Reliable Environmental MonitoringAVTECH’s TemPageR Is Flexible Enough For Any Data Center Or Server Room
Written By John Brandon - Processor Vol. 31 Issue 22
Planning for disaster recovery is a good idea, but the best approach is disaster prevention. In any data center-regardless of size or location-environmental sensors, offsite duplication systems, and even simple JavaScript routines that trigger air-conditioning units when temperatures are above normal can help prevent serious problems that cause business delays and infrastructure nightmares. One simple monitoring product is AVTECH's TemPageR, a small monitoring device with sensors that installs on a server rack, wall, or ceiling and regularly scans data center locations for temperature changes.
The product name has a unique story. AVTECH (888.220.6700; www.AVTECH.com) started 21 years ago providing alerting software for IT staff and other field personnel who would receive the notice on their pager. Now that pagers are not as ubiquitous, AVTECH has improved its flagship PageR Enterprise software to support a myriad of smartphone devices, text messages, and email alerts. TemPageR is the company's entry-level hardware solution that's designed for small to medium-sized IT environments that need to monitor a server room but may not need the more advanced Room Alert monitoring systems that AVTECH also offers.
"The name is kind of antique; we also alert to iPhones, BlackBerrys, and that kind of thing," says Michael Sigourney, senior product specialist at AVTECH. "The original product could automatically dial out via a phone line and send a message to a pager. Since 1988, we started making more environmental sensors for monitoring temperature, power, humidity, and other things. We wanted a product that only monitors temperature, and that's how we came up with the name TemPageR."
How TemPageR Works
About the size of a smartphone, TemPageR has one port for your network and a 5-volt power connector. The unit also runs on a backup 5-volt battery-powered mini UPS for about 20 to 30 minutes in the event of a power failure. Every TemPageR device comes with a license for PageR Enterprise monitoring software with advanced alert features. There's also an extra 25-foot RJ-11 cable and remote thermostat sensor for monitoring another location or part of a cabinet.
TemPageR provides a great amount of flexibility in how you configure the alerts. There is no limit on the number of messages and emails you can configure, and you can set up a hierarchy so that, for example, a technician receives an email at one level, and everyone in the IT group receives a more urgent alert at another level. Network managers can also use JavaScript, VB script, or another command to automatically enable an air-conditioning unit or other device on the network.
TemPageR automatically logs temperature data, which managers can view for historical reference and make decisions about IT equipment configuration. A graphing option in the bundled Device ManageR software shows a visual representation of temperature fluctuations over time and for each sensor.
AVTECH provides a clear upgrade path for the TemPageR so that an SME can add Room Alert products that monitor more environmental conditions, such as power and humidity, but use the same software to track all sensors. The TemPageR package comes with a license for PageR Enterprise, but you don't necessarily have to use the monitoring software with the TemPageR product and could use it with other sensors. At that point, you would just use the Device ManageR software that also comes with TemPageR.
"What makes TemPageR attractive is that it is so cost effective," adds Sigourney. "It has the ability to log the data; graph the data; and send out alerts as monitoring packets instead of a simple thermostat, so when you have a problem, if you are anywhere in the world, you can see the real-time temperature and see a real-time graph showing the temperature every minute with historical data."
Upcoming Features
One of the main upgrades in the works for the TemPageR product is PoE (Power over Ethernet), which should be available as an option early next year. Sigourney says there is not a high demand for PoE today because the product is designed for smaller data centers in which power connections are readily available. TemPageR runs on firmware that can be upgraded, and there is a secondary application for managing the device, which is also updated frequently. One of the upgrades that AVTECH is considering is adding the capability of sending sensor data to a Twitter feed so that managers can track the status that way, without needing to always have email running or a phone available.
AVTECH is also considering an iPhone app for TemPageR, which would allow managers to see sensor data, historical temp readings, and graphs on the iPhone. These additions to the product line provide more flexibility in how an SME manager can get a view into the temperature readings inside the data center. This helps prevent equipment failures or a catastrophe when, as Sigourney put it, someone in a small company forgets to turn off a heating unit or the plumbing fails in the office complex. Sigourney explains that, in an SME, the data center or server room is often not built from scratch with environmental conditions in mind and is often built in a location where there may have been office staff at one time, or right next to a restroom or lunchroom.
"We don't believe in disaster recovery per se, but in disaster prevention-that is what all of our products are designed to do," says Sigourney. "You can keep the sensor management as simple as you want, because an SME does not always have the time to manage the sensors. We have people who get very creative and complex and those who just want an alert when a server goes past a set temp."
About the size of a smartphone, TemPageR has one port for your network and a 5-volt power connector. The unit also runs on a backup 5-volt battery-powered mini UPS for about 20 to 30 minutes in the event of a power failure. Every TemPageR device comes with a license for PageR Enterprise monitoring software with advanced alert features. There's also an extra 25-foot RJ-11 cable and remote thermostat sensor for monitoring another location or part of a cabinet.
888.220.6700
Sales@AVTECH.com
AVTECH Software, Inc.