Building a NOC

Tue Mar 24 09:22:26 UTC 1998

At 08:52 AM 3/23/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> Pocket protectors? Slide rules? Any other items nerd/engineers carry
>> in their shirt pocket that falls out when they are head-first into the
>> raised floor.
>
>We've found socks and cigarette butts.  Needless to say the perp is no
>longer with us :)
>
>> Like most disasters, you may not be able to prevent flooding, but you
>> can mitigate some of its affects.  Hit the E.P.O. and unfurl the plastic
>> tarps you have stored & handy for just this emergency.
>
>We also put drip pans which cover the entire ceiling over the data center -
>we were burnt 2 years ago in a pre-war office building in NYC.  (avoid space
>with wc's above!)  The pans drain outside of the machine room into a
>high-traffic hallway (with a drain).  Any drips get noticed very quickly,
>and we don't have to test the water alarm.
>
I guess that flooding by the mains water is seriousl worth thinking about. For
example we just realised that because the "mens room" (and the "ladies)
lavatory cistern overflows go into the room (they are in the middle
of the building) if something goes wrong we have a little flood. So
any mains water installations (dishwashers, kitchens, showers) are
a potential hazzard - solution a) install mains water cutoff valves
with sensors in the floors b) get everyone not involved in the NOC
out of the building. We are just doing both! I suppose that all
the wiring could be in the ceiling although that would not help
in multistorey building. Rambling a bit but what about the film Inferno with
all that water stored at the top of the building. :-))

Bill
>
-- 
U-NET Ltd		"Just Internet"			
mailto:bill at u-net.net
http://www.u-net.net/
Tel 01925 484444 Fax 01925 484466