See a Ravica SensorProbe live in the wild!
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
Did you know that you can see how Ravica SensorProbes work, without even leaving your desk? All you have to do is click the SecurityProbe Online Demo link on the front page and you will be able to see temperature and humidity sensors from our own data room.
You can even see how easy it is to view your data room remotely with the integrated Ravica Security Cams.
Map your probes:
You can easily map the location of your probes via the mapping interface. This dynamic interface will not only tell you the status of your environmental monitors, but will also give you clickable links that give you more information.
Minimize network downtime by monitoring temperature in the data room
Filed under: Data Center, environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
Infrastructure stability is constantly at the forefront of network planning and management. A good data center needs to be well organized and structured for clean operations, but it also needs to be appropriately optimized to guard against environmental disasters. Now, when I say disasters, I don’t necessarily mean typhoons and earthquakes. Even something as simple as an air conditioner losing power and the temperature rising to dangerous levels could be a disaster.
While a building management system can help optimize air flow and lower temperatures, they are not fail proof. That’s where Ravica comes in. Ravica provides some of the largest companies, with the most complex data centers, with solutions that ensure the integrity of environmental conditions within the data room. Not only can our intelligent temperature and humidity sensors tell you when conditions have become hazardous to your equipment, but our SensorProbes can take action as well.
Remote weather stations use Ravica SensorProbes
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
I love finding new ways people are using our probes! I just finished a call with a university up here in the north land, who wanted to use our probes in their remote data station. The remote data station is part of a funded study to determine the changing weather conditions in the area.
The problem is that the grant they received would fund the weather monitoring equipment, but not the equipment that would run the unmanned station. The good news is that their technology budget would cover the BitSight8 and the required sensors.
They needed to be able to monitor temperature, humidity, airflow and security. The customer explained to me that since this was an unmanned station, knowing if anyone has opened the server room door was extremely important.
We spent some time talking about the various environmental conditions and how they can affect the servers. He was surprised how the environmental conditions would effect the station’s performance.
The environmental conditions of the area can change throughout the year. The winters can drop below zero, while the temperature during the summer months is in the 90′s with high humidity. Monitoring for humidity is vital; condensation on a circuit board can kill a machine. Having a monitor in place is absolutely vital.
We then went over the alerting and reporting ability of the probe and how this unmanned station’s IT center would be fully monitored. I also spent some time explaining the SecurityProbe and how it would alert them when someone opened the door. I am looking forward to the install date. I hope that it is in the summer. I hate snow!
- JimmyD
Monitoring cooler or freezer temperature
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
Many of our customers need to monitor the temperature of commercial freezers or coolers and be notified if the temperature drops. Loss of perishable inventory can be substantial.
Temperature Monitor
A freezer temperature monitor can easily be installed in most old or newer model systems. Consider it a kind of 7×24 cooler or freezer guard.
If you are looking for a temperature alarm and monitor solution for your refrigerators, freezers, or coolers, this solution can notify you immediately any time, day or night, if temperature drops.
Sound the Alarms!
It sounds an audible alarm and alerts one or more people(s) via phone, pager or other. You can use any web browser – even a cell phone to see the temperature of any refrigerator/freezer.
More than just Temperature
This product can be used for more than monitoring freezer temperature. It can also be used for:
- Monitoring humidity
- Monitoring for smoke
- Monitoring for electricity loss
- Monitoring for motion (i.e. security)
- Monitoring for water
- And much, much more
Check out ravica.com.
Temperature monitoring software
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
Our data center temperature gets hot. We have loads of switches, routers and servers, and the heat produced can be substantial. We have software to report on sFlow, NetFlow, SNMP, syslogs, traps, etc., and of course we have temperature monitoring software as well.
In the palm of my hand
We obviously use our temperature monitoring probes, which also take care of humidity monitoring. Look how small these things are:
Since the one probe can do both temperature and humidity sensing, the second port can be used to detect water, smoke, or any of our other environmental monitoring sensors.
