Humidity Monitoring – Unforseen danger in your server room
Filed under: Data Center, Intelligent Sensors, SensorProbes, environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring
I was working with a client who had to replace multiple mother boards in their server room. I was surprised that he had to replace so many, so I gently asked, “What happened?”
He said he knew I would ask him that question. Over the weekend, the air conditioning unit for their server failed. It didn’t stop, it just stopped pushing out cold air. The room didn’t get too hot (thank goodness), but it produced a lot of moisture.
Apparently, it produced too much moisture, which caused condensation on the server rack that was closest to the air conditioning unit. The end result was multiple mother boards failing.
We spent the next few minutes going over the cost of the replacement boards and drives. I then let him know that we had a humidity probe that would alert him when humidity reaches a certain level. I suggested that he add it to his order and not take the risk of loosing another segment of his server room. He thought that it was a good idea and bought two!
“Relative humidity should be maintained at a level between 30%-50%. Failure to adhere to these particular specifications could result in serious corrosion of the copper wires that are contained within the UTP and STP. Such corrosion would deter efficient functioning of the network.” – Excerpt from Cisco Networking Academy book material. So I guess the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” holds true. Take the time to monitor for humidity. It could help save your equipment.
- Jimmy D
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