How to Handle Common Server Room Problems?

Companies must look beyond the virtual factors like viruses and hacker attacks and look for the physical problems faced by their data centers when it comes to server rooms.

Here, we are explaining 4 significant physical problems that your data centers need to overcome.

1. High Temperature

High temperatures of serves can damage them beyond repair. You need to maintain the temperature in the server rooms at an optimum temperature of about 20o -240C. Large organizations know the importance of maintaining the temperature in the server room, so they continuously monitor it. While small and medium-sized companies tend to overlook its significance.

You can use high perforated server racks for effective management of temperature. You can also separate hot and cold aisles to enhance the airflow dynamics of the server room.

For more reference, see 3 Best Practices For Improved Temperature Management At Your Data Center.

2. Excessively high or low humidity

The ideal level of relative humidity should be around 45–50% in data centers. Any increase in that level can lead to water condensation, which can cause corrosion and short-circuiting within the servers. While a decrease in the optimum humidity level can cause electrostatic discharge, resulting in server malfunctioning.

You can use humidifiers and dehumidifiers to maintain the humidity level. The excess water collected in the dehumidifiers can be drained out through an outlet.

3. Excessive Vibration

If your data center walls are thin and your servers are placed against those walls, heavy footfalls, or any machinery operating outside the server room can cause vibrations on the walls. This vibration can get transmitted to the server, causing damages to fast-spinning hard drives in the server.

To prevent that from happening, you can place your servers away from the wall in a room with fewer vibrations.

4. Poor Cable Management

Data centers usually come with hundreds of cables crisscrossing from one port to another. Any failure to manage them can lead to pinching and outrages and causes frustration for the maintenance personnel. Jumble cables can also block air outlets from the back of the servers, leading to server failure.

You can use velcro straps or zip ties to bundle the cables up and hold them neatly. But if your data center uses fiber optic cables, you have to make raceways to ensure that corners and bends do not harm the transmission of the wires.