No temperature monitoring program needed
This little device has a web server built in, so you can hit it with an IE or FireFox web browser. The unit is self contained, and prices start at $250. It also supports SNMP. Check out the live environmental monitoring demos:
BitSight2 Demo – Password=”ravica”
SecurityProbe Demo – No password required
This is really cool stuff at a great value. Call ravica.com about these at (207) 324-8173.
- Mike
Humidity monitoring for a walk-in humidor
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, SensorProbes, temperature monitoring
So maybe you haven’t already investigated how to build a walkin-humidor for storing your extensive cigar collection. Maybe you have never smoked a cigar in your life, and are totally against the practice – that’s okay. However, if you are a tobacconist, than you will definitely be able to appreciate what one of our customers did to ensure just the right level of temperature and humidity in his customized smoke lounge and walk-in humidor.
First he researched exactly what was needed to build the actual enclosure (lots of Spanish Cedar) and built it. Then, knowing that the air in the room would need to be kept moist (recommended humidity level is around 70%), he purchased a humidifier from Bemis that would match the decor. It is equally important that the room stay at, or very near, 70 degrees Fahrenheit. So, he installed a in-wall forced-air heater, to ensure that the temperature remained constant. However, neither the humidifier nor the heater should be running all of the time. So using a BitSight8, a few single port temperature and humidity sensors, placed at key areas around the room, and a sensor controlled relay, he was able to accomplish his goal. Now, the humidifier and the heater turn on automatically when the temp or humidity reach the desired thresholds. All of this was easily configured in the BitSight’s web-based user interface.
So if you are a cigar aficionado or not, it is easy to see just how many different scenarios in the home or office call for a controlled environment. All it takes to avoid potential disaster is good planning and an even better environmental monitoring system in place. That’s where we come in!
~ Jon Mills
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Yahoo powers data center using Niagara Falls; Google raises data center temperatures
Filed under: Data Center, environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
If I received an invitation to visit the offices of Google and Yahoo, I wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time snooping 
around the desk of the company founders. I’d rather spend my time checking out their data centers. Just imagine being among the machines that crunch all that search and email data zipping around the world. Just imagine what the physical security must be like at their data centers…
Yahoo last month announced plans to build its greenest data center in Lockport, N.Y. Yahoo co-founder and Chief Yahoo David Filo explains in his blog that the data center will be designed to use 100% outside air to cool the servers. And the resource used to power the data center and the servers will be the renewable hydroelectric power from the Niagara Falls. Read more
Temperature monitoring system for cold food storage
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, Security Monitoring, temperature monitoring
Much of the time on this blog we focus on environmental monitoring in the server room, simply because that is the most common application for our hardware. However, that is not to say it is the only application for our hardware.
Today, I would like to share another customer experience from the point of view of a restaurant that needed a solution, fast. This restaurant, we’ll call it Larry’s Lobster Shack (we’re in Maine, we love lobster), had a major disaster; their walk-in cooler died. Yes, that’s the big walk-in refrigerator that stored all of their perishable goods. The pertinent issue here was that the refrigerator died just after closing time, so what happened? That’s right, the temperature continually rose all night long. So when Larry came in to open The Lobster Shack the next day, he immediately noticed the problem and called a repair man. Unfortunately, the necessary part to fix the compressor was going to take a day to get in. That means Larry was going to have to discard all of the food in his walk-in cooler. By the time everything was back up and running, the temperature had risen too much.
That’s when Larry called Ravica looking for help. He couldn’t take the chance that this would happen again. If he had known as soon as the cooler’s temperature had gone out of its normal operating range, he could have acted sooner and possible saved his stock of food. Larry didn’t only lose all of the food in his cooler, but he couldn’t open The Lobster Shack that day with no food to serve. Well, the lobsters were still alive in their tank, but it hardly seemed right to serve them with nothing else, and as the only option for customers.
The thermostat of the walk-in refrigerator at Larry’s Lobster Shack is set to 38 degrees Fahrenheit with a 3 degree differential. That means when the temp rises to 41 degrees, the thermostat closes and the compressor and condenser fan comes on. When the temp falls to 35 degrees, the reverse happens.
