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!

[DSapseid]

We used to work in the server room here two of us with rack full of servers it was ridiculus as the bench meant that the other person had to go outside the server room for you to get past! We then campigned and stole an office of the IT teacher as he taught D&T at the same time and had both offices. We are now in a huge new office which was built when the new ICT suite was built. IT used to be the D&T techs workshop. The server room is now through a sliding door from our new office so its nice and close incase of any problems.

 

Definately use the noise, heat, cramped card as thats what we did. Also say that if you get a delivery of new laptops where are you supposed to store them? I said this as we were due a delivery of 10 new laptops and no way was there room for them all in the office, they ended up on top of the server racks!

 

Suggest the corridor and you could run a book as to how long they would be there!!

[witch]

I work in the server room with no natural light and it wasn't too bad until I complained about the fact that as I am in a room within a room, and outside my door there is a huge photocopier and reams of paper between me and the outside world, I couldn't get out in case of fire- either the server or the photocopier, and the room was a bit hot for the server.

H&S sort of listened and now I have a non-opening, reinforced window into the adjoining IT suite (" are you happier now you have light" - I didn't know that I had a problem with light!) and a very loud fan, which combined with the server noise gives me a headache every day.

The server will no longer overheat, but I still have no escape route in case of fire

I feel a bit mean as they did do something about my problem - but I am worried about fire and I don't quite know what to do next.

[Uraken]

Thanks for your comments all i have been able to compile a decent dossier to the gaffer.

 

thanks again.

[Guest]

Although we have a separate server room, we have air con in there, and it's too noisy and too cold to work in anyway.

 

So, we have an office that is no bigger than your average bathroom, with 3 techies in there. We have achieved 'miracles' by getting 3 desks in there, shelving, a video editing system and tea/coffee making facilities!

 

It get's hot, but it is 'cosy'!

[pallen]

I have recently gone through a new build and now sit in my brand new office/server room, which in fairness is big enough as an office. Unfortunately I wasn't listened to when the architects designed it. As a result it is a noisy(but well below h&s standards) no natural light and I had to steal a desk as the benching they put in wasn't adequate.

 

Even though I have pointed out that things haven't been done right, it doesn't look like it is going to change(there are other problems through the school which haven't been sorted and I imagine my room is low down on the priority). My main gripe is that I have been turned down for a different office but other staff have managed to get one even though they may only be in use 50% of the week.

 

My mistake was not asking for enough...Make sure you specify that you NEED an office. As poeple have said, a point of contact without allowing access to servers from anyone other than you. DO NOT accept anything less. If it is a new school there will be plenty of space to allowcate you an office and a server room. The architecht kept putting my room on the inside of the IT classroom even though we had told them I needed to be able to get in and out of the room without interupting lessons. After about the 3rd meeting it was finally moved.

 

Document everything that you request so that if they get it wrong you have got something to fall back on.

[richard.thomas]

We have quite a large office, bigger than most other offices in the school. However, there are six of us in there! Our server room is quite loud (You can hear the servers from the corridor) and has aircon- I like being in there over the summer as it's much colder than our office

 

I would have thought working in the server room is a health and saftey nightmare. We had a visit from our H&S officer asking us how we felt and stuff. He went around the room and has wrote down how many extenstion cords we use and we're apparently going to be getting wall sockets to replace them. Also getting at least CAT2 lighting... Also he noticed we dont have a CO2 fire extinguisher (apparently any room with computers must have one near?)..

 

I don't think he looked in the server room, but there's no CO2 fire extinguisher there... Is there one in your server room?

 

If you want to get put into an office then the health and safty route is prob the best one to go for as every employer has a duty to ensure their staff are working safely and all that!

[Guest aliv25]

We dont have aircon, we have to open our windows. its quite cool in there in terms of temperature...46 degrees?!

[localzuk]

I used to work in an office which doubled up as our server room and this was quite noisy (not too bad though, as the servers were not rackmount units). However, it did get very hot and smelly as it was next to the boys loo.

 

I now have a dedicated server room (completely enclosed, with aircon) and share my office with the admin staff. Much better!

[dave.81]

I've always worked in the server room... but taking into account this was/is the Head of ICT office which has slowly grown into a server room and i've kicked her out into the IT suite next door.

 

I'm pushing to get the nearest classroom converted into a server/it office but i dont think that will really happen as we are short on classrooms. But even if it did i'd still be sharing the office with the servers lol.

[torledo]

Strangely enough, I suggested to my boss that I move in to the server room. This was to ensure I got a large office-come-server-room to house two HP 36U server racks (25% populated at the moment) with big ac unit and plenty of space for storage of bits and pieces. It also meant I got to keep the switching core and network gear in a seperate room with a 36U telco rack (broomcupboard sized room but again with AC unit) but with only rack mounted network kit. Originally servers were in the broom cupboard along with the switches et al. And there was no room for a rack, and I hated not having a rack for the servers and crawling under the table to get to the back of the hideous pedestal servers. Racks are really the only way to install and work on the servers - so elegant. It also means I can get a biggish mge or eaton ups with batteries to fit nicely into the rack.

 

Light, space and cooling is not a problem now that the servers are in with me. Noise is a bit annoying at the moment, but could become difficult once the racks are close to 100%. Thanks for the decibel info - i'll take a reading once everything is up to speed. It could certainly be a H&S issue, and if it is it's up to management to sort it - no ifs no buts.