Wondering what the thought process was for putting a mop sink above in IDF Closet 🤔 😂
Posted by TechieJay23@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 56 comments
So I get this call to troubleshoot a switch that had went offline. I get to the school. I head to the IDF closet and I'm a few feet away from the closet and noticed a burning smell instantly. I open the door No fire thankfully but entire room is engulfed with that burning smell. I see that the switch is not even powered on,. The entire 2nd FL has no Network. No Wireless. No Ethernet. 😂. Thank God it wasn't the MDF 🤷♂️
I traced the power cable to a outlet near the ceiling but thats not all I saw...
I noticed water damage.. dried up but it's pretty noticeable. Right away. I had already knew that something leaked into this closet and based off the burning smell. This switch was done but you know we gotta make sure. Tried the power strip on the second rack and still nothing. Keeping it simple. They needed a new switch 🤷♂️. Took care of everything. But I ended up moving the switch to the other side.
But I had asked the Building Engineer of the school prior to setting up the switch. I'm like...Did something leak?. What's above this IDF Closet... He says oh it's just out mop sink and it's been leaking for awhile...🤔😂🤷♂️
Well dude..Don't sound so enthusiastic about it. But it killed our switch. He comes in the closet and I showed him the ceiling . I mean he looked so surprised. And seem unbothered until I explain that no one on the 2nd FL can't access Wifi or Print because of it.
But I'm not blaming him but like who puts a mop sink above a Network Closet 🤔 and what were they thinking....not to mention outlets. Water and Electricity don't match. Terrible Idea. I definitely had alot of fun today for sure
fevered_visions@reddit
I assume "IDF" stands for something other than "Israeli Defense Forces", but now I'm picturing some Mossad agents showing up demanding to know why you broke the servers
AbbyM1968@reddit
😁😄😂🤣
Shot-Instruction-614@reddit
Father in law ran the data division for a large natioal company. Notified of an alarm of over heating equipment in the mainframe. (At the time PCs were just coming out.) Night security guard hadn't notified anyone that the roof was leaking and covered all the equipment with plastic. The guard didn't have a job the next day.
706union@reddit
Had the building maintenance guy at one place plug a very large drill into the UPS for the server, fried the UPS and the server.
Why would you plug in something that is electrically noisy and draws a huge load into the most sensitive piece of equipment in the building?
docstens@reddit
To most people, an open outlet means anything with a compatible cord can be plugged into it. Like noisy equipment…or things which exceed the capacity of the circuit…or power strips so even more stuff can be powered by that single outlet. Let’s not consider kludged together adapters…that way lies madness.
fevered_visions@reddit
got to install those outlet covers for young children
Admirable-Purpose120@reddit
The company I was at in '98 was being closed after being bought by a much larger competitor. Corporate sent two people from their IT to help with moving things to their systems. One had to be someone's nephew. He decided the carpet in the computer room was dirty (it was worn out) so he got the vacuum and plugged it into the only outlet he could find. On the UPS for the AS400. In the middle of the day. Which promptly shut down the UPS from the overload. At least the AS400 survived the noise from the vacuum. As far as I know they didn't get all the data unscrambled before they closed the company.
JeffTheNth@reddit
how about unplugging a server from a ups outlet to plug in a vacuum cleaner? I was lucky enough to get the call for the server being down, dispatched a tech, and they caught cleaning crew vacuuming the offices, having unplugged the "furniture" because the plug was most convenient.
They had to put signs up to not unplug anything on the floor you didn't plug in.
TechieJay23@reddit (OP)
Wow!!. The stupidity 🤦
RamblingReflections@reddit
When I first started with the company I’m still at now, 10 years ago, I was taking my first look at the server room, no the ground floor. I noticed a white pipe running along the top of the wall for the length of the room, directly over the server racks. I asked about it, and turns out it was the drain pipe for the upstairs kitchen.
