Company That Made Power Systems For Servers Didn’t Know Why Its Own Machines Ranout Of Juice

Who, Me? Each new Monday ushers in a week during which you might shine or flatline. The Register celebrates the times you end up doing the latter with a new instalment of Who, Me? It’s the column in which you admit to making mistakes and execute cunning escapes.

This week, meet a reader we’ll Regomize as “Cole” who told us he once worked for a multinational company that built power systems for servers.

The company’s products worked well, but its factory was a mess.

“For years we had problems with the factory servers shutting down over long weekends,” Cole told Who, Me?

Nobody could figure out the reason for the outage, but it was generally agreed that external events that took place over long weekends – things like major roadworks or electricity companies working on the grid – caused the issues. IT staff therefore decided acquiring a bigger uninterruptible power supply (UPS) would improve resilience.

After that new machine came online the problem disappeared for a while, then re-emerged over the Christmas break.

Cole’s company decided an even bigger UPS must be the answer.

They were wrong. Even after the bigger batteries came online, servers still slumped over long weekends.

Cole eventually figured out the problem: The switch that controlled power to the company’s servers was the same switch that powered his workshop.

As a sensible chap, Cole had been hitting that switch every night as he left work. The UPSes had enough juice to keep the company’s servers running overnight during the week, and between Friday evening and Monday morning – but not enough for a long weekend.

“Since I was first in and last out, the IT people never saw the power down and probably didn’t look closely at log files to work out what was happening.”

Cole’s employer fixed the problem with a sign.

“We labelled the switches clearly with a warning and instructions,” he wrote.

“I never got the blame, in fact our IT guy just shrugged when the cause and solution were described to him.”

Have you lost track of which switch controls what box? If so, click here to send us your story so we can share it in a future edition of Who, Me? ®


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