How dangerous is a wet server room floor

Question

We have a couple of tower servers in a small server room. The carpet is wet as a result of the cooler and no-one else really seems concerned about this but I'm not too happy. I'm only a lowly developer, but I seem to be more concerned than the hardware guys!

Is this dangerous? What's the worst that could happen? My instinct says water + (electric * allOfOurData) = dangerous.

Solution 1

Carpet is a big 'NO! NO!!' for a room hosting equipments that are of high value, because of the fire risk. Water is too, for obvious reasons. You should straight call maintenance immediately and have them repair the drainage system. The water could really cause problems, inform your superiors right away and draw their attention on the matter.

Solution 2

Nobody has mentioned "why" water in a server room is dangerous. It might be obvious, but just to put it out there...

Server rooms have a good deal of electrical equipment running on AC and DC current. Usually they are well grounded, but sometimes insulation breaks down, or a wire gets pinched. A person touching an electrical potential is protected by their skin or clothing (gloves). This provides a resistance that prevents a current running from the higher potential piece of equipment to ground. Adding water to this situation decreases the resistance allowing more current to pass through the body. (in both the AC and DC forms of Ohms law Current = Voltage / Resistance(Impedance))

If you are wet, a 60V potential difference can send enough current across your heart to kill you. Not 120V, not 240V, 60V. You don't need a main electrical cord to cause the short.

To keep beating the horse... You are likely legally permitted to refuse to enter the server room. In the United States, OSHA and the DOL regulations may apply to this situation. OSHA standard 1910.22(a)(2) is what you can reference. Not that it is a good idea to throw around OSHA regs, but they exist for a reason.

If you do need to work in that environment, then invest in some good PPE (gloves, shirt and shoes) to afford yourself some protection. But seriously, this is a bad situation and should be fixed.

Solution 3

If these machines are directly on the carpet (carpet in a server room ? seriously ?) then you might want to lift them off a few inches.

Any non-conductive material will do - wood, stone, plastic, foam, whatever.

In a pinch, put some cardboard under them.

Solution 4

We have a couple of tower servers in a small server room.

Put them on a table.

Solution 5

You're 100% right to be worried, you need to inform your management and recommend that the servers be shut down and the room powered off until the problem is resolved. Anything else is negligence.

View more solutions

Comments

[tombull89]

If servers are racked and no cables are touching the floor you should be fine. Get your site team to look at the cooler and send an e-mail to the lead SysAdmin detailing your concerns to cover your ass and for a "I told you so" moment. Also...why carpet in a server room?

[GOUTHAM REDDY]

I think the carpet was put in to absorb the water...

[tombull89]

@Heisenburg...you have got to be joking.

[GOUTHAM REDDY]

I'm honestly not! Thanks for the answers guys, going to go show this to management!

[tombull89]

So, instead of solving the problem, there was carpet put in to soak up the water. The carpet where your servers are standing on. I don't even...

[ddm-j]

Also, are you sure it is water and not coolant fluid?

[MDMarra]

If the carpet was put there to soak up the water, you need to update your resume. That place is a ticking time bomb.

[dunxd]

Surely you need some hot air blowers in there to dry out the carpet.

[Phot Sirch]

You could use a fishbowl to collect the condensation from the cooler like these guys did

[Yeodave]

I would also be concerned about humidity in the room. You need to fix that air-con and put a dehumidifier in that room pronto to remove the water.

[Totumus Maximus]

Sure a carpet in the serverroom can cause accidents, but mayhaps they want some accident to occur to the machines? I guess it's not their money on the line. Maybe they even collect some insurance money on the go?

[William Hilsum]

After reading this, just thought I would add a bit of general knowledge - Did anyone know, during World War 2, They worked on colossus in a room that was flooded due to a radiator leak... The technicians wore wellies as an insulator!

