Cluster Outage Postmortem #2 - Wife

📆 2026-06-12 09:55

Yesterday, the 11th of June 2026, my cluster / capsule / gopher hole / http mirror / finger server were down from aproximately 10:50 EST to about 19:40 EST.

Homelabers worry about disk failures, kernel panics, power outages, internet connection dying and ransomware. In reality, the greatest threat to a home cluster is neither hardware nor software - it's a spouse armed with a vacuum cleaner and absolutely no awareness that the mysterious blinking box in the corner is "production infrastructure."

My docker cluster can survive node and power failures, but no amount of redundancy can protect against the WIFE holding a vacuum cleaner.

The problem

My APC UPS has 8 Schuko plugs:

My APC Back UPS ES700

Because of only 4 plugs connected to the battery of the UPS I had to install another power strip with another 6 Schuko plugs for my Lenovo 1/2/3 nodes, my NAS and a small switch. The extension cord is plugged in into the UPS and lives in the rack made from an old wood cabinet.

The power strip with the SWITCH

The wife managed to push the power switch on the power strip above with the vacuum cleaner hose. I can't see how you can miss that the huge red light is turned off right in front of you.

Solutions I can think off

What I can think of right now:

Another solution was suggested by stack over at:

BBS thread

stack: Or having to lock wife up in the basement [have not tried yet]

I don't have a basement but I could lock her in the bathroom. She spends 80% of the day there so it wouldn't hurt her that much.

Like matter and antimatter, power strip switches and homelabs should never come into contact. Adding a wife with a vacuum cleaner only accelerates the reaction.

No further action is expected unless cleaning occurs again.

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