working in the server room

[Uraken]

Hi all we recently campaigned sucsessfully to be moved out of our server rooms to another office due to excessive heat, noise etc and things are much better and i no longer go home with headaches.
I have just found out that in the new shiny school we are having built due to merging with another one that i'm to be housed once again the server room! i have spoke with the gaffer and he suggests i put forward my arguments,( he supports me but worrys the architects etc won't) how many of you have to work in the server room and can anyone point me in the direction of hard evidence that we shouldn't be doing this? i ran a poll on a previous forum and was met with an overwhelming view that supported my argument but want your opinions please.

[ChrisH]

There are surely health and safety issues involved here. In that situation especially I find it ridiculous that you are expected to work in a noisy environment. I would drag the bloody architect into the server room and see how well he can concentrate.

[tech_guy]

We have to work in the server room which also doubles as our office cum workshop.

It's hot in the summer and noisy too but we have got used to it.

We're lucky as it is quite a big room for just the two of us plus the gear. We have no choice as there is nowhere else to put us.

We did have the noise levels monitored but it fell well below the level at which they would have had to do something about it.

We're usually roving around the college anyway and as I have a hearing problem my colleague is a brick and fields most of the phone calls.

[SYNACK]

See if you can borrow a decibel meter to get an actual reading of the sound production in your current server room. There are h&s rules in regard to a safe level of sound and this would probably be the easiest place to start. That and the cost of sound isolating servers, racks and ups units is ridiculously high which makes for a good bargaining position.

[tech_guy]

Turn everything on and then do the measurements - The level at which employers must provide hearing protection and hearing protection zones is now 85 decibels (daily or weekly average exposure) and the level at which employers must assess the risk to workers' health and provide them with information and training is now 80 decibels. There is also an exposure limit value of 87 decibels, taking account of any reduction in exposure provided by hearing protection, above which workers must not be exposed.

[webman]

Since 2002 we have worked in a 3m² room with a door into a (usually noisy) IT suite, no natural light, a hot and noisy server cabinet (9 servers), switch cabinet, no air conditioning, and only just enough room for 2 people.

Try not to use the H&S noise level card - their solution will (probably) be ear protectors. Practical? No. But they are a lot cheaper than making you an office and it will satisfy H&S.

Other reasons you could possibly use include not enough room to work effectively in or that the temperature is too uncomfortable to work in.

[GrumbleDook]

One possible card to play is that you need to be somewhere more publically accessible so that you can provide decent first line support rather than people come into a cramp room.

If the noise thing does not work first time round move the phone closer to the servers so that every time a member of senior management phones they cannot hear you or you hear them over the din.

[triggmiester]

There are two of us, we have office/workshop/server room and until the summer holidays the server rack had no sides/door on it as my previous manager didn't want it on, after he left, thats the first thing I did and the difference was outstanding. We still have to put up with the heat, although its slightly better now I have the cabinet ceiling fans on.
The only aircon we have is a portable unit, that really isn't up to the job.
We are having a new building at the moment, but there isn't one inch of space where we could put our servers

[maniac]

I can't believe that schools are still being designed with no allocated space for ICT technicians! Almost like we're only temporary additions to the school, and it's not worth building us an office. I would have thought along with considering the actual ICT infrastructure, that provision for support for these systems would be next on their list!

I also expect the server room is sited in the most unsuitable location, probably far too small, and I bet they forgot to specify air conditioning. These are mistakes I've seen before on new school designs, always an afterthought, never in the plan from the start!

Unfortunitely I've no advice on how to convince them, except to not give up! If one avenue doesn't suceed, try another. Eventually you will find the right person to talk to, or the right words to say, and common sense (I hope) will prevail.

Mike.

[webman]

This is BSF all over, we're not important

[GrumbleDook]

After visiting a number of Academies and other PFI builds recently there was a shortage of space for admin staff, bursars (even when they are Senior management), reprographics, DT technicians, Science Technicians, site / ground staff ...

So, pretty much everyone apart from teachers and students!

One or two have gotten it right .. but it is not the majority by a long stretch.

[joe90bass]

I currently work in a server room (6 servers, comms rack) with one technician it it hot and noisy, but when I measured the noise level it was well below the 85dB level but loud enought to be a PITA when on the phone!

In our new school (Sept next year) we have a tiny server room with aircon and an office/workshop upstairs, annoyingly though it has no windows I'm fighting to have a small classroom (with windows!) which I was originally allocated to teach iPro and CCNA in, but due to techie workload I no longer have time for. Fingers crossed.

@uraken If you want I'll see if I can scan/send you a copy of our plans with the server room and our IT office/workshop marked on if you want. I know our server room only got put in as our LEA asked for it!! Don't give up, as ChrisH says drag the architect into your server room for a meeting, or anyone in school management!!!

Good luck!!

[Lee_K_81]

Our techs (i was one for 2 years) have been working in the server room since time forgot. Finally got a new office (read: converted toilet), that is almost completed. In the end we played the:

Health & Safety: Parts, dead pc's, sound levels, heat;

Physical security of property: little storage = things left lying around, that sometimes go walkies, plus it would be quite easy for somebody open up the door chuck a bottle of water in (it happened - right down my back.) which could land on a rather expensive server.

Data security: with people walking in and out of server room to fetch techies, there stands a chance that personal details of staff / pupils could be seen.

If you are trying to prove a point i always find it best to stage a situation. Maybe call somebody in just as you are switching all the servers on (when they go really loud and do the fan test).

[Oops_my_bad]

working in the server room

Sounds like an electric six song

[maniac]

working in the server room

Sounds like an electric six song

But contry to the lyrics of an actual electric six song, it certainly isn't your desire!