Transformer takes out datacenter (Reno, NV)?
After being informed that my website was unreachable from a few people, I verified that I couldn't query the DNS servers for it. I waited a few hours and they still didn't respond. A call to my domain registrar (who runs the DNS) was answered by an machine. A call to the home of the DNS admin was answered. He said that apparently a transformer had blown up in or near a datacenter near Reno and, basically, that nothing was working. AFAICT, the datacenter itself had no connectivity to the Internet at large and everything there was inaccessible. He said he'd heard three different times that things were supposed to be fixed: Midnight, 2am, and 6am (GMT-8). Does anybody have any more (detailed) information on this? Thanks, j. -- Jeremy L. Gaddis <jgaddis@bob.ivytech.edu>
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2003/07/29/48134.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News Explosion rocks Reno office building By Elaine Goodman, Carla Roccapriore and Marilyn Newton RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 7/29/2003 09:19 pm Liz Margerum/Liz Margerum Firefighters put water on 200 South Virginia St. after a transformer explosion Tuesday in downtown Reno. A transformer explosion Tuesday on the side of the Wells Fargo office building in downtown Reno sent flaming oil through the streets, slightly burning a woman and forcing the evacuation of more than 200 workers, officials said. Reno city spokesman Steve Frady said many workers had left for the day before the explosion. Crews were investigating what caused the transformer at 200 S. Virginia St. to explode shortly after 4 p.m. The ensuing fire sent up a smoke plume visible for miles and charred the outside of the eight-story building. The oil used as a coolant for the transformer caught fire and sent flames down Virginia Street toward Court Street, fire officials said. Chris Christiansen said she was walking near the transformer when it exploded, burning her face and neck.
Actually, most of the data center was working just fine. Advanced Telcom Group was up and running (probably on battery), and MCI/Worldcom stayed up as well. We have a T3 going through that building to Worldcom, and it stayed up all night. A couple of the smaller ISPs were off the air all night, though. Power was indeed off to the entire building, and ATGs generator was involved in the explosion, so kudos to ATG and Worldcom for having enough batteries to last the night.
After being informed that my website was unreachable from a few people, I verified that I couldn't query the DNS servers for it. I waited a few hours and they still didn't respond. A call to my domain registrar (who runs the DNS) was answered by an machine. A call to the home of the DNS admin was answered. He said that apparently a transformer had blown up in or near a datacenter near Reno and, basically, that nothing was working. AFAICT, the datacenter itself had no connectivity to the Internet at large and everything there was inaccessible. He said he'd heard three different times that things were supposed to be fixed: Midnight, 2am, and 6am (GMT-8).
Does anybody have any more (detailed) information on this?
Thanks, j.
-- Jeremy L. Gaddis <jgaddis@bob.ivytech.edu>
-- Bruce Robertson, President/CEO +1-775-348-7299 Great Basin Internet Services, Inc. fax: +1-775-348-9412 http://www.greatbasin.net
On Wed, 30 Jul 2003, Bruce Robertson wrote:
Power was indeed off to the entire building, and ATGs generator was involved in the explosion, so kudos to ATG and Worldcom for having enough batteries to last the night.
Hi Bruce- Just a clarification, but ATG's generator was not involved in the transformer explosion. The fire department cut off all the generators in the building for safety sake and would not let us turn them back on until they made sure they wouldn't backfeed/cause more problems, so we were stuck on battery until they cleared us (which makes sense, we certainly don't want to cause more problems). It was about 7:30 when we were allowed to turn back on the generator. For those who don't know, 200 South Virginia in Reno is one of the few (if not only) "carrier hotel" in Reno, it has ATG, SBC, MCI, as well as several local ISPs in it. It also has (or had) a Genuity pop, although I don't know if they're still there or not. www.rgj.com has a few pictures of the building. -Scott ATG
participants (4)
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Bruce Robertson -
Jeremy Gaddis -
Scott Call -
Sean Donelan