Questions tagged [physical-environment]

This tag is appropriate for questions dealing with the physical environment of a system/deployment (e.g. dust, vibration, etc.) with no better, more specific tag.

This tag is appropriate for questions dealing with the physical environment of a system/deployment. Examples include questions asking about "special" environments, like:

  • Substantial shock/vibration
  • High dust levels
  • High levels of EM interference
  • Extremely hot or cold temperatures, or wide temperature swings
  • Extremely humid areas

If a more specific tag exists, please use that instead.

196 questions
10
votes
4 answers

How do you compute the AC capacity needed for a server room?

We've got a small server room ( approximately 600 square feet in area ), and three partially-filled racks of servers, switches, et cetera. What's the best-practice way of computing the AC capacity needed to hold temperature/humidity conditions…
Bill B
  • 399
  • 5
  • 12
10
votes
2 answers

How can you predict the amount of cooling needed for a particular piece of equipment?

Every summer we have to shut down some equipment due to a combination of outside temperature and high load. The air conditioners just can't keep up. As we cycle in new equipment and cycle out old, it would be nice to know if we are making our…
Jon Ericson
  • 855
  • 10
  • 20
9
votes
4 answers

DIY Hadoop Cluster - Heat & Dust issues?

Following are links of my DIY 6-Node Hadoop Cluster using i3 Machines, What is the best possible way to protect my design from dust & provide better heat transfer? What should I use to cover four side of my rack in order to protect it from dust?
yogesh.panchal
  • 103
  • 1
  • 6
9
votes
4 answers

How do I calculate cooling cost per server?

I'm attempting to figure out the power/cooling draw for some old servers that I'd virtualized. Starting with info in this question, I've taken the 880W the old boxes appeared to be drawing (according to the APC logs), and gotten 2765 BTUs/hr, or 1…
Kara Marfia
  • 7,892
  • 5
  • 32
  • 56
9
votes
4 answers

What is the Best Way to Monitor Server Temperature?

I need to be able to monitor the temperature of a couple of servers remotely. Does anyone know of any free/cheap software that will monitor the server temp and email it or at least output it so that I can pick it up via blat? Thanks.
Keng
  • 475
  • 3
  • 6
  • 10
8
votes
4 answers

Rack Mounting a Server with hot air vents on the top?

We just got a couple of HP DL360 G7's, and I notice it has vents on the top. More hot air seems to exit through these vents than it does anywhere on the back. All our servers in the past have always vented all the hot air through the back. How…
Adam
  • 165
  • 1
  • 2
  • 9
8
votes
6 answers

automatically shutting down an ESXi host nightly

We just picked up a new development server that I've loaded ESXi on. The room it's in is well ventilated during the day but at night the door is closed and it gets quite toasty in there. I've been asked to have the box shut down nightly, as we won't…
8
votes
4 answers

Cooling requirements for POE switches?

Is there any difference between POE switches and normal switches when budgeting for cooling capacity for a network closet? Normally, when I'm thinking about cooling; I can look at the power draw of a device and assume that for every watt I dump into…
chris
  • 11,784
  • 6
  • 41
  • 51
8
votes
8 answers

How to correctly apply thermal compound to the CPU?

Every now and then I have to work with hardware, be it assembling a new box, or just cleaning it a little bit, and I always have this question: how should I apply the thermal compound to the CPU? When should I have to do it (should I clean it and…
7
votes
7 answers

What is the recommended temperature range for a hard drive?

What is the best temperature range for hard drives while they are in operation? I have hard drives that keep failing due to the operating temperature being too high.
Daniel
  • 3,741
  • 7
  • 32
  • 33
7
votes
6 answers

Computer controlled winch

It was a long time coming but I've just had AC installed in my server room. I've also purchased a MiniGoose II from ITWatchDogs which I can't say enough about. So I'm covered by cooling, and I'll be alerted if something goes wrong but what if I'm a…
JohnyD
  • 1,614
  • 2
  • 20
  • 29
7
votes
7 answers

Server Cabinet/Room Cooling

I currently have two desktops and three servers in my office sitting on the floor (I know this is bad). With that many servers the ambient temperature in the room goes up quickly. I am located in Dallas, TX so during the winter, if the heat is kept…
ThaKidd KG5ORD
  • 329
  • 1
  • 7
  • 17
6
votes
1 answer

Should a System Administrator handle office furniture moves,setup and procurement?

I have been getting more and more requests to move furniture and today I was asked to organise furniture for a new office fit-out. How do other handle these requests? Is it often the lot of the sysadmin to get lumped with these requests? If you have…
Ablue
  • 1,140
  • 1
  • 12
  • 32
6
votes
2 answers

Headset for phone calls in the datacenter

Datacenters are noisy places. On occasion it is necessary for an administrator or technician to troubleshoot a problem in the datacenter while on a phone call or conference call. Unfortunately, these can be long, drawn out conversations, depending…
Cakemox
  • 24,141
  • 6
  • 41
  • 67
6
votes
1 answer

Ionization option on our A/C turned on or off in a server room?

Our server room is a converted closet, and we have a pair of wall-mounted air conditioning units to cool the room. These are both pointed towards the front of the server racks, and there are a couple small vents for hot air. We definitely don't…
Paul Kroon
  • 2,220
  • 16
  • 20
1 2
3
13 14