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тАО09-08-2004 07:36 AM
тАО09-08-2004 07:36 AM
He sent a sample of the particulate out to have it analyzed, and the lab he sent it to came back and said the material is most likely from the ventilation system fan belts. (Several sources now think it's the fan belts.)
We have all kinds of servers in the data center...
Question: The fan belt is likely non-conductive, non-flammable, etc. How much do we worry about it? Do we schedule outages for each server and have them blown out? Has this happened to anyone before?
We want to ask around before we go to vendors and get yelled at by them...
Thanks
John
Solved! Go to Solution.
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тАО09-08-2004 07:41 AM
тАО09-08-2004 07:41 AM
Re: Data Center dust
I would think it all depends on just how thick that layer was. If it was thick enough to start to clog any filters or impede their airflow, then by all means schedule a cleaning job.
If there was *any* metalic residue in the dust then I would schedule it ASAP.
But you certainly want your facility people to inspect the cooling system - particulary all the fans for belt wear. Don't want to have to repeat this down the road I'd think.
Rgds,
Jeff
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тАО09-08-2004 07:47 AM
тАО09-08-2004 07:47 AM
Re: Data Center dust
Also, just blowing it out will send the particulate matter into the air to be sucked up by nearby servers... ugly.
my two cents.
-john
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тАО09-08-2004 07:50 AM
тАО09-08-2004 07:50 AM
Re: Data Center dust
We would most definitely take the servers out to clean them... (Way too many of them to make this sound like any fun...)
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тАО09-08-2004 09:52 AM
тАО09-08-2004 09:52 AM
Re: Data Center dust
One of the worst villians are cardboard boxes and of course people.
The other thing you might to look at if you haven't already is regular cleaning both on the normal floor and sub-floor areas, but I'm sure you already knew that.
The funny thing about facilities management is that they never doing unless someone complains.... (budget ... no way is the general response ...)
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тАО09-09-2004 03:47 AM
тАО09-09-2004 03:47 AM
Re: Data Center dust
Has this happened to anyone?
Thanks
John
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тАО09-09-2004 03:57 AM
тАО09-09-2004 03:57 AM
Re: Data Center dust
Worst thing to happen to us was facility people in the datacenter drilling small holes into the false ceiling framing to hang signage.
They didn't think about where the shavings would fall. The 'Domes were sucking it up from several feet away (if you've ever placed an antistatic bag anywhere near a 'Dome you know what I mean). This was causing intermittent deadshorts and failures. Nobody could figure the problem out until one SA happened to see the maint people actually drilling & the light bulb went off. After that they started using vacuums attached to the tool & work area - problem ceased.
Rgds,
Jeff
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тАО09-12-2004 12:25 PM
тАО09-12-2004 12:25 PM
SolutionThe worst dust scenario I ever saw was in a rack manufacturing plant. Everything near the computer (an HP 1000) was covered with an oily gray dust...powdered aluminum it turns out. I was called in to replace the floppy drives (5.25" floppies) when the customer reported that the heads were 'sticking' to the media. On examination, the entire computer was so covered with sticky aluminum dust that nothing was recognizable on the boards--yet the computer still ran.
I advised the customer that the computer needed a thorough cleaning and took the whole box apart (in another area) and blew off all the dust. The computer would never run again and had to be scrapped. The (conductive) dust had gotten into connectors and other airgap components that not even a sonic bath would have fixed.
Modern HVAC contractors are quite aware of dust management for data centers and will have designed dust and ion control into the system. Unfortunately, many data centers are using HVAC systems designed for a warehouse.
Bill Hassell, sysadmin
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тАО09-13-2004 04:38 AM
тАО09-13-2004 04:38 AM
Re: Data Center dust
About 5 or 6 years ago, we had an old DG machine that sat on the floor next to an air vent in our old data center. (Not clean) One day, the machine fried. We called DG support in, and they opened the machine and found a 1 inch thick layer of dust sitting on the system board. We were all suprised that the machine didn't catch fire sooner. DG replaced the system board, and a couple of weeks later, the Facilities Manager saw dust collecting on the front of the server and on it's clariion array (Raid 5). He asked one of the student operators to vaccum the front of the machine and the front of the disks. She ended up pulling all the disks out of the array and vaccuming them out. The machine paniced, of course, and the facilities manager spent the rest of the weekend tryingt oget the machine up. (Fortunately, the operator knew what order she pulled the disks out in.) After she left the university, we named the vacuum after her and attached her picture to it.
Fun and games.
John
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тАО09-13-2004 04:38 AM
тАО09-13-2004 04:38 AM