[artlung]

So the towers get hot, the swamp cooler cools the towers, the cooler drips condensation, the condensation is absorbed by carpet. I like dunxd's suggestion to use hot air blowers to dry the carpet! But you might want to add a few more swamp coolers to cool the hot air blowers. Oh, wait...

[NitroxDM]

All I have to say is: RUN DUDE!!! Don't think about it just run!

[Paperjam]

In addition to the other concerns, I'd be worried about the nasty things that are growing in the carpet. Mold alone could be reason enough for OSHA to shut the place down.

[user1364702]

The carpets are there to absorb electrons on dry days.

[ChrisFletcher]

You laugh, but an ex girlfriend of mine who worked as a teacher once told me a story about their IT department. They put the new server (with all the migrated data) under a leaky aircon unit, didn't last very long!

[Joe H.]

Is there a raised floor, and if so, what's under it?

[GOUTHAM REDDY]

I asked this question on a whim and it's had an incredible response! Thankyou all so much for the advice.

[user712092]

Somebody might slip on it and crash into some hardware?

[user9517]

You are in the UK. The much maligned Health and Safety at work act makes health and safety everyone's responsibility. This is a dangerous situation that should be reported to your H&S rep immediately.

[Dan]

No idea why this was down voted. In a pinch there's nothing wrong with this advice. They should be raised regardless, to be honest.

[duenni]

I think it's better to solve the root of the problem then to put the servers on a piece of wood.

[adaptr]

Sure - when ? Tomorrow ? Next Week ? I would advise him to put them on some sort of elevated support RIGHT THE F NOW.

[dunxd]

+1 for realism - some people on this forum forget that there is a real world out there that everyone has to deal with, rather than some miraculous instant implemention of the perfect solution.

[adaptr]

Have you ever worked for a business ? You know, the kind that makes money ?

[tombull89]

@adaptr, note the of the word "reccomend". Not "demand".

[Philip]

@adaptr Yes he has/does. Also the kind that doesn't have water flying all over their DC, nor carpet, and has redundant systems so if one has to be shutdown there's no disruption of service. Something about an ounce of planning and a pound of solution...

[Sorpigal]

I think this was more of a "How to avoid being fired when this blows up" answer: lodge protests now.

[albiglan]

"but... but... the carpet is water logged. So no fire hazard!" I can just hear someone thinking this is a jenius solution.

[jva]

What good does cardboard on a wet floor? Will it not just soak through?

[RyanTM]

don't forget the increased static (ESD) risk of carpet.

[user229044]

@Ryan not such a concern when the carpet is wet...

[voretaq7]

@adaptr - Have you ever been fired (or worse sued) for professional negligence? You make the recommendation to the appropriate person(s), in writing, and keep a copy. If management ignores the recommendation and then comes after you when everything blows up you produce the copy.

[voretaq7]

+1 -- I wouldn't recommend cardboard at all myself, but definitely get your servers at least a few inches off the floor - ESPECIALLY if it's carpeted. They will suck in a lot less dust and be much happier in the long run.

[ceejayoz]

Cardboard is pretty conductive when wet.

[Adam Robinson]

@ceejayoz: I find that most things are pretty conductive when wet. Or, rather, that water is pretty conductive when wet.

[TomTom]

+1. Given the fuse size in some server rooms it may be ILLEGAL for a person to go into the room while the electricity is on (not even servers running - you will ahve to remove the fuses). You get into an area where legal regulations exist and ignore them.

[TomTom]

Youc an possibly also call the authorities / union. A server room runs a lot of electricity, there are legal regulations for worker safety. You may have to turn off power and get it fixed NOW by LAW.

[TomTom]

;) COnsider this room a hazard and in violation of laws. Server rooms run a lot of power. There are legal sides for environments with high electrical densities. A conductive floor is a NOT. Water on floor? ;) The building inspector may want to tell your employer no people are allowed there.

[ceejayoz]

Foam, stone, etc. won't soak the water up, though.

