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.

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.

A common application for our environmental monitoring equipment is to set sensors at key spots throughout the room or rack. Once thresholds are configured and the SensorProbe knows what levels are considered dangerous, or outside the norm, a sensor controlled relay can be tripped, which in turn activates other devices to help correct the situation. For instance, if the temperature gets too high, a backup air conditioner could be turned on. Or, if the humidity get’s too high, a dehumidifier can be turned on. It’s a highly customizable solution that can be tailored to meet the needs of any particular data center.

Just last week, I had a client call in looking to configure just such a solution. A few days prior, the temperature in his server closet had reached critical levels. Yup, the air condition unit got unplugged by the maintenance crew (seems strange, but it happened). Luckily, he had a BitSight2 in place that emailed him before things got out of hand. But what he wanted was an automated solution. So we created a scenario, like I mentioned above, where everything happened on its own.

A few days later, my client had his new relay in place and a small back up air conditioner (which he made sure to plug into an outlet that he knew the maintenance crew wouldn’t ever use). To test his solution, he unplugged the main air conditioner for that server closet. He then sat back and watched as the temperature rose 5 degrees, then 10 degrees, then sure enough… Like clockwork, the backup AC unit turned on and he watched as the temp slowly returned to normal. Granted, this backup AC unit is not rated to cool his closet long term. But it will definitely give him the time to get the alert from the BitSight2 and begin working on a solution to the rising temperature – even if it is just walking over and plugging the air conditioner back in.

The moral of this story is that by taking the time to install a solution before hand, when the inevitable happens, the company’s network equipment and, by association, its business critical applications remain alive and well. Network downtime can kill a business, and environmental monitoring is just one of the necessary steps to keeping that downtime to a minimum.

Jon Mills
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The company is a small hosting service provider with approximately 100 clients. What made this company different was that their clients would come on site quite often. Each client would has a key card; this identifies who is coming in and out of the server room. The problem is that the cards were being handed off to other employees. Since the company promised the utmost in security, this started to become a concern.

The goal of my client was to provide a video record of each entry.  To accomplish this, I suggested that we add security sensors to each door. This would tell us when each and every person went through the door. Next, we added multiple security cameras, to record who was in the server room. The dry contact sensors would also give us a good idea of when the person left. The next hurdle was the lights, since they are off most of the time.

We used the Sensor Controlled Relay to turn the lights on and off  in the room. This gave the security cameras more then enough light for recording. This was implemented via the alert from the trigger of the security sensor.

The Sensor Controlled Relay is easily controlled by any of Ravica’s extensive selection of sensors. The relay can provide automatic responses to sensor alerts. This made it easy to configure a scenario where the security sensor on the door was tripped and the lights were turned on.

In the end, the process worked perfectly. When a customer entered the server room, not only was their entry logged via the keypad, but they were also getting video record of that visit. We are currently working on providing a common interface between all of the data sources.

- JimmyD