When I pointed out the repercussions of it leaking or bursting, expecting them to be keen to rectify it, they just shrugged and said nothing as ever happened in the 30!years they’d been in the building so far, and not to worry about it. I got them to put that it writing, and made sure that email was kept somewhere safe.
I ask every few years for the risk to be mitigated, pointing out that fixing it now is going to be a lot less costly than fixing it after it bursts all over the servers and switches keeping the place running, but I’m met with the same kind of resistance , and the answer never differs by much.
So I just CYA and wait for the inevitable. That’ll be a fun day.
TechieJay23@reddit (OP)
Yeah. It's like what are you gonna do..... But when that ticket comes. And you got internal techs and administrative staff and all those top SR Reps complaining how they lost data and and can't access emails.....welp. we tried to tell you months ago but you didn't listen. And tends to be more expensive. So just quit sitting on the money and make the proper repairs too avoid disaster in the long run
RealUlli@reddit
Months ago? Years ago!
TechieJay23@reddit (OP)
😂😂 pretty much. I feel like we need to start adding in our tickets, which day and time we made them aware of certain issues that could occur based from terrible Server Rm upkeep...
Just in case they try to pull a fast one on us....Oh no He or She never brought this to our attention....Damn right we did 😂
MikeSchwab63@reddit
Print it out and attach with red duct tape?
fevered_visions@reddit
laminate it first, so it's still readable after the water damage.
RealUlli@reddit
Your tickets don't have a time stamp on every interaction? Created, last updated, resolved. On to of that, every comment is time-stamped.
SuspiciousMeat6696@reddit
Ask them which member of the school board will be responsible for explaining to the parents there was a known real risk to their kids lives & nothing was done.
An anonymous tip to local news station or State Rep might get it changed.
SeanBZA@reddit
Server room also is the exec kitchen, complete with microwave, sink and boiling water plumbed in unit. Plus sandwich press, toaster and a fridge freezer. But at least i made sure that there was a 6in hole in the floor, for cabling, that led to the floor underneath, which was the staff kitchen.
Was a bit of a chore to get to the rack, or to change the UPS battery banks, as you needed to pretty much move all the kitchen stuff out first to get room. But it was a secure room, as the original room was a built in safe in the building.
Bcwar@reddit
You know to be fair idk how old this building is but im willing to bet that mop sink was put in long before the network closet. The real question is who decided it to put a network closet underneath drains and presumably water lines
TechieJay23@reddit (OP)
🤣🤣. Dude it's Philadelphia. Work in the school system. These buildings been around... seems like ages. They are renovating them sort of. Getting new infrastructure in place. But we all know alot of stuff has to go thru the proper channels for approval. Schools budget and etc...
Now I been in some server rooms that were worst shape. Smelled bad. Over heated...omg. let's not even start with that. I walked into 1 a few months back. . Equipment is screaming . And I mean literally. So hot in that room. With the AC broken... Like come on.
This Equipment is tough. It can handle and run in some pretty rough conditions. But not for too long. Take care of it and it will take of you. Because without it...ain't no work gonna get done 😂😂😂.Everyone will be using each others Hotspots on the daily.
bobk2@reddit
In the server room in the school I worked in, there was a steam pipe running the length of the ceiling over the MDF rack. Yes, it was hot in there.
Techn0ght@reddit
No smoke detector?
706union@reddit
Done properly the mop sink room should have a tray for the entire floor with a drain.
Bcwar@reddit
My point remains, you don't put an room full of expensive electronic devices under water or drain pipes. Even if you could slide it past code enforcement its about the most god damn stupidest thing you could do.
Wells1632@reddit
Went through the comments for this. Mop closets are something that get built when the building is built, and network closets are much more likely to be added on after the fact.
ManosVanBoom@reddit
This definitely sounds like the real question to ask
Smith6612@reddit
A lot of the time the location of utilities doesn't factor in how sensitive something below or above it might be to the utility.
