Server rack cooling

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Conficker

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Hello friends,

Any idea where I can purchase heavy duty industrial server rack cooling? Air cooling won't suffice, I'm thinking water cooling like this or 2U water cooling units but where in ZA will I find such products?
 
Can I ask why air cooling won't suffice? Been in many datacenters and I've yet to see anything like water cooling.
 
Conficker said:
Hello friends,

Any idea where I can purchase heavy duty industrial server rack cooling? Air cooling won't suffice, I'm thinking water cooling like this or 2U water cooling units but where in ZA will I find such products?
Click to expand...

Industrial Server Rack cooling is air cooling my friend...
 
just have proper airconditioned cooling the area your rack is in.. if you have proper air flow through your cabinet and your equipment suck in cold air from one side and exhaust on the other side and you minimize the mixing of hot and cold air, you shouldnt have issues with cooling..

previous company had 3 racks filled to the brim in a ~25m square meter area with 3 standard aircons set to 18c with no seperation of hot and cold air and not once had overheating issues..
 
WAslayer said:
just have proper airconditioned cooling the area your rack is in.. if you have proper air flow through your cabinet and your equipment suck in cold air from one side and exhaust on the other side and you minimize the mixing of hot and cold air, you shouldnt have issues with cooling..

previous company had 3 racks filled to the brim in a ~25m square meter area with 3 standard aircons set to 18c with no seperation of hot and cold air and not once had overheating issues..
Click to expand...

This, solution works great. Just have that aircon serviced every couple of months. You don't want to sit with a aircon blowing hot air onto the servers.
 
Okay let my paint a clearer picture: this is the setup at my client's workspace:

The server rack housing 3x servers becomes extremely hot. The room has air conditioning, however this room is also occupied by 4 people that get very cold even is this hot summer weather while wearing their leather jackets. They switch the aircon off and when you advise them otherwise they will log a safety hazard complaint at management because when they get cold the summer you are endangering their lives with illness (their words not mine)

Any air cooling (in the rack itself) deemed sufficient will blow at such high rpm's that their ears will bleed by the end of the day. Moving the rack out is not an option as there is nowhere to put it unless they are willing to put it in the toilet.

It looks like I will have to build them something custom since nobody that I know has ever heard of water cooling server racks in this country :-/
 
Replace the 3 servers with 1 powerful server and have 3x VM's on it.

PS, what sockets are the server CPU's?
 
Rickster said:
Would be the best option but OP seems to work in a shoe box.
Click to expand...

There are such things as directly cooled cabinets where it's a all in one solution ( racks , power and cooling ) but they are expensive and quite frankly rather spend the money on a proper small workroom, even if its a cupboard with a small aircon.

Op the amount of money you will spend in trying to find a solution to fit your current problem would be better spent in correcting the problem.

*edit* better yet, invest in cloud or collocation hosting, at least the kit will be safe.
 
APC also makes in rack aircon units, but like all similar solutions, its not cheap.
Panduit also makes cooling units, but they are even more expensive.

What you actually should be doing is moving those people away from your racks, it's bad practice because its a security risk and also a general business risk. Any of those people or their friends that stop by the office can plug a USB in your servers or accidentally trip the power/unplug cables.

If you have the money for in rack aircon, then you have the money to get a proper server room.
 
Last edited:
OP, as per above post, APC supplies similar racks as per link provided.
You'll also get similar racks from Rittal.
Keep in mind that chiller units and other infrastructure required to supply cooling to these racks are extremely expensive.
I'm sure if the company does not want to spend money on a dedicated room for the racks they will not spend money on the racks and other infrastructure required.

Are you having problems with the servers overheating or just concerned?
Keep in mind that even though there are optimal operating temperatures, having servers operate at 26-32 and not causing issues is still acceptable.
 
Probably a whole lot better just to move the services to a provider...
 
Many of my clients have "server" rooms, which is really a corner in someone's office. Either they have to put up with the noise from the fans or deal with the aircon.
If they dont want either of those options then they need to be prepared to replace servers prematurely.
 
take the money you intend on spending on a new rack, and either move the services into the cloud or a colo DC.. or, take the money and get some guys who do partitioning, to close off an area around the existing rack and include the aircon, making sure you have an extractor fan right at the top somewhere to extract hot air, though likely wont be needed with just 3 servers..
 
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