[BC] KOMO, Seattle building fire

[Chris Gebhardt]

Barry Mishkind wrote:
> At 11:26 AM 7/3/2009, Chris Gebhardt wrote:
>> Also, as provided in our DR plan, if our generator fails, we have a
>> standing reservation to have a rental unit rolled up.  Response time on
>> that is 4 hours.  (Also, if we are on generator for >4 hours, we put a
>> spare on standby.)
> 
>          Chris, out of curiosity, how long does your UPS last in the
>          event both power feeds die?

Not long!  We have about 30 minutes worth of UPS with our current 
battery string.   We could extend that by adding battery of course, but 
the design of the system is that if both electric services fail, 
generator takes over.  Our generator will assume the load within 30 
seconds (including bounce delay).    If our utility feeds AND generator 
both fail, we wait on a replacement generator.   In most cases that will 
arrive within 2 hours, but guaranteed 4.

But keep in mind that it would be exceedingly difficult to put the CRACs 
(computer room air conditioners), chillers and glycol pumps on battery 
and have them last for very long.  So the longer the datacenter runs on 
battery alone, the warmer it gets.

We have the generator professionally maintained, exercise it weekly and 
transfer load monthly.   We do our best to ensure that even if the 
utility falls down, we do not.

Chris Gebhardt
VIRTBIZ Internet Services
chris at virtbiz.com | (972) 485-4125