Most data rooms are kept between 68-72.  Did you know that data center managers could save 4 percent in energy costs for every degree of upward change in the set point? This is according to Mark Monroe of Sun Microsystems.

Data Room Airflow
The data center airflow had also better be kept in check.  Many IT centers have air conditioners for the data rooms but, what about the cabinet temperature of each rack?

A single humidity sensor can provide decent ambient temperature for the entire room.  The same is not true for temperature and especially not airflow. Placing a temperature and air flow sensor in each computer cabinet will help ensure proper data cabinet ventilation.

With proper airflow design, air moves evenly through the data center.  If you are using our data room security solution, you can consider adding a few cameras as well.

If you have questions or would like a demonstration, contact our data room and environmental monitoring  specialists.

I also learned that the LUX rating is extremely important when choosing a night vision camera.  The lower to zero the better. In other words, .001 is extremely good night vision. Configuration of the security dashboard is also important.  I was able to setup a security map which listed where I had placed our temperature monitors, humidity monitors, security cameras, water sensors, air flow sensors, smoke, dry contact and DC voltage sensors.  I got it all setup before I finished my morning coffee.

Believe it or not, dry contact sensors are popular especially in data room temperature monitoring.  The techs love the Security web interface.

If you want to learn more about the process I went through to set up our security monitoring system, give us a call.

We got ours setup and attached a few cameras that we had laying around the office.  The web dashboard allowed me the select the most important cameras as well as view the log of environmental events that may end up triggering notifications.  All of this functionality in a single appliance.

One securityProbe can be used to connect several different cameras and at the same time provide ports for environmental sensors such as water leaks, temperature, humidity, smoke, power outages and more. This hardware provides one of the best low cost environmental, power and security monitoring solutions available on the net.

The picture that looks like a car vending machine is Volkswagen’s new car storage facility in Wolfsburg, Germany. I bet they must have to make sure the whole facility is kept at an optimal temperature and humidity level at all time. They must have some way to be notified if said temperature and humidity drops below a certain threshold. Now you can do that too.

You  can use a temperature and humidity monitoring sensor to keep tabs of the environment in a local car storage facilities or even your own garage. This way when the temperature and humidity reaches a certain threshold you can be notified via SNMP.

For an added measure you can even put a water sensor in your storage facility to ensure that cherished vehicles are not water damaged. The water sensor is a rope that is placed throughout a facility. When water is detected along it’s length you can also be notifies via SNMP.

As we see the future of cars evolve so must the methods of storing them.

Why have Both?
ToS is an 8 bit field that includes DSCP which is a 6 bit field. This being said, I could not find a Flexible NetFlow document that would make reference to both however, I know Cisco sometimes supports both in the same export.

Be aware that Cisco NetFlow v5 and traditional NetFlow v9 only export ToS. I’m sure you are aware that FnF is an extension of NetFlow v9 and supports both ToS and / or DSCP depending on the implementation.

* Cisco NBAR (requires FnF) for example, it will export both ToS = ipClassOfService (5) and DSCP ipDiffServCodePoint (195). See below.

* Cisco Performance Monitoring for Medianets (requires FnF) for example, it only allows for the export of DSCP ipDiffServCodePoint (195).
* The nBox exports ToS (5) even when exporting IPFIX however, it may export DSCP (195). I need to check.

Why did this Happen?

Cisco is a big company. My guess is that communication doesn’t always occur on every field that an engineer wants to export. Lets hope it is easy for them to address. In the mean time, what can you do?

Look for a Flexible NetFlow Reporting  solution that supports reporting on either but, you need to be using our beta release. See below.

Join NetFlow Developments on Linkedin to stay on top of issues like this.

After the strike Amazon lost power and their backup generators did not kick on, it didn’t take long for the reserve battery to quickly deplete. You may not lose your power from something as monumental as a lightening strike, but being preventative is imperative. Losing data due to environmental catastrophes should not be “occasionally expected”. These things can be prevented.

Environmental sensors can be a huge investment for the future of your data center. With a water sensor you can detect any water leaks in the length of the rope. With a temperature and humidity sensor you can prevent both overheating of the servers and condensation. With an airflow sensor you can also prevent overheating of your hardware. The list goes on and on.

