Server room temperature monitoring suggestions

[mdrabble]

As the title suggests...… what do people recommend?

[Helen25]

Thermometer?

[simonw]

Ice cream?

[3s-gtech]

My recent research draws me to these, for cost effectiveness https://www.hw-group.com/device/hwg-ste There's a Demo website on there to show the interface.

[synaesthesia]

We've got ubiquiti's MFi kit for that, cheap, integrates nicely, just works.

[mdrabble]

Thermometer?

 

I have one of those but I keep having to visit the server room - last check just below 30 degrees as it seems the aircon unit needs re-gassing??

[steveg]

I've just got one of these:

 

https://www.comms-express.com/products/geist-watchdog-15-p-un-environment-monitor-c-w-temp-humid-dew-point-sensors-poe/

 

Fairly basic, but seems to do the job. Emails me if there are issues. Only thing I don't like (and this may just be me having not read the manual yet) is that I don't seem to be able to have different email lists for different warnings. (i'd like it to email me if it gets a bit warm, and lots of people if it gets very warm!)

 

Steve

 

 

 

Steve

[Chris_]

Another vote for Ubiquiti mFi kit.

[AJWhite1970]

And another vote for Ubiquiti mFi kit. Not only monitors all my comms rooms but also monitors the walk in fridges and freezers in catering as well. Works to -10c which is more than enough to know the freezer is cold enough.

 

Actually might walk over there now and check it's working OK and maybe have an icecream while I'm in there

[mdrabble]

Thanks for the replies - Ubiquiti mFi kit, how many do you have in your server rooms? and where are they located?

[synaesthesia]

We use 2 of the mfi devices due to being a split site, with a sensor in each; these can be connected via ethernet so they could be put anywhere, can add moisture/humidity sensors etc. You get 3 ports per mport device.

[AJWhite1970]

Two or three per host depending on what sensor you use. The interface isn't the most modern in the world but it does show all MFi hosts on one screen so you can build custom graphs, alerts, emails etc for your environment. The sensors are POE from the host via ethernet so you can have them just about anywhere, like mine in the freezer for example

 

TBH, it's so cheap, get one in with a couple of sensors and have a play. The admin software is free from the Unifi site but hasn't had an update since 2015. AFAIK, it's supported but no longer being developed.

[mdrabble]

Ignore me - was thinking of temp sensors...

 

So, I'm guessing I would need the MFi port and then 2 temp sensors

[dhicks]

As the title suggests...… what do people recommend?

 

This is a handily relevant thread - we're having some air conditioning issues, so we've installed a Foobot air-quality monitoring device in the server cupboard. It's designed as a home IoT type device, but does sense temperature as well as CO2 and particulate matter.

 

I set up an alert via IFTTT to text me if the temperature in the server cupboard rose, and was woken at 1:30 this morning to get a taxi accross London to go fix the aircon as it had stopped working. Not bad, and a nice home-user level easy set up, although it did have trouble connecting to our Ruckus wireless system (turns out it doesn't support 5Ghz connections, had to turn those off on one access point to get it to connect). Also, the first text alert from IFTTT worked really well, but it then proceeded to text me every 5 minutes (because that's how often the API goes and gets info from the device), using up all the available texts for that month. Not quite sure if the issue there is with IFTTT or Foobot's API.

 

Their API does look very well desgined - they actually have proper documentation, auto-generated by the looks of it, complete with working examples. I discovered, when I tried to use it from PythonAnywhere's servers, that they limit access to their API by world region (The US, China, and Europe), so you need to be working from a server in the appropriate region your device is in (or use a proxy server, or have servers in each region).

 

Does anyone know of anything that properly integrates with an aircon unit to tell me what is actually wrong with the unit when it stops working? About the best we can do at the moment is point a CCTV camera at the unit to record the pattern of blinking error lights. There has to be a proper solution to that these days, right?

 

If we can't get a proper monitoring solution of some kind (or if those are just too expensive) we'll aim to add the facility to remotely power-cycle the unit with an IoT power switch. Anyone any recommendations?

[AJWhite1970]

So, I'm guessing I would need the MFi port and then 2 temp sensors

 

Exactly that. The host is about £60, the temp sensors are about £20 each

Edited June 28, 2018 by AJWhite1970

[mdrabble]

Order place - so bit of luck should be here tomorrow

[dapaulio]

We've got ubiquiti's MFi kit for that, cheap, integrates nicely, just works.

 

+1 vote

[PotNoodleTech]

And another vote for Ubiquiti mFi kit. Not only monitors all my comms rooms but also monitors the walk in fridges and freezers in catering as well. Works to -10c which is more than enough to know the freezer is cold enough.

 

Actually might walk over there now and check it's working OK and maybe have an icecream while I'm in there

 

I was looking at the mfi the other day! It looks good.

Edited June 29, 2018 by PotNoodleTech

[Chris_]

We use 1 mPort in the server room, with two ports connected to a temp/humidity sensor to monitor both (https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/204960024-Custom-Sensor-How-to-change-the-mFi-THS-to-a-Humidity-Sensor) and a motion sensor on the 3rd port. The graphs on the controller make it easy to see if rises in temperature are linked to people going in and leaving the door open etc..

 

As our office isn't next to the server room I might set up another mPort and connect it to a siren as an output for when the temperature of the server room gets too hot!!

[NetworkServices]

We have a 1U device called Climate. Has audible alarms, sends emails and has provision for a range of additional sensors if needed.

[Mic_Impero]

I'm running a raspberry Pi with a temperature and humidity sensor in it. We haven't set it up to email yet but we can visit a graph live to within a couple of seconds, in a browser, cost is about £40 per pi. I'll let you know once we've got it to notify us by email of a crossing of the threshold. Once we've got there i'll be happy to clone the SD for anyone that sends me a blank.

[ITGURU]

I use the built in Temperature on APC UPS units with the 2 levels - one for temperature warning (if 1 of the 2 air cons fail, just tips it over this temp level), then the critical level (if both units were to fail)

Emails are sent on APC self test, AC power loss/restore , and the 2 temperature levels when triggered i'll know if one unit has failed.

Works good enough for my needs without additional hardware.

[mdrabble]

Well my order finally arrived - had to be shipped from an EU Warehouse!

 

First glance, they are nice little units - just need to set them up now

[Mic_Impero]

We've got our Pi's emailing us now so if anyone would like to go down that route, PM me.

[Duke5A]

I use the built in Temperature on APC UPS units with the 2 levels - one for temperature warning (if 1 of the 2 air cons fail, just tips it over this temp level), then the critical level (if both units were to fail)

Emails are sent on APC self test, AC power loss/restore , and the 2 temperature levels when triggered i'll know if one unit has failed.

Works good enough for my needs without additional hardware.

 

Same here, only I use the cards with the ports for the external temperature probes and hang the probe up under the air conditioning unit. Alerts are sent out via the card in the APC and also my SNMP monitoring setup. If the temp raises up to 82 degrees I start getting text messages. What is nice about the APC setup is I also have it setup to gracefully start shutting things down once it passes 85 degrees. APC has software that integrates with not only Windows, but with ESXi too.