RE: Attic Server

["Matthew Reeve" <matt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> I have a Dell poweredge server stored in it's box as it makes too=20
> much noise to keep in a bedroom or the lounge. I could put it in
the=20
> attic as I have spare power and can run some cat5 to it, but I'm=20
> worried about the temperature extremes in there. I noticed some of=20
> you use your attics as node zero. Have you encountered any problems=20
> doing this due to the temperature. Alternatively do you know any
way=20
> to silence it and will disabling some of the fans have an adverse=20
> effect?
> Mark

My node zero is in the loft here, to solve the problem of the overheating I
have fitted a room stat (drayton RTS4 in case you were wondering) which has
two outputs, one to turn on an electric heater when it's cold, and the
othe=
r
to turn on an extractor fan when it's hot. This way, whenever the loft
starts to get hot, the extractor fan starts drawing air out of the top of
the loft (the extractor is right at the top of the apex on an end wall)
which means cooler air from outside is drawn in. This way, the loft never
gets overly hot even during the summer.

My servers were up there during the heatwave last year and none of them
overheated. I've also got one of those stats on the inside of my 7'
19" rac=
k
which turns on the rack fans at the top of the case, drawing air from the
base through to the top. The only tweak I had to make to it was to use the
'stat on the electric heater to make sure it doesn't come on above 8
degrees, giving me a gap between the heater coming on at 8 degrees and the
extractor coming on at about 20.

Total cost, including 2 stats, extractor fan kit and heater was less than
=A350.

Don't forget the issue of dust as well, we have a separate section of the
loft which is used for node zero/boiler/tanks etc which is closed off from
the rest, has wooden floor, boarded sides etc and is kept as dust free as
possible. Think how much dust gets kicked up in the loft when you move
things around normally and then think how much of that you want going into
your server.

Matthew Reeve
www.rangie.com The Range Rover Knowledge Base