What's the Proper Temperature for a Server Room?

Izzard asks: "As a network engineer, I sometimes have to spend many hours in other people's server rooms. One in particular has a good few servers, DVD jukebox, plenty of monitors and switches etc. It's a thick, stone-walled room with a big door. It would get very, very warm were it not for the two huge air conditioning units in there. Someone has decided that these units will be set to maintain a constant air temperature of 17-18 deg. C (62-64F). After an hour or so of sitting in the air stream from these units my legs go numb and fall off and I can't type. Now my guess is that it would be fine to set the units to maintain, say, 21-22 deg. C (70-71F) to make it more comfortable for those of us who have to work in there. This argument comes up a lot, and my position is that the room doesn't need to be refrigerated, *per se*...it only needs to be prevented from overheating. Consequently I maintain that a *consistent* temperature of 'pleasant' for the room is almost as good a consistent temperature of 'a bit nippy'. Is there a definitive answer to this?"

Comments

Put yer money where your mouth is

[GuyMannDude]

"This argument comes up a lot, and my position is that the room doesn't need to be refrigerated, *per se*...it only needs to be prevented from overheating. Consequently I maintain that a *consistent* temperature of 'pleasant' for the room is almost as good a consistent temperature of 'a bit nippy'."

You have to realize that management isn't too excited to take chances on ruined server equipment because of your belief. However, if you were to state that you are so confident that a constant temperature of 'pleasant' wouldn't damage the servers that you will offer to pay for any overheating damage done out of your own salary (minus the cost savings realized by using less air conditioning), they might be willing to turn down the AC.

If you're not willing to take chances with your money, how can you expect management to take changes with the company's? Even if some knowledable slashdotter here can direct you towards some written proof of your claims, don't expect management to go "By jove, you've been right all along! Since this paper says so, we'll turn down the AC immediately!"

GMD

Cool air vs Static Electricty and airborn dust

[stefanlasiewski]

I've never understood the need for super-cold machine rooms. 70F is well within the healthy operating parameters of most computers.

Let's also not forget that air conditioners aren't always good for the mechine: They increase the level of static electricity in the area, and can blows dust around if don't have an airfilter in that room. Dust and static buildup can harm the machines more then at 70F temperature.

As another poster pointed out, the only good reason to keep an AC at a really low temperature is to deal with the hotspots. It may be 60F at your desk, but the big server is sitting in a corner far from the AC, and it's case is 80F. But that's just a result of poor air flow, and can probably be resolved with a few fans and a few air ducts.

terminals and servers in separate rooms

[iskander]

I think persuading people that the server room climate control should be set to "cozy" would be an uphill battle. Spend some money on a good KVM switch (rackables can handle a dozen inputs and more) and put the main keyboard, mouse, and monitor in an adjacent room (which would then have to be secured) or make a small terminal room inside the server room (which would be as secure as the server room); that way, the server room can be as cold as your boss wants and you can stay as warm as you like. This will require the allocation of space and budget -- hard battles to fight, too -- but is more likely to succeed.

The answer: Get an engineer.

[Louis_Wu]

HVAC is about economics, estimates, & a wee bit o' engineering.

• The economics include the initial cost of the system, the continuing cost of energy & maintenance, and the cost of failure - all of the servers overheating and the network going down.
• The estimates include the heat load (heat energy output of the equipment), the system effieciency over time, system neglect, & management cheapness.
• The engineering includes doing all the math to determine many of the previous factors, & compensating for all of those unknowns with a factor of safety. :)

Is there a definitive answer to this?

The answer to your question(s): Get an HVAC engineer to look the system over, and tell you if the existing AC is overkill. (You might want to be sure that she doesn't think that she'll get the contract for any additional work needed. :)

'Course, this might all be quite accademic. The reason for the chill might be that your boss's brother has the contract, or that your boss had a bad experience with a server catching on fire. Then it's not engineering, it's psychology. :)

what are you doing spending hours in a datacenter?

[farnsworth]

I can understand the infrequent 10-15 minutes to pop a cd in to install software, or to check on a switch, but you are frequently spending more than an hour in there? what on earth are you doing?

are you pulling cable or filling racks with hardware? then you need to dress warmly.

if not, have you considered asking your clients if you can use a desk while you work?

keep in mind that the noise generated in a datacenter is *much* worse for you than the mildly cool temp, so you have other larger problems if you are spending hours at a time in a datacenter. (not to mention the terrible feng shui!)

Your comfort is irrelevant

[crstophr]

Data center temperatures are maintained for the servers. Your needs are not a factor. Wear a coat. I've snuggled up to disk arrays for the warmth many time while doing long stints in our DC. A friend once worked in the computer center onboard a Destroyer. They would keep that room near freezong, because the machines would last that much longer if the HVAC failed during battle. Imagine 32deg at your desk and summer in the persian gulf outside!

Room versus server temperatures

[ctr2sprt]

Remember, the goal isn't to keep the room cold, it's to keep the servers from overheating. It may be 61 on the thermostat, but go stick your hand behind one of the servers and it'll probably be 10-15 degrees warmer. And it's hotter still inside the case.

That's the real motivation, I suspect. If you want a semi-definitive answer, you could use the thermal monitoring software that probably came with the servers to see how hot they are. Then raise the temperature gradually, watching how the server temperatures change. If you have lots of money to throw at this, you could buy one of those, uh... heat sensors, whatever they're called. I know they use them on tires to look for defects, wear patterns, and so on. They probably have ones that will work on computer-type objects too.

Remote Use

[unixbob]

Why do you even need to be in the server room?

It's a server room, a room for servers - not for people.

Aside from changing backup tapes, or power cycling servers, there is no reason for you to need to be in the server room.

We have 2 server rooms, one in a room 10 feet from us and another that is 30 miles away. We have to do 50% of our admin remotely and it isn't a problem. Instead of altering the server room from it's original purpose, why don't you change your working practices and find a more appropriate location for your work.