Tips On How To Prevent Your Data Racks From Overheating

One of the problems often encountered in data centres is overheating. Overheating occurs when the heat from servers is not properly dissipated. High temperatures in the room consequently cause malfunction of the servers. When this happens, your servers will not work well. In dire cases, your servers will get damaged, causing you hefty expenses to replace them.

To avoid this common and costly inconvenience, have a look at some ways you can combat overheating in your data centre.

Have the racks cabled properly

One preventive way to keep your servers from overheating is to have proper cabling done. Proper cabling refers to having all the cables pulled aside and tied together neatly to avoid covering the server ports. When data cables are left in a tangled mess, they prevent proper air circulation, trapping all the heat inside the servers.

Install proper cooling mechanisms

Some people assume that just because no one is working in the data centre, HVAC systems are not needed. This is far from the truth. To remove the heat being generated by the servers and prevent permanent damage, cooling is needed. Install an air conditioner or fans for smaller rooms. Also, ensure proper insulation is installed. If you add to the number of servers in your data racks over time, expand your cooling system to accommodate the extra heat being generated.

Reduce the load on servers

The more loaded a server is, the more heat it's going to generate. An effective way to reduce the heat value of each server is to reduce the number of cables connected to it. If you find that a certain server is constantly overheating, try unplugging some cables from it and hooking them up to another server. If you have tall racks holding numerous servers, keep the upper ones less loaded than the lower ones. That's because heat rises upwards so the top servers are more vulnerable to heat.

Leave spaces between servers and in between racks

If your servers are overheating but your racks are well cabled and the air conditioning system is well maintained, the problem could be that your data centre has poor air circulation. In such a scenario, hot air in between servers is not escaping as it should. You can address this by leaving gaps in between serves. Again, give preferential treatment to the upper servers. You don't have to leave a space after every other server, though. You can also leave spaces in between the racks themselves so there's an air gap between them.

In addition to the above, you can also install self-cooling racks and in-row cooling systems. These are, however, costlier and better suited for large data centres with tens of data racks. Contact an electrician from a business like Allround Electrical Pty Ltd if you have specific questions about data cabling.