Slashdot Mirror
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.
It's a fire SUPPRESSION system, not a fire ALARM system.
At least this time, it's the article (on Bleeping Computer) that is wrong, not the summary on /.
It's apparent the author of the article didn't bother to read the article (on Motherboard) that she cites about a similar incident in Romania at ING Bank. It clearly states that incident resulted from a "fire extinguishing test".
The sound BTW comes from the release of the gas, not some alarm. In both cases, the pressure was set too high. It was basically a - very loud - over 130db - hissing sound!
The second article cites a study about the effect of this sound done by Siemens. Siemens has a vested interest. I guess neither of these data centers were equipped with the Sinorix Silent Nozzle.
You herd them the usual way---with dogs. The dogs can see them and smell them, so they don't need to hear them.
From a decade ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...