Comment On A "Priceless" Server Room: Priceless

Nepotism.  Gotta love it.

Red5:

Nepotism.  Gotta love it.

Remember, only you can prevent nepotism. 

Anonymous:

Red5:

Nepotism.  Gotta love it.

Remember, only you can prevent nepotism. 

Yeah, just don't have kids and disown all your relatives.

Anyway, the real wtf is the lack of a new wtf for us wtf junkies. 

I think you need a higher capacity bowl.

Anonymous:

I think you need a higher capacity bowl.

 

 The bowl upgrade is definitely the way to go, here. Or maybe a series of sponges placed strategically around the floor...

Been there.  Done that.  Mopped up the floor.  Upgraded the Bucket to "Bigger Bucket".

(Pump and hose to drain finally installed a few months ago...)
 

Anonymous:

Could somebody come up with an overflow joke, please? I got nothing.

 Perhaps something along the lines of a "buffer overflow" pun?
 

Server Admin Who Knows his stuff: 90k per year

Development staff (4 employees) who might know their stuff: 120k to 210k per year

CTO who knows @$$ when he sees it and has no clue: priceless

Anonymous:

I call bulls*it on this "story"; I've seen this picture years ago...

Anonymous:

I call bulls*it on this "story"; I've seen this picture years ago...

Probably because you saw it here:

    http://thedailywtf.com/forums/permalink/37987/37987/ShowThread.aspx#37987 

 
CS 

Nope, I'm certain I've seen this somewhere else, not just here. At a push I'd say it was in one of those powerpoints full of "funny" pictures that get sent round offices.

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

BINGO!

Anonymous:

Nope, I'm certain I've seen this somewhere else, not just here. At a push I'd say it was in one of those powerpoints full of "funny" pictures that get sent round offices.

Well, then... You now know the source! ;)

Well, what do you expect when 1/4 the population is retarded. I'm surprised that he got the server running... or maybe that's why he was in training? To learn how to setup the servers? Yeah, hopefully the dude learned server room design and setup lol....
 

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

I was going to say the same thing.  Unless this unit has a second component located outside the room, it is only going to generate heat.  In that case, they could just point a fan at the server (if they even need to do this), and let the buildings central AC keep the room cool as a whole.

CodeRage:

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

I was going to say the same thing.  Unless this unit has a second component located outside the room, it is only going to generate heat.  In that case, they could just point a fan at the server (if they even need to do this), and let the buildings central AC keep the room cool as a whole.

 Most standalone A/C units have a vent tube that you snake to somewhere else, usually outside. That air is amazingly hot, and for good reason. The condensor still creates a lot of water, which needs to be drained out seperately (humidity condensor). I can't really see the exhaust tube, but if there's that much water coming out, then I get a feeling the exhaust didn't exist.


 

Red5:

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

BINGO!

There are plenty of ac units designed for shitty server rooms that use a duct to vent hot air into the plenum space in the ceiling, while draining water to a bin or floor drain. The good ones usually have a float to tell when the, um, fishbowl fills up, and then they either shut off or sound an alarm. 

I've seen this bouncing round different sites for a long time too. And yes, having an AC in the middle of the room is pointless as it puts out at least as much hot air as cold air in the absolute best case of being able to cool the air itself. In the case of one designed to pull cold air in from elsewhere then it's just going to sit there making noise.

Alex Papadimoulis:

But bare with it; the accompanying story from Zack makes it worthwhile ...

Pardon me if I don't bare with it. Perhaps late, without...

Anonymous:

Red5:

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

BINGO!

 

There are plenty of ac units designed for shitty server rooms that use a duct to vent hot air into the plenum space in the ceiling, while draining water to a bin or floor drain. The good ones usually have a float to tell when the, um, fishbowl fills up, and then they either shut off or sound an alarm. 

Good point.  I guess we'll never know by looking at this picture weather or not the unit is suitable for this envrionment and/or if it is hooked up properly.

Anonymous:

Anonymous:

I think you need a higher capacity bowl.

 The bowl upgrade is definitely the way to go, here. Or maybe a series of sponges placed strategically around the floor...

Alien426:

Could somebody come up with an overflow joke, please? I got nothing.

"Most overflow problems cause a loss of stability in the program. This one causes a lack of stability for anyone entering the room."

or

"The server crashed every 48 hours due to an overflow vunerability in the server setup. The only fix was to manually flush the cache."

or

"The overflow problem can be solved by using the pipeline."

Anonymous:

CodeRage:

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

I was going to say the same thing.  Unless this unit has a second component located outside the room, it is only going to generate heat.  In that case, they could just point a fan at the server (if they even need to do this), and let the buildings central AC keep the room cool as a whole.

 Most standalone A/C units have a vent tube that you snake to somewhere else, usually outside. That air is amazingly hot, and for good reason. The condensor still creates a lot of water, which needs to be drained out seperately (humidity condensor). I can't really see the exhaust tube, but if there's that much water coming out, then I get a feeling the exhaust didn't exist. 

Not neccessarily... I was in a shop where we had one of those things vented to another room. Eventually the air that was being vented out would make it's way back into our space through ventilation, but not before the building's AC unit had a chance to process it (effectively making everyone else a degree or two warmer, but still allowing us to get the server room down to a reasonable temperature).

