The Micom Switch Power Supply Problem

What happened and what we're doing about it

The power outage that occurred in the Computer Center building last week caused a power supply to burn up in one of our two Micom switches...MicA. Attempts to replace the bad power supply resulted in the new power supply to also burn up. The loss of MicA will affect about 132 terminal lines and 139 various service class ports.

Repairing MicA would be costly. We would have to bring in a technician from Southern California to trouble-shoot and repair the problem. Parts are hard to come by since Micom discontinued manufacturing parts for the switch in March of 1993.

Given our stated goal of eliminating the Micom service in 1997, the cost of repairing MicA does not appear justified. Therefore we have decided to leave MicA out of service and consolidate terminals and services onto MicB. Unfortunately, even this will take time. We estimate we should be done with most of the work by the end of Wednesday, August 28, 1996.

We regret the impact that this unscheduled outage is having on users.

For those of you who have terminal lines on MicA we encourage you to use this as an opportunity to move your work off the Micom switch and on to a Mac, PC, or workstation that connects directly to the ethernet. But if you still have a critical need for continued Micom support please call the HELP desk at x4357 so we can work with you to address your needs.

While the work is preceeding on the Micom switch you can connect to SLAC with a modem via dial-in through campus.

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