Server Room Design

Overview

A new server room was constructed within the existing network office to enclose the main server and networking cabinet, which was previously nothing more than one corner of an office. Cooling measures were included to ensure that the environment within the cabinet was both controlled and monitored.

Need

The school’s main server and core networking cabinet was installed in the mid-2000s in one corner of the existing Network Centre office. This office was used as a place of work by both the IT Network Manager and ICT Coordinator, and the excess heat and noise generated by the equipment within the cabinet presented an unconformable working environment (due to high temperatures in the summer) as well health & safety concerns such as tinnitus risk due to the constant fan noise. The heat was also of concern to the equipment itself, with temperatures inside the cabinet regularly exceeding 30°C. To combat this, the room was subdivided using internal partition walls to enclose the cabinet in-situ, removing both noise and heat from the office space.

Consideration

• The server room and cabinet needed to have integrated cooling to reduce temperatures. Any cooling plan would need to include resilience against equipment failure.
• Sufficient space must exist for equipment loading and unloading from the cabinet rack.
• Since staff would no longer be present in the same room as the cabinet, monitoring equipment was required to detect cooling failures.
• Improved physical security was desirable, to prevent and detect unauthorised entry.

Solution

Construction of an insulated room within the existing office (with lighting and fire detection) was managed by Crosfields School Estates Department, with the following specifications from IT Support:

• A single air-conditioning unit was installed, as dual redundant units were outside the approved budget. Ongoing regular maintenance for the air conditioning is supplied under contract.
• As a precaution against air conditioning failure, the decision was taken to include an existing rear door within the sever room layout, leaving both a front and rear door to the finished room. These doors could then be opened to provide forced air ventilation in an emergency.
• Existing APC UPS units were fitted with network management cards complete with temperature and humidity sensors to monitor the ambient room environment, as well as the cabinet interior.
• The existing glass-front cabinet door was replaced with a mesh door to improve airflow (an open cabinet was considered, but undesirable due to several non-IT staff being able to access the server room via building master keys).
• A motion-sensing IP video camera was fitted to record entry to the server room, with automatic recording and alerts sent to the IT Network Manager via email.

Overall, internal cabinet temperatures were reduced by around 10°C, with excess heat in the office completely eliminated and noise reduced to barely audible levels.