Keep SAN cool
RAID Recovery - Keep SAN cool
With the increasing popularity of computer and server systems, temperature of SAN should be tracked to decrease the chance of failure.
2.5-inch drives and blade servers’ developments have immensely increased the compactness of storage products. They can save floor space but equipment’s life is bound to be affected negatively. With the development of organizational needs for storing mass data, new technologies are also emerging with solutions but these technologies can dangerously overheat SAN. This overheating has been creating problem for a long time now. Storage hardware is consistently kept into smaller space that is trivial to its requirement, drives and switches for modern enterprises SAN are reserved in a room which is actually not designed for mass electronic equipments, and uses of previous broom closet as a server rooms are some human negligence that can be easily taken care of to reduce the problems.
Sometimes conventional climate controlled computer room, which handles and helps balancing the temperature and humidity, is insufficient for modern SAN systems. The problem is quite likely to occur if the staffs of computer centres have no clear idea about the required air flow patterns.
Data processing equipment and cooling system for SAN need enough consciousness to let it function properly. The American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning have published some special guidelines instructing how to maintain the thermal environment. The most significant change the Society has brought is that it has amalgamated the limitations for equipment manufacturer as well as data centres to keep electronic equipment cool.
According to storage administrators, guidelines given by ASHRAC are about the overall temperature of the computer room but they have not mentioned much about the temperature of each piece of equipment. They claim that instructions could have been highlighted and broaden on inlet temperatures for equipments. Heat is the greatest enemy of components; it steadily finishes the life of equipments.
Many guidelines have been given to measure the temperature of equipments but the simplest technique to get rid of this chronicle problem is to keep moving or rearranging the components in the computer room. Changing the order of these equipments from same boring place would offer them flood of fresh air that will significantly keep machine cool.
It is also strictly recommended to run the equipment only with their enclosures. If the enclosed space of equipment is separated, then it can increase the heat load on the critical components by interrupting the well managed air flow over vital components.
For large scale installations, there are some sophisticated tools available to keep the components cool. A network of thermometers that connect to a data collection system can handle all the equipment inlets. For example Airpak from Fluent Software can be best help.
Finally, awareness plays a vital role in keeping SAN and other equipment cool. It is better to frequently check to resolve the issues prior to the problems turn into emergences.
