How the data center site selection process works at Dropbox

Re:How the data center site selection process works at Dropbox by MoosePirate on Friday June 30, 2023 @10:15PM (#36545651)

> In the event of a power outage, one provider could only give us 30 seconds of emergency power—versus five minutes with a standard UPS setup—because they used an inertia wheel.

If a generator fails to start in 30 seconds, that almost always means it will also not start within 5 minutes.

Does dropbox have automation that attempts to gracefully shut down systems if a generator fails to start? Are systems then kept down until the battery UPS system is fully recharged? If not, the difference between 30 seconds and 5 minutes doesn’t seem important.

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Re:How the data center site selection process works at Dropbox by ramraj07 on Friday June 30, 2023 @11:31PM (#36546182)

Our Indian Condo complex generator regularly takes more than 30 seconds to start up. Even the best case is likely at 10 seconds so only having such a small cushion sounds dangerous.

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Re:How the data center site selection process works at Dropbox by rainbowzootsuit on Saturday July 01, 2023 @12:20AM (#36546539)

Some rough calculations on a fully loaded data center that I have worked on designing shows that you only have about a minute before the air gets to an overheating condition due to the low heat capacity. The HVAC doesn't keep running through a total power failure even if the computers have a lot of reserve power.

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Re:How the data center site selection process works at Dropbox by slyall on Saturday July 01, 2023 @03:28AM (#36547657)

Possibly not. AWS had an outage in Sydney in 2016 where the longer interval available with a battery UPS might have avoided the problem.

https://aws.amazon.com/message/4372T8/

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