====== Data Center Temperature Sensors ======

===== AKCP thermal map sensors displayed in AKCPro Server =====


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**Data Center Temperature Sensors**

Temperature sensors deployed in data centers monitor the environment the servers and IT equipment are operating. Ensuring the correct operating temperature, in accordance with ASHRAE recommendations is an essential element of data center management. The goal is to balance the cooling requirements of the IT equipment with the air supplied by the cooling system. Overcooling wastes energy, under cooling harms equipment and can lead to downtime. Humidity is controlled to prevent electrostatic discharges from occurring, or condensation forming. It is therefore a key element of the data center design to include provision for the proper placement of temperature and humidity sensors, as well as differential air pressure and airflow sensors.

**In Rack Sensors**

It is recommended to position temperature sensors at the front, top middle and bottom of the racks. Preferably no less than every 3rd rack in a row. In addition to the front, it is advisable to monitor the exhaust air temperatures from the racks. The reason for this is that monitoring the inlet air temperatures only does not give a complete picture. Sure, you may be generating cold air, but perhaps it is not moving through the racks at a sufficient volume to properly cool the equipment. The faster the air moves over the servers, the more cooling it provides. An insufficient airflow would show up as a higher than normal ∆T on your rack, through a high exhaust air temperature. The opposite could also be true, where over cooling leads to a low ∆T, which is wasteful and inefficient. Identifying such issues saves money through reduced downtime and maintenance, or lower energy costs through reduced cooling capacity.

**In Room Sensors**

While placing temperature sensors in racks is an excellent way to monitor performance at rack level, identify hot spots or cold spots, in room sensors give a more general sense of the environmental conditions in your facility. In room sensors are positioned away from areas that tend to have more fluctuations in temperature. Placement should be away from areas that are exposed to direct sunlight, or doors that are frequently opened or closed.

**Sensor Thresholds**

Understanding how to setup thresholds that trigger alarms is the next step in the setup of your temperature monitoring system. To do this, you must understand what the operating parameters of your data center are, and what constitutes an alarm condition. There are published specifications and recommendations from ASHRAE. For example the ASHRAE Energy Standard 90.4 published in 2019 outlines a framework for the design and operation of mission critical facilities such as data centers. It is recommended to operate between 18°C up to 27°C.  The closer you are to the upper limits of this range, the lower your energy costs in cooling the facilities will be. However, this is a double edged sword, as the closer you are to this upper limit, the less margin for error there is. Therefore, a more comprehensive monitoring system should be in place to ensure correct temperatures are maintained. This makes it essential to monitor temperatures at a rack level, and carefully check ∆T’s.

AHSRAE’s guidelines go further than this general guide however. There are sub-classes of temperature ranges depending on the equipment type and classification. This classification runs from A1 to A4, where A1 is the strictest class, and includes enterprise servers and storage hardware, mission critical equipment. As you move towards A4 the requirements for control and operating temperatures becomes less stringent, with A4 classification being workstations and PC’s. There is a fifth class, H1, which pertains to high density server racks, and for this the recommended range is 18°C – 22°C although the allowable is from 5°C – 25°C.

The recommended temperature range is similar for each class, but the allowable range varies. The allowable range is the broad range in which the equipment can be expected to function properly, whereas the recommended is the range considered optimal for performance. So although it is theoretically possible as per the ASHRAE standards to operate A1 equipment at 32°C this would be generally frowned upon, and should not be considered as recommended.

So as you can see, it is important to understand your equipment and its optimal operating conditions before setting the thresholds for triggering alarms.

**What is the Recommended Humidity for Data Centers?**

Humidity, a measurement of the mount of moisture there is in the air. The Dew Point is the temperature at which water vapor held in the air condenses into liquid, assuming a constant pressure air pressure is maintained. ASHRAE provides guidelines on both of these measurements. A1- A4 class equipment recommended operating range is within a relative humidity (%RH) of 50-70% with a dew point of -9°C – 15°C. Again, an allowable range is also published, which is 8% – 80% for class A1 and 8% – 90% for A4. Allowable dew point is -12°C to 17°C.

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**Humidity Sensors**

Like temperature sensors, humidity sensors should be placed throughout the facility, although less are required. Humidity values tend to be more uniform throughout the facility with less variations between each rack. Therefore, rack level humidity monitoring is not considered an essential requirement of the environmental monitoring system.

