Water leaks in data centers are the second most common source of data center outage after electrical failure.

How to Avoid Swimming in your Data Center

May 11th, 2008 | by Steve O'Donnell |

Disaster

You might think that your data center is under the spotlight, constantly monitored, secure and well designed but what if I told you that typically the second most common cause of catastrophic failures (after electrical) in your Data Center are water leaks?

Would your data center survive this?

Water can come from three main sources:

Leaks inside the Data Center from refrigeration equipment that uses water for cooling (CRAC and Water Cooled Cabinets)
Leaks from inside the building, WC and kitchen facilities, heating and cooling plant for offices
Water from outside the building such as flood water from rivers and storm drains, ground water, rain and damaged water mains.

We need to approach water leaks in three ways:

Initial survey to ensure that the location of our data center is not in a flood plain and that the site is well protected from external water sources. Confirmation that the fabric of the building is well enough designed and properly maintained to prevent the ingress of rain (even in extreme storm conditions). Check how sources of water inside the building are routed (check hot and cold water storage tanks, pipe runs, waste pipes, WCs, as well as water based fire suppression systems in the office space). Office space above a data center is almost always dangerous from a water ingress perspective. Look for opportunities for stupidity, like overflowing wash hand basins and WC units. Where would the water go?
Protection to ensure that any water entering the data center does not have the opportunity to build up and cause a problem. If you are really worried install drains and a sump pump under the plenum floor. Ensure the floor space is sealed and all cable routes through partition walls are stopped up to be air and water tight. This is essential for air handling efficiency and fire suppression also.
Monitoring is critical in a data center - we absolutely need to be able to detect water under the plenum floor. Mostly water detection systems use a cable that you run under the floor that causes an alarm to be triggered if it comes into contact with water. In a large site this can be extremely difficult to manage as the water leak can be anywhere along the length of the cable run!

There is a very competent article in Automated Buildings that covers the different types of monitoring available.

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