[Trombone-l] Fwd: TTF offline status (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Richardson, Timothy A Mr CIV USA IMCOM-Europe]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED 
Caveats: NONE

If I can idly speculate for a moment, I'd say the poisonous gas is
probably not mercury.  There usually isn't enough in a modern electrical
switch center.  Also, you can't usually clean up a contaminated area
that fast.  

I'd guess either the gas came from the switches themselves, in which
case it is probably sulfur hexafluoride, or it is from the fire
suppression system.  SF6 is fairly nonreactive but arcing can produce
S2F10 which is toxic.  

Sometimes fire protection has halon or CO2 systems, because dumping a
bunch of water into an operating server farm might be a bad idea.  

Trombone content:  density of SF6 is about five times that of air.  Take
a deep breath and you could play very very low notes, it would be the
opposite of breathing helium.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Barrett [mailto:walttrombone at optonline.net] 
Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2008 9:13 PM
To: Bone Trombone-L
Subject: [Trombone-l] Fwd: TTF offline status

An update from Richard Byrd on the status of TTF...

Begin forwarded message:

>
> Date: June 1, 2008 3:14:50 PM EDT
> Subject: TTF offline status
>
> More details; now we know WHY the core router is offline.  I have  
> used Houston-based ThePlanet as my datacenter for years--since well  
> before they became "The Planet," in 1995.  However...
>
> Houston, TX (AHN) -- An explosion Saturday evening at a Texas-based,  
> privately held server hosting provider has caused server outages  
> effecting 9,000 servers and 7,500 customers.
>
> According to The Planet's website, at about 5 p.m. Saturday  
> electrical gear shorted, creating an explosion and fire that knocked  
> down three walls surrounding their electrical equipment room.
>
> No injuries were reported and no servers were damaged or lost.
>
> The Houston company, which provides servers for small and medium  
> sized companies, said it has its entire support team working around  
> the clock to get the servers back on line.
>
> They estimate they will be up and running by Sunday afternoon.
> That's from last night.  I spent a quarter hour on the phone with a  
> contact I have on the inside at The Planet--the nitty gritty is that  
> one of their main power couplings exploded, blowing out three walls  
> and filling the datacenter with poisonous gas (mercury would be my  
> guess) and the fire and air quality didn't even allow anyone in to  
> work until around midnight CDT this morning.
> They are *saying* that no servers were destroyed; if that is the  
> case, when power and bandwidth are restored, we'll be back online.   
> If some hardware was destroyed and it turns out to be ours, then  
> I'll have to deploy a new one.  In any case, I'm watching it closely.
> Please pass this email around to all and sundry so everyone knows  
> what's going on.  (Yes, I have good backups!)
> I'm also considering for the future a Google-hosted emergency news  
> page.  Should have done it before, dammit.
> r
>

Walter Barrett

"There are known knowns.
There are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns.
That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know.
But there are also unknown unknowns.
There are things we don't know that we don't know."
     -Donald Rumsfeld

Alto, tenor, bass trombones
Bass trumpet, euphonium, tuba
Yamaha Artist/Clinician
http://www.walterbarrett.com




Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED 
Caveats: NONE