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3 Best Practices to Keep Your Server Racks Cool

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Increased computing demand often leads to temperature issues in server rooms. Too much heat can affect the reliability of your computing systems and equipment. For this reason, it is crucial to implement certain cooling strategies that will help you maintain required temperature levels in your server room. Cooling infrastructure such as air handlers, chillers and compressors will usually help cool your server rooms. However, with poor server rack operation strategies, your cooling infrastructure may not pay off as much as would be expected. For this reason, here are some server rack best practices to help maximise the cooling efficiency of your server room.

Consider Enclosed Frame Racks

Open frame racks may seem like the perfect solution for airflow management, but they can be quite ineffective in controlling airflow because the air will flow in any direction in the open unit. Enclosures are therefore a better alternative, but you have to make sure they allow for efficient front-to-rear flow of air. For this reason, when choosing enclosed frame racks, consider those without the front and rear doors. If you are concerned about the security of the racks, choose one with doors that are ventilated enough to ensure the flow of air will be unrestricted.

Close Unused Units in Your Server Racks

Your servers will overheat when the cooling air starts recirculating inside the server racks. This happens as a result of the airflow short circuiting inside your server racks. That is, just like electricity, when there are points of least resistance in your server racks, air will tend to take their path. These points are usually the unused units or gaps in your server racks where the servers are either not installed or have been removed. If you don't fill such gaps, the hot exhaust air being dissipated from your servers will start circulating through them, causing overheating problems. One great way to close the gaps or unused units is to use blanking panels or plates.

Choose Your Server Rack Layout Carefully

One of the most effective ways of enhancing your server racks' cooling efficiency is to separate the supply of cold air from that of hot air; the layout of the racks plays a crucial role in this. The perfect layout for your server racks is a row arrangement with the fronts facing each other in cool or cold aisles with the backs in hot aisles. When you arrange your server racks in this type of layout, the equipment in the racks will not draw in hot air from any other equipment, especially in adjacent rows. You can also connect your server rack cabinets side-to-side. Doing this prevents air from recirculating by forming a barrier between the cold and hot air your equipment produce.

Contact a company like Aardvark Electrics to learn more about maintaining your server racks.


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