Data Center Maintenance Best Practices

Data centers are more than just an investment. They are a critical resource that customers and staff depend upon. Data center managers must employ Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM), maintenance, and equipment life-cycle management to ensure the availability of critical systems.

Effective maintenance strategies help protect your data center from unplanned outages, and reduce repairs and downtime related costs.

Consider the following maintenance strategies to improve data center performance and efficiency.

Visual Inspection

Ongoing inspection is an important part of the maintenance process and may include review of operating parameters, generator performance, air and water temperature, humidity, and more.

Cleaning

Keeping the data center clean protects systems from common environmental threats. For example, accumulation of dust and debris can hinder cooling and lead to equipment failure and increased cooling cost.  Basic cleaning maintenance can include:

• Remove dust accumulation
• Clean racks and cabinets
• Change filters
• Sweep under raised floors

Testing

Test critical components and systems regularly to ensure they are operating within desired specifications. For example, UPS battery testing is critical for preventing system failure.

Reporting & Monitoring

Use measurements, reports, and other analysis to help identify trends and changes in the infrastructure that may pinpoint issues requiring equipment repair or replacement.

Repairs

Corrective maintenance includes repairs like tightening nuts and bolts, or replacing bearings and motors. Repair and replacement decisions are a critical part of the maintenance process to ensure reliability of system operations.

Vertiv’s Data Center Planner

The data center landscape is continuously evolving and as facilities expand to remote locations, and requirements change, data center managers need a comprehensive solution for planning and managing their data center infrastructure.

Vertiv’s Data Center Planner software provides real time insights about equipment including their location, current capacities, and projected growth, all from a single console.

Features include:

• Inventory Management: includes the physical location and attributes of all equipment
• Configuration Management: simplify planning and management with a complete model of the environment
• Capacity Tracking: know the infrastructure capacities and align resources to meet data center requirements
• Reporting: gain insight into the data center status and improve decision making with comprehensive analytics

With Vertiv’s Data Center Planner, data center managers are able to oversee inventory, anticipate capacity needs, improve planning, prepare for new implementations, and share data across departments to support strategic operations management. Therefore, decisions can be made without compromising availability.

Partner with Us

We’ll help you reduce downtime and implement effective data maintenance and management solutions.

Check out our data center professional services including HVAC Thermal Management, Data Center Assessments, Electrical Maintenance Testing & Engineering to ensure optimal performance of data centers.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can provide continuous availability and performance optimization for your data center.