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Twitter datacenter melted down in Labor Day heat
The Register ^ | September 13, 2022 | Thomas Claburn

Posted on 09/15/2022 7:45:02 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom

Earlier this month extreme heat downed a Twitter datacenter in California over the Labor Day weekend, leaving the website and app working on bare-bones infrastructure.

According to a memo obtained by CNN, Twitter lost access to its Sacramento (SMF) datacenter "due to extreme weather" on September 5, 2022. The memo, attributed to VP of engineering Carrie Fernandez, says, "The unprecedented event resulted in the total shutdown of physical equipment in SMF."

The temperature in downtown Sacramento, California reached a record high of 113°F and local temperature records were broken again within days.

While Twitter has backup datacenters in Atlanta and Portland that can handle the load of traffic that the social network handles each second, the loss of the Sacramento hub put it in a potentially perilous position.

"If we lose one of those remaining datacenters, we may not be able to serve traffic to all Twitter's users," Fernandez warned.

A 2020 study from The Uptime Institute, "The gathering storm: Climate change and datacenter resiliency," warns that extreme temperatures represent a growing threat to datacenters. Beyond hindering the ability to operate, high temperatures can make datacenters cost more than anticipated. "An outdoor air temperature increase of as little as four degrees Fahrenheit could make free air and evaporative systems ineffective on their own, and uneconomical in some situations," About 40% of the energy consumed by datacenters goes toward cooling IT equipment...

(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: datacenter; energy; heat; twitter
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Oh, the horrors! Twitter almost melted down. What shall we ever do? Can you imagine if that sewer stopped working?
1 posted on 09/15/2022 7:45:02 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

see climate change has an upside!


2 posted on 09/15/2022 7:47:28 AM PDT by bigbob (z)
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To: bigbob

Twitter should convert to mobile data centers inside electronic vehicles.

LOL


3 posted on 09/15/2022 7:51:59 AM PDT by Col Frank Slade
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

DataCenters are always under heavy climate control. It should make no difference what the temperature outside is. We have data centers here in Phoenix and we consider 113 on the brisk side in July.


4 posted on 09/15/2022 7:55:04 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (What was 35% of the Rep. Party is now 85%. And it’s too late to turn back—Mac Stipanovich )
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

This is why every tech company in America should be Forbidden from using any form of energy derived from “fossil fuels”, if they used 1005 Green Renewable energy, this wouldn’t have happened.


5 posted on 09/15/2022 7:56:03 AM PDT by eyeamok (founded in cynicism, wrapped in sarcasm)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Maybe Newsom cut the AC..


6 posted on 09/15/2022 7:56:12 AM PDT by Col Frank Slade
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To: eyeamok

oops 100%


7 posted on 09/15/2022 7:56:29 AM PDT by eyeamok (founded in cynicism, wrapped in sarcasm)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Data centers are legal in California? They are almost black holes for electric power.


8 posted on 09/15/2022 7:56:45 AM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

*Sewer* an accurate description.


9 posted on 09/15/2022 7:57:20 AM PDT by Irenic
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To: Dr. Sivana

Agreed—the Twitter story makes no sense.

Phoenix and Las Vegas are huge cities with no similar issues.


10 posted on 09/15/2022 7:57:57 AM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Maybe building your datacenters in a state with electricity shortages and mandated A/C rationing wasn’t the best plan...


11 posted on 09/15/2022 7:58:10 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

There is so much traffic on Twitter that the power requirements are huge. But by deleting all the phony accounts the traffic level would be within the capability of the equipment to handle it. That would probably be, what, about one-third of their accounts?


12 posted on 09/15/2022 8:00:18 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Twitter is a joke, now that we can look at it with Nitter.net.

The site is filled with lying retarded Lefty clowns and sockpuppet accounts.

13 posted on 09/15/2022 8:01:21 AM PDT by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: cgbg
Phoenix and Las Vegas are huge cities with no similar issues.

That may well be but those cities are irredeemably racist, homophobic and oppressive of womyn of color and LGBTQ kids! So there!

14 posted on 09/15/2022 8:02:39 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: Dr. Sivana
You need a heat sink in which to dump the heat. Data centers dump their heat to the air. If you designed the AC for a maximum ambient air temperature of 112F, that's your limit. I'm sure datacenters in Phoenix are designed for a maximum air temperature of 120F or 125F.

Regardless of the temperatures, the Coefficient of Performance (essentially, the efficiency of a refrigeration or AC system) is...

Thot is the outdoor temperature. Tcold is the cold end temperature. As Thot goes up, the COP goes down. That means lots more energy required to produce Tcold. You reach a point where it cannot keep up and Tcold starts going up.

15 posted on 09/15/2022 8:03:25 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“I used to be nothing but a Deplorable Clinger, but I've been promoted to Brigadier Ultra-MAGA”)
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To: Irenic

That was Rush’s description for it. I stole that from dear old Rush, may he RIP.


16 posted on 09/15/2022 8:04:31 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“I used to be nothing but a Deplorable Clinger, but I've been promoted to Brigadier Ultra-MAGA”)
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To: kiryandil
The site is filled with lying retarded Lefty clowns and sockpuppet accounts.

Good heavens! Please maintain decorum on this site.

The site is filled with lying retarded mentally challenged Lefty clowns and sockpuppet accounts.

Don't want to hurt someone's feeling, you know.

17 posted on 09/15/2022 8:06:19 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

:)


18 posted on 09/15/2022 8:08:02 AM PDT by Irenic
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Agreed—it was the data center HVAC design that was the issue.

I am familiar with buildings here in the Northeast where they were designed with HVAC systems that failed when it got over one hundred degrees—the developer/owner decided to cut some corners on cost....


19 posted on 09/15/2022 8:09:07 AM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: cgbg

Yep. We’ve all seen that in cars, houses, stores or office buildings where the AC is topping out on a hot day and the interior temperature starts creeping up.

In California, we’ve been unable to order a larger AC unit for many decades because the state energy standards won’t allow it. They run some energy calcs for your house and say “this is the biggest AC we can legally sell you.” That’s the “Title 24” and the “Building Energy Efficiency Standards” at work for you. Who cares if you can’t cool your house to a comfortable level on a really hot day?

Of course, that won’t matter much when the power company can adjust your thermostat for you.


20 posted on 09/15/2022 8:14:05 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“I used to be nothing but a Deplorable Clinger, but I've been promoted to Brigadier Ultra-MAGA”)
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