Temperatures 1

[Dinkytoy]

Hi,

I'm trying to beat down management with a large stick on our A/C in our server room.

I'm absolutely convinced it's waaaaay too hot in there, although I don't have an ambient temperature monitor for the room I would guess it's comfortably 30+C on average across the room.

However, the temps I can keep an eye on are the server/ups temp monitors internally. However, I'm not really sure if these are excessive and approaching failure levels or not.

Our UPS's peaked yesterday at 37-39C (98+F) and our server's system board ambient temps are hitting 35+C (95+F). The odd CPU temp I've got shows above 45C (113F) but that sounds ok to me.

Just about all the Dell servers hardware specs rate them to 40C (104F) and the same goes with the UPSs. How worried should I be?

I should add that we've not had any failures as yet (touch wood).

 

[Noway2]

For most commercial UPS's the maximum rated temperature is 40C without derating, which you are pushing. Whether or not to be worried about this depends on a couple of factors, including how heavily loaded they are. Some of the expensive components in the UPS, such as batteries and capacitors, have a limited service life to begin with. Continually operating them at close to the rated temperature will shorten their lifespan. You can operate most UPS at a higher temperature if you aren't running full load, but this isn't meant to be continuous normal. Rather it was meant to allow you to operate in a degraded state should a fan or AC unit fail.

The CPU temperatures sound ok to me too. I am not sure about the 40c rating on the servers as a whole, but you are approaching their rating too.

 

[technome]

Agree with Noway2

Ups battery life vs temp...

http://www.powerkinetics.com.my/bulletin05.htm#01

Would be best to get the ambient temperature lower than 90 degrees.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[Dinkytoy]

Nice link, been googling for something along those lines thanks . Can use that to sharpen my stick.

In fact even that alone shows the A/C upgrade make econmic sense.

 

[iolair]

I have personally experienced this same situation, and I can only say that management never got that components fail faster the hotter they are until we started having to buy new equipment yearly. Then they bought me a $400 window unit, and since then, we've had zero problems. Now we're on a three to five year cycle for replacements.

Iolair MacWalter
Network Engineer