom lots of weird shit has happened.