dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
36

beachintech
There's sand in my tool bag
Premium Member
join:2008-01-06

beachintech to Modus

Premium Member

to Modus

Re: Need help IT vs Facilities

Once a month we have a schedule test where they spin everything up and make the live transfer. Generator does a self test weekly, with no load transfer. If everything is working you should not notice the event really.

state
stress magnet
Mod
join:2002-02-08
Purgatory

state

Mod

said by beachintech:

Once a month we have a schedule test where they spin everything up and make the live transfer. Generator does a self test weekly, with no load transfer.

That's how our switching and datacenter facilities operate as well.

Modus
I hate smartassery on forums
Premium Member
join:2005-05-02
us

Modus to beachintech

Premium Member

to beachintech
said by beachintech:

Once a month we have a schedule test where they spin everything up and make the live transfer. Generator does a self test weekly, with no load transfer. If everything is working you should not notice the event really.

That's just it.....its not working for us. It has caused so many issues in the past, currently the A/C, standalone ups all have encountered issues. Last week one of the buildings on our campus lost power during the load transfer (of course no one told us) and my apc symmetra lx that i have in that building for my IDF network gear was on battery power. Power was restored but the symmetra died and so did the network gear, i know the generator needs to run but the load transfer test is kill us.

DadeMurphy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-25
Danvers, MA

DadeMurphy

Premium Member

Based on that I'd say your problem isn't the testing, it's that there is something wrong with your load transfer that needs to be resolved.

BTW, we do once a month live load transfer testing and weekly no load testing of the gensets at the two data centers I have my hands in.

Modus
I hate smartassery on forums
Premium Member
join:2005-05-02
us

Modus

Premium Member

said by DadeMurphy:

Based on that I'd say your problem isn't the testing, it's that there is something wrong with your load transfer that needs to be resolved.

BTW, we do once a month live load transfer testing and weekly no load testing of the gensets at the two data centers I have my hands in.

ok so far looks like the average is about once a month which is better than 2 times a week. And load transfer failing is on them, about 2yrs ago in another one of our locations the transfer switch failed could have been from ware & tear who knows....

DadeMurphy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-25
Danvers, MA

DadeMurphy

Premium Member

I think everyone can agree that twice a week is excessive for a multitude of reasons. Can you run it up your management chain and get some pressure applied to the facilities group to modify the testing schedule. Oh and while they're modifying the test schedule they should fix the broken transfer devices. Just sayin'

Modus
I hate smartassery on forums
Premium Member
join:2005-05-02
us

Modus

Premium Member

said by DadeMurphy:

I think everyone can agree that twice a week is excessive for a multitude of reasons. Can you run it up your management chain and get some pressure applied to the facilities group to modify the testing schedule. Oh and while they're modifying the test schedule they should fix the broken transfer devices. Just sayin'

That's my plan....i'm currently compiling a list of things that have occurred and trying to research other things that could come up as a result of this excessive testing

Wily_One
Premium Member
join:2002-11-24
San Jose, CA

Wily_One to DadeMurphy

Premium Member

to DadeMurphy
Load transfer testing twice a week? Hell I'd say monthly testing is excessive. What it sounds like to me is they know they have a reliability problem and are trying to find the issue/fix that will work, hence the extra testing.

DadeMurphy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-25
Danvers, MA

DadeMurphy to Modus

Premium Member

to Modus
Make sure you point out that with the AC failing (not sure how often it does during the transfers) you can overheat your servers/networking gear and kill it if it is too old to have internal thermal monitoring and shutdown. Sudden power loss isn't healthy for any elctronics either and can kill them if it happens enough. (of course you know all this)

Recently we had a problem with one of the main power feeds to one of our data centers that killed all power to one side of our DC every 3 days. We couldn't get funding to repair it until we lost an entire 200TB SAN (thankfully it was mirrored with another SAN). Had the funding come in before the SAN was fried the cost to the company would have only been a day of an electricians time instead of SAN + electrician.

Don't let your management push it off until hardware starts dying.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall to beachintech

MVM

to beachintech
said by beachintech:

Once a month we have a schedule test where they spin everything up and make the live transfer. Generator does a self test weekly, with no load transfer. If everything is working you should not notice the event really.

This is the same here.

From the way things sound, your generator is having a problem or the procedure is an issue. I would get the attention of the executives on this one. Sounds like the facilities guy could do a better job at getting his generator working properly. Either that or the company contracted to support the generator.