Can Maintenance Make Data Centers Less Reliable?

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday November 27, 2011 @06:16AM from the if-it-isn't-broken dept.

miller60 writes "Is preventive maintenance on data center equipment not really that preventive after all? With human error cited as a leading cause of downtime, a vigorous maintenance schedule can actually make a data center less reliable, according to some industry experts.'The most common threat to reliability is excessive maintenance,' said Steve Fairfax of 'science risk' consultant MTechnology. 'We get the perception that lots of testing improves component reliability. It does not.' In some cases, poorly documented maintenance can lead to conflicts with automated systems, he warned. Other speakers at the recent 7x24 Exchange conference urged data center operators to focus on understanding their own facilities, and then evaluating which maintenance programs are essential, including offerings from equipment vendors."

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where's the car analogy? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-11-27 06:33 · Score: 4, Funny

The guy at the garage always recommends I do an $80 transmission flush.
Re:In between maybe? by mehrotra.akash · 2011-11-27 07:02 · Score: 5, Funny

fixing it until it broke
Thats the spirit!!
"The most reliable machine... by John+Hasler · 2011-11-27 07:06 · Score: 3, Funny

...is the one farthest from the nearest engineer."
Consider The Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft and the Mars landers.

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oblig Dilbert by arielCo · 2011-11-27 10:42 · Score: 3, Funny

http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/100000/20000/5000/600/125621/125621.strip.zoom.gif

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