04Jan Outage

[Aldryic C'boas]

Well, that was rather annoying.  My apologies for the downtime folks - the power cable on KVM06 (which is hosting VPSB's SQL) was apparently of.. import quality:

The damn thing actually burned itself up, and brought the node offline.  Fran's checking on all of the other cables now to ensure we don't have a repeat of this.

 

[Ishaq]

Who's chewing on the wires? >_>

 

[drmike]

Gnarly cable destruction.

You lads are lucky it wasn't worse than that.  Pretty good scorching on the plug side

Wondering the gauge and what the core of that cable is made from...

(as I check all my cables this afternoon)

 

[johnlth93]

lucky it din't like on fire or something  :huh:

 

[tragic]

That's pretty dangerous, how did it happen?

 

[Aldryic C'boas]

Just a bad cable from what we can tell.  It's happened before, but it's a rare occurrence.  Fran's checking over the rest of the cables to make sure none of the others are doing the same.

 

[Francisco]

The rest are all fine.

Given where it was, there would have been the serial/sticker over it so it wouldn't have been easily spotted by anyone.

I was pretty surprised but I knew it was either a loose cable or a bad PSU when the IPMI wasn't pinging either. Little did I know the cable melted >_>

Francisco

 

[tonyg]

A cable just doesn't fail in the middle run without outside influence.

That cable looks pinched or chewed (rodents) which broke through the insulation and shorted out.

Edit: Actually that cable looks cut...look at the sharp incision on the left side.

 

[perennate]

A cable just doesn't fail in the middle run without outside influence.

That cable looks pinched or chewed (rodents) which broke through the insulation and shorted out.

Edit: Actually that cable looks cut...look at the sharp incision on the left side.

Maybe the metal was hot.

 

[notFound]

Yeah, cables don't burn out like that. It would be uniform otherwise, likely not stared by an electrical fault but outside influence as mentioned. The charring would be as a result of the cut and probably some arcs and sparks.

Btw. Might be a bit more organised if you used them APC strip ones that have female kettle connectors instead of a standard plug, saves space etc., I've got that on my rack here and it's harder to get bad quality cables with that unless it's intentionally, I think some of mine are even from APC themselves.

Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

 

[Francisco]

Yeah, cables don't burn out like that. It would be uniform otherwise, likely not stared by an electrical fault but outside influence as mentioned. The charring would be as a result of the cut and probably some arcs and sparks. Btw. Might be a bit more organised if you used them APC strip ones that have female kettle connectors instead of a standard plug, saves space etc., I've got that on my rack here and it's harder to get bad quality cables with that unless it's intentionally, I think some of mine are even from APC themselves. Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

I'll go poke around a little later to see if i can find the sticker that usually goes over that area. There's usually a barcode or things like that over that area. I don't even know if this was a cable we bought or one we took from FH's "power cable" bin.

Given what i'm seeing, there's soooo little copper being carried through this end of the cable. I chopped the cable in half further down and see that it's stranded (a run for each prong), but by the end of it there's almost no strand.



You can see that 1 of the feeds isn't even there now.

Francisco

 

[Aldryic C'boas]

Yeah, cables don't burn out like that. It would be uniform otherwise

In 5+ years as a fireman, I've _NEVER_ seen any type of electrical burn/fire (or any type of burn/fire) be uniform.

 

[notFound]

Yeah not good, that looks like it can barely take an amp safely. I would just buy a bunch of my own rather than using the DCs, they probably got those straight from China probably with fake EC compliance labels etc. ;p

Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

 

[Francisco]

Yeah not good, that looks like it can barely take an amp safely. I would just buy a bunch of my own rather than using the DCs, they probably got those straight from China probably with fake EC compliance labels etc. ;p Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

I'd say 95%+ of our cables are the thick, heavy duty, ones that supermicro ships.

A few are the lighter ones but we ordered them off newegg. I'm not sure if this is a newegg or 'bin one. I'll give each cable a feel down and see if i can spot anything off.

Francisco

 

[cubixcloud]

That's probably 16 gauge wire.

 

[SkylarM]

Who's chewing on the wires? >_>

Fran got hungry obviously!

 

[pcan]

I reject power cables that are not bearing safety marks on the rubber plugs. I sectioned some of the rejects, and the copper wire is usually undersized. The cable may seem OK externally, but weight is mostly due to plastic/insulation. I believe this is related to increasing cost of copper, because I don't recall experiencing this in the past. Undersized cables may even feel warm to the touch; that's a very bad sign.

edit: I see from the picture that the plug has been damaged by the short-circuit current. The outlet contacts have been surely damaged in the same way; outlet should not be used again until replacement.

 

[trewq]

In 5+ years as a fireman, I've _NEVER_ seen any type of electrical burn/fire (or any type of burn/fire) be uniform.

You're just the master of all trades aren't you?

 

[Aldryic C'boas]

Not a master, no.  But I find that being idle is anathema to my sanity;  I tend to find more things to do rather than relax or take a break.

 

[MCH-Phil]

It may be an expense, but safety should always come first.  Why not replace all questionable cables?  Understandably, you say this is rare.  Is it worth the chance of someone not catching it and something turning to rubble?  I've had a house burn down and can tell you it's not worth the chance.  Be safe '

@Aldryic C'boas, I have some family that are firefighters and have lived with a few.  Much respect.