Life of a Sysadmin

The occassional trials and tribulations of a jack of all tr ades sysadmin in a startup in Silicon Valley

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October 2008 (2)
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April 2008 (1)
March 2008 (6)
December 2007 (6)
October 2007 (1)
September 2007 (1)
August 2007 (2)
July 2007 (1)
June 2007 (5)
May 2007 (5)
April 2007 (3)
March 2007 (7)
February 2007 (2)
January 2007 (3)
December 2006 (4)
November 2006 (3)
October 2006 (3)
August 2006 (3)
July 2006 (1)
June 2006 (2)
May 2006 (4)
April 2006 (2)
March 2006 (5)
February 2006 (5)
January 2006 (7)
December 2005 (2)
November 2005 (6)
October 2005 (4)
September 2005 (4)
August 2005 (1)
July 2005 (2)
June 2005 (3)
May 2005 (4)
April 2005 (1)
March 2005 (2)

January 2007

Sysadmins Law 92, or Never second guess the amout of power a single circuit can provide

We had just recieved a new server and my coworker and I discussed which server room to put it in; the as yet incomplete one where we were plugging servers into regular wall outlets, or the original server room which we would be moving out of within the month but had multiple circuits dropped above each rack.

The matter of not having proper power in the new server room was discussed, but our desire to not move the server later that month caused us to decide to put the system into the new server room. Shelves were quickly installed, and the server was racked. Power and ether were hooked up and the power button was hit. Nothing blew up, so I left the room for my coworker to finish getting the OS install under way.

Not 15 steps out of the room and I hear a sudden decrease in the noise from the room. And while it was mildly cool to hear 15 loud machines be powered off at once; I present a firmly learned lesson;

Sysadmin Law 92: Always double check that you aren't about to overload a circuit before plugging in a new server.