Here in my research lab we keep out servers is what is basically a large closet which has had extra cooling and power ran in. We had a cooling failure yesterday and almost lost some hardware because we didn't have any notice that the cooling had failed. Ideally, the university would provide some research infrastructure support, but they don't want to so we have to tackle these sorts of problems ourselves.

I'm basically looking for a small gadget that will sit in our server room and monitor the room temperature. I'd like to be able to plug it into the network so that I can see a plot of the temperature over some period of time from any other machine on the network. I'd like it to send out a variety of emails and even audible alarms if the temperature rises above a certain threshold. I'd like it to cost less than $100.

Any suggestions?

Damnit, Jim! I'm a scientist, not a sysadmin.

11/17/2009 2:46:17 PM

http://www.google.com/products?q=snmp%20temperature%20probe&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wf

11/17/2009 2:52:29 PM

I know places that already have SCADA systems use plain thermostats as a contact closure, but in your situation, you'd need a microcontroller to monitor the contact and output serial data or whatnot to a server. Usually have one thermostat set as a warning at 5 degrees lower than the "kill everything" thermostat. If you already have watchdog hardware, you might be able to interface with that.

11/17/2009 6:56:29 PM

out of curiosity, what sort of airflow do you have in that room? any inflow or outflow?

11/17/2009 7:13:50 PM

those sensors i found were pretty cool i thought

and work with SNMP

11/17/2009 7:15:41 PM

overkill for what you need... but they're still awesome.

http://www.digi.com/products/wirelessdropinnetworking/sensors/xbee-sensors.jsp#overview

we're getting a bunch and creating a mesh sensor network across some datacenters

11/17/2009 9:26:08 PM

You could use a contact closure (or two) and tie it into a serial port. Provide voltage with RTS or DTR pins and use CD or CTS to detect closure. A little VB in a loop (which I can paste) and a little wiring and you will be set.

11/18/2009 10:44:53 AM

I'm really looking for a turn-key solution. I like this so far: http://www.itwatchdogs.com/OnlineBook/MiniGoose.html

Quote :

"out of curiosity, what sort of airflow do you have in that room? any inflow or outflow?"

IIRC, the cooling unit provides ~24,000 BTUs confined to the room and is sufficient to offset the heating load from the servers. The air intake and outputs are both in the room. The recirculation rate is something like 800 CFM. We normally keep the room in the vicinity of 63 degrees F.

11/18/2009 11:37:19 AM

that looks pretty damn cool

11/18/2009 11:44:51 AM

they probably need that much temp gradient to keep things under control... it's pretty common in high density server rooms

11/18/2009 11:57:00 AM

Here is what that MiniGoose CP looks like. This would be a fun little toy.

http://67.79.205.70/

11/18/2009 1:24:49 PM

^^^^holy shit, those things are $270 each.

11/18/2009 9:21:55 PM

^ If by $270 you mean $200 then you'd be correct.

11/19/2009 1:31:48 AM

where do you see them for $200? cheapest i could find was $270.

11/19/2009 6:11:28 AM

http://www.itwatchdogs.com/

11/19/2009 11:32:01 AM

damn, they've got some cool shit

11/19/2009 11:58:20 AM