Safe Operating Temps

[mattx]

What are peoples thoughts for a safe operating temp for a rack ?

Currently having a debate [ yet again ] to get some proper Air Con in - [ not stand alone units ]

I get twitchy around 33 - 35 degrees & last year I started turning stuff off to make my point.....

[plexer]

Whats the operating range of your equipment in the rack?

 

Ben

[plexer]

http://www.openxtra.co.uk/articles/recommended-server-room-temperature.php

[Geoff]

40 degrees is when stuff starts failing. You should be aiming for sub 20 degrees. Set your thermal cut offs at 30 - 35 degrees.

[localzuk]

We had some of our servers cutting off at 35 last summer as there was no proper ventilation. 40 is the max, so 35 is where you want to cut off and be safer than sorry.

 

For optimal operation 18 - 20 degrees is normal (most large scale data centres keep it lower than this, around 16 or 15 from my experience).

[localzuk]

Oh, you may also want to note that if a server is damaged due to overheating due to lack of ventilation it is probably not covered by your warranty.

[Ric_]

My rack operates at about 21 degrees - the UPS will start shutting stuff down at around 28 derees IIRC

[steve]

Our new air con is set at 21C, inside the cabs its about 25C

 

Our old air con failed over easter - the temp got to 45C before a server crashed and I went to check.

 

I've now bought some climate monitoring kit.

 

http://www.climate-monitor.co.uk/

 

Very nice kit. If the air con packs in again I'll get an email - and txt via our SNMP monitoring software.

[mattx]

Lucky to get our rack to 20 degrees - even in the winter.

I think I am going to have to speak to my NM & our head and also our burser !! [ We have a new one I have yet to meet so this will be a good start !! ]

[m25man]

Thermal runaway is a serious threat in summer.

20-24 Deg in the server room is normally ok as long as the rack has been carefully planned.

 

As the heat goes up so do the fan speeds, the noise level increases and the fans run full steam to try and keep things cool.

Keep your critical servers low in the rack and devices that can withstand the rising heat in the upper bays.

 

When the fans have been running flat out for several months they tend to clap out quickly and the bushes/bearings start to wear, as a result they run slower, this causes the systems to get hotter and the remaining fans have to run even harder!

 

I have already seen my first server and one switch failure of the season due to this, despite a well controlled office environment at both sites running with Aircon @ 21deg.

Put a thermometer inside your rack at the highest point you can see it. You will soon see that inside the rack can be twice as high as your A/C remote :angry4: is set to!

[Guest kerrymoralee9280]

Hell, our servers are sat in an unconditioned rack in a room that gets to 40 degrees (in the winter). Even more in the summer!

 

We have asked and asked and asked and guess what we eventually got!? A tiny little freestanding AC unit that couldn't cool my bedroom!

[Geoff]

We've just installed a decent AC system to cool one of our server rooms. It only cost 1500 quid or so. What is the value of all the equipment in your rack(s) kerry?

[Guest kerrymoralee9280]

Erm, not sure but off the top of my head I would hazard a guess at about 25000-30000 in both the cabs. Maybe more than that, we've just recently invested a hell of a lot of money in a new exchange server and terminal server etc.

[Geoff]

Yeah I thought so. We have about 20k in one rack. So given that situation, why isn't your SMT interested in protecting that investment?

[maniac]

In my opinion, any school that doesn't put air con in it's server room(s) is being neglegent. Server equipment runs into £10's of thousends in many schools, so I've never understood why it's such a big issue for them to spend a couple of grand to protect their investment??

 

If the school does't do it, then not only is there the cost of replacing failed hardware, there's also the added cost that any downtime has on the school, plus the other knock on affects of this.

 

We're lucky here our server room was custom built in our new building, and has sufficient air conditioning and no windows. It is at its limit thou, as we've 11 servers in the room, and it keeps the temp at about 22 degrees (it's set at 18.) All out ICT suites also have air con in them, it definitely makes lessons more productive as the kids don't moan about the heat all the time, and prolongs the life of our workstations as well.

 

Mike.

[Geoff]

All out ICT suites also have air con in them, it definitely makes lessons more productive as the kids don't moan about the heat all the time, and prolongs the life of our workstations as well.

 

That's a subject worthy of its own thread.

[GrumbleDook]

We have one A/C unit in the server room (former boys toilet) that is rated to deal with 7500 BTU ... we are kicking out up to 15000 BTU at the moment with a few more boxes to come in over the next few weeks.

 

We have about £3500 in the budget for a ceiling based system rather than a wall cassette, but the problem we have is that the server room (partly for security and partly due to it being the only available space) is on the top floor.

 

This means that we have to hire a crane to get the large unit up onto the roof.

 

I have been geting some quotes and the local plumbers have the contract for all pipe work (including ventilation units) for the new block we are building. They got their subcontractors to give us a price and I finally got the quote yesterday. The idiots have given me a figure with no break down at all. When I rung them to ask about what make, model, rating, etc they shrugged their shoulders and said 'oh ... why do you need that?' To compare against the other quotes I responded, 'oh ... you mean you are looking at other companies too? We will send the guys back in to requote.'

 

I got the direct number of the sub-contractors who are fuming and have agreed to come back in and quote directly for a unit to cover up to 18000BTU.

 

We also have 2 old skylights which need boarding up as the just hold pockets of hot air.

 

We have a thermometer inside the main server cab and it is usually at 35 at the moment ... if it gets to 36 we turn off a few server that are not essential.

 

We have worked out a bit of a deal with the builders though. They have a few cherry-pickers and have agreed to use on to take the unit up to the roof ... saving a few thousand pounds. The plumbers' quote seemed a bit cheap as we new we should have a crane to take it up there ... but the foreman let us know that a deal had been done.

 

Hopefully we can get something arranged over the next few weeks before it gets too bad in there.