Dust Controlling & Cleaning Guide For Data Center, Server Rooms and IT Buildings

The regular air circulation in server rooms and data centers pollutes the hardware with dust. Therefore, regular interior equipment (server cabinets, machines, lamps) and raised floor cleaning (electrostatically conductive panels, antistatic coverings, and underfloor space) in IT buildings should be carried out to ensure the availability of the devices. How can dust be removed and cleaned in server rooms? What cleaning methods are best used to tackle this dust in data centers? Our tips show you how to remove dust or even better avoid it in IT buildings. 

What Are The Hazards of Dust To Data Centers & Server Rooms?

Data Centers, as an active mechanism, are capable of responding to excessive contamination from airborne dust. And it is that, by definition, dust, are fine particles of matter called airborne, which usually consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources, such as soil, dust raised by the climate, volcanic eruptions and pollution.

• 1. Dust can affect everything from energy efficiency to critical equipment failure. Due to the fact that the circuit boards and chips of modern equipment and computers are becoming smaller by manufacture, these contaminants more easily cause contact intermittence in connectors, and make cleaning more difficult.

• 2. Also, dust and lint particles from clothing, cardboard, paper, and other seemingly benign sands can become statically charged and interfere with servers, causing data loss, bad commands, restarts, and other problems.

• 3. The general rule of thumb should be: the less dust gets in the air and on the floor, the better. Depending on the material and intensity of the building dust, it can be harmful to health.

• Dust poses a great danger to effective heat dissipation, dust in heat sinks and fans obstructs heat dissipation over time, dust on data center raised floor effect the underfloor air condition system, increases operating temperature, lowers life expectancy and increases the failure rate. Building dust from construction works within a few minutes.

• 4. The other downside is the dust pollution in the cavity (cable floor) of the data center raised floor. Dust heaps up in the cavity of the raised floor, where raised floor support accessories and cable ties from the assembly work collected. The air circulation required for cooling whirls up this dust. Dust settles in every tiny corner and crack in the server room and server cabinets. Active devices such as switches & servers suck in the dust and this settles on power supplies, fans, heat sinks and electronics. The hardware and devices are no longer adequately cooled. 

What Are The Benefits of Data Center Dust Cleaning?

• Prolong the life of the new equipment installed in the rooms, avoiding contamination of the same.

• Minimize the risk of fire as a result of dust accumulated on hardware.

• Avoid electrostatic discharges that cause transmission failures between equipment.

• Avoid the existence of ferric material (oxides).

• Minimize mechanical wear and hardware failure.

• Minimize air pollution

• Remove live contaminants

• Avoid cleaning by unqualified personnel that may cause breakdowns and falls of the system

• Keep the CPD environment free of contaminating particles.

• Extend the life of air conditioning filters.

• Avoid the use of corrosive cleaning products that can attack the hardware and contaminate the environment.

What Dust Cleaning Work Is Needed In Data Centers?

In a data center, you cannot afford business interruptions, operational failures, hardware defects and data loss. IT managers for server rooms and operators of data centers must prevent physical risks and impending dangers. One of the most common causes for IT & IT interruptions and failures are dust and building dust. The server room places particularly high demands on security and thus on cleanliness and freedom from dust for information technology (IT) such as servers, data storage, data distributors and communication technology. The success of a professional building dust remediation depends on the fine cleaning. The final cleaning also serves to remove the contamination dusts in areas and areas that are not easily accessible, such as in the server room raised floor, racks, doors, frames, seals, on, under and behind cupboards, lamps, pipes and cable trays. 

IT Building Interior Dust Cleaning

If building dust has settled in your IT system, you need professional cleaning work to remove the building dust using special ESD equipment with a HEPA filter.

Server Cabinets & IT Equipment Cleaning

Static electricity attracts dust and dirt. In order not to jeopardize availability and IT security and to avoid interruptions and server failures, the premises, server cabinets and IT devices such as servers, storages and switches should be professionally cleaned of dust. Building dust cleaning after construction work is particularly important, since building dust poses a great risk to the IT infrastructure and increases the risk of fire.

Wire Trays & Cable Routes Cleaning

The dust caused is also on high-level supply lines (fiber optic cables, network cables, power lines). These must also be cleaned by suction.

How To Do Dust Cleaning In Data Centers?

The dust is quite stubborn, and after wiping, there is still residue on the surfaces. It is important to first remove the dust on server cabinets, devices, cables, lamps and other equipment.

• 1. Preferably use a special vacuum cleaner that filters the dust well and does not blow it out again. These are special vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters that filter even the smallest dust particles (fine dust).

• 2. Then wipe dry, the most effective are rags made of microfiber, which can hold the dust. 

• 3. It is usually not really clean after wiping once or twice, there is still a fine film of dust that must be wiped with a damp cloth. Wiping is usually best with clear water, otherwise streaks form. 4. Water is by no means recommended in the server room. Rinse the rag frequently. 

• 4. Since the dust remains in the air for a long time after construction work and only slowly settles, the process should be repeated. In this way, building dust can be removed and a good result can be achieved. 

• 5. However, avoid draft, otherwise the building dust will spread throughout the data center.

Data Center (Sever Room) Raised Floor Cleaning

On the raised floor, there is contamination by dust particles that settle on and in your devices. Dust & construction dust does not only accumulate under the raised floor panels in the cavity in the data center after construction work, conversion work or renovation. To ensure the high availability of IT systems, double floor cleaning is a regular necessity. The fine dust circulation in the data center caused by ventilation and cooling collects a lot of dust on and in the sensitive devices and can lead to server failures. Secure your data center / computer room / server room operation by regular cavity floor cleaning and raised floor panel cleaning in the data center. You should clean the floor panels and underfloor space with antistatic suction pads and cleaning agents according to the manufacturer's specifications.

How To Do Dust Cleaning For Data Center Raised Access Floor System?

Important for you to know in advance: You need specially trained IT experts to ensure that the server room raised floor cleaning can also take place during operation. 

• 1. Start by lifting a few floor panels, cleaning and removing coarse dust and coarse dirt particles. 

• 2. Then we clean the underside of the floor panels and vacuum the bare floor, sub-floor and floor supports with special fine filters and ESD vacuum cleaners. 

• 3. Put the cleaned access floor tiles back in and clean the surfaces with special ESD cleaners, damp with no water. 

• 4. Thanks to the surface, raised floors can be cleaned dry with a vacuum cleaner or with a damp floor cloth. Avoid water on the surface and on the edge of the panels, as it could damage the floor.