Brion Vibber wrote: What protection do we have against California brownouts? All we can hope for with massive blackouts like today's is that the system has enough backup power to shut itself off in an orderly fashion without hurting itself. Beyond that all we can do is wait for the power to come back on. Despite our sympathies, I doubt that emergency personnel would attach the same importance to Wikipedia that we do. :-) Ec _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l(a)wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

Yes. The servers are in San Diego, CA, so the current crisis has not affected them in any way. But of course, a future crisis could affect them. But the server facility has multiple backup power sources. My understanding is as follows: 1. The server co-location facility has two redundant connections to different parts of the local grid, to protect against a highly localized failure due to unauthorized digging and the like. 2. In the event of power failure anyway, there is apparently battery backup for a sufficient time for the generators to get going. 3. There are two redundant generators in case one fails to start. 4. There is enough fuel on-site to run for 12 hours (I think), and the facility has a "2 hour" contract with local suppliers so that they can call and get more fuel delivered within 2 hours. ------- None of this is an absolute guarantee, of course, but it's pretty good. --Jimbo _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l(a)wikipedia.org