When you setup your data center, something that seams to be getting overlooked these days is the data center environmentals. We all know that we need batteries and a generator for the power to keep the servers online, and that we need AC to keep them cool. But I’ve seen a disturbing number of very large data centers who do not have the AC on the generators. This creates a problem when the power goes out. While it’s great that the servers will stay online the data center will quickly get up into the 100+ degree range (F). This can quickly lead to data integrity issues is the hard drives start to fail.
Just a couple of days ago a client of mine who hosts there servers at a company (who shall remain nameless) and their power when out for about 3 hours. The temperature went up to 120 degrees in the data center, because the AC system which they brag about having wasn’t on the generator. They actually called all their clients asking the clients to power down any systems which aren’t mission critical in order to save heat. Frankly, I was surprised that the machines didn’t start to power them selves down. I guess the HP servers are built a little more robust than I thought (not that I really want to try again).
Denny
