[Linux-users] Saga of the mail server

[David Bandel]

On 8/28/07, Tony Alfrey <tonyalfrey at earthlink.net> wrote:
> David Bandel wrote:
> > On 8/27/07, Tony Alfrey <tonyalfrey at earthlink.net> wrote:
> >> James McDonald wrote:
> >>> David Bandel wrote:
> >> <snip>
> >>>> The big question is, what could possibly be causing all these disk
> >>>> problems?  Nothing else seems affected.  Can't be just coincidence.
> >>>> One drive a year is about average for me.  But now 6 in less than a
> >>>> month?  I'm complete flummoxed.
> >> When a manufacturing environment forgets the recipe, they can ship
> >> garbage for a long time until the first service calls surface.  Didn't I
> >> hear from others on this list that Western Digital drives were not stellar?
> >>
> >>
> >
> > Drives involved included Samsung, WD, and others.  While I do have
> > UPS', and they are the filtered ones, they are not on-line UPS'.
> > Those I would have to buy on-line and ship down unless someone in
> > Panama City has some.
>
> Many moons ago (I will show my age by this description) a company called
> Sola made a thing called a "ferroresonant transformer" (
> http://www.solaheviduty.com/).  These things were "the standard" for
> line glitch removal before there were UPS, and they really are
> bullet-proof when big glitches are the issue.  They are quite literally
> incapable of passing anything other than 60 Hz.  And they are Not Cheap.
>   And of course there are two grades of UPS:  the ones that kick in when
> the power goes off, and the ones that are always running, i.e. they are
> actually battery chargers and they are constantly generating line
> voltage off of the battery.  But I'm sure you know that.
>
> It does seem odd that you should blow just drives and not motherboards,
> unless you don't have the standard configuration where the power supply
> that powers the MB also powers the drives.
> Do you have drives and MB separated?
>

No, why should I do that?  In fact, because they're connected
electronically, I want them all with the same reference voltage, so
it's best to use the same power supply.

Another story:  about 3 months ago I got a call from two customers
from different parts of town.  Each had their computers, switches,
etc, locked up following a power surge.  All systems completely
unresponsive and the switches wouldn't pass data (lights all on
solid).  It took hard resets of all systems to get things working
again.  Did not affect me although these two clients flank me (I'm
closer to the center of town).

Ciao,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
            - Nemesis Air Racing Team motto