**Monitoring Solutions**

AKCP is the worlds oldest and largest manufacturer or wired and wireless sensors designed specifically for the needs of the data center. AKCP provides an end to end solution of both the physical sensor devices, and central monitoring platform, **[[https://www.akcp.com/akcp-products/akcpro-server/|AKCPro Server]]**, with DCIM features and over 40 years industry experience.

**[[https://www.akcp.com/akcp-products/thermal-map/|Thermal Map Sensors]]** monitor the temperature at the top, middle and bottom, front and rear of racks with ∆T and Humidity values included. A total of 11 data points for a single rack. The inclusion of our **[[https://www.akcp.com/akcp-products/contactless-current-meter/|Contactless Current Meter]]** further enhances the function. All of this from a single sensor port makes a cost effective monitoring solution.

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**//AKCP smartRack System//**: Build a complete rack monitoring system connecting AKCP sensors to your SP1+. Fully SNMP compliant, monitor from your existing NMS or using our DCIM AKCPro Server.

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**Detect Hotspots and Coldspots in your Data Center**

Thermal map sensors help identify and eliminate hotspots in your cabinets by identifying areas where temperature differential between front and rear are too high.

Thermal maps consist of a string of 3x temperature sensors and optional 1x humidity sensor. They are placed at the top, middle and bottom of the rack. Two strings can be combined on a single sensor port front and rear of the cabinet. This configuration of sensors monitors the air intake and exhaust temperatures of your cabinet, as well as the ∆T of the rack. Use thermal map sensors to identify cabinet hot spots that can endanger your uptime.

Thermal map sensors identify coldspots in your data center, eliminating cold spots frees sttranded capacity and saves energy.

Are there areas of your data center that are over cooled? Over cooling wastes energy. Identifying and eliminating cold spots can increase data center energy efficiency and lower operational costs. It also means you can release stranded capacity, increasing server loads in cold spots allows increased compute power without any increase in cooling capacity.

Thermal map sensors connect to AKCP sensorProbe+ base units. Extendable up to a maximum of 15 meters cable length, you can monitor multiple cabinets from a single IP address. Up to 16 thermal maps can be connected to a single SPX+, or deploy the SP1+ on each rack.

The sensor splitter box allows 2 strings to be connected to a single sensor port, and combined with the contactless current meter to give thermal mapping and power monitoring for each rack. This is required for AKCP sensorCFD™ calcualtions.

**[[https://www.akcp.com/akcp-products/thermal-map/|Detect Hotspots and Coldspots in your Data Center]]**

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===== Raritan SmartSensors (a brand of Legrand)=====

**SmartSensors — Obtain Critical Data to Extend the Health of Your Data Center**

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Our comprehensive set of **[[https://www.raritan.com/products/power/rack-management/smart-sensors|SmartSensors monitors]]** your data center’s environment to gain valuable insight into your operations and stay informed about environmental and security hazards that could impact your IT hardware. These sensors are easy to deploy and provide helpful information to maintain the performance and lifespan of your IT assets. Whether you're managing a colocation, micro data center, or a small server room’s white space, our SmartSensors are the perfect solution for efficient operation management.

The real-time alerts are a valuable feature of our sensors, which allows you to quickly identify and respond to potential hazards, minimizing the risk of downtime and other costly issues. Our sensors also make optimizing cooling and preventing hot spots easy, ensuring that your IT assets remain in top condition.

SmartSensors enable a seamless connection directly to your existing Xerus-enabled rack power managing devices — including PX Rack PDUs, Inline Meters, Rack Transfer Switches, and PXO Compact PDUs — or with a sensor management solution, such as the Smart Rack Controller, providing a faster, easier deployment with substantial cost savings. Have a worry-free deployment, knowing the sensors can easily retrofit your infrastructure. With the highest-level metering accuracy in its class, SmartSensors provides better insights for smarter, actionable decisions.


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**Highly Accurate Environment Monitoring**

SmartSensors are designed with the latest, most advanced metering components to prolong their lifespan, improve reliability, and ensure they run efficiently.

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**Dual RJ45 Connectors**

Dual RJ45 connectors simplify the installation and servicing of sensor packages without rewiring the rack or daisy chain, saving time and maintenance costs.

