Issue 35
Publisher: Jack Burlin Editor: Patti Hammonds
May 2, 2008
IN THIS ISSUE
Your success story
Monthly featured product
Kevinisms
Trivia
Articles of Interest: Keeping Your Power Supplies Safe A Really Bad Day
We were very pleased to receive our order a couple days ago. Very fast shipment! Your sales person was very helpful and made sure that all of our questions were answered. You will be our first stop for future requirements.
-David Seymour
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Keeping
Your
Power Supplies Safe
Preventive Maintenance
For Power Devices
November 17, 2006 • Vol.28 Issue 46
You need absolute trust in your power system. Yet the
best way to get it—careful,
preventive maintenance—often gets
shoved to the back burner in favor of the latest server upgrade or end
user in crisis.
The result? Brownouts become blackouts, which become disasters. Better
to maintain your UPS, batteries, and generators now, or to find someone
to do it for you.
“Most preventive maintenance measures should be left to qualified
persons,” says Omar McKee, service product manager for the service
business of Emerson Network Power. “UPS and batteries contain high
voltage among other things, and only qualified personnel should attempt
preventive maintenance or repair,” he says.
UPS
Units
You should check your UPS units—your
first line of defense—for clear
physical defects. These include discolored or frayed wires or cracks in
their insulation. Be sure to also check the fans, LEDs, and displays,
too.
How often? According to McKee, a small UPS device should be checked
yearly. “Medium and large systems should be inspected twice a year to
ensure proper operation and confirm that the unit is operating within
the manufacturer’s specifications,” he says.
Those inspections include everything from temperature checks on all
breakers, connections, and controls to checks on subassemblies, snubber
boards, power capacitors, and harmonic trap filter currents, to name
only a few that McKee brings up. (For more information, see the
“Preventive Maintenance Schedule” sidebar.)
Batteries
Batteries deserve special attention. “If a power outage occurs, even a
single bad cell in a string of batteries could compromise your entire
backup system and leave you without protection,” says McKee.
“If your VRLA [valve regulated lead acid] batteries have been in service
for four or more years, it’s probably time to schedule an evaluation of
their condition in order to keep your UPS system providing the
protection you require,” he adds.
McKee also recommends a six-month or yearly battery check for everything
from the integrity of the battery cabinet to the presence of grease or
oil on connections or corrosion on terminals or cables. If needed, the
DC bus ripple voltage should be checked, as should the total battery
float voltage—all tests that are
best left to experts with the right training.
Generators
A UPS and its batteries only go so far. If the power is off for too
long, you’ll need your generator to keep your servers running.
Checking a generator is, at least in part, like checking a car’s engine.
Its oil, coolant, belts, bearings, filters, and fans should all be
inspected and then replaced if needed. And like an engine, generators
must be run frequently to prevent the buildup of fuel additives, which
can prevent them from working optimally—or
working at all.
How often is enough? That depends on the unit because needs vary by
manufacturer. Most manufacturers recommend testing and maintenance once
every quarter to once every six months.
Preventive Tests
In addition to basic preventive maintenance, you can (and should) test
the system’s stability in three different ways.
First is a load test, which tests a UPS or generator at 25%, 50%, 75%,
and 100% of its potential load and notes any problems at each interval.
Next up? Roll-over testing, which mimics a full-fledged blackout or
brownout and finds any problems before they bring your systems down.
Load tests are performed once every six months or once per year.
Roll-over tests are less frequent, performed at one- or two-year
intervals. But you should consult with an expert to determine the best
interval for your system.
And the last preventive test? Heat and humidity, of course. They can
harm a UPS, a battery, or a generator just as badly as they can harm the
delicate circuits of servers. Smart data center managers monitor heat
and humidity daily, making sure each stays within a strict range.
by David Garrett
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Don't put your
hardware in danger! |
A Kevinism is a funny or intriguing statement or idea from our Vice President of Sales, Kevin Hunt. Kevin is a big fan of Sandra Bullock, Pizza Inn black olive pizza, The Washington Redskins, and Dr. Pepper (not necessarily in that order). He is not a big fan of Chinese food, seafood, or other types of "dead" stuff.
As our regular readers know, Kevin hates Chinese food. Whenever he has to go to a Chinese restaurant, he calls it the restaurant of death. He constantly comes up with reasons why people should not eat Chinese food, and constantly complains whenever he is forced to (which is whenever Robin decides she wants Chinese).
