Engineers are using explosives to remove hard rock outside our office building. What countermeasures should we take?

6,599

Solution 1

If I were you, I'd call the company's insurance company, and have them place out an accelerometer.

This way - the insurance company will know that you're not the one shaking the disks, and the insurance company will know for sure when every blast has gone off, in case your SAN dies at the exact same moment.

(We did this.)

Solution 2

Now would be the time to make sure you've verified your backup solution. All the replacement hardware in the world won't save you if your backups are corrupt or have otherwise been rendered useless.

Solution 3

In addition to all the other excellent suggestions (particularly off-site backups) you should consider dust proofiing your room to the extent practical: Weather stripping around the doors, tape around the windows, etc.
If you have external air intakes plan on changing the filters when the blasting is over.

All that said, I wouldn't waste time/resources on nightly disk scans, or money on spare hard drives (maybe buy one or two for your most critical machines, but remember that you can overnight drives if needed).
Server equipment is surprisingly robust, and will continue to operate for years under some pretty awful conditions. Chances are you'll be fine.

Solution 4

Mount your server racks on ISO-Base platforms. This will isolate your server rack from the ground shocks and allow your systems to function even in the event of movement.

It's not easy, but is effective. Especially in earthquake zones.

To see the ISO-Base in action, check out this video showing the effects in a server rack during an earthquake simulation. One rack is mounted on an ISO-Base, the second rack is not.

Solution 5

Power: If you lost power, will all of the servers, storage, san (etc) in your rack reboot on their own? Or will they come up only after you press the 'On' button?

This for two reasons:

If the power is unstable for a couple of hours, you may want to leave your servers down until things stablize - less chance of a bouncing server being taken out by a mis-timed power spike.
When was the last time you did the math on the amperage required to reboot all devices in the rack at once? Do you have the amperage to handle it?

You might also suggest to your users to turn off, and unplug computers each evening.

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6,599

Chris Dale

Security & programming. Blog: http://www.securesolutions.no Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ChrisADale LinkedIn: http://no.linkedin.com/in/chrisad

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Chris Dale almost 2 years
Our building is located approx. 100 meters from the explosive charges. They happen several times per day, and really shake the entire building a lot. This is going to go on for many days and the blasts are supposed to get stronger.

Our server rooms are nothing fancy; one of them has all the racks on hard concrete while the other one has a raised floor (the one which allows the cables to go beneath it).

Does anyone have any tips, countermeasures or best practices for us?

Currently we are thinking of the following countermeasures:
- Daily report of the server rooms status lights (HD lights, power supplies and so on).
- Nightly check disk scan on the most important servers
- Order in extra supply of spare harddrives
Edit: Many good answers here! However one needs to be accepted. The highest voted answer at the time of this edit will get their answer accepted.
- ravi yarlagadda almost 13 years
  
  Make sure you've got good backups!
- Ward - Reinstate Monica almost 13 years
  
  Ask if you can borrow a couple sticks of dynamite, handy to have around for the zombie apocalypse...
- RobW almost 13 years
  
  Ask if you can 'push the button' for one of the charges!
- xpda almost 13 years
  
  Use Howitzer in combination with anti-tank missiles.
- John Gardeniers almost 13 years
  
  I really don't think you'll find any "best practice" for dealing with this, other than to stay under cover. As for countermeasures, consider using a fire hose on them.
- Sirex almost 13 years
  
  I'd suggest if you have to take special procedures to counter a known threat to your equipment you should consider double checking your arrangements for the unknown threats. Dynamite doesn't hold a candle to an earthquake or flood. That said, some spare hardware is always a good idea regardless.
- Sean87 almost 13 years
  
  Deploy chaff and flares...turn ECM on
- JoséNunoFerreira almost 13 years
  
  sabotage their gear during the night, with some elaborate pranking. i advise moving this thread to diy.SE or pranks.SE. actually: create pranks.SE!
- Trevoke almost 13 years
  