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**Easy to Deploy within Existing IT Infrastructures**

SmartSensors are plug-and-play ready with a Xerus-enabled Raritan rack power managing device, making them incredibly easy to install and deploy without disrupting operations.


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**Support for Customizable Configuration with Single Bus/String Technology**

Ensure comprehensive measurement and monitoring by cascading different types of SmartSensors in a single bus/string structure with Cat5/6 cables through a Xerus-enabled rack power managing device’s Sensor port.

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**Popular Data Center Sensors**

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==== Other Link Raritan ====


**[[https://www.raritan.com/products/power/power-distribution/rack-pdu|THE POWER OF FORWARD THINKING the all-new raritan px4 rack pdu]]**

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**[[https://www.raritan.com/products/power/power-distribution/rack-transfer-switches|Intelligent Hybrid Rack Transfer Switch]]**

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**[[https://www.raritan.com/products/power/power-distribution/compact-power-distribution|PXO Compact Power Distribution]]**

**[[https://www.raritan.com/products/power/rack-management/intelligent-sensor|Smart Rack Controller]]**


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===== Monnit =====

**[[https://www.monnit.com/applications/data-center-server-room-monitoring/?srsltid=AfmBOor82pQsii_zeLoWZGHNcQB4yF5xyyM7KMF_uUByjQeAZOWr2hCE|Monnit]]**

**[[https://www.monnit.com/products/software/|Monnit Software]]**


**Remote Monitoring Solutions for Data Centers and Server Rooms**

If something is off in your server environment, Monnit alerts you using our versatile Data Center and Server Room Monitoring Systems.

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==== Temperature ====

The American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) suggests server rooms and data centers maintain a temperature between 18°C (64.4°F) to 27°C (80.6°F). Monnit provides Standard and Digital Temperature Sensors designed to audit ambient environments from -40°C (-40°F) to +125°C (+257°F). One example of how Monnit helps you strike a balance with temperature and mitigate downtime using our solutions for server room temp monitoring.

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==== Humidity ====

Striking the right balance of 40% and 60% relative humidity (RH) is key to ensuring a data center functions properly. A Monnit Wireless Humidity Sensor keeps static electricity from building up and regulates corrosion in your equipment. These sensors also deliver readings on temperatures between -40°C (-40°F) and +125°C (+257°F). Our data center temperature and humidity sensors are another way Monnit manages conditions to provide an environment for optimal performance.

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===== ELPRO =====


**[[https://www.elpro.com/en/server-room-temperature-monitoring|ELPRO]]**

**Environmental Monitoring for Data Centers and Server Rooms**

Today more than ever, data has become the most valuable asset of most companies. A temporary outage of critical applications, or even data loss, can result in significant damage to a company's and even result in financial crisis. One main cause of damage, outside of power loss, is an increase in server room air temperature or humidity. It is a major risk and, at the same time, an indicator of a problem within the server room containing many racks of servers.

A server room or data center environmental monitoring system monitor can provide protection against these issues. A server room temperature sensor collects and archive temperature data from various critical measurement points within the server room network. If a temperature deviation occurs, the server room monitor software sends an automated alert, which enables you to act quickly to identify the issue. 

Measurement, evaluation and processing of the data must be 100 percent failsafe. The system must never lose measurement values, but instead measure and buffer the values decentral in the wireless sensors, until they arrive in the central Cloud infrastructure where they are processed.

**Why Monitor Humidity in Server Rooms?**
 

Humidity is relative to temperature. The warmer the air, the more water molecules the air can absorb. Air conditioners and heat exchangers that extract heat from the air can change the relative humidity. And of course, there is always the risk of a pipe break or water damage.

The ideal relative humidity (RH%) in server rooms and data centers should maintained be between 40% and 60%.

Conditions that are too dry lead to the build-up of static electricity in the electronic equipment. Air that is too humid leads to corrosion, both of which lead to higher wear and tear and failure in the long run. Explore the checklist and fact sheet below to learn more about monitoring for humidity in your server room or data center today.

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**{{ :industry_4_0_iot:info-sheet_wireless_sensor.pdf |A wireless sensor }}**

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**{{ :industry_4_0_iot:checklist_cloud_based_temperature_monitoring_solution.pdf |Cloud-based temperature monitoring solution in a GxP monitoring environment }}**

{{pdfjs 46em >:industry_4_0_iot:checklist_cloud_based_temperature_monitoring_solution.pdf }}


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