Classic WTF: Server Room Fans and More Fun
I share a collection of absurd IT disasters, from server rooms cooled by box fans to fax machines failing only when it rains. We explore wooden server racks, exposed electrical wiring, and network switches bolted to columns in metal shops. These stories highlight the creative, often dangerous, and completely unprofessional solutions people devise when proper infrastructure fails.
Some people use 'proper electrical wiring', others use 'extension cords'. We, on the other hand, apparently do this.
- nickdothutton
In the 90s I visited a datacentre in an a central London location. The providers charged for both power and space (and bandwidth). I had cause to lift one of the floor tiles to reposition a power cable slightly for the rack I was working in. What I saw stayed with me.
Stuffed under the floor of the adjacent rack were perhaps a dozen-or-so small servers, switches, the odd modem or 2, and perhaps a kvm box. The tenant had obviously exceeded his physical space but not his power allocation. He had simply "gone underground". Like a little farm of blinking LED mushrooms in the dark.
- skullone
Goodness. I wish I had a cameraphone in the 90s. There were tons of data centers, IT rooms, telco, labs, meetme rooms, sewers, all done at the seat of your pants.
- comrade1234
I mounted a colo server backwards once. The fan intakes were on the warm side and the output on the cool side. I was so embarrassed. It was like that for years and anyone that looked in our cage would see it. I was mortified.