Loud Sound From Fire Alarm System Shuts Down Nasdaq's Scandinavian Data Center (bleepingcomputer.com)

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: A loud sound emitted by a fire alarm system has destroyed the hard drives of a Swedish data center, downing Nasdaq operations across Northern Europe. The incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday, April 19, and was caused by a gas-based fire alarm system that are typically deployed in data centers because of their ability to put out fires without destroying non-burnt equipment. These systems work by releasing inert gas at high speeds, a mechanism usually accompanied by a loud whistle-like sound. With non-calibrated systems, this sound can get very loud, a big no-no in data centers, where loud sounds are known to affect performance, shut down, or even destroy hard drives.

Comments

Didn't we learn not to yell at hard drives?

[Anonymous Coward]

No seriously, I can't find the video atm but many years ago there was a guy from (Sun?) showing how susceptible they are to sound vibrations. His test literally was yelling at them while watching dtrace.

Update: Found it. Was Brendan Gregg - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDacjrSCeq4

* (headphone warning)

Re:Well known for ages now

[Strider-]

For most common materials to burn, you need an oxygen content of 12% or higher. On the other hand, a human can maintain consciousness down to something like 5%. As such, inerting systems are designed to drop the oxygen content to something like 8%. Too low for combustion to take place, but high enough not to kill the occupants. Nitrogen type inerting systems will actually often include a small amount of CO2 in the gas mix; this causes any remaining occupants to breath harder, thus allowing them to work better in a low oxygen atmosphere.

reference: I worked on a small power plant with a two compartment FM-200 fire suppression system. One of the things that the design Engineers needed was an accurate measurement of the room volume so that they could calibrate the amount of agent in the tanks appropriately. However, just in case, before an agent dump there is a 30 second siren and several large "Cancel dump" mushroom switches.