“We are currently facing a major incident in our Strasbourg datacentre, with a declared fire in the SBG2 building.
The firefighters intervened immediately on the spot but were unable to control the fire at SBG2.
As a precaution, electricity has been cut across the entire site, impacting all our services at SBG1, SBG2, SBG3 and SBG4.
If your production is in Strasbourg, we recommend that you activate your Disaster Recovery Plan.
All our teams are mobilized alongside the firefighters. »
With more information on the OVH works page.
“This Wednesday March 10, 2021, at 12:47 a.m., a fire broke out in a room in one of our 4 Strasbourg data centers, SBG2. We specify that the site is not subject to a Seveso classification.
The firefighters immediately intervened on site to protect the teams and limit the progression of the fire. They thus carried out the complete isolation of the site and its perimeter from 2:54 am.
At 4:09 a.m., the fire destroyed SBG2 and continued to pose a risk to nearby data centers until firefighters took complete control of the blaze. Since 5:30 a.m., the site has been inaccessible to our teams for obvious security reasons, under the supervision of the prefecture.
The fire is now contained.
We are relieved that no injuries are to be deplored, neither among our teams nor among the firefighters and the services of the prefecture whom we thank for their exemplary mobilization at our side. »
« Status of the Strasbourg data center
SBG1: Network room is OK – 4 rooms destroyed – 8 rooms OK
SBG2: destroyed
SBG3: PSU off – server check in progress
SBG4: No physical impact »
Octave Klaba, the founder of OVH, reacted quickly and gave regular updates throughout the day:
We have a major incident on SBG2. The fire declared in the building. Firefighters were immediately on the scene but could not control the fire in SBG2. The whole site has been isolated which impacts all services in SGB1-4. We recommend to activate your Disaster Recovery Plan.
— Octave Klaba (@olesovhcom) March 10, 2021
Explanations in this 8-minute video:
Update March 11 4:40 p.m.
It’s too slow to give you all these details via 280 characters of Twitter. Here is a concentrate of 8 min which summarizes the situation to date.
(English version is coming)https://t.co/d7BeD7nNpM pic.twitter.com/ugvmLk3EEJ— Octave Klaba (@olesovhcom) March 11, 2021
OVH / OVHcloud?
OVH is a great French success. Founded in Roubaix in 1999, the company now has 2,000 employees, more than 250,000 servers, a presence in 19 countries, more than 1.5 million customers and 28 datacenters. Data centers like the one that burned last night in Strasbourg, on the banks of the Rhine (which was practical for the water supply for the firefighters).
These datacenters host thousands of websites but also data (known as the “cloud”). This explains why your internet browsing has been difficult or slow since Wednesday morning March 10. A thought to the OVH employees, webmasters and IT specialists who sweated well following this disaster of global importance.