Computer Room Environmental Monitoring Solution

An almost-catastrophic event happened to one of my customers… No one from the bank had been in their Computer / Server Room for a few days. They walked into the server room to check on something yesterday and were hit with an oven-like blast wave of heat. The server room was registering close to 130 degrees temperature. The humidity in the room had dropped to 32% (low humidity causes static). Thirteen file servers and numerous other components were showing visible heat alarms. Within hours they could have lost everything. The customer responded by propping open the door and using fans to circulate the air. It turned out that their server room air conditioning system had failed – and nobody knew it! As a result, we found a solution that we are implementing for them, and wanted to share this information with you.

DataComm’s COMPUTER ROOM GUARD is a complete environmental monitor and autodialer in a wall mount enclosure. The Computer Room Guard monitors the temperature and humidity of up to four (4) rooms and provides alarms based on power loss and water intrusion (some features optional).

The Computer Room Guard will call and alert you with voice message or a pager alerts when a room’s environment is out of range and your critical equipment is in danger of being damaged.

By adding the DCPE option to the Computer Room Guard you create a complete monitoring and alarming solution. With the Ethernet Data Collection package, the Computer Room Guard will call AND send Emails detailing the problem so you can quickly take corrective actions to avoid catastrophic loss. The Data Capture Program automatically collects and maintains a log of the data obtained from your Computer Room Guard.

• Monitor the temperature and humidity of up to four (4) rooms with one sensor control unit.
• Programmable high and low temperature and humidity limits for each room
• Programmable alarm time delay for each sensor
• Water Sensor input – get a call if water is detected in any room (optional module)
• Calls up to four (4) programmable phone numbers
• Call into the system to hear the temperature, humidity, and power status at any time
• Pager compatible – leaves callback number on numeric pages
• Power monitoring – get a call if the power fails
• Buzzer and alarm relay can provide output alerts to on-site staff
• Recordable greeting message
• Rechargeable battery backup

Unlike other “expensive” solutions that simply send an Email, and when the temperature or humidity are out of programmed limits, the power is out, or water has been detected in the computer room, the Computer Room Guard will dial all programmed phone numbers until contact is made. If contact has not been made after dialing all phone numbers, the Computer Room Guard will wait 20 minutes and call again. This sequence is repeated until contact is made.

When the Computer Room Guard is calling a standard voice number, it will play the recordable alarm message and the current temperature, humidity, and power status. The Computer Room Guard will then prompt the user to enter a PIN. When the correct PIN is entered, contact has been made. The Computer Room Guard will stop calling until a new alarm condition occurs. When the unit calls a pager number, it will transmit the programmable local ID number for display on the pager screen so that the user can call the unit for details.

With the Data Capture option…

• You receive alarm Emails to notify you if your Computer Room Guard detects a problem.
• Allows you to maintain a log file of the data collected.
• View real-time Data
• View historical Data
• Create and print graphs over specified periods of time for any Data
• Remotely check the real-time status from any browser
• Program settings remotely

We’ve built a standard package that we’d suggest for any of our clients (based on a single room environment). The solution consists of:

• (1) Computer Room Guard Main Unit
• (1) Humidity and Temperature Wall Mount Sensor
• (1) Water Sensor. With 15’ cable. Floor Mount
• (1) 250’ Spool of cable to interconnect the Main Unit and sensor

Call for pricing on products and installation. You can also choose to install this solution on your own with provided installation instructions. Remote installation support is available.