The Server Room Basics Most Offices Overlook

Hardware Fails in Bad Rooms

A reliable server is partly a function of where it lives. Heat, dust and unstable power shorten hardware life and cause outages that look like software faults.

Getting the Room Right

Keep the space cooled and ventilated — server cupboards that double as storerooms run hot. Put servers and network gear on a UPS so a brief power cut does not become a hard crash, and size it to allow a clean shutdown. Keep the room reasonably clean and physically secured; not everyone needs a key.

None of this is expensive next to the cost of replacing cooked hardware or recovering a database after an unclean shutdown. The environment is infrastructure too.