Air is out in server closet, not going to be fixed until tomorrow... What to do?

We are a small company, so we have a small closet with one server rack. This closet has very good ventilation, so that's not a problem - but today the air went out on this side of our company suite. It didn't occur to me until just now, that means the closet is very hot, and indeed I came in to find the servers all with fans on full blast and the temperature in there quite hot, and I haven't yet checked if all the servers are up.

I opened the door, but for security purposes I can't leave it open so I'll have to close it when I leave in an hour or so. All the servers are running Windows; there are a couple towers (those are probably cut off by now from the heat, I would imagine) and basically the rest of the rack is full of rack servers.

I need to keep these servers running in the morning. They contain all our vital functions - network data storage, email, intranet, accounting, etc. Not much can be done without them up.

What do I do??


We had a similar issue; server room ambient temperature was about 33 degrees if I remember. Was like that for at least 2 or 3 days. No issues with the servers, various temp readings on the server's chassis/core/etc. were maybe 8-10 degrees hotter than normal, but no errors, no shutdowns. We ended up putting a big fan facing out from the server room to draw out the hot air, however.

Monitor the temperatures closely, react accordingly (turn them off or at least non-critical servers).

EDIT

Asked co-worker, he said the hottest it ever got was 33 (and dropped to 28-29 when we put the big fan in the door).


Your options are limited as you've painted yourself into a corner. Here are your options.

  1. Leave the door open and run numerous room fans on them to circulate air. Leave servers running for access to everything. Pray servers don't die or someone doesn't steal them. Prepare for fitfull nights sleep.
  2. Close door and leave servers running. Pray harder that servers don't die. Prepare for not sleeping at all tonight. At least servers won't be stolen, besides, who can carry something that hot?
  3. Close door/power down servers. You'll sleep well tonight. Servers won't die and nobody will steal them.

To me your only real option is to power everything down. If your company cannot operate in any way, shape or form without their computer systems up and running, then it's time for them to invest in redundancy.

You could also decide on leaving just one server running. You could even mention that to management. "I can leave one server running, which shall it be?" and it makes them feel like they're part of the solution.