Email as best alerting option?

While getting through our Web Analytics reports, one thing that surprised me is that most people seem to be interested into a server monitoring software or environmental sensors with email as alerting capability.

Monitoring is not only detecting when something goes wrong but also making sure that you receive the alert when something like that happens.

Almost any competitive product on the market supports email alerting as it is the most basic way of alerting.

Unfortunately most customers are happy with this most basic way of alerting without realizing the potential risk of it. Some go a step further by having the email forwarded as a text message or on their PDA / Advanced Cell Phones.

Bottom line remains the same though: email requires network connectivity.

If your network is down, then your email alerts will not help you much. You will not get alerted and know that something serious is happening.

Therefore we stress on the fact that you should consider using SMS alerting using a GSM modem. I want to stress on "GSM Modem". As in the ServersCheck's software, quite a few other players offer SMS capabilities through gateways. ServersCheck uses ClickATell to date as one SMS alerting option. If you use SMS alerting through a gateway, the same critic as for email alerting applies: you will not get any SMS message if your network is down.

GSM modems are modems that are attached to a host computer (in our case the system running our software). They require a SIM card and behave like a cell phone. This means that through these GSM modems the software will send out the text message using the wireless phone network to deliver the text message. Even when your network is down you will get the alert message.

We want to stress on the importance of GSM modems as being one of the best ways of alerting (next to email - one does not replace the other). To emphasise this importance, we have decided to run this month a promotion whereby you get in North America & Europe a free FALCOM SAMBA USB GSM Modem for the purchase with a software license from ServersCheck (Business 500 or Premium Edition).

Impact of temperature on systems

Customers have reported to us server racks having caught fire due to an airconditioning failure resulting in an overheat in the racks.

Fire is not something we hear quite often as a result of temperature increase and the lack of temperature monitoring. Fortunately most servers nowadays have built-in security shutting down equipment when temperature is too high.

One of the issues people least are familiar with, is the effect of too high temperatures on CPU calculations. I am not talking in this article about processors melting down - yes that happens more than you think and way before systems catch fire.

Let's return to calculation errors.

A CPU is made of transitors and when those are becoming hot then they tend to leak current. This leakage causes calculation errors having impact on applications stability. Too many errors can cause a system crash.

The frustrating part of this is that initially errors go unnoticed. Only when applications start to fail, server and network monitoring software deployed will trigger alerts. If you want to act before it is too late, then temperature monitoring should be part of your overall monitoring strategy as it has a direct impact on applications & systems availability.

Maximum operating temperature of a CPU is often set around 40°C (104 F). Going above that 40° operating temperature and you are risking big issues rather sooner than later.

Why monitor humidity in computer rooms?

Temperature sensors are our number one selling sensors. No doubt about that.

Last week we tried to explain the difference between ambient temperature monitoring and monitoring the temperature inside a rack, where your systems operate.

The fact that one is doing temperature monitoring is a big leap forward. Temperature is the threat we are most familiar with: entering a boiling server room when the airco unit went down - a familiar sight for many people.

A less visible threat to your equipment is humidity. Less visible also means more neglected; people omit to consider the danger of humidity related to their equipment.

There are 2 threats posed by humidity:
- ESD or Electrostatic buildup and discharge
- Corrosion

Everyone is familiar with corrosion: let metal stay in the rain and you will see it appears. With high humidity levels slowly your components could start showing signs of corrosion resulting in permanent loss of systems and potentially data too.

A low humidity level is a big contributor to the risks of ESD in a computer room, server room or data centre. Industry experts have determined that the risk of ESD increases the lower humidity is and the cooler the room is. Finding the right balance is tricky.

What are the recommended humidity ranges? Most strict ranges advocate humidity between 40% and 60%

Higher than 60% and corrosion may appear. Lower than 40%, ESD is your main ennemy.