Cloud Burst - Data Center Outages

by Mike Rinaldi on 7/11/12 10:32 AM

Muliple Generator Failures Cause 2nd Amazon Outage

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Amazon Web Services says that the repeated failure of multiple generators in a single data center caused last Friday night’s power outage, which led to downtime for Netflix, Instagram and many other popular web sites. The generators in this facility failed to operate properly during two utility outages over a short period Friday evening when the site lost utility power, depleting the emergency power in the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems.

Amazon said the data center outage affected a small percentage of its operations, but was exacerbated by problems with systems that allow customers to spread workloads across multiple data centers. The company apologized for the outage and outlined the steps it will take to address the problems and prevent a recurrence.

> Read full article here now  
Rich Miller [Data Center Knowledge]

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Topics: data center infrastructure, Data Center, data center design, cloud computing, data center infrastructure management, electrical distribution, reduce downtime, data center outages, cloud strategy

Why Test Your Circuit Breakers? Because They Fail

by Mike Rinaldi on 6/21/12 1:53 PM

Amazon Traces Cloud Outage To Faulty Breaker

Improperly configured breaker opened and brought down portion of cloud

[Data Center Dynamics]
 

Amazon Web Services has released details about the root cause of the outage of one of its public-cloud’s availability zones that started in the evening on 14 June and lasted until next morning, US Pacific time.

In a note posted on the cloud’s status dashboard, the company said the outage was caused by a cable fault in the power distribution system of the electric utility that served the data center hosting the US-East-1 region of the cloud in northern Virginia.

The entire facility was switched over to back-up generator power, but one of the generators overheated and powered off because of a defective cooling fan. The virtual-machine instances and virtual-storage volumes that were powered by this generator were transferred to a secondary back-up power system, provided by a separate power-distribution circuit that has its own backup generator capacity.

But, one of the breakers on this backup circuit was configured incorrectly and opened as soon as the load was transferred to the circuit. The breaker was set up to open at too low a power threshold.

“After this circuit breaker opened … the affected instances and volumes were left without primary, back-up, or secondary back-up power,” Amazon’s note read.

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circuit breaker testing
A survey by Hartford Insurance Company found that air circuit breakers represent 19.5% of electrical power system failures.  Test results on circuit breakers by NETA (InterNational Electrical Testing Association) firms show over a 15% failure rate.  Defective circuit breakers can allow extensive damage, personal injury, or make an outage more widespread when a fault occurs.  They can also trip when they shouldn’t, causing expensive downtime.

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Topics: data center infrastructure, reduce cost, Data Center, data center design, cloud computing, data center infrastructure management, robust data center, electrical distribution, reduce downtime, data center outages, cloud strategy

DVL Pledges To Assist 12 Data Centers Achieve LEED Certification

by Mike Rinaldi on 5/8/12 12:14 AM

Winning company will receive “Less Watts” Award to kick off Greenbuild 2013 in Philadelphia

DVL Group, a provider of data center power, cooling and infrastructure management solutions, has pledged to assist 12 data centers achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification and save 1,000,000 watts of electrical energy. Three companies that save the most watts will receive the Less Watts Award and DVL will donate $1,000 to the Delaware Valley Green Building Council (DVGBC) in each company’s name.

DVGBC is a chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which set the standards for LEED building. DVL will work with each company to achieve LEED Certification, administered by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). LEED Certification verifies that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Facilities and IT personnel interested in making their data centers more efficient by participating in the Less Watts competition should attend DVL’s “Are You Prepared For What’s Next?” event at their Bristol, PA facility. The free conference takes place on May 9 and 10, offering the same seminars each day. All courses will feature IACET-authorized CEUs. The virtual Less Watts Award ceremony will kick off the annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo.

On May 3rd, 2012, Mayor Nutter made an announcement to celebrate the annual Greenbuild Conference, which will take place in Philadelphia from November 20-22, 2013. DVGBC is the host chapter for the three-day event. The convention will feature speakers, networking opportunities, industry showcases, LEED workshops and tours of Philadelphia’s green buildings.

DVL wants to show companies that it only takes one positive, “green-friendly” action to set the tone for data center efficiency and sustainability. Its hope for the Less Watts competition is for LEED Certification to become a priority for more organizations, and for these organizations to work with DVL to achieve this goal.

To register for either day of DVL’s “What’s Next?” event, visit www.dvlnet.com/prepared-for-whats-next-/. To learn more about how DVL merges its innovative “Strategy First” technique with quality solutions to build dynamic data centers, visit www.dvlnet.com. For more information on Greenbuild 2013 in Philadelphia, head to http://dvgbc.org/greenbuild-2013.

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Topics: data center infrastructure, Data Center, Green IT, data center design, cloud computing, kW per rack, data center energy, PUE, DVL, Green Technology

How much power, cooling, and space do you have in your data center?

by Mike Rinaldi on 5/1/12 11:33 AM

 
Are you looking for a tool that Facilities and IT can use?
 
"IT has the need to manage the racks so when Facilities takes down services, they know what is effected.  The tool will also help them know what resources are available - power, space, and network".
 
What are the obstacles/challenges of Data Center Infrastructure Management?
 
 
 
See a DEMO of how Liebert/Emerson has integrated server management and control and cooling/power to optimize your Data Center performance through Trellis at DVL on May 9 or 10.
 
Click the link to sign up and attend.

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Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, Data Center, Green IT, data center design, cloud computing, data center energy, data center infrastructure management, PUE, robust data center, DVL, reduce downtime, data center outages

Top 10 Reasons To Consider Data Center Infrastructure Management

by Mike Rinaldi on 3/21/12 9:09 AM

What is your DCIM strategy?

The Data Center industry is in need of of a solution that bridges the IT and facilities systems and provides data in appropriate interfaces across IT and facilities groups.  A holistic DCIM strategy is a data center manager’s best partner in meeting the stringent business demands in a modern-day data center environment. To successfully implement a DCIM strategy, data center managers must be on the lookout for the best family of hardware, software and services that allows them to address the critical infrastructure gap.

 

A new perspective on managing the critical infrastructure gaps is emerging that recognizes:

  • The importance of real-time data to understand the true capacity of available infrastructure
  • The criticality of interdependencies between logical and physical layers
  • The need for holistic management capabilities and visibility of IT and facilities infrastructures
  • The need for more powerful management tools that offer a rich, visual view of the infrastructure and can guide design and change management
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Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, Data Center, Green IT, data center design, cloud computing, data center energy, data center infrastructure management, robust data center, Green Technology

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