Server lives in the utility cupboard, gets weird in summer
A server in the meter cupboard is a classic SMB mistake: too warm, no cooling, dusty, no UPS. It runs until the first heatwave, then the file server falls dead silent.
Try this first
- 1Measure temperature over a week with a cheap datalogger, not once with a thermometer
- 2Keep the room below the vendor ceiling (often around 27 C), with margin in summer
- 3Put a UPS in front, with monitoring that mails or Slacks when the battery ages out
- 4Move the server to a lockable, ventilated room, or replace it with a cloud equivalent
When to bring us in
No ventilation option and no cooling budget: that is usually the signal to move toward Microsoft 365 plus Azure Files or a hosted server, not to bolt an AC into the meter cupboard.
See also
- One DC or two DCs for an SMB office?Two is almost always the right answer; one DC is a single point of failure for logon, DNS and GPOs.
- Should I split FSMO roles across two DCs?For a small domain all on one DC is fine; with two DCs splitting is tidier but not required.
- How do I know my AD replication is healthy?Replication errors creep in silently; they only surface when logins or GPOs misbehave.
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