3 ms·

>no general electrical cut-off switch This is so weird I can hardly believe it, maybe some details were lost in the writing. Were they connecting everything d

>no general electrical cut-off switch This is so weird I can hardly believe it, maybe some details were lost in the writing. Were they connecting everything directly to the grid? Even the most basic electrical setup goes through a fusebox with switches that turn everything on/off. Perhaps that box was burning as well, or the fire blocked access to it, idk. If there truly was no way to cut power from the site then, wow, that was just an abysmally stupid decision.

darkwater 5y ago
I think they refer to the absence of one single mains switch to turn off everything in the datacenter. It took 3 hours for the firefighter to find all the individual switches and turn them off, according to the report.
- bombcar 5y ago
  There still should be a utility box somewhere near, if necessary the utility should have been able to kill power to the whole sub-division. Every commercial building in the US I've seen has a big huge switch outside (temptation to throw it has been moderate sometimes). The point about UPS continuing to provider power even after the utility is cut is critical, though.
  - jwandborg 5y ago
    Datacenters sometimes have redundant main power providers, I'm guessing that could change the assumption to "there should be a number of supply boxes nearby, which all need to be interfered with".
    - bombcar 5y ago
      Usually then the boxes are heavily marked with how many there are, where the others are, and other info.
malfist 5y ago
It said there were meter long electrical arcs in the "power room". If I had to guess, I'd guess there was a shutoff in the power room, but not one accessible outside of it.
phire 5y ago
They said they couldn't access the electrical room due to electrical arcs (and fire?). That's where the switches and fuse boxes would have been located. What they wanted is a switch outside the building, that could cut power to the whole building without having to get to the electrical room.
mardifoufs 5y ago
It wasn't directly plugged into the grid but the report says: >Aucun organe de coupure externe Meaning there was no way to cut external power from going into the the DC. But the DC also had >4 niveaux de reprise automatique de courant [very roughly translates to "4 layers of automatic power restart"] Which I guess kept switching the power back on. So the only way to completely shut down power was by cutting off the building from the grid... with a switch that didn't exist. I don't know anything about data centers but that does not make a lot of sense to me, why would you want your safety systems to cycle back off automatically? The report also states that the lack of main switch was due to "economic decisions made by the company", but does not give further details about that multi layered restart system
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  > Aucun organe de coupure externe My understanding of this is possibly that "externe" here means external as in external to the building. Presumably, there was a breaker - it was just in the same room as the fire.
  - mardifoufs 5y ago
    Yes exactly! But it seems like the breakers for the internal circuits were turned back on repeatedly by whatever system was doing a "reprise automatique du courant".I guess that means UPS power back ups, but why would those not be shut off automatically either by the fire alarm or just the breakers? Maybe they weren't, it's not really clear, but it's surprising to me that the breakers would not cut all current if they are damaged? Do fire-safe breakers exist?
kelp 5y ago
This does seem crazy to me. I've probably toured 30-40 datacenter facilities in my career, and they ALWAYS have a big red EPO (Emergency Power Off) button at the major exits to each datahall. I've been in plenty of facilities all over the US, Europe and Japan. (I've also had to deal with the fallout from outages caused by someone accidentally pushing that button. I think they thought it would open the door. Later on those buttons were always covered with a clear plastic housing) Though never in France and everything I've spent time in was a a retail or wholesale provider, eg selling space to other companies. Not something owned and operated by a single company.

darkwater 5y ago

I think they refer to the absence of one single mains switch to turn off everything in the datacenter. It took 3 hours for the firefighter to find all the individual switches and turn them off, according to the report.

bombcar 5y ago
There still should be a utility box somewhere near, if necessary the utility should have been able to kill power to the whole sub-division. Every commercial building in the US I've seen has a big huge switch outside (temptation to throw it has been moderate sometimes). The point about UPS continuing to provider power even after the utility is cut is critical, though.
- jwandborg 5y ago
  Datacenters sometimes have redundant main power providers, I'm guessing that could change the assumption to "there should be a number of supply boxes nearby, which all need to be interfered with".
  - bombcar 5y ago
    Usually then the boxes are heavily marked with how many there are, where the others are, and other info.

malfist 5y ago

It said there were meter long electrical arcs in the "power room". If I had to guess, I'd guess there was a shutoff in the power room, but not one accessible outside of it.

phire 5y ago

They said they couldn't access the electrical room due to electrical arcs (and fire?). That's where the switches and fuse boxes would have been located. What they wanted is a switch outside the building, that could cut power to the whole building without having to get to the electrical room.

mardifoufs 5y ago

It wasn't directly plugged into the grid but the report says: >Aucun organe de coupure externe Meaning there was no way to cut external power from going into the the DC. But the DC also had >4 niveaux de reprise automatique de courant [very roughly translates to "4 layers of automatic power restart"] Which I guess kept switching the power back on. So the only way to completely shut down power was by cutting off the building from the grid... with a switch that didn't exist. I don't know anything about data centers but that does not make a lot of sense to me, why would you want your safety systems to cycle back off automatically? The report also states that the lack of main switch was due to "economic decisions made by the company", but does not give further details about that multi layered restart system

Nextgrid 5y ago
> Aucun organe de coupure externe My understanding of this is possibly that "externe" here means external as in external to the building. Presumably, there was a breaker - it was just in the same room as the fire.
- mardifoufs 5y ago
  Yes exactly! But it seems like the breakers for the internal circuits were turned back on repeatedly by whatever system was doing a "reprise automatique du courant".I guess that means UPS power back ups, but why would those not be shut off automatically either by the fire alarm or just the breakers? Maybe they weren't, it's not really clear, but it's surprising to me that the breakers would not cut all current if they are damaged? Do fire-safe breakers exist?

kelp 5y ago

This does seem crazy to me. I've probably toured 30-40 datacenter facilities in my career, and they ALWAYS have a big red EPO (Emergency Power Off) button at the major exits to each datahall. I've been in plenty of facilities all over the US, Europe and Japan. (I've also had to deal with the fallout from outages caused by someone accidentally pushing that button. I think they thought it would open the door. Later on those buttons were always covered with a clear plastic housing) Though never in France and everything I've spent time in was a a retail or wholesale provider, eg selling space to other companies. Not something owned and operated by a single company.