To set Larry up with temperature monitoring for his cooler, all he needed was a BitSight2 and a single port temperature and humidity SensorRemote (he figured when it comes to food storage, he should be aware of the moister in the cooler as well). He mounted the BitSight2 outside the cooler, then ran some cabling inside the cooler and mounted the sensor there. The process was easy enough that Larry did it himself.
From there Larry was able to configure his BitSight2 with the appropriate temperature and humidity thresholds. Now, if the temp rises to 42 degrees (remember, that is outside the cooler’s normal operating range, so the compressor and condenser fans should have turned on) and stays there for more than 20 minutes, then Larry gets a text message and an email.
Larry has since opened two new locations in different parts of the state. In each location he installed another environmental monitoring system. He even added a security sensor to the door of his walk-in coolers, so that he gets an alert if one of the employees leaves the door open for more than 5 minutes.
So you can see that the Ravica line of temperature and humidity monitoring systems are about more than just monitoring data centers. There are many industries that can take advantage of our systems. I think next time I might share a story about a customer of mine that uses the SecurityProbe-x60 in his metal fabrication plant to monitor his HVAC system.
-Jon Mills
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Water leak monitoring helps avoid mold
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, Intelligent Sensors, water leak monitoring
Water leaks and or high humidity can lead to mildew and mold. The results after prolonged exposure can mean premature paint problems, structural issues and health problems, not to mention the stink!
We can’t depend on our noses to do your mildew monitoring because we can’t be in a dozen places at once all the time.
There is an easier way. Our water sensor can monitor for water leaks. The cable for the actual sensor can be up to 100 feet away from the BitSight. Because its unique design, it can be used to notify when water levels drop too low as well.
The humidity sensors we manufacture can be run 1,000 feet and fished through walls to measure humidity in air ducts, crawl spaces, etc. As a bonus, the same unit performs temperature monitoring and measure as well.
Ravica has a complete line of intelligent environmental monitoring solutions to help protect your business from a environmental disaster. All units support SNMP and send alerts in numerous formats.
- Mike
5 tips to protect your data center hardware
Filed under: Data Center, environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, power monitoring, temperature monitoring, water leak monitoring
I work with network administrators everyday and I hear one common story. They are not buying servers. The IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker supports me on this. Server vendors are reporting that their business is off 24.5 percent from last year, falling to $9.9 billion in the first quarter of 2009.
They don’t have the budget or can’t get the budget to update their aging equipment. So, what can these admins do to extend the life of their equipment?
Just like an older automobile, maintenance and proper care of the equipment can easily extend your equipment’s life. Constant monitoring of your system inside and out can save you from loosing mission critical servers. Environmental monitors like the temperature and humidity, airflow, smoke and water sensors can be used to make sure that the environment that your systems operate in are the best they can be.
Now, I know what you are saying, “Jim’s just a salesman and wants you to buy something.” Although I might get excited about a product and preach its goodness, I am not a sales person . I might dream of being the star of a Shamtastic infomercial, but trust me, I’m not. What I do want you to know, is that there are some simple things that you can to to help save your hardware.
- Your server room is not a storage area! If it is, it really shouldn’t be. Extra stuff in the room can cause heat issues and possibly be a fire hazard. Keep the area clean and free of obstacles.
- Manage your cables properly. I had a boss who had a hang up on making sure the all cables were organized correctly. You guessed it, I didn’t think it was all that important. In hindsight, I was wrong. Keeping them organized is great for physical management, but more importantly, it makes it easier to manage airflow. Be it a cable tunnel or just pulling them together with a zip tie, making sure your servers get the correct ventilation is important.
- Have a physical maintenance window for your machines. It might bring you back to youthful A+ days, but making sure the servers are dust free and cables are in the correct place can help immensely.
- Monitor the servers health with an SNMP Trending app. Most servers can give you CPU, Server Temp, Fan Info and other valuable information, via a simple SNMP walk. A SNMP trending application, like Denika, will allow you to gather historical information on this data and alert on it.
- Monitor your environment. As I mentioned before, monitoring the room temp, humidity and airflow will make your admin life a lot easier. If you have some room in your budget, this might be the best way to spend it.
So there it is. I guess the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” is correct. Even in today’s super digital world!
- Jimmy D