In any case, during high summer - we'd pull out about 4 liters of water from the A/C's drip tray in the morning, and anouther 4 before leaving for the day. It jsut depends on the umitiy and how hard the A/C has to work (that combined with 4-6 people working in the same room all day, I'm sure can account for the H2O).

Anonymous:

I think you need a higher capacity bowl.

You mean fish tank - say 2 gal/day for 3 weeks, so a 50 gallon tank ought to suffice!

it's not really a wtf. as you'll note, the server is up pretty high in that rack. therefore, it would take a really really long time for the water to actually affect it. besides, isn't water another avenue to cool air? man, this guy was brilliant, i hope he was teaching that course on room design...

</blatant sarcasm> 

haha, CAPTCHA="clueless", as in "this guy" 

No no no!

When water evaporates, it cools the surface on which it resided.

The idea was for the A/C to cool the air, and the evaporating water to run along the floor onto the base of the server rack. When the base of the rack cooled from the evaporation, the cold would 'travel' up the metal and cool the server even more ;)

CodeRage:

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

I was going to say the same thing.  Unless this unit has a second component located outside the room, it is only going to generate heat.  In that case, they could just point a fan at the server (if they even need to do this), and let the buildings central AC keep the room cool as a whole.

Carnildo:

CodeRage:

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

I was going to say the same thing.  Unless this unit has a second component located outside the room, it is only going to generate heat.  In that case, they could just point a fan at the server (if they even need to do this), and let the buildings central AC keep the room cool as a whole.

They've got an enclosed server rack there.  What they could be doing is ducting the cold air from the A/C to the rack intake vents, which would keep the server cool without needing to vent the hot air anywhere.

Except that eventually the ambient temperature would become so high that the difference through cooling wouldn't be able to make up for it and the rack temperature would increase. 

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

It's probably one of those ones that has a hose that you put in the window.  It's more expensive than the window kind, but easier to install.

Anon:

Anonymous:

Anonymous:

I think you need a higher capacity bowl.

 The bowl upgrade is definitely the way to go, here. Or maybe a series of sponges placed strategically around the floor...

No, we need a series of tubes.

Precisely! Route the tubes to the router and drain the water to the Internet. Now you've

1. Solved your overflow bug.

2. Help keep the Internet from overheating thanks to watercooling.

3. Make it make it possible to download water for your coffee or tea right at your computer!

The network admin will get right on it once he's back.

--Rank

That wouldn't work because the hot air generated by the A/C would end up filtering back into the A/C.  That would cause the A/C to work harder and in turn, generate even more heat.  In order for the A/C to cool, it has to disperse the heat somewhere else, outside the room. 

I can't wait for the Pop-up Potpourri.

ssprencel:

That wouldn't work because the hot air generated by the A/C would end up filtering back into the A/C.  That would cause the A/C to work harder and in turn, generate even more heat.  In order for the A/C to cool, it has to disperse the heat somewhere else, outside the room. 

 

I can't wait for the Pop-up Potpourri.

This was supposed to reference Carnildo "What they could be doing is ducting the cold air from the A/C to the rack intake vents", but Cody beat me to it. (and sounded more intelligent too)

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason
one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping
water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole
nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools
air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

ssprencel:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

Nothing unusual in that. I have an AC behind me that is entirely in the room.  There's a big tube going up to the window and it terminates in a plastic piece meant to go in a window and allow the hot air to be blown outside.  A normal window unit wouldn't work because of solar screens and CCR's that prohibit them.

It works properly, though--the water goes in a tank, when the tank fills up it turns off.  There are some units these days that have no tank, the water is directed to the hot air exhaust where it evaporates.
 

Anonymous:

I thought A/Cs put off more heat then air they cooled, i.e. the reason
one part of a window unit is outside.   If this thing is dripping
water, then I imagine it has a compressor, condenser, etc., the whole
nine yards.  Have they somehow designed this A/C so that it just cools
air and doesn't put off heat or is this the real WTF?

 

You are correct, sir. The air blowing from the air conditioner to the unit may take heat away from the unit but it would never cool below the ever increasing ambient temperature of the room 

Technically, it would never lower the average temperature of the room, though the cold air coming out of the AC unit will always be below the average temperature of the room.  It would, however, increase the average temperature of the room until the gradient between the room and the outside world becomes so large that it stabilizes.

Anonymous:

Anonymous:

I think you need a higher capacity bowl.

You mean fish tank - say 2 gal/day for 3 weeks, so a 50 gallon tank ought to suffice!

No, no, you're not thinking long-term enough.  I say go for a koi pond.  Functional *and* scenic. 

ssprencel:

That wouldn't work because the hot air generated by the A/C would end up filtering back into the A/C.  That would cause the A/C to work harder and in turn, generate even more heat.  In order for the A/C to cool, it has to disperse the heat somewhere else, outside the room. 

Anonymous:

Anonymous:

I think you need a higher capacity bowl.

You mean fish tank - say 2 gal/day for 3 weeks, so a 50 gallon tank ought to suffice!