Most workplaces do a good job of periodically testing their backup electrical systems, but less of one when testing fire detection and suppression systems. Here are some tips for regularly scheduled inspection and maintenance of these systems.
If we were to ask typical infrastructure managers to name the major elements of facilities management, they would probably mention common parts such as air conditioning, electrical power, and perhaps fire suppression. Some may also mention smoke detection, uninterruptible power supplies, and controlled physical access. Few of them would be likely to include less common entities such as electrical grounding, vault protection, and static electricity, among others.
Here's a comprehensive list of the major elements of facilities management:
- Air conditioning
- Humidity
- Electrical power
- Static electricity
- Electrical grounding
- Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
- Backup UPS batteries
- Backup generator
- Water detection
- Smoke detection
- Fire suppression
- Facility monitoring with alarms
- Earthquake safeguards
- Safety training
- Supplier management
- Controlled physical access
- Protected vaults
- Physical location
- Classified environment
Temperature and humidity levels should be monitored constantly, either electronically or with recording charts, and reviewed once per shift to detect any unusual trends. Electrical power includes continuous supply at the proper voltage, current, phasing and the conditioning of the power.
Conditioning purifies the quality of the electricity for greater reliability. It involves filtering out stray magnetic fields that can cause unwanted inductance, doing the same to stray electric fields that can generate unwanted capacitance, and providing surge suppression to prevent voltage spikes. Static electricity affecting the operation of sensitive equipment can build up in conductive materials such as carpeting, clothing, draperies and other non-insulating fibres. Anti-static devices can be installed to minimise this condition.
Proper grounding is required to eliminate power cuts, and potential human injury, due to short circuits. Another element sometimes overlooked is whether UPS batteries are kept fully charged.
Water and smoke detection are common environmental guards in today's data centres as are fire suppression mechanisms. Facility monitoring systems and their alarms should be visible and audible enough to be seen and heard from almost any area in the computer room and when noisy equipment is running at its loudest. If in an earthquake zone equipment should be anchored and secured to withstand moderate tremors.
Large mainframes decades ago used to be safely anchored, in part, by the massive plumbing for water-cooled processors and by the huge bus and tag cables, which interconnected the various units. In today's era of fibre-optic cables, air-cooled processors and smaller boxes designed for non-raised flooring, this built-in anchoring of equipment is no longer as prevalent.
Emergency preparedness for natural or man-made disasters should be a basic part of general safety training for all personnel working inside a data centre. They should be knowledgeable about emergency powering off, evacuation procedures, first-aid assistance and emergency telephone numbers. Briefing data centre suppliers in these matters is also recommended.
Most data centres have acceptable methods of controlling physical access into their machine rooms, but not always for vaults or rooms that store sensitive documents, stock, or recorded media. The physical location of a data centre can also be problematic. At basement level it may be safe and secure from the outside but be exposed to water leaks and evacuation obstacles, particularly in older buildings.
Locating a data centre along the outside walls of a building can sometimes contribute to sabotage from the outside. Data centres in classified environments are almost always located as far away from outside walls as possible to safeguard them from outside physical forces such as bombs or projectiles, and from electronic sensing devices.
