OVH opens less flammable datacenter at site of 2021 fire OVHCloud has opened a datacenter in Strasbourg, on the site of a 2021 fire that destroyed two such facilities. Preliminary findings of an investigation into that fire suggest water leaking onto an inverter kicked things off, before the lack of an automatic fire extinguisher system, delayed cutoff of electricity, and overall …
> ...general practice to put the UPS/batteries in the bottom of the server cabinet they are protecting... I suppose its probably ok with sealed lead acid batteries, but lithium?
The new kids never learn from their elders. In the telephone racket it was dead-standard to keep all large batteries (mostly lead-acid) in a separate concrete room vented to the outside.
Among other things (evolved Hydrogen at peak charge), the acid fumes made a mess of small relays (once the key technology of telephony).
NEC/NFPA also have pages on battery rooms.
Almost as if the place was designed by people who had never worked in IT
You mean "almost as if the purchase approvals were made by people who had never worked in IT". I'm sure they had people recommending what they needed, but it was vetoed by those more concerned with the bottom line.
In a just world those responsible for such decisions would be fired, and their name tarnished so they would be forced to accept a lower level job next time around as they'd proven they had Peter principled out at this job. Unfortunately they probably got a bonus from the board for having purchased sufficient fire insurance.
I guess the insurance company never did any due diligence, or they would have really socked it to them in the quote!
"What ? They built a datacenter full of electrical equipment and they didn't have a fire extinguishing system in it ?"
Yep yep. The DC that went in flames was in fact a horrible kludge, as the french press reported (never confirmed by OVH of course).
No flame containment between rooms, no automatic fire extinguisher system, wooden floor everywhere. It was only lacking big petrol tanks in the hosting space to be 100% lethal.
And yes, cut corners, risk the lives of the 2 poor dudes who were on site, the way to go for a successful business !
Humans never seem to learn from their mistakes
https://youtu.be/q6oC_QX3-G4 (warning: graphic detail)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winecoff_Hotel_fire
What happened to OVH could be fully expected: they planned for fire "containment", same as the "fireproof" buildings in the historical links I've just provided. But "containment" doesn't seem to ever factor in what is inside the building, the materials and furnishings; the planners expect their plans to go...as planned.
Fire has very different rules to play by. You can read that as: No 'rules' at all.
I just wonder how many other data centres are built like the old OVH one, and the management / owners are just hoping they will be lucky, 'coz they cannot afford to retrofit proper design and fire suppressant technology, either financially or because they don't want to have too admit why they are 'refurbishing' the site.
(Fire icon, obvs.)
Just a few weeks ago, the company that washes our work uniforms went up in flames. It's a big place in a major town fifty miles away, so it takes in a lot of clothing from companies, hospitals, etc. Industrial washing machines. Industrial driers. Shitloads of textiles. And apparently not a sprinkler or fire hose in sight. The place was gone in three minutes.
""Despite liquids being suspected as the cause of the 2021 fire, OVH is still using water cooling for its servers."
So you've learned... nothing."
There is actually quite a lot of efficiency to be gained by WC, so they have a point.
But then, you need basically leak detection systems and good ops, which has yet to materialize from a company that basically only discovered last year that automatic fire extinction is a good idea !
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