[Adam Robinson]

@ceejayoz: True enough; just a joke ;)

[Bill]

If you can't sell it because of the safety hazard concerning water and electricity, consider this. A constantly wet carpet is a breeding ground for mold, stink, and much worse. Legionaries disease was tracked back to accumulated standing condensation from an air conditioner. I mean seriously, wet carpet anywhere?

[MadHatter]

You turn the "floor is wet" into a "server room is very hot" issue. That's great when management take environmental issues seriously, but at this poor chap's place? They'll probably wait for the silicon to melt out the CPU cores before fixing the blocked condensate line.

[TomTom]

Wait until this short circuits the high amps cabling that may be there. And someone dies.

[MDMarra]

@adaptr Last I knew, Chopper has consulted on the creation of many large scale data centers across the world. If I had to pick only a single person whose advice I would take about data centers for the remainder of my career, it would be his.

[Ward - Reinstate Monica]

Why is a BS answer so highly voted? We have flame-resistant, anti-static carpet installed over our raised floor. Normal household carpet would be a bad idea, but a blanket "NO CARPET" statement is BS.

[Stein G. Strindhaug]

+1 For mentioning corrosion which was my first thought. The water from an ac is basically "destilled" water, and not very conductive to electricity until ions from salt or metals are added, but the moisture will speed up corrosion a lot

[Admin]

@Bill's concern is quite important and other considerations are also worth mentioning in the appropriate order. The biggest concern is health and safety of staff. Also, if this situation is located in the US, one of the most litigious places on Earth, the previous two concerns create doubly large and unnecessary financial gambles for the owners.

[stefanbc]

This would be something to make a high-enough leader aware in a way that cannot possibly come back to the messenger.

[Admin]

Short term: Plumbing a drain to the unit perhaps. An indoor unit that is not optimized for cooling the air mass/temperature gradient is also likely to be inefficient.Cooling is a major cost. I've seen capital planning reviews on these size nanodatacenter closets costing way more than renting servers (CRAC/HVAC installation, power not counting servers costing $50-100K for merely 1-5 racks).

[Qzen]

Your story sounds as a perfect example of the Broken windows theory (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory)

[Levi Morrison]

This is the most practical advice here, even if it isn't the best solution.

[NinjaBomb]

+1 for suggesting to document everything before the carnage occurs.

[BCS]

The "not very conductive" bit is rendered somewhat moot as soon as it hits the floor as there will be plenty stuff added to it at that point.

[BCS]

@adaptr Sounds like the OP is very close to working for an ex-business. You know, the kind that loses money?

[ewanm89]

okay, I can make batteries out of cardboard, wood and foam, if there are the right electrolytes in the water it's worse than just being conductive with a porous material.

[ewanm89]

I think there is probably quite a list of regulatory authorities one could threaten to tell if something is not done instantly (off switch), as well as getting lawyers involved.

[Khushboo Tahir]

"Is this dangerous?" Anyone in the modern world who asks that about a room full of electric/electronic equipment sitting on damp carpet or above damp carpet needs to question their education. It's why we install GFCI sockets in bathrooms. Standing in a puddle of water and touching a computer case on a system that has a bad ground and an electrical fault is a potentially deadly situation.

[Khushboo Tahir]

If the carpet is over concrete, your distilled water assumption goes away pretty quickly.

[Khushboo Tahir]

Death or physical injury trumps data loss any day of the week...

[hookenz]

If they are sitting on wet carpet then get them remotely turned off first. Then shut off all the power at the wall before picking them up with your bare hands off the wet carpet. :)

[Andy Fleming]

+1 for pointing out the obvious :)

[Mark Booth]

In the UK you can be considered professionally negligent if you don't report Health and Safety problem that you notice. Once you've reported it to your H&S representative (which every company must have, if it has employees IIRC) then you can relax as it's no longer your responsibility/liability.

[Andrew Barber]

I would have upvoted, if not for the 'cardboard'.