The power to Gould Simpson has come back on after the storm, when can I expect things to be working again ?
Once the potential for another power failure has passed, the Lab staff will bring up the computer servers so as to establish the most critical services first. The order of powerup is basically:
(i) infrastructure e.g. network/DNS/NIS/filers
(ii) service machines e.g. web/CGI/MySQL/Oracle
(iii) research machines e.g. cy/cl cluster
Most desktop workstation systems are attached to building power and probably rebooted when building power was restored--but before CS network services were fully operational. Although rebooting workstations is not ordinarily recommended as a first course of action in fixing perceived problems, users of desktop systems should probably reboot their workstations if they experience any problems on first use after a general building power failure. In this unique instance, rebooting fixes the vast majority of problems (e.g. cannot log in, no home directory, etc) encountered by users after a major power interruption.
The Lab staff does not, for various reasons (such as the number of machines involved, their locations in private offices, and their unknown status prior to the power failure) reboot individual desktop systems after a power failure. Users requiring that their machines be rebooted should email lab with the name and location of the system(s) to be rebooted.
Lab staff work hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Some individual work habits result in a slightly broader time coverage. If the Lab staff discovers that systems are down outside normal working hours, it is possible that they may attempt to do a powerup in advance of the next scheduled work day, but this is not guaranteed.