Server Rack

Most server rooms or Datacenters are made up of a collection of racks. With the help of virtualisation nowawdays, most companies will have a single rack with all their Storage, Networking, Server and Patching equipment. Choosing the right rack can be hard as there are varying heights, width, depts and vendors to choose from. Most of the time these cannot be returned due to the size so they should be picked properly the first time round! 

Noise

This is a pretty big side effect of having the server room on your premise instead of hosted elsewhere. If this is in a seperate room, the enclosed space will help muffle the sound. We have had some customers who opt in for a silent rack , which has a sound rating of 25 DB , and of course saves space by not needing a server room!

Cooling

Keeping servers at a recommended manufacture operating temperature, keeps your data safe and warranty valid! For example a HP DL 380 has the following recommendations

The maximum recommended ambient operating temperature (TMRA) for most server products is 35°C(95°F). The temperature in the room where the rack is located must not exceed 35°C (95°F).

Cooling in most server rooms is done by Air Conditioning with airflow. This cooling should be specced correctly using BTU readings. You should also have monitoring at server and rack level to make sure you can monitor fan failure and rise in tempuratures to act.

Cable Management

This is always a battle in server rooms due to the amount of cables needed per phone , computer and server. Cable colours are important to see different networks such as Phone over Data as well as using the correct media for uplinks.

Power should also be looked at, make sure you understand your buildings power backup e.g. Generators

Label and Document Everything

The customer and IT Provider should know what each box does incase of a problem and for Auditing purposes as well.

Security

This is where all your company's data is ( if you are not already in the cloud ). There was a case with a building in London where some people walked off the street during an office move and helped themselves to a few servers without any employee stopping them! Make sure you lock your server racks and can account for the keys to server rooms.