If you have a server room at your business or organisation, you will know by now that it can get quite stuffy in there. Generally speaking, the more equipment you have, the greater the heat generated.
Sometimes in a busy office, a server room can often be overlooked by support staff; after all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Well, wrong actually! Like with anything electronic, if computer systems are maintained properly, there will be less of a chance of them failing prematurely.
Here is a handy checklist of things that you should go through periodically in order to ensure the longevity of your IT equipment:
Make sure that your Cooling Systems are Running Efficiently
Any server room with equipment operating on a 24-hour basis needs to be cooled down with an efficient air conditioning system. If your air conditioning system is a bit temperamental, you must arrange for it to be serviced or repair as appropriate.
Failure to do so will cause your server room to run hotter, and increase the likelihood of equipment failing due to inadequate cooling and ventilation.
Are your Server Racks Facing the Right Way?
It is also important that you make sure your server racks are configured correctly so that they make optimum use of cooling systems, and dissipate heat correctly.
The last thing you want to do is position your server racks so that they face the wrong way and draw in hot air instead of icy cold air conditioned air!
Optimising your Server Racks for Maximum Air Flow
The next thing you should consider is how well your server racks are organised. Simply stacking all of your server blades or other equipment one on top of another is obviously not a good way to promote maximum airflow.
Spacing your equipment out and using blanking plates will help to stop hot air from entering the server racks, and ensure that only cold air is drawn in through the intakes.
Use Raised Floors in your Server Room
If you haven’t already, you should think about raising the floor of your server room and implementing a cold air ventilation system into it.
This will ensure that cold air will reach the intakes on your racks, but make sure you plug any gaps where cables come out of the racks with brushes or gaskets, so that cold air does not enter the exhaust areas of the racks.
It has been estimated that having an effective raised floor cooling solution can increase cooling by up to 50%, so it’s certainly worth implementing if you haven’t already done so.
Don’t Cram your Server Racks in
Sometimes space might be at a premium in a server room, but don’t use that as an excuse to cram in all of your server racks. If you have too much equipment in your server room, it can render even the most efficient of cooling systems useless!
So on that note, ensure that your server racks are spaced out appropriately. It will also help with IT relocation purposes because you will have more space to move server racks, equipment and personnel in!