Good news bad news

kriesel · 2022-01-12, 22:48

Bad news: woke up this morning to a chorus of beeping UPSes with no AC input.
Good: in my age bracket, waking up again IS good news.
Bad: The UPSes have SHORT battery run times at load.
Good: I had UPSes, and a few minutes to resolve the power issue before uptimes were interrupted by UPS shutdown, and possibly file systems damaged.
Bad: A breaker trip took down or isolated over a third of my network.
Good: most affected hosts were still running, being productive at GIMPS work.
Bad: Some hosts and at least one switch were down.
Good: breaker reset brought some stuff back.
Bad: Among the downed gear was my main file server.
Good: It recovered quickly and automatically.
Bad: Not everything came back.
Good: Most was easily restarted.
Bad: After power restore, a core switch's power LED blinks not glows. Suspect failed power adapter. So a lot of stuff was still isolated.
Good: I had a spare switch & matching power adapter in the bin.
Bad: The deplyoed spare is a 100 Mbps max switch.
Good: for interactive use, the speed does not seem to matter much. (Backups will suffer.)
Bad: the next-in-line spare is a dual speed 10/100 HUB.
Good: small gigabit switches used are very inexpensive now. Ordered two, each costing less than a replacement power adapter for the blinking one.
Bad: swapping out the stopped switch, knocked a UPS & power strip with adapters off a shelf onto other equipment.
Good: Looks like the collided gear survived ok.
Bad: one of the network cables lacks a latch lever on the RJ45 shell, which slipped out, & reinstated network partition.
Good: easy fix, find and reinsert after rerouting a bit to increase slack.
Bad: One of the Xeon Phi systems fought several hours against restart for resumption of work, often failing to even complete BIOS checks before hanging, sometimes hanging at Windows start screen.
Good: Persistence pays and I have it. Windows automatic repair eventually unrolled recent updates & successfully restarted it.
Bad: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...c-1e80ed9f4a00 warns it will reapply what it uninstalled to revive the box.
Good: I've got ~30 days for them to fix it or me to block it.
Bad: Another big box was up but idle.
Good: Eventually it timed out of remote desktop and got noticed and put back to work.
Bad: it took much of an 8 hour period to sort this out.
Good: I had the time available to handle it as symptoms appeared.
Bad: the building was heating up even with some gear down & warmer weather. Now power dissipated is increased.
Good: cooler weather returns soon.
Bad: I've got gear I'm not even running, due to overall power budget and a lack of case & power supply.
Good: case and PS ordered, and will deploy some on a different feed circuit and different heat dissipation budget.

So, how was your day? (So far?)

kriesel · 2022-01-12, 23:37

...and the file server's external backup drive was down (dark). Its power adapter was plugged into the same strip as other running equipment. Remove & relocate adapter, do output open circuit voltage test, looks fine. Plug it back into the external drive and it lights up and chats with the server, server's red light turns blue (good).
(Could have used the hours of the whole sequence in post 1 to do Mlucas updates on existing installs, or get Linux dual-boot installed somewhere, or start qualifying another system for Mlucas OBD P-1. Oh well.)

chalsall · 2022-01-13, 20:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by kriesel

So, how was your day? (So far?)

Just to share...

I found your above very funny, and a delight to read! Thank you for that.

There are never enough tuits...

Every time you think "OK, the next time the power goes out, I'm going to program all these changes, adds, and deletes.

And, then when it next happens (unexpectedly), you just want to get back to work the instant the power comes back...

