FSL Planned Power Outage

                                           9 Sep 2003


MADIS data users,

Please see the attached announcement for scheduled
downtime from our Central Facility folks.  All MADIS
datasets will be unavailable during the outage.

Thanks,
Patty

p.s. Times are given in Mountain Time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

FSL Central Facility Planned Power Outage

The FSL Central Facility is undergoing an automation upgrade that will 
provide for a complete equipment shutdown in the event of a high 
temperature condition. This upgrade involves wiring to the existing 
Emergency Power Off (EPO) circuits in both FSL computer rooms (2B201 and 
2B518). Final installation and testing of this automated shutdown 
capability requires a planned power outage. The power outage is 
scheduled for Tuesday, September 23rd.

The following schedule applies:
10:00 a.m. Begin turning off equipment.
12:00 noon All equipment off. Final wiring and testing is performed.
~2:00 p.m. Restart all systems.
~4:00 p.m. Normal Operations restored.

System restarts will occur immediately following final installation and 
testing of the new automated power shutdown system. Equipment 
restoration times are approximate and cannot be guaranteed. Every effort 
will be made to restore equipment to normal operation as rapidly as 
possible.

E-mail service to/from FSL will not be available during part of the 
outage. Again, every effort will be made to minimize the e-mail outage.

The schedule and timing of this power outage has been carefully selected 
to reduce risk, minimize downtime, and lower costs while providing for 
contingencies.  Performing it during working hours ensures the 
availability of support and spare parts from vendors in case of an 
unexpected component or system failure. Critical systems include the 
uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), computer room air conditioning 
(CRAC) units, and the FM-200 fire suppression system in addition to the 
real-time Central Facility computer systems. Failure of one of these 
critical systems during off-hours could make the power outage 
substantially longer due to lack of vendor support and/or parts 
availability.

An additional benefit of doing this work during normal working hours is 
the availability of staff to bring up and resolve issues with the 
real-time Central Facility systems including the NCEP backup.

Thank you for your support of this important upgrade.

--