The problem is also worse in restaurants. Especially old restaurants that have been through so many retrofits and bolt-ons it's impossible to fix without shutting down for a week or two to gut and renovate. I've looked at networks that sat next to racks of soda syrup cartridges, networks which live in the janitors' closet, and networks which pretty much reside inside of a greasy and very hot kitchen because there is no "back office" location to put the gear.
Very small offices as well, where you get maybe one utility closet, and it's shared with HVAC, Hot Water, Electrical, and everything in between.
In some homes, it's the same thing. The plumbing enters at one end of the house. The water appliances are on the other end of the house. The hot water tank lives in the third corner of the course. The wash room lives dead center of the house. There's no "good" place to put a rack where a flood above it isn't going to damage something. That also applies to the kitchen, too, which might be located right above where the electrical lives.
randomwanderingsd@reddit
Oh no. I’m having flashbacks. Ages ago I worked at a public school system. One day in August, just a week before students were due to return, I get a high priority ticket so I go out to visit a classroom. The teacher had spent the entire summer going from thrift shop to thrift shop purchasing every old computer he could find. He managed to get 31. One per student. In a classroom designed post WWII with enough power for 8 computers. He had chains of power strips daisy chained so that each outlet had 8 to 10 computers. Each extension cord and power strip was covered by a hastily purchased rug. When I arrived the teacher was not there yet, so I quickly unplugged everything and wrote the teacher a note detailing the various fire codes he was breaking. He was furious when he got the note and called my boss. My boss called me into the office and asked why I didn’t complete the tickets request, and why was he so upset. I explained what I found and said I refuse to contribute to a situation that violated law and could kill students in a fire. That seemed to be the magic words, the teacher hated me from then on but was expressly told his room was rated for a max of 6 computers and he could put in a request to have more power added. I don’t know what he was thinking. The minimum requirements of wheelchair access weren’t even being met and the whole room was stuffy and warm with that many old PCs running.
mackedanzchr@reddit
My company put a water heater in a closet on the second floor RIGHT over the MAIN data closet/server room on site…
“Hey what happens when the pressure relief valve blows on that?”
“It’s brand new, and that’s a rare occurrence anyways it will be fine”
A few months later, cable fails. It’s raining in that closet with boiling hot water.
Or IT staff were powering down and pulling plugs as fast as they could.
Water heater was relocated after that lol
TechieJay23@reddit (OP)
Hahaha. Wow. 😂
lloopy@reddit
Who puts a network closet below a mop sink?
ozzie286@reddit
I'm betting that "IDF closet" was originally spec'd as a janitor closet, so every floor would have one in the same location.
bengals52@reddit
It was recently found that at one of our many locations, the switch/rack was in the same room as the mop sink. The sink 6 inches or less away from the bottom of the wall mounted rack….
ozzie286@reddit
I read the title as "who puts a mop sink in an IDF closet"
Lizzie551@reddit
My last job was in a 17 story multi tenant commercial building. The main electrical riser ran through the center of the building which is where every janitorial closet was also located. Our cleaning crew accidentally overflowed the mop sink once and blew the main panel. The whole building was down for 3 days because the system was older and the part that blew was hard to get.
TechieJay23@reddit (OP)
Geez 😳😳
meitemark@reddit
Most buildings are designed by someone that have never seen technical equipment. As far as they know, WiFi just is there and what do you mean it needs it own room and electrical outlets?
As this is a school, I'm just going to assume that the building was made, designed and paid for by people that was born before electrical lights was invented.
chocki305@reddit
Something tells me your network closet was just an additional storage closet.
Meaning the sink was already in place, and leaking. It just hadn't had the time to soak through yet.
Chocolate_Bourbon@reddit
At companies I’ve worked at this sort of situation is typically met with a shrug and promise to fix and do better etc. What’s gotten their attention is to mark the repairs and replacements against that groups’s budget. Then suddenly it matters.
No new buffer for you! That’s switch money now.
Geminii27@reddit
It's never a problem for the people causing it until it's a budget problem.