EdH · 2022-01-13, 23:33

A few years ago:

Bad - Woke up to bright glow though the bedroom shade in the morning. Turned out to be the fuse link for our transformer located just across the street.
Good - Fire went out without spreading and/or need for immediate action, although a call had been made, of course.
Bad - Entire house, except for a very few UPSs powered down.
Good - Crew came out relatively quickly for a weekend, and replaced the fuse link.
Bad - They energized the transformer and blew up every AC surge suppressor in the entire house (all had cracked or exploded MOVs), along with tripping several circuit breakers.
Good - All the attached equipment survived.
Bad - Didn't try to get suppressor devices replaced by the Village, because I planned to just buy a bunch of MOVs and repair them.
Good - As soon as acquired, installed a "Whole-House" suppressor in the Breaker Box.
Bad - Found some power strips were destroyed beyond easy repair.
Good - Laptops that weren't plugged into suppressors still survived without issue.
Bad - Most of day was quiet due to time spent replacing transformer.
Good - Transformer was replaced by end of day.

kriesel · 2022-01-14, 02:06

Long ago living in a neighborhood that was duplexes & apartment buildings with a potato chip warehouse down the road, and a substation about a mile away,

Bad: the power went out one evening. Entire large neighborhood down. (Square kilometer?)
Good: response was prompt, with the utility company's headquarters, garage, warehouse etc. mere miles away and weather and driving conditions good. I think it was summer.
Bad: these things take a while to diagnose and fix, and all is not necessarily as it first seems.
Good: it took I think about 2 hours to repair and start bringing neighborhood loads back on line.
Bad: After we were back up, they brought up the warehouse. Well, tried to.
BOOM, a blue green flash in the night sky and the whole neighborhood went dark again.
Good: it was obviously going to take a while to really find and fix the cause as well as the apparent issues, and it wasn't long until normal bedtime anyway. Might have even nudged upward the local birth rate 9 months later.
Bad: we needed to be to work on time the next day.
Good: we had windup alarm clocks.
Bad: refrigerator & freezer were coasting up in internal energy.
Good: it got really fixed (at least for most addresses) overnight. I bet somebody got overtime pay for that.
It turned out that a forklift operator had backed into the warehouse's main feed junction/breaker panel, crushing it against the wall, converting it to a single durable high conductance n-way short (Kirchhoff node). The flash in the sky that night was a length of transmission line converting to copper vapor and smoke. Fuse of last resort. I never did hear how long the warehouse's power was down. Or if the forklift driver still had a job there.

kriesel · 2022-01-14, 02:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by chalsall

I found your above very funny, and a delight to read! Thank you for that.

You know the difference between a comedy and a tragedy, right? It's comedy when a similar sequence happens to someone else's network, and tragedy when it befalls your own.
And I really should lop off that no-latch connector and reterminate it. It got me a couple more times before the sequence was over. (Where's my bag of circular tuits?)
Can't put any of it on the shoulders of the new assistant network administrator either. He was elsewhere at the time.

PhilF · 2022-01-14, 02:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by kriesel

The flash in the sky that night was a length of transmission line converting to copper vapor and smoke. Fuse of last resort.

Relevant trivia: Vaporized copper expands to 47,000 times its original size, almost instantly.

a1call · 2022-01-14, 06:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilF

Relevant trivia: Vaporized copper expands to 47,000 times its original size, almost instantly.

Good News: That sounds like an ideal mechanism for an electrically-powered Cupper-Steam/Vapor-Engine.

Pennies as medium anyone?

Google says:

Melting point of tungsten = 3422° C
Boiling point of cupper = 2562° C

Just got to figure out how to contain the cupper fumes. Interestingly Google says that we have evolved not to be toxified by cupper.

Bad News : I assume the efficiency would be terrible with all the great heat loss compared to an electrical engine.

kriesel · 2022-01-14, 12:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by a1call

Pennies as medium anyone?

Good: pennies are plentiful.
Bad: They cost more than a penny to make.
Good: It's not the user bearing that cost.
Bad: these days pennies are mostly zinc, with enough copper remaining for color.
Good: zinc boils at lower temps.
Bad: zinc toxicity is real.
Good: there is a treatment.
Bad: there is no antidote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_toxicity
Good: there's no requirement to operate at pressure above atmospheric.
Bad: power densities for Rankine cycles at low pressure tend to be low.
Good: high flow rate technologies such as turbines counter that.
Bad: copper toxicity is real too.
Good: for that there are treatments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_toxicity
Bad: Carnot cycle limits theoretical energy conversion efficiency to work.
Good: this is all just an amusing thought experiment.

