Suppose I have a rack with several servers and other stuff. One of servers overheats severely and either starts smoking or catches fire while there's a serviceman nearby.
If anything similar happens in an apartment and there's a fire extinguisher nearby using the latter promptly often lets extinguish the fire very fast but in case of server rack improper extinguishing may lead to unneeded extra damage to surrounding equipment.
To clarify, I'm talking about a really small fire that one can try to extinguish without risking their life – like grab a nearby extinguisher, discharge it and get the fire extinguished in say ten fifteen seconds.
What's the strategy to extinguish a small local fire in a server rack? What type of extinguisher is to be used? How to minimize damage to surrounding equipment?
Best Answer
Definitely extinguish the fire without regard for the rest of the servers on the same rack. Any properly designed data center will have backup servers at another location for the applications to fall back on. It is better to lose a rack of servers than to lose a life or the whole data center.