Temperature monitoring during the winter months
Filed under: Intelligent Sensors, environmental monitoring, temperature monitoring
With winter just around the corner, those of us in the more northern locations (the Ravica offices are located in Southern Maine) begin preparing for cold temperatures in a variety of ways. Whether you’re just sealing the windows to keep the cold air outside, where it belongs, or selling all of your most prized possessions on Ebay to cover the home heating costs for the impending months, it is important to get a jump on these preparations.
The future of airconditioning and how the rest of the world can monitor temperature
I just found an entry on Slashdot about a deal between IBM & Carrier to create and market a web enabled air conditioner. Apparently you are able to gain complete control of the unit via the simple web interface. Being a geek, this intrigued me. What about everyone else who cannot obtain one of these units?
Being able to log in and monitor the environment is something you can do with the Ravica line of SensorProbes. I would suggest getting one of the temperature and humidity probes to start with. From my research, high humidity plays a big role in the cost and operation of your air conditioning units. Being able to trend and be alerted during these times can be beneficial.
Next, I would use the airflow probe to tell me when the unit is on. I know, it is an odd way to detect the air conditioners state, but trust me, it’s logical. You can use an airflow sensor on any type of unit. Like the one in the above picture or built-in industrial type. With an airflow sensor, you are not limited to testing current flow or temperature.
Last, but not least, I would use the Sensor Controlled Relay to be able to turn off the unit, if you needed to, in an emergency situation.
So the good news is that you can implement Ravica’s environmental probes in various ways to help monitor your environment. What’s even better is that this technology is available to every one.
- JimmyD
The winding road – Ravica probes used in road construction.
Everyday I find new use for our Ravica Sensor probes!
Last week I was working with a road construction company who was just awarded a contract to pave two runways at a local airport. Over all, this was a good size project and it had a few unique compliance requirements.
The company had to make sure that the outside temperature and humidity of the paving units was always below 89 degrees. If the temp went up above 89, an audible alarm and a flashing light would go off.
To be honest with you, I didn’t think we were going to be able to retrofit the paving units to supply this data. I mean, it’s not the most hospitable environment. Reluctantly, I conveyed my feelings to the customer. To my surprise, he informed me that each one of the paving units had a small building that managed the team. Each one of these buildings were fully equipped to handle the SensorProbes!
So, we spent an hour going over the requirements and hashing out the details. In the end, I recommend that they purchase a BitSight2, a Single Port Temperature and Humidity Sensor and a Siren/ Strobe Light sensor for each 
management trailer. Since this is a hostile environment, we decided to go with the weather proof option for the Single Port Temperature and Humidity Sensor.
The compliance specifications required them to store this data for review. I recommended that they use Denika to store historical data for reporting. With Denika they would be able to trend the temperature and humidity over time. They would also have the ability to set a threshold. In this example, it would be 90 degrees. Once that threshold has been violated, a syslog would be send to Logalot. This would provide all the needed data for the required compliance reports.
With Logalot they would be able to perform multi-level alarms. With this solution, they would be able to trigger the visual alarm and email or page multiple people instantly. In addition to the alerting, they would be able to search and report on the syslog data sent from the probes. I was able to show him how script could be triggered to do just about anything. In this case, we would be playing an audio file over an amplified speaker.
The client liked the solution and said that he would present it to the decision maker. I just heard from them and they are going to go with our solution!
JimmyD
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
Storing documents requires careful handling
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
Who would have thought that dirt, dust, metal clips, staples, pins, rubber bands or even tape can trigger chemical decay of documents. Even things such as Post-it notes or enclosures made from under-purified wood pulp can cause problems, let alone airborne pollutants or sunlight. If you’re interested, this document on “long term document storage” was helpful.
Even if you envelope documents individually, using acid-free paper folders, there are still issues to be concerned about. Overly hot and dry conditions can cause documents to become brittle. If the air is too humid, mold could start to grow. Proper air circulation and packaging helps prevent pockets of condensation.
Neglected environmental conditions, as witnessed by the Russian State Library, can lead to irreversible damage of important historical information. Environmental monitoring probes from Ravica watch all of these conditions and can sit on the network, enabling you to view measurements via a web browser and receive threshold notifications via email, SNMP trap, etc.
-Mike