ShirazGypsy@reddit
Capitalism baby! Nothing is a problem ever until it affects somebody’s dollar. Electrocuted dead software engineer? Shrug. Money applied to my budget?1?! - Fire alarm emergency
sweetwhistle@reddit
I bet that mop closet was there a long time before the IDF closet.
Techn0ght@reddit
I was called in to troubleshoot sporadic issues at a location. Found they had installed a top of rack AC unit in a tiny secure room with 3 racks where they count money. The 3 racks were half the room. Unfortunately they didn't attach the drain hose for the AC and it was leaking into the rack. They also didn't vent the AC properly, it was just pumping hot air into the limited drop ceiling. Because it was a count room, the drop ceiling ended at the room walls, so yeah, not much air up there. All they were doing was increasing the heat in the room and collecting water in the rack.
Smart_Election7288@reddit
Sadly, not an uncommon situation. Unless you are dealing with new construction where the MDF/IDF was part of the design, you would be dealing with whatever little corner/broom closet could be carved out, and dedicated to the equipment. That’s when you’re lucky, and don’t end up with network equipment sitting haphazardly above a toilet somewhere
SabaraOne@reddit
Now that you mention it, I remember seeing network kit above a toilet somewhere. Probably Mandela but who knows?
TechieJay23@reddit (OP)
Oh I believe it lol. Same here.. right in the bathroom. Don't matter where. Mens/ Women's 🤣🤣.
ikonfedera@reddit
Curiously enough, it was on the raised space that'd be dedicated to a shower cabin.
TechieJay23@reddit (OP)
I was apart of this survey project too where we need to locate every closet for every school. Can't tell you how many hours I spent at a school trying find 1 single closet. All for someone's Printer...😂. And it's like you said. Tiny ass storage closet where no one has a key too 🤣🤣
But yeah now we keep every schools closet up to date with pics. Avoids that whole time spent looking. Comes in handy
Tymanthius@reddit
And I thought my networking closet having the mop sink on the floor in it and the water heater mounted above the mop sink was bad.
At least I was able to block that sink off by using a rack that no one could get past. As long as the water heater doesn't rupture it'll be fine. :D
IamLarrytate@reddit
Had a server room where they put a plastic tarp above the server rack because the air conditioner was in the ceiling above and sometimes dripped. 😵💫
_mughi_@reddit
.. was it an old vax room, and in that building, the ceiling tiles have color coded dots to indicate how much asbestos is above them?
Was wondering if you worked at our office at one point.. although your tarp sounds more permanent than ours was. Ours was a one-time thing.
IamLarrytate@reddit
No it wasn't that one, and yes it stayed up till we moved. Although it didn't drip again while I was there.
fuknthrowaway1@reddit
> Unless you are dealing with new construction
I've seen stuff like this even in relatively new builds. They know tenants are going to need space for networking equipment, so they simply double up on 'utility' spaces. Some of them become network closets, some of them become storage rooms, and some of them have mop sinks. Which becomes which is largely dictated by whatever the first tenant of that floor wants.
For example, building went up in '07. Network closets on 1, 2 and 3 are nearly central, ensuring shorter network runs. But on 4, the central closet is for janitorial supplies because they wanted the network closet as deep in the office as possible because of security concerns.
Guess who had to spend a weekend fixing the third floor tenants wireless after someone hit the fourth floor sink drain with a mop bucket?
oolaroux@reddit
I would have refused to replace anything until they turned off the water to that room and removed the valve handle so it couldn't be turned back on. That's a huge liability.
oridginal@reddit
Dear Customer
Due to the fire risk created by the water leak above the electrical equipment, we cannot install replacement equipment at this time. Please advise us when either the water hazard has been removed, or an alternative location for the electrical equipment is available.
Regards, An engineer with more than two braincells to run together
PS: Folks, fire and smoke will kill you, and it will hurt the entire time you're dying. This is your reminder to check your smoke alarms work and are installed in accordance with your local regulations and best practice
chedstrom@reddit
Your presuming thinking was used at any point he process.