ProCurve engineer has blast
exploding gear in Arkansas

By Kell van Daal
ProCurve Networking by HP

I moved to the U.S. from Europe a little over a year ago, but I had never been to any of the southern states before representing ProCurve Networking as part of HP’s “Disaster Proof” project. So when I told friends and colleagues I was going to Arkansas, they tried to scare me with stories of boring little towns and people with weird accents.

As a native of The Netherlands, I have an accent myself – so I figured that wouldn’t be a problem. Besides, I would be occupied with details of the Disaster Proof project at the National Technical Systems (NTS) Ballistic Test Center in Camden, Arkansas. But at one point during my trip there, something happened that did make me think.

I had a transfer flight from Houston, Texas, to Little Rock, Arkansas. After two hours waiting at the airport, I got on the plane. Before taking off, the captain’s announcement was different from my normal travels:

“This flight goes to Little Rock. If you don’t want to go there, please exit the plane.”

So maybe my friends weren’t joking when they tried to scare me. Nobody got up and left, and the plane was half empty anyway, so I figured most people already decided they wanted to go before they entered the plane. Once we got to Little Rock, I still had a two-hour drive to Camden in the dark – and hit the bed as soon as I arrived at the hotel.

Having the sense of direction of a dead postal pigeon, I always take my portable GPS with me. It usually does a good job of taking me to the street where I need to be. But sometimes it has problems with the exact position based on the house number. Turns out it was way off for NTS with the address. It led me to the right street, but I came very close to NTS twice before turning around.

In the end, I did find it. Problem is, NTS is located on a huge site with bunkers all over – and most are connected by dirt roads. To get to the control center where we were setting up, I had to navigate those dirt roads in a rental car.

The rest of the Monday and most of the Tuesday consisted of unpacking and setting up the equipment. Because I already configured the ProCurve switches in Roseville, I spent most of my time helping others and making sure that, if needed, the Disaster Proof site could be reached from within HP. But Tuesday afternoon we faced a major twist.

On our way back to the hotel, we saw why we lost power. A substation was struck by lightning, and it didn’t look good for the next day. However, NTS officials told us not to worry – that they would work with the power company to fix it.

To our surprise, the power was indeed up again when we arrived the next morning. They had set up three large generators, but most of the power came from a temporary back feed. I also noticed a big truck was located outside the control center. Apparently the film crew arrived, and the population on-site about doubled. I never expected this many people – or this much equipment – would be needed for filming the event.  That day the weather was very good. We even didn't need the tent for the equipment that was located outside.

The network had been running rock-solid since Monday and I already tested it a couple of times, so Wednesday would be spent trying to look like a movie actor. As the day progressed, I started to feel sorry for real actors – well, the ones that don't make millions per movie. We shot retake after retake, and I needed to do only a few scenes. I've never plugged the same cable into the same port that often, let alone in a short time frame. It almost looked like I had Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:

“Did I plug in the cable? Let's check. Ahh, I did. Hmmm. Let's check again to make sure. I am still not convinced. Let's check again!”

Thursday, the day of the Big Bang, started early because we were going to do a final plug test. All the equipment was turned on. The film crew set up inside with their equipment and lights. With all that heat-generating gear in an Arkansas bunker, the temperature got very hot inside the control room. The operating temperature of the ProCurve switches has a high limit (131şF), so I wasn't afraid of the network going down. But for other equipment – like some servers – the heat did pose a problem.

A couple of systems went over their thermal limits and were indicating temperature faults. One server even shut down briefly because of heat after the plug test. We decided to let the control room cool down before the main event. All the non-essential equipment was turned off, and we went for lunch in one of the NTS bunkers. This was the same bunker where a lot of people, including me, would be watching the explosion. For security and thermal reasons, not everyone could be in the control room during the explosion. And since the ProCurve network performed perfectly throughout the week, I wasn't needed in the control room.

After getting back to the bunker, we knew it was almost time for the explosion. We watched as two people from NTS went to the blow-up site to place the live explosives. After they finished, we waited for the phone call to announce our start. When the phone call came that they were ready to go, everyone was glued to the screens showing the video feeds.

I was afraid to blink, because I didn't want to miss it. Finally the fire started, simulating a gas leak. It wouldn't be long before the actual explosion. At least that's what I thought. It felt like forever. I started wondering if something went wrong – and then KABOOM!

It looked spectacular. Because we were a distance from the blow-up site, the actual sound – including the concussion from the explosion – came a few seconds after seeing it.

The explosion went great. But we didn’t have a video feed from the control room, so we didn’t know if the fail-over was successful. Since they were filming, we couldn't call. We weren't allowed to go to the control room until NTS made sure it was safe. After NTS gave us the green light, we learned that everything went according to plan. The only thing left to do was some mop-up filming.

On Friday, we dismantled the equipment. My flight wasn't leaving until Saturday, so it was time for some fun. According to the locals, there are two options for fun in Camden: getting drunk or going to another town.

I chose the second option and did have a good time – though saying “y’all” with a Dutch accent wasn't as fun as blowing up equipment. After a boring day of travel, I arrived home and realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. ProCurve’s equipment again proved its worth under fire. I was glad I was part of it.

Kell van Daal is an engineer
for ProCurve Networking by HP.