Appliance testing - none of you would do this would you ?

[SimonH2]

Overheard the helldesk guys the other day. One of our customers had some one in testing the appliances, and in the corner of one office is a backup server (which looks rather like a PC).
It disappeared off the network when it had it's power cord yanked to do the testing Good job he didn't do that to the main servers - it would have escalated to somewhat more than "overheard at the helldesk" status.

 

[Robin0577]

NO

If, after proper risk assessment, it was deemed that the thing actually did need testing then I'd ask the IT guys to specify a window of downtime in which it could be done.

 

[RF Lighting]

I tested similar recently. I got the IT bod to shut it down (out of hours).

It was only then that we found the UPS didn't actually work

 

[bhm1712]

I tested similar recently. I got the IT bod to shut it down (out of hours).

It was only then that we found the UPS didn't actually work

As is the case with most systems with a UPS attatched! they never get maintained nor tested and so they always fail when you need them the most.

 

[skotl]

We used to have an electrician come in to do the PAT for the offices. Every year he'd say "I need to look in the server room" and we'd let him in and he'd wander around.

I did say to him that we typically took everything down once a quarter for patching so, if we could co-ordinate with him, we could remove power at the same time and he could test each of the servers.

"Nah - it's ok", he'd reply; "I've given them a visual and they all look ok".

Then he would slap a TESTED sticker on each of the...


...


... power leads.

We don't use him any more.

 

[flameport]

Appliance testers are not electricians.

Far too boring and tedious, absolutely no money in it either, and in many cases it's not necessary anyway.

Room full of servers being one example - what could possibly happen to a load of what is essentially fixed equipment to justify testing it once a year.

 

[SimonH2]

It was only then that we found the UPS didn't actually work

Not uncommon.
Unfortunately I can't tell you some of my "best" tales in public. I know of a few sites without any protection and where a power cut would be both damaging and embarrassing - and the managers of said sites have known for some time that new batteries are needed.
Unfortunately, our electricity supplies round here are "too reliable", and that lulls people into a false sense of security. At my last place we used to have quite a few power cuts as we were on the very end of a long and tortuous 11kV radial (all overhead, in a rural environment). It meant UPS purchase and maintenance wasn't hard to justify.

"Nah - it's ok", he'd reply; "I've given them a visual and they all look ok".

Then he would slap a TESTED sticker on each of the...

Well that's OK. We don't seem to have stickers for "inspected" separately to "tested" - and he's been through a regime of making an assessment of the test and inspection required.

...


... power leads.

Ah
At my last place they used to do that - they put Scaff tags on the mains leads of equipment. Only thing is, as you've already pointed out, the mains leads on most stuff is removable. I used to keep handing the maintenance guy a handful of scaff tags every now and then - any time I separated the cable from it's equipment I'd snip the tag off, and since there wasn't generally a way to attach it to the equipment, all I could do was hand it to the guy responsible.

 

[maltaron]

Surely a "room full of servers" is not PORTABLE, therefore PAT testing is not required. Notwithstanding other tests and inspections may be.

 

[plugwash]

Well the room as a whole isn't portable, the individual servers may or may not be depending on how ghetto the setup is.

But AIUI the legal requirements are not for "PAT testing" per-se but for taking reasonable steps (it's impossible to be 100% sure of course, only to reduce the risk) to ensure that in-service electrical equipment (whether "portable", "transportable", "stationary" or "fixed") is safe. Just because an applicane is not "portable" does not mean that "pat test" procedures are not a reasonable way to check it's safetyl

Really those responsible for a premisis should have a policy saying whose responsibility it is to inspect and test different types of electrical equipment and how often it should be tested. In the absense of such a policy the line between "installation testing" and "PAT testing" usually seems to be drawn at whether the appliance is connected via a plug and socket.

 

[Simon35]

Our electrician PAT tested a server cable here with the cable server still connected to the server.....dead server

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Showing my age here...

I worked in an IT dept a long time ago (it was my first job, OK, a year after leaving school) which had exchangeable disk packs.

A cleaner decided it was part of her job to pop open the covers and give them a quick spray & polish.....

 

[ericmark]

Asking people to log off to be able to test is common and with servers finding windows to do work again common. But switching off is still a problem. Often they need switching on in a set order.

However servers should not be supplied with extension leads where loss of power will cause problems. They should have all been on their own UPS and no two servers should be connected to the same UPS in the same way as one would not plug in two shavers to the same shaver socket.

All down to loss of earth connection when power is lost. One machine goes to one supply.

So although the guy doing PAT testing may have made an error, clearly so had the guy or guys setting up the servers in the first place. There simply should not have been an extension lead between server and supply. As to lead sets again there should be a label do not unplug. It is not good enough to expect people to know the difference between a PC and server. One place I worked all servers had RED plugs which was something of an argument as RED = 400 volt and we wanted BLUE plugs rather than white or black. However the idea of a set colour for special items makes sense and since hospitals and like use RED plugs I suppose red is a standard colour for items not to be unplugged.

 

[Monkeh]

They should have all been on their own UPS and no two servers should be connected to the same UPS in the same way as one would not plug in two shavers to the same shaver socket.

Uhm.. Okay, that's why UPSes have multiple outputs and they make them the size of small cars. To power one machine each. Sure..

 

[ericmark]

The larger UPS will have independent earthing systems from the feed, the problem with the smaller UPS is, unless limited to one item, when the incoming earth connection is lost through cut cable, you can end up with faults making one item connected to one live feed, and another item within arms lenght to another. So the larger UPS would be treated like a generator with it's own independent earth, or bond, which does not rely on the earth combined with the feed cable.

 

[Monkeh]

The larger UPS will have independent earthing systems from the feed, the problem with the smaller UPS is, unless limited to one item, when the incoming earth connection is lost through cut cable, you can end up with faults making one item connected to one live feed, and another item within arms lenght to another. So the larger UPS would be treated like a generator with it's own independent earth, or bond, which does not rely on the earth combined with the feed cable.

And those two 'live feeds' are floating with no reference to each other. Not seeing a problem.

You have a rack. In it you have 1U servers. Now, you want an individual 2U UPS for each server? Really?

Stop smoking things.