Question

Could dust from ceiling damage in NOC be fatal to equipment?

server room, Network operations centers, Vendor support, Maintenance contracts

Question posted on behalf of Allen:

We have a very small Server room basically it's a 10X10 closet, with cooling but no positive air flow, and no raised floor and the door is always closed.

Problem: a contractor in the Floor above us (16th floor) drilled an 8" hole through the ceiling in our Server room/closet. A slab of concrete and tons of dust fell to the floor, filling the room with dust. It was 8 hours before we even knew this issue occurred.

Question: With the amount of dust in a confined space being circulated by the CPU and other internal fans in the 2 full racks that we have, could we have irreparable damage?
We have been told by the tenant's insurance company that they will clean the equipment, but does this solve the problem?

Additional information: over 70% of the equipment is still under manufactures warranty. Will the manufactures cover any issues should they occur in the next year or two? Or should we just push the insurance company to replace equipment that is under warranty?

Thanks

Allen

The chances of this causing immediate problems with the server are slight. A good vacuuming of the server insides may help alleviate future issues. Chances are, the server was already full of dust before this incident occurred. If the server is under warranty, I suggest waiting until a failure and just report it as such. I wouldn't mention the dust problem. Most vendors don't even ask for the cause of the failure.