Never had to deal with a server having issues caused by someone turning down the Aircon. I have dealt with a failed Aircon system at a friend's company though. Thanks to a project I was involved in at work, I have a fair amount of knowledge of setting up a streaming video system. His company wanted to stream Live TV (legitimately, they were a TV channel), and had asked me to go in to advise them on it. We arranged for me to go down their one Saturday. The hottest Saturday of the year, as it turns out. So, on that Saturday, I got up (hungover - I'd been out drinking with my friend until the small hours), got to his office suited and booted, and met him. We went to the server room, and the Air con had failed.
When we went in the room , it was well over 40 degrees C. I don't know how far over, as the thermometer on the wall maxed out at 40, but suffice to say doing anything in the room involved a *lot* of sweat. Obviously, every piece of equipment in the room overheated.
So, we opened all the doors and windows we could, and got every fan and extension cable we should. We arranged them to blow air on the servers, and turned the servers off (shutting them down safely if possible), and the fans on.
Nothing was cool enough to power up, so we went to the local Weatherspoons, and had a Full Irish breakfeast on expenses.. An hour later, we went back. The temperature was still well above 40 degrees, but had cooled down enough that we could bring the servers back online. We did get everything back online, and also set up a live stream of the channel, which my friend was able to demonstrate to his boss. Who, after all that, decided not to proceed. I still got paid though. Profitable day. I got paid £320 for my day's work, and got a free breakfast to boot.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