Dr Sardonicus · 2022-01-14, 22:12

Bad news: Last Friday evening, I started feeling not-so-great. Nothing definite, just a bit "off." Sometime Saturday, my throat started feeling kind of scratchy.

Good news: Nothing worse than a sore throat, a bit of catarrh, and a low-grade fever.

Bad news: The sore throat got sorer. My catarrh got worse. My powers of concentration became practically nil. I felt fatigued. Sunday night was rough, not much sleep.

Good news: My senses of taste and smell seemed to remain essentially normal. Monday, my sore throat started to abate. My catarrh wasn't as bad. I felt less fatigued. I decided to go get a COVID test next day.

Bad news: Thursday I got my test result. Oh,

!

My "over my cold" celebration has been postponed...

Good news: Today, my symptoms continue to dissipate. I'm pretty well fixed for groceries.

chalsall · 2022-01-14, 22:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Good news: Today, my symptoms continue to dissipate. I'm pretty well fixed for groceries.

Very good news. Not all in similar situations have food.

2022-01-12, 22:48	#1
kriesel "TF79LL86GIMPS96gpu17" Mar 2017 US midwest 11²·61 Posts	Good news bad news Bad news: woke up this morning to a chorus of beeping UPSes with no AC input. Good: in my age bracket, waking up again IS good news. Bad: The UPSes have SHORT battery run times at load. Good: I had UPSes, and a few minutes to resolve the power issue before uptimes were interrupted by UPS shutdown, and possibly file systems damaged. Bad: A breaker trip took down or isolated over a third of my network. Good: most affected hosts were still running, being productive at GIMPS work. Bad: Some hosts and at least one switch were down. Good: breaker reset brought some stuff back. Bad: Among the downed gear was my main file server. Good: It recovered quickly and automatically. Bad: Not everything came back. Good: Most was easily restarted. Bad: After power restore, a core switch's power LED blinks not glows. Suspect failed power adapter. So a lot of stuff was still isolated. Good: I had a spare switch & matching power adapter in the bin. Bad: The deplyoed spare is a 100 Mbps max switch. Good: for interactive use, the speed does not seem to matter much. (Backups will suffer.) Bad: the next-in-line spare is a dual speed 10/100 HUB. Good: small gigabit switches used are very inexpensive now. Ordered two, each costing less than a replacement power adapter for the blinking one. Bad: swapping out the stopped switch, knocked a UPS & power strip with adapters off a shelf onto other equipment. Good: Looks like the collided gear survived ok. Bad: one of the network cables lacks a latch lever on the RJ45 shell, which slipped out, & reinstated network partition. Good: easy fix, find and reinsert after rerouting a bit to increase slack. Bad: One of the Xeon Phi systems fought several hours against restart for resumption of work, often failing to even complete BIOS checks before hanging, sometimes hanging at Windows start screen. Good: Persistence pays and I have it. Windows automatic repair eventually unrolled recent updates & successfully restarted it. Bad: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...c-1e80ed9f4a00 warns it will reapply what it uninstalled to revive the box. Good: I've got ~30 days for them to fix it or me to block it. Bad: Another big box was up but idle. Good: Eventually it timed out of remote desktop and got noticed and put back to work. Bad: it took much of an 8 hour period to sort this out. Good: I had the time available to handle it as symptoms appeared. Bad: the building was heating up even with some gear down & warmer weather. Now power dissipated is increased. Good: cooler weather returns soon. Bad: I've got gear I'm not even running, due to overall power budget and a lack of case & power supply. Good: case and PS ordered, and will deploy some on a different feed circuit and different heat dissipation budget. So, how was your day? (So far?) Last fiddled with by kriesel on 2022-01-12 at 22:53