Kevin has recently come up with some new gems. The first is that Kevin says his eyes are more powerful than anyone else's, which allow him to see things that would normally be microscopic to anyone else.
You might not think this has anything to do with Chinese food, but Kevin says because of his outstanding eyesight, he "can read between the lines." The lines Kevin is referring to are in the sign posted in the window of the restaurant. The sign says a liquor license is being applied for. Kevin says that between the printed lines he can see where the explanation for the liquor license is that it will disinfect anyone who eats there.
Kevin's second gem is that "you should never eat American food at a Chinese restaurant." This means that although there are plenty of selections like French fries, corn, sautéed vegetables, fresh fruit, and other things that Kevin normally likes, he refuses to eat them. Instead, he eats Sesame Chicken and Beef and Broccoli (emphasis on the broccoli) while complaining about it.
Kevin's last gem is the new word he made up to describe the technique of taking perfectly good food and preparing it for consumption in a Chinese restaurant: disgusticize.
The eye issue and the liquor issue are easy to debunk. First, Kevin wears glasses. Secondly, everyone recognizes the true purpose of offering alcoholic drinks at a restaurant - to make money. The markup on liquor in retail bars and restaurants is tremendous. Who would not want to sell it if they could?
As far as the new word goes, Kevin may be on to something. Has anyone else seen the "Pepsisize" commercial?
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Q: Where is this statue and what is it called?
All correct answers will be placed into a pool for a random drawing at the end of the month. The winner will receive a free laptop cooler, plus free ground shipping. Send your answers to: Jack Burlin
See next month's newsletter for the winner and the correct answer.
Answer from April's Newsletter.
Q: Where is this building and what is its significance?
A: This is the Shah Faisal mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. It is designed to look like a Bedouin tent. This design was chosen in a competition of well known architects. At the time it was criticized for not staying within the tradition of the domed mosque, but is now recognized as an imposing and inspiring design. It sits against the foothills of the Himalaya mountains.
This question proved too tough, and no one got both parts of the answer correct. Early on, the photo was labeled with the answer, but no one got the significance (shown above in Italics).
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It has been a couple of years since I witnessed this event. The person this happened to was a total stranger, and as far as I know I have not ever seen them since. However, I can sympathize with them, and reflect that when I sometimes have a bad day, it is not normally as bad as this.
The event happened when I was entering into one of the passenger terminal areas at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. If you have never had the pleasure of driving to this particular airport, then you don’t know that it is a bit complicated. Each of the terminals have their own entry ramps off the main road running north/south through the center of the airport. There are additional access ramps from auxiliary streets and from adjacent terminals and parking areas. All these ramps disgorge traffic into a sort of traffic circle that runs in front of all the parking garages which are, in turn, right in front of each terminal. Each terminal has three parking structures to handle one third of the overall gates, and each garage has an exit ramp that routes departing traffic into the same circle as the arriving traffic. See the attached photo and diagram below.
If you have never been to the airport before, the various ramps and all the merging/crossing traffic can be confusing. You don’t really expect traffic to be coming from the many directions in which it actually does. With a little experience and caution, the airport is pretty easy to navigate, but not for a first timer.
The person in question was a young lady driving a black two-door sedan. I was entering the terminal area from the main road, and she was coming in on an adjacent ramp to my right. I was about three or four car lengths behind her, and there was another car about the same distance in front of me.
Without looking to her left, when this lady got to the bottom of her ramp, she simply kept on going into the only open lane available. Unfortunately, the car in front of me was occupying the space at the time. The inevitable happened and there was a collision. The right fender of the car in front of me smashed into the left fender of her car. Both cars came to a sudden stop, as did I and the cars behind me, and also the cars behind her.
While I was checking traffic in an effort to go around this accident (I still had to get into the terminal to meet someone), I noticed the lady trying to exit her car. She evidently wanted to access the damage and talk to the other driver. Nothing wrong with that, except that her door would not open. She was probably a bit flustered at the time, so she shifted into reverse and gunned the engine to disengage her car from the other, and allow her to open her door. Well as you might expect, this maneuver separated the two cars. But it also caused her to slam into the car that was stopped behind her. Wham!
So she ended up having two separate car accidents with different people, all within the span of about 15 seconds. Now that is a really bad day!
I really felt sorry for her then, and I still do when I remember the story. However, I just can’t fail to be cheered up and thankful when remembering that it did not happen to me.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this
month's newsletter.
Please direct your comments to
Jack Burlin.
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