Server Room Monitoring

Installed in over 160 server rooms across the UK, Channel Islands, Gibraltar and continental Europe, Spook is fast becoming the IT professional’s choice in managed server room monitoring.

Many companies have disaster recovery plans, but if a business can manage incidents before they escalate into an event they need to recover from; they remain in control and their investment in IT is not compromised. In a recent survey the following is true;

• 60% of our clients had some form of monitoring before moving to Spook
• 65% of our clients have increased their service level during their contract term
• 100% of our clients have renewed their service contracts

An area deemed critical for disaster recovery is monitoring the server room environment where anything adverse could clearly lead to a serious situation. By managing the environment of IT equipment a business can ensure the equipment they have invested in has longevity therefore maximising the return on their investment.

Spook provides two environmental monitoring solutions. Spook Console^© - for businesses that need to monitor multiple server rooms and Spook Central^© – for businesses that need to monitor a single server room.

Both services provide:

• Real-time alarms 24/7
• Automated contact via SMS, e-mail, pager, PDA
• Spook Support contact 24/7 via landline for all critical alerts
• Audit Reports every week
• Incident Reports for every critical alarm
• Installation plans for every room monitored
• Unique mySpook client portal
• Real-time and historical charting for all sensors

Go here for a detailed service overview.

Spook Console:
Spook Console is designed to be installed on the clients LAN/WAN and is protected by the client’s fire wall and IT security. Spook Console pushes information out via the internet and exchange server in real time for all alerts and at regular intervals for sending system heartbeats and CSV data to Spook.  Go here for a Spook Console Topology.

Spook Central:
Spook Central is an ADSL based service whereby Spook provides a dedicated CISCO router at the client site and connects to a secure VPN back to the Spook servers. The installation is a private network and does not reside on the clients LAN/WAN. Spook Central polls each installation every few seconds.  Go here for a Spook Central Topology.

Power Management

It’s not unusual for the cost of electricity and cooling in a computer room to exceed the cost of the equipment itself. With the cost of energy skyrocketing and at the same time, user demand for more performance increasing, IT managers are facing a power, space and cost crisis. 

Spook's array of Power Management products provides ways to analyse power consumption and remotely manage the supply of power to socket level of a PDU Strip.

The following products have been designed to interface with Spook’s environmental monitoring service.

3 Phase Draw
Monitor the real-time draw of each power phase. Spook installs a Transducer around each Red, Blue and Yellow phase and connects back to the Spook Node via a transformer. Clients can set High/Low values on each phase and easily identify the real-time the power consumption of each phase for load balancing.

Spook Power Node
A 1U industrial grade Node with 8 x C12 sockets. Each socket is individually monitored and can be securely switched on/off or rebooted remotely. Alarm thresholds can be set at socket level of global level. The Spook Power Node also comes with additional RJ12 connections for expansion to environmental monitoring whereby Spook can provide an industrial 16 ports splitter unit to increase the number of externally attached sensors. For a complete specification and cost breakdown please download the Spook Power Catalogue.

Spook Satellite PDU

A range of PDU’s in different sizes. Available in 1U or vertical mounted strips, 16 or 32 amp with 12, 20 or 24 sockets. Each PDU is Ethernet attached and integrates into the Spook environmental monitoring service. The PDU is able to monitor;

Volts, Amps, Real Power, Apparent Power, Power Factor, KWatt Hours

For a complete specification and cost breakdown please download the Spook Power Catalogue.

Spook Auto-Switch
Auto-switch from the primary to the secondary power source if the primary power source fails. Once the primary power source becomes available again, the auto-switch will revert back to the primary power feed. For a complete specification and cost breakdown please download the Spook Power Catalogue.

Spook in-line Power Monitor
Update existing power strips with Spook’s in-line power meter. By inserting the meter between the power distribution unit and the power source (wall plug) identification of amps, volts, watts and power factor are shown. The values are continually displayed in bright red LED numerals. The standard unit uses IEC C-13 and C-14 connectors. Using these connectors the device is rated at 10 amps.

For a complete specification and cost breakdown please download the Spook Power Catalogue.

Surveillance

SnapShot from Spook is a low cost secure internet based surveillance service.  View your installation securely via the internet on Spook’s servers. SnapShot provides a real-time view as well as capturing events triggered by motion detection. SnapShot is also configured to take an hourly picture.

All images are stored safely and securely on the Spook file servers for current and historical review. Statistics are posted onto your account and you can search images based on activity or date. 

Once your space allocation is full you can either choose to archive or to auto delete the oldest images or upgrade your allocated data storage space.

Thermal Imaging

To the naked eye everything may look absolutely fine within the server room environment; however there may well be a heat-related problem just waiting to surface.

Spook’s Thermal Imaging Survey Reports offer clients a valuable insight into how their IT equipment and environment looks from a temperature perspective. Associated infrastructure elements critical to the IT equipment are also included, e.g. Air Conditioning units and electrical PDU’s.

The surveys are intended to support existing preventative maintenance programmes and, in order to maximise their effectiveness, our inspections are conducted at regular intervals throughout the year. This enables Spook and the client to review the latest report and, importantly, easily compare its findings with earlier versions to identify any potential trend or issue.

All Spook Survey Reports include multiple images all presented in ‘dual format’ (Visible and Thermal) allowing for easy location identification.

For those hard to pin down intermittent problems Spook is able to set up a camera and capture Thermal and visible images over a time period (e.g. overnight). These images can be auto-triggered by a temperature value or by a preset time-lapse period.

Specialised Monitoring

Spook is able to monitor many different events.  Our service can be tailored to present a generic or ad-hoc solution.  Each of our services is designed to provide valuable early warning data together with trend analysis and real-time alarms. 

All Spook services are supported by Spook's own dedicated support team 24/7.

If you have an unusual requirement to monitor something why not Contact Us to see how we would provide a low cost solution for you.