Have You Overlooked Something?

You have invested time and money getting your IT infrastructure right, you’ve got the right equipment in terms of redundant power supplies, hard drives, fans & UPS products. Your servers are being monitored and set to alert you to any issues and the server room temperature is regulated by an air conditioning unit, what could possibly go wrong now?

Excessive Server Room Temperature

As with any type of electronic equipment, computer and networking devices are designed to operate within a fairly narrow temperature range. To ensure reliable operation and the longest possible life from components you need to ensure that the temperature stays within the acceptable range. Even a few degrees too hot can blow a server chip. The problem is made much more difficult to control due to the fact that modern powerful computers generate huge amounts of heat.

Even if a total failure does not occur then very high processor temperatures can cause unexpected computer behavior such as unexpected crashes. The cost of a catastrophic server failure can be considerable. Think how much money you would lose if your servers went down. There is the cost of replacement, but think also of lost e-commerce business, lost customer details, wasted staff time, and all the other associated costs.

What temperature is right?

General recommendations suggest that you should not go below 10°C (50°F) or above 28°C (82°F). This range should be considered as the extreme limits which may still reduce the life expectancy of the equipment. Keeping the ambient temperature around 20-21°C (68-71°F) would be optimal and would provide real benefits in terms of reliability and performance.

How do you maintain the right temperature?

Purpose built server rooms are well insulated for fire precaution reasons and air conditioning is essential. In many companies however the maintenance of the air conditioning is separate from the running of the servers. If the air conditioning fails you might not be the first to know. You may even be the last. Even if everything is working the temperature may fluctuate during the day, from season to season, and there is always the possibility of localized hot-spots around equipment giving off lots of heat.

Don’t be tempted to think that just because you have an air conditioning unit that is up to the job that you are safe. People working in the server room sometimes switch the air conditioning off and forget to turn it on again. Sometimes they leave doors open. Servers run hotter at some times of the day than at others, air conditioning systems sometimes run at lower power at night etc.

What if it’s night time, your air conditioning is running at low power, and your web server suddenly starts to work hard? Now your machine heats up and your air conditioning can’t cool it enough. Exactly this scenario has been known to happen. Many intermittent faults and slow downs can be traced to overheating.

Replacing old equipment can introduce a new set of problems. Newer machines run faster and often run hotter as well, increasing the burden on the air conditioning systems even more. If you’ve recently introduced new servers or modern switches, it might be time to examine your air conditioning unit to make sure it can still keep up.

Another thing to look out for is the scenario where you turn up the air conditioning unit during the day, in order to ensure the right environment in your server room, but then don’t switch it down during the night or weekends. During the day there might be a lot of activity into and out of the server room. The server room door being opened all of the time lets warmer air into the server room thus necessitating the air conditioning system to be turned up high. At night and at the weekend, without the same level of activity, you may be running up large energy bills for no reason.

David Vallance works with Mirus IT Solutions and is qualified as a Microsoft Licensing Expert, HP Certified Professional and Cisco Sales Expert, he provides expert IT consultancy in Milton Keynes and surrounding areas.

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