When it comes to maintaining a properly-functioning server room, temperature plays a more important role than you think. This is because a server room’s climate affects the level of energy consumption, and subsequent impact on the environment, that your servers will have.
And since each server generates a significant amount of heat during everyday operation, regulating the temperature within your server room isn’t really an option. Overheating can lead to a number of negative impacts, from decreased server lifespan to server failure to even a fire.
Not sure how to keep the temperature constant for your server rack cabinets and server enclosures? These three tips on keeping server racks cool should help:
Keep airflow going
Server experts recommend that every room containing server rack cabinets have at least 63% of the room’s area open to allow air circulation. It’s a good idea to keep doors to these rooms open so fresh air can circulate through the room, as well. With open or perforated doors, you likely won’t need any extra ventilation equipment apart from an air conditioning system.
Space racks and cabinets apart
It can be tempting to try and fit as many server racks in a given room as possible to make your space more efficient, but doing so can cause the servers to overheat due to lack of room for ventilation. Each server room should hold between 75 to 80% of its full capacity. In addition, be sure there is 1.5” between the servers and their cabinets.
Invest in a server rack cooling system
A server rack cooling system is essential to closely monitor temperature within every server room. These systems include thermostats that will automatically turn on a cooling fan when the temperature reaches a certain point, as well as sensors within each server rack cabinet that will alert you when temperature gets too high within the cabinet. Investing in a server rack cooling system allows you to focus on other things while server room temperature is monitored by other devices.
Have any other questions, comments or thoughts on regulating temperature within server rack cabinets? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.