Amazon data centers damaged by drone strikes amid US-Iran conflict
What's the story
Amazon has confirmed that three of its data centers in the Middle East were damaged by drone strikes, amid the ongoing US-Iran conflict. The company reported direct hits on two facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and indirect damage to a third facility in Bahrain. The information was shared on Amazon Web Services's (AWS) cloud service dashboard.
Impact assessment
Service disruptions and recovery effortsÂ
The drone strikes have caused significant structural damage, disrupted power delivery to AWS infrastructure, and also in some cases, necessitated fire suppression activities that led to further water damage. The firm is working closely with local authorities and prioritizing the safety of its personnel during recovery efforts. However, these infrastructure issues have disrupted several AWS services including the EC2 compute, S3 cloud storage, and DynamoDB database offering.
Recommendations
Customer precautions and expected recovery timeline
In light of the ongoing conflict and its unpredictable nature, Amazon has advised customers with workloads in the Middle East to take precautionary measures. This includes backing up data and possibly migrating their workloads to alternate AWS regions. The company also noted that recovery from these incidents is expected to be prolonged due to the extent of physical damage involved.
Recovery update
Progress in recovery efforts
Amazon has reported "incremental progress" in recovering its foundational services, DynamoDB and S3 control planes. However, the company still estimates that it will take at least a day to fully restore power and connectivity. This comes as Iran retaliates against US military action by launching missiles at other countries in the region.
Internal insights
Staff evacuated from affected facilities
An internal document seen by Business Insider shows that Amazon evacuated staff and shut down access to at least one of its data centers after they suffered structural damage and flooding from recent attacks. One facility suffered a "direct impact" and sustained "major structural damage." Flooding exacerbated the disruption, with the water levels inside the facility initially reaching over an inch before receding.
Technical impact
Direct impact on AWS facility in Dubai
The damage from the drone strikes took down 14 EC2 cloud server racks and five other "production" racks at the facility, which is believed to be an AWS facility in Dubai. The cooling systems at the facility were also affected, with the air handling systems used to regulate temperature going offline due to power outages and some suffering mechanical failures.