2022-01-12, 23:37	#2
kriesel "TF79LL86GIMPS96gpu17" Mar 2017 US midwest 11²×61 Posts	...and the file server's external backup drive was down (dark). Its power adapter was plugged into the same strip as other running equipment. Remove & relocate adapter, do output open circuit voltage test, looks fine. Plug it back into the external drive and it lights up and chats with the server, server's red light turns blue (good). (Could have used the hours of the whole sequence in post 1 to do Mlucas updates on existing installs, or get Linux dual-boot installed somewhere, or start qualifying another system for Mlucas OBD P-1. Oh well.) Last fiddled with by kriesel on 2022-01-12 at 23:50

2022-01-13, 23:33	#4
EdH "Ed Hall" Dec 2009 Adirondack Mtns 3·7·251 Posts	A Similar Experience, if I May A few years ago: Bad - Woke up to bright glow though the bedroom shade in the morning. Turned out to be the fuse link for our transformer located just across the street. Good - Fire went out without spreading and/or need for immediate action, although a call had been made, of course. Bad - Entire house, except for a very few UPSs powered down. Good - Crew came out relatively quickly for a weekend, and replaced the fuse link. Bad - They energized the transformer and blew up every AC surge suppressor in the entire house (all had cracked or exploded MOVs), along with tripping several circuit breakers. Good - All the attached equipment survived. Bad - Didn't try to get suppressor devices replaced by the Village, because I planned to just buy a bunch of MOVs and repair them. Good - As soon as acquired, installed a "Whole-House" suppressor in the Breaker Box. Bad - Found some power strips were destroyed beyond easy repair. Good - Laptops that weren't plugged into suppressors still survived without issue. Bad - Most of day was quiet due to time spent replacing transformer. Good - Transformer was replaced by end of day.

2022-01-14, 02:06	#5
kriesel "TF79LL86GIMPS96gpu17" Mar 2017 US midwest 7381₁₀ Posts	Breaker or fuse of last resort Long ago living in a neighborhood that was duplexes & apartment buildings with a potato chip warehouse down the road, and a substation about a mile away, Bad: the power went out one evening. Entire large neighborhood down. (Square kilometer?) Good: response was prompt, with the utility company's headquarters, garage, warehouse etc. mere miles away and weather and driving conditions good. I think it was summer. Bad: these things take a while to diagnose and fix, and all is not necessarily as it first seems. Good: it took I think about 2 hours to repair and start bringing neighborhood loads back on line. Bad: After we were back up, they brought up the warehouse. Well, tried to. BOOM, a blue green flash in the night sky and the whole neighborhood went dark again. Good: it was obviously going to take a while to really find and fix the cause as well as the apparent issues, and it wasn't long until normal bedtime anyway. Might have even nudged upward the local birth rate 9 months later. Bad: we needed to be to work on time the next day. Good: we had windup alarm clocks. Bad: refrigerator & freezer were coasting up in internal energy. Good: it got really fixed (at least for most addresses) overnight. I bet somebody got overtime pay for that. It turned out that a forklift operator had backed into the warehouse's main feed junction/breaker panel, crushing it against the wall, converting it to a single durable high conductance n-way short (Kirchhoff node). The flash in the sky that night was a length of transmission line converting to copper vapor and smoke. Fuse of last resort. I never did hear how long the warehouse's power was down. Or if the forklift driver still had a job there. Last fiddled with by kriesel on 2022-01-14 at 02:21

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2022-01-14, 22:12	#10
Dr Sardonicus Feb 2017 Nowhere 1100001011101₂ Posts	Bad news: Last Friday evening, I started feeling not-so-great. Nothing definite, just a bit "off." Sometime Saturday, my throat started feeling kind of scratchy. Good news: Nothing worse than a sore throat, a bit of catarrh, and a low-grade fever. Bad news: The sore throat got sorer. My catarrh got worse. My powers of concentration became practically nil. I felt fatigued. Sunday night was rough, not much sleep. Good news: My senses of taste and smell seemed to remain essentially normal. Monday, my sore throat started to abate. My catarrh wasn't as bad. I felt less fatigued. I decided to go get a COVID test next day. Bad news: Thursday I got my test result. Oh, ! My "over my cold" celebration has been postponed... Good news: Today, my symptoms continue to dissipate. I'm pretty well fixed for groceries.