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Server room environment

E

eg1l

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Dec 15, 2010
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I though I'd post this question here as a lot of you guys has experience with server rooms. I have put a sensor that registers air humidity and temperature in a room that I have planned to use as a server room. I am little concerned about the humidity as it varies quite a bit, and I hope not to damage any hardware. I generated a RRD graph over a week with measurements. Temperature is in C and humidity in %. Take a look and tell me what you think.

roomenv-week.png


Eventually, what can I do to control the air humidity?
 
Air inlet is suppost to be between 18 and 26c to a server.
Normal relative humidity levels between 40-55%

Relative humidity adjusts with the tempature, so it will always be moving around a lot. Generally the thing that kills relative humidity is heating. During A/C seasons, the a/c system normally keeps it close to 50%, or atleast it does around here where I live.
 
You basically need a dehumidifier in your case that kicks on when its above of an optimal level.
 
Where are you getting the temp and humidity readings from? A general sensor in the room or a tap in a server cabinet? We fluctuate between 40 and 60% RH depending on load, time of year and other conditions (but average no more than 7% in a 30 day period). Anything higher you should have your HVAC guys check you air inlet system. You may also want to put multiple sensors in the room, for example on the bottom of the rack and top of the rack (to cover bottom-entry cooling and heat rising through the rack) and the difference between the temps should be no more than 30F. It would also be a good idea to monitor the actual air coming into the room before it exits the vent for temps and RH, and ito have some kind of flood/water leak detection as well.
 
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TBH, your minimum temp of 11.2C is a bit too cold for a controlled environment server room and your max temp of 26C is pushing the upper limits too.

As to what you can do about the humidity - control the temp and you should find that the humidity varies a lot less!
You may need to take readings in various locations though - server rooms can have hot and cold spots depending on how the air circulates.

Be aware though that if the room is currently empty and you plan to put hardware into it, that in itself will change the environment - depending on the kit and the size of the room in question.
All hardware consumes power, which means heat generation - you usually then put suitable environmental controls in to control it (usually AC).
 
Your humidity varies becasue you are not keeping the temperature constant.

Some one did a poor job of designing the temperature control.
 
Those values are going to change significantly as soon as you setup some hardware in there.
 
Is this a basement or garage with no air conditioning ?

If so, you'll need to add air conditioning, big enough to cool the hardware you intend to put in the room. If it's in the kW or more of power consumption, low temps won't be a problem anymore. Air conditioning includes humidity control too.
 
I'm using sensors just lying on the floor on a loft that is not used. I'm planning to put a rack up there along with 3-4 servers. It is quite a large room, and I guess it will be cold up there in the winter. Maybe I should just place my servers somewhere else. I guess investing in a big aircondition system is not an option now. However, I could put a heater there to stabilize the temperature and humidity. Where in the house are you guys placing your servers?
 
My home server sits in an unheated/uncooled room, 100sqft, on the second floor. It gets hot in the summer - 35+C (95+F) . Cold in the winter - 15-C (60-F).

It seems happy enough. Has for 6+ years.
 
I've got my server down in the basement. We recently had some foundation repairs and have since Drylok'd the walls and painted the floors. It’s not a "finished" room, but it's a decent space since the repairs. Because of the previous water problems I run a dehumidifier down there. The dehumidifier’s humidity % is set to 50% and it runs pretty much 24-7, so I know it’s taking some water out of the air down there. But I'm happy as long as the dehumidifier continues to keep the humidity around 50%.
 
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