I don't believe they told you the truth here.
First, generators are "outside", so any fire suppression system to extinguish a generator fire would go off "outside", not indoors where the servers are.
Next, fire suppression would be a Halon system for a generator, being fuel is involved, not a water sourced sprinkler system.
There are lots of "indoor" generator installations with exhaust vented to outdoors. Most likely would be a separate room from servers, but fire alarms in simple sprinkler system can set off
deluge in entire building.
Whoever would design a fire system to go off in a room, where there is no fire to where it would ruin equipment unnecessarily is an idiot. Last time I looked, "zoning" has been used in all sorts of different parameters when it comes to circuitry, for, "decades".
Halon hasn't been manufactured since 1994. Supply is limited and decreasing - so expensive. Nobody specs new halon systems unless its a ridiculously sensitive area and they want to spend big bucks. Typical commercial server farms ain't gonna pony up the money. There are other "clean chemical" halon alternatives, but even when an area has a chemical system there is usually a backup water system since chemical systems have limited capacity and stop working when chemicals run out!!
Yeah, Montreal protocol, and there are alternatives.
Speaking of chemicals running out, you mean like a commercial kitchen hood fire suppression system, that doesn't have "water backup"?????????
A chemical fire suppression system is designed to have a tank with a large enough capacity to put the actual fire out, without backup, otherwise they wouldn't have different size tanks, now, would they?????
Where did I say the genset was "outdoors"?