The most amazing thing about these sensors is that they are all network capable. You can connect all of these to sensor probes and start to track events through SNMP. With a centralized log management tool you can set notifications through email and SMS to stay on top of any disaster. Now you are ready to tackle the world of databases.

Temperature and humidity sensors will allow construction companies to keep track of peak temperatures and how humid the conditions are. For example, some road construction companies need the outside temperature and humidity of the paving units to always below 89 degrees. This can easily be done by setting a threshold on the water proof temperature and humidity sensor to 89 degrees. Once the threshold breach you can have a siren and strobe light connected to the sensors alarm. This alerts anyone around that the temperature or the humidity breached 89 degrees.

Since most road units have small modular buildings used to manage the project it is perfect to put a BitSight2 in the unit. The BitSight2 will connect to a network and allow temperature and humidity monitoring and trending.

If you work for a road construction company and are interested or just have questions, please leave comments below and I can provide answers.

Today, let’s take a look at an alternative way to use an environmental monitoring device. Monitoring temperatures in a data center or your corporate office is not the only way to use a temperature and humidity sensor. There are plenty of other commercial uses for these products as well. Let’s look at how to use it for a more… chill environment.

Let’s say you were a grocery chain (let’s call them Grocery Mart) and your corporate offices needed to know when a refrigerated or freezer room went too warm for comfort. We had a similar story earlier in 2009 when Larry’s Lobster Shack had its cooler go warmer. If we bring this scenario to a grand scale we can see what an environmental monitor can do to help a grocery chain.

If Grocery Mart installs a Temperature and humidity sensor in their entire walk in coolers and freezers they will have the ability to globally monitor their entire perishable infrastructure and act immediately if anything goes awry. You can even have each store be digitally alerted when their cooler or freezer drops below a predetermined temperature, even after hours. So the manager can be alerted during the night when temperatures change.

Humidity is also an important factor to keep in mind. You need to make sure the freezer has a relatively low humidity. If the humidity is very high than many items will start to get freezer burn and be ruined. Grocery Mart can even put sirens and strobe lights in each store’s inventory room. The sirens and strobe lights can also be activated through the network to alarm when temperatures drop.

This is just one way an environmental sensor can save Grocery Mart from losing their perishable inventory. All of this saves them time, money and peace of mind.

I recently ran into an article in the Chicago Sun-Times describing the peak efficient working conditions of an office worker. In the article they say the peak perfect temperature is 71 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit. As I sit here shivering while grasping my hot cup of chai tea, I think, “That would  be perfect right about now.”

The same effect happens in the opposite direction of the spectrum; if the temperature reaches 87 degrees office productivity decreases as much as 10%. Sandra goes on to state that most office buildings often have poorly controlled temperatures. My office experience has taught me to prepare for any temperature whether it be hot or cold because you never know what the temperature might be during the course of one day.

Loss of productivity is bad no matter what the temperature is, but most importantly, it will result in the loss of money annually. To accurately keep your office in peak working conditions its good to get a temperature monitoring device that is more than just a thermometer connected to an air conditioning system.

With a temperature and humidity sensor connected to a sensor probe you can not only trigger your air conditioning unit but you can trend the data over a period of time. This feature is very useful because you need to be able to historically look back while actively monitoring your offices. In the long run you will save your company money and create happier employees.

In an expensive and extensive data center you would want to know when a door is being opened or your windows being shut, right? The Security Sensor will help you keep track of this. It is a sensor that has either an on or off mode to it that is triggered by a current when the two points of the device meet. You set it above or below your door or window and when the two ends meet they connect to form a current and alerts your Security Probe 5E (and you) that the door is closed. In most cases Security Sensors are not enough to keep a data room completely safe.

Motion Detectors are another great way to stay secure in a growing data enriched world. Motion Detectors use an infrared motion detecting system to detect and movement within their sights. This can also be configured with the Security Probe 5E or BitSight probes.

The most important staple for security is The Smoke Detector. This is something that not only every house hold should have but also every data center. A smoke detector can sense any smoke in the room and alert you and others that there is smoke in the vicinity. What is great about this smoke detector is that it is connected to your network so you can be notified through your mobile temperature monitoring device if anything happens plus it does not require batteries.

Of course you will need all of the above security sensors to send an audio and visual alarm. This is where the Siren and Strobe Lights come into play. The sensors can be triggered manually or configured to turn on in congruence with any other security or environmental sensor.