When the IBM 7094 at Purdue University was finally to be disconnected, they had to shut down the entire power plant, which was adjacent to the computer building, because the computer's main power relay had been directly connected to the main power buss, and it's contacts had welded shut over those many years.
SW Bell was about to open a brand new office building in downtown Dallas with hundreds ready to move in the next week; the only remaining work was to lay the carpet, and that team diligently laid and cut the carpet flush to the perimeter, failing to observe that under the carpet were miles of multi-conductor flat cables to all of the devices that were also cut along with the carpet. I believe it took a LONG time to replace/rerun all of those cables. Barry Herbert W. “Barry” Merrill, PhD President-Programmer MXG Software Merrill Consultants 10717 Cromwell Drive Dallas, TX 75229-5112 [email protected] Fax: 214 350 3694 – Still works, received as email Tel: 214 351 1966 – Unreliable, please use email www.mxg.com HomePage: FAQ answers most questions [email protected] License Forms, Invoice, Payment, ftp information [email protected] Technical Issues MXG-L FREE ListServer http://www.mxg.com/mxg-l_listserver/ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tom Brennan Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 10:55 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: OT: Electrician cuts wrong wire and downs 25,000 square foot data centre And since we're talking electricity this reminded me of the time a large possum decided to crawl into some electrical boxes and die for some reason (this was well inside the building). The body was discovered after a while by odor, and people thought he could not be removed safely without cutting off power to about half the datacenter. I remember managers asking us what was connected to what so they would have an idea of what servers would go down, but I can't remember if they eventually removed him by shutting down power or by just being very careful. The big guy was laying right above some 3-phase copper cables that were each about an inch in diameter - possibly the lines coming directly from the power company. Mullen, Patrick wrote: > Since we're recalling ancient history stuff...In the 80s I was at a site that > replaced a small HDS box (approx 4341 equivalent) with a much large one > (approx 3081 equivalent). The UPS itself was big enough so they just plugged > in the same cables. Problem is nobody had rethought the cables, first time we > flipped over to test running on UPS the new box drew so much more juice that > the cables actually melted. Yes it was a government site (Elardus would know > them), and yes the electrical work was done by a lowest bid contractor. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] > On Behalf Of Ken Hume > Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 10:08 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: OT: Electrician cuts wrong wire and downs 25,000 square > foot data centre > > I remember an incident when I was in Atlanta..... > > We had a new, actually our first, UPS installed. Everything was completed and > hooked up. > > The electricians decided to test it in the MIDDLE of the WEEK DAY and WITHOUT > telling anyone. > > Guess what happened.... Yep. Entire data center was down for almost 4 > hours..... > > Ken > > On 12/13/2015 10:27 PM, Brian Westerman wrote: > >>In 2012 I was at a data center in Colorado where we were upgrading >>them from OS/390 2.10 to z/OS 1.13 and simultaneously replacing their >>9672 with a z/114. We had just completed the "2 weeks in production" >>period for the z/114 and was going so well that the site decided to >>have the 9672 removed early (we were scheduled for 1 month of hot >>backup). The 9672 still had some old power cables snaked around under >>the raised flooring and I guess they were stuck around some REALLY old >>Buss and tag (from their 4381 they had in the late 80's) cables and >>raised floor stands. We offered to help the guy unwrap them, but he >>told us that we were not "certified electricians" and that the union >>would crucify him if he allowed us to touch anything. The electrician >>then apparently decided that since he had disconnected the power >>cables from the wall and the CPU that he could just "give them a good >>yank". We were discussing things with the client in their operations >>area, when we felt a s ort of "vibration" and the consoles locked up. It turned out that the electrician had yanked the floor supports completely from the safety stands and the 9672 fell about 2 feet to the cement. >> >>Luckily it wasn't the new z/114, which was installed only about 20 feet away >>from the old box. He did however cause our first hardware issue with the >>z/114 by simultaneously severing the FICON connections to the DASD. The >>FICON cables ran a few feet away from the 9672, but it was close enough for >>parts of the floor to land right on them and cut them all but one. >>Unfortunately that "one" was to a tape control unit. It took us 4 hours to >>locate and get 11 new FICON cables run. it was a Monday, so it could have >>been much worse. >> >>Brian >> >>---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send >>email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
