Some customers of dedicated hosting provider ServerBeach were offline for much of Tuesday after the company's Virginia data center lost grid power during a major hail storm. The facility was supported by three generators and three UPS units. When the power went off, one of two of the generators started properly, while one failed to start. Within minutes, a second generator failed. To make matters worse, two of the three UPS units "had issues and segments of the UPS's failed to distribute power," according to a message on the company forums.
The advisory didn't discuss the specifics of the failures. But with the summer thunderstorm season upon us, it might be a good time to refer back to an earlier post titled Preventive Maintenance vs. Murphy's Law. Just in case.
