The continuous measurement of temperature and humidity on the network, the technology systems or server cabinets is of great importance. Although many modern blade servers do offer an automatic shutdown feature due to high temperatures, this emergency shutdown of servers does not eliminate the risk of component damage and miscalculations caused by temperatures in the cabinets being consistently too high referring to the equipment’s “MTBF.”

By using EMS or the Environmental Monitoring Systems offered is guaranteed to dramatically reduce these risks of catastrophic equipment or critical server failures.

Furthermore, having the ability to perform proper automatic shutdown of important servers and running the correct applications to perform this reduces downtime and improves business continuity.

To identify as quickly as possible the critical temperatures in wiring closets and server cabinets Didactum recommends the installation of at least 3 temperature sensors per server cabinet. The temperature sensors should ideally be on the floor in front of the cabinet, above before the cabinet and positioned at the top rear of the cabinet. The former is the temperature of the cooling air supplied to measure and monitor. The temperature of the air supply to the rack should be in the context of 16 ° to 24 ° Celsius. With the top front of the cabinet mounted temperature sensor, you can then see the effective cooling capacity monitoring of the air supply.

Mounted on the upper back of the network or server cabinet this sensor is used for monitoring the hottest part of a rack. At this point, it must be ensured that the cabinet temperature does not exceed the mark of 27 ° to 35 ° Celsius.

Air condition units that are installed in the server room and data center’s main purpose is to maintain constant cool temperatures within the wiring closets and server rooms  and are of an enormous importance in keeping the mission critical equipment from failing due to high temperatures.

In addition to monitoring the efficiency of the installed air conditioning units, a malfunction or failure needs to be detected and reported on as early as possible. If an air conditioner fails, this failure may initiate a second backup air-conditioning unit. However, this second air conditioner may then be unduly overburdened that could unfortunately result in a total failure of both units.

To ensure this catastrophic situation does not occur then appropriate temperature and air flow

sensors are strategically mounted directly next to the existing air conditioners to instantly detect disruptions, inefficient or total loss of air flow. If the air conditioning units are equipped with fault detectors then these sensor contacts should also be included into the IT monitoring systems alerting functions.

Maintenance and disruptions of the air conditioner can then be immediately addressed by the building equipment maintenance personnel, or can be forwarded to the climate engineer from the manufacturer. The recorded measurement data of the temperature, humidity and air velocity can then be included in to the IT security audits and for the energy optimization of air conditioning usage.

Unless your server room or data center includes a cold aisle containment system and is cooled in this manner, the temperature in the hot aisle can be significantly higher and can reach values ​​in the hot aisle beyond the 30 ° C temperature mark, which is not uncommon. If there is a cooling failure due to the air conditioning, you will only have a very short time to rectify the situation that could have an impact on the overall environment.

In many server rooms and data centers false floors are available. Normally located under these floors are the server room and data center’s supporting cable channels, power distribution lines and also the cooling technology. A defect in a condensing pump, leakage of a water intake or even condensation build up on a cooling pipe can result in water leakage under this raised floor.

This water leakage can cause considerable damage in the server room and data center. For example a simple short circuit can jeopardize the availability of your entire IT infrastructure!

Therefore, below these raised floors, suitable water sensors need to be installed. The most convenient and effective type of sensor would be a rope type sensor that can be installed to monitor critical points such as below air conditioning and water-cooled server cabinets. These sensors will detect water leakage even from small traces of moisture. This will prevent possible water damage in the server room and data center by detecting and reporting these leaks as early as possible.

Not to be underestimated is also the risk from areas such as toilets, heating systems, social rooms and kitchens that can cause water damage. Severe weather or heavy rainfall can also cause flooding of entire IT infrastructures.

Another example has been caused directly by burglary and theft which lead to vandalism, so it is extremely important that the IT security concept must be integrated into the monitoring system.

We know of actual cases where a burglary occurred in the customer’s existing premises where by their water valves were deliberately opened in order to obliterate any possible traces of evidence causing catastrophic damage. Systems were then installed that prevented this from occurring in the future.