  Until I read the first answer, I really, honestly thought you were asking what the best weapons were.
- XTL over 12 years
  
  Drawbridge up, snipers on the walls.
- user207421 almost 12 years
  
  Counter-mine; molten lead and baskets of stones on the battlements; stand by to repel scaling ladders; Greek fire for the siege engines; repair wall breaches overnight.
Ward - Reinstate Monica almost 13 years

It's not clear from the OP where he is, but when blasting is taking place close to other buildings, the contractor is sometimes required to monitor the accelerations felt in the other buildings, i.e. by placing an accelerometer in them.
voretaq7 almost 13 years

Three little letters: U P S (and I don't mean the shipping company). Well-conducted blasting is unlikely to knock out power, but there's still no excuse for not having good, stable power for everyday problems...
Ben Pilbrow almost 13 years

I have to +1 you simply for Server equipment is surprisingly robust. We had builders on a site across the road and they were hammering the ground for about 6 weeks and our entire building was shaking and everything (to the point things would get shock-vibrated from your desk onto the floor). I was panicking, but it was a total non-event. This question would have been nice back then :-)
Phil almost 13 years

When you did it, did the insurance company pay for any damages?
RobW almost 13 years

Ha! Right, and I agree with the use of UPS and other line conditioners. But, Karrax noted that the blasting "...shakes the entire building...", and will get worse. I dont know what you mean by 'well-conducted', but if my building is shaking, I'd imagine my 30 year (or 1 year) old substation half a block down the street is shaking too...
voretaq7 almost 13 years

"well-conducted" as in "directed charges and blast netting so flying rock doesn't go through a transformer" - No promises about loose connections, though if your substation cant handle some shakes your utility company may need a "firm talking to" about routine maintenance :-)
voretaq7 almost 13 years

Computers in general will take a pretty severe beating (think about how many people drop laptops every day that keep working) - these things aren't as fragile as our vacuum-tube-and-ferrite-core history has lead us to believe (though they should still be treated well, lest they die at inopportune times)
hookenz almost 13 years

Bit late for that now. But interesting idea.
voretaq7 almost 13 years

I'd think it a bit of overkill for short-term blasting personally, but it looks like a cool system.
pauska almost 13 years

We did not get any damages afaik.
gd1 almost 13 years

Very, very good point. I've seen many 'backup plans' failing because they don't include an effective 'restore plan'. Two days of business blackout can mean huge fees to pay to your customers. The restore procedure should be considered from an economical point of view and integrated into the emergency plan.
Aashraya Singal almost 13 years

The problem's the same whether it's short-term local shocks, or long-term low-incidence earthquakes. There's a fair case that since you know 100% these shocks are coming, and don't know 100% that an earthquake will hit, that it's a better investment right now than it would be for earthquakes, even in prone areas.
MSalters almost 13 years

Silicon Valley is one of the most earthquake-prone areas in the world. Stuff that works there will survive a few shakes.
Mister Smith almost 13 years

I know it is too late for buying new stuff, but you could get yourself a good ammount of anti-vibrations rubbered screws for your hard drives. They are cheap.
Raj More almost 13 years

You don't know the quality of the backup unless you test the restore. Just don't check the logs to ensure backups are complete - verify that you can restore.
pc1oad1etter almost 13 years

I suspect that he meant that when he said "verified your backup solution" but I guess it's good to say it explicitly. :-)
pauska almost 12 years

Pro tip: Don't trust anyone if they say that they have dust-proofed your server room. Never. Ever.
voretaq7 almost 12 years

@pauska agreed - "dust proofed" is a pretty vague term (and even if they say they met the relevant standard (in the US that'd be MIL-STD-810G 510.5) assume they're lying, because properly dust-proofing a ROOM is a pretty huge undertaking with airlocks, positive pressure, two-stage HEPA filters, etc.)