Cooling a closet server with no AC vent

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Bambi

I Cleaned My Room - And I am a Dude
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I was curious as if anyone has ever ran into this problem where the server sits in a closet, and there is not AC vent to keep it cool. I figured maybe a few H members have ran into this problem and knew a bit on internal ac units which require no ventilation.
 
A single computer in a closet shouldn't need any specific cooling. Worst case, put a vent in the closet door or install a louvered door.
 
Bambi005 said:
I was curious as if anyone has ever ran into this problem where the server sits in a closet, and there is not AC vent to keep it cool. I figured maybe a few H members have ran into this problem and knew a bit on internal ac units which require no ventilation.
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You don't get internal AC units without ventallation. AC cooling relies on heat dispersing so you will need to have some sort of venting system.

An option you can have is install a large fan in the closet door or multiple smaller fans (just use a hole saw).
 
GlobalFear said:
A single computer in a closet shouldn't need any specific cooling. Worst case, put a vent in the closet door or install a louvered door.
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Yeah but a huge server does :)

Well the problem is, this is the only viable place for this server in this office location, and on weekends they turn off the ac, and temps in the closet reach +100 F even with 3 fans blowing in the open door closet.
 
with no ac, our closets hit 100F without servers in them.
 
Clearly there's a need for air in that room thats on 24/7. Tell them its needed and show proof why. Let them get someone out and install air to that room somehow that is controlled seperately. That sounds like your only viable option that will actually work!
 
I know what you mean. The last place I worked at, the owner told me that server cooling was complete marketing BS. His words were, "Whats inside of a server? Just some plastic and silicon. How does it know the difference beween 50 degrees and 150 degrees. Its just marketing crap made up so that you buy their cooling products." Needless to say, a few days in the summer in a ridiculously hot room made one of the drives fail and he agreed something must be done.

I was lucky because the server closet was on the outside wall, and was tiny. So I picked up a regular window AC unit, made a hole with a Reciprocating Saw, stuck it in, and bingo. AC system for tiny server closet. You can look around your local Craigslist postings for a dirt cheap AC unit and work with that. That's what I did and it works great.
 
Bambi005 said:
Yeah but a huge server does :)

Well the problem is, this is the only viable place for this server in this office location, and on weekends they turn off the ac, and temps in the closet reach +100 F even with 3 fans blowing in the open door closet.
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What Morons! Marketing BS?, man I would let them burn then tell the guy "Told you so" then quit.

Little extreme, but arrogance should not be forgiven.
 
this office is under contract and under lease. We were not made aware of the ACs being off on weekends, and the owners of the office building refuse to turn it on. We have had 2 routers overheat, but small cost like those can be covered by them, but we can not risk the server going out. Currently shutting it down on weekends seems like the best plan, as we do not want to invest anymore money in this office as we are not renewing the lease and giving the next tenants a new ac unit on our behalf.
 
Bambi005 said:
this office is under contract and under lease. We were not made aware of the ACs being off on weekends, and the owners of the office building refuse to turn it on. We have had 2 routers overheat, but small cost like those can be covered by them, but we can not risk the server going out. Currently shutting it down on weekends seems like the best plan, as we do not want to invest anymore money in this office as we are not renewing the lease and giving the next tenants a new ac unit on our behalf.
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Sounds good.
 
Yep, turn it off on the weekend then. Also, something to help is to cut a hole in the ceiling (or remove a tile or two) and put a fan up there that pulls the air out. It helps a ton since heat rises anyways. You can take the fan with you when you leave too.
 
which way would the fan face, Blowing up or dowm?
 
You mention "office"...sounds like a business. If the owner were to have the server grind to a halt.....how much would he pay to get it up and running again? How much $$$ would be lost without this information for a few days?

I'd be bulldozing walls down in any servers I'm in charge of were in an environment above 80 degrees....I prefer them to peak at 70. Not to mention 100! ACK! Got hot swap RAID I hope?

What is above this closet? Or behind it? I'd have an exhaust fan up top....sucking the hot air up and out above it. Or....up top..blowing out the back towards whatever is on the other side of it.

Install louvres on the bottom of the closet door....cool air is down low....hot air rises. So cool air drawn in through the louvres on the bottom of the closet door...and as it warms...sucked up and out.
 
Well its certainly not BS that computers need cooling but they don't really need an air conditioner just for them. Servers make about the same amount of heat as a regular desktop PC (unless they are high end multiprocessor, redundant PSU, lots of hard drives, etc) and should be fine running up to 100F as long as they are in well vented cases. A few fans in the door should do the trick and if that doesn't keep the room at or below 80F then I guess it isn't a bad idea to consider some air conditioning.
 
TheToE! said:
Phase.
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As in phase change cooling?

You need to be a few cans short of a six pack to even consider the idea on a production server.

There are ductless AC units that you could install. However, they are typically too large for your closet, fairly expensive, and might violate the terms of your lease. In your situation, you should just shut the server and other gear down over the weekend. It sucks but, gotta work with what you have.
 
Go to home depot and pick up a portable AC unit. Find a way to get the hot air out. We use one to keep our servers cool (small buisness). Not the best solution, but it works for now.
 
ben333 said:
Well its certainly not BS that computers need cooling but they don't really need an air conditioner just for them. Servers make about the same amount of heat as a regular desktop PC (unless they are high end multiprocessor, redundant PSU, lots of hard drives, etc) and should be fine running up to 100F as long as they are in well vented cases. A few fans in the door should do the trick and if that doesn't keep the room at or below 80F then I guess it isn't a bad idea to consider some air conditioning.
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You don't have a clue what you are talking about. It's never acceptable to have a server in 100*+ temps. Like YeOld mentioned, <70* is ideal, worse case 80* should be about max, anything above that and you will begin to get hardware failures and shutdowns.
 
ben333 said:
Well its certainly not BS that computers need cooling but they don't really need an air conditioner just for them. Servers make about the same amount of heat as a regular desktop PC (unless they are high end multiprocessor, redundant PSU, lots of hard drives, etc) and should be fine running up to 100F as long as they are in well vented cases. A few fans in the door should do the trick and if that doesn't keep the room at or below 80F then I guess it isn't a bad idea to consider some air conditioning.
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Umm servers and small form pcs do not produce the same heat.

Anyways thanks guy, Ill be looking at those acs posted by Marley and if not, shut it off on weekends :) (thats what im wishing for so i wont get weekend server calls)
 
I will warn you that regardless if you shut it off, etc we have had some heating issues with our servers where I work and have noticed a definite increase in the amount of drive failures we experience. We've had entire RAID arrays (both 1 and 5) go down due to this so be very sure you have very good backups, otherwise one day you may just have a problem you can't recover from.
 
Bambi005 said:
Umm servers and small form pcs do not produce the same heat.

Anyways thanks guy, Ill be looking at those acs posted by Marley and if not, shut it off on weekends :) (thats what im wishing for so i wont get weekend server calls)
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lol then you just better hope when Monday comes around that those servers boot up haha
 
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