Server room air conditioning is an ongoing challenge for the average administrator. Equipment runs hotter than in years past and often the cooling capacity has trouble keeping up. Rolling in a couple of portable air conditioners helps but proper server room maintenance goes beyond that.

Call Housekeeping

Dust is the enemy of all electronics. This fine cloud of dead skin cells, dust mite corpses, and clothing fibers has two deadly effects.

First, it clogs the filters designed to keep it out of the machines. This restricts air flow and the cool air from your server room air conditioning can't get into the machines as easily. It is imperative to regularly blow the dust away from vents with canned air.

Second, despite the filters some dust gets inside the case. A fine layer of the stuff coats the components in a thin blanket, trapping the heat inside. The excess heat can't get out as easily and the components get hotter. Canned air helps here as well, but of course you have to open the case which risks damaging components.

In addition to regular dust patrol, most server rooms need professional help. Server room cleaning services specialize in the unique problems associated with dust buildup. They know how to clean server rooms properly without damaging the equipment.

Monitor The Temperatures

The worst way to find out about heat problems is when your servers suddenly shut down. Forewarned is forearmed and server administrators have learned that regular temperature monitoring is a critical part of server room air conditioning.

This means more than just tracking the onboard processor temperature probes all motherboards have today. Additional probes should measure the intake and outtake air flows to measure the temperature change across the components. Sudden changes can indicate problems with internal fans that need to be dealt with immediately.

The operator isn't going to check the readings manually very often. The temperature probes should be monitored by the computers with alarms set to sound if they go outside of acceptable ranges. Although, of course, too hot is a problem, so is too cold. Over cooling the server doesn't hurt the equipment, but it wastes money and puts unnecessary stress on the server room air conditioning.

Things Change - So Should You

Computer use isn't static so why should your server room air conditioning be? Tracking the temperatures is good, but anticipating changes before they happen is better.

You shouldn't use the same cooling at noon on a busy work day in the middle of July that you'd use at 3 am on a weekend in December. With experience, operators can learn what cooling level is needed as server loads and environmental factors change. Cranking up the cooling before the workday begins prevents servers from getting to hot as users some on line. Turning it down at the end of the day prevents you from wasting money and energy on unnecessary cooling.