What ambient temperature factors should you follow?

Temperature. The servers are very sensitive to temperature. You must maintain a certain temperature range so that they continue to function well. This temperature threshold may vary depending on the size of your data center, the age of your equipment and your geographic location. Room temperature sensors quickly detect signs of overheating to help you avoid downtime.

Humidity. Just as important as the temperature is the humidity level in the data center. If the humidity is too low, it can cause electrostatic discharge. If the humidity rises too much, it leads to a build-up of moisture. Room temperature sensors alert you when humidity reaches a level outside of the designated range, so you can adjust humidity levels before problems arise.

Air flow. If your data center has poor airflow, your equipment can suffer. Servers that suck in hot, stagnant air cannot cool effectively. Ambient room sensors allow you to map and track your data center airflow and design a more stable room environment. For example, if the air is hot under the racks, consider implementing an air distribution system to push that air upwards.

Sensor location

Start by targeting hot areas when placing sensors at rack level. As the heat increases, you need to place sensors at the top of your racks. For a complete picture of the airflow in your data center, place sensors on the top, bottom, and middle of your server racks. Keep them away from the air coming out of your servers, as this can skew your readings.

Place sensors in the room near the air conditioning units. This can help you target malfunctions in air conditioning units in particular; otherwise, your sensors cannot detect a malfunction, as other units are working overtime to compensate. Depending on the layout of your data center, determine the most relevant areas before placement. For example, you might want one sensor in each corner and one in the middle of the room for full coverage.

The best ambient monitoring hardware for data centers

Consider ambient tracking sensors from multiple vendors before deploying them.

AVTech. AVTech sensors allow you to monitor temperature, humidity and airflow, as well as other environmental issues you may have for your data center. AVTech sensors send a room alert message whenever the environment exceeds a certain threshold.

Vertiv Geist. Vertiv Geist monitoring hardware comes with built-in temperature, humidity and dew point sensors. Similar to AVTECH, you can set thresholds for those trackers that send you an alert via email, SNMP, or email to SMS. You can also set up multiple alarms per sensor, which increases versatility depending on the factor you are measuring.

Paessler. The PRTG Network Monitor allows you to create your own personalized sensors and notifications. It automatically sends alarm notifications to any external system you designate. Depending on the software package you use, you can get up to 100 sensors for free for your data center.

Monets. Monnit remote monitoring sensors send alerts in real time. They come with thermocouple temperature probes for better mobility and can track coolant leaks or water damage in addition to ambient temperatures. However, Monnit only offers wireless sensors, so you risk sensor downtime if there is a network issue.

Netmon. Netmon’s AKCP sensors provide a holistic view of temperature and humidity levels. Netmon designed them specifically for server rack temperature monitoring, and you can easily configure and scale them for growing data centers.

Most of the providers above offer software subscriptions to pair with their devices for easier monitoring. For more flexible software, you can consider Nagios Core, an open source software that you can configure to monitor your tracking material. To avoid the work of a custom implementation, Nagios also provides Nagios XI, a paid professional version of the software.

Monitoring ambient temperatures in the data center helps you avoid hardware damage and achieve maximum uptime. However, to keep your data center environment fully protected, you need to integrate ambient temperature monitoring into a larger temperature monitoring system that includes server sensors, trackers water and flood monitoring tools.