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Rear facing switches - heat problem

L
Userlevel 1
Hi guys,

you have been a lot of help to me in the past and I have one more "unusual" question for you...

Now, I am sure some of you might have had to install a bunch of switches rear facing to avoid many cables coming from the back of the servers to the front.

Now I have to deal with a server room which is very small, generate a huge amount of heat and since everything is pushing the heat on the back, some poor extreme switches are sucking in only hot air (and they tend to randomly stop working because of that).

Now the issue is that this server room grew this way during time, to the point that only thinking of moving them facing forward make me prefer to jump of a cliff, for the bazillion of things that are connected.

Do you know in your experience a piece of hardware (a conveyor or something). that can grab the air from the front, isolate (pipe?) so the extreme can suck from the front, while facing the back. And then pump the hot air inside the rack out the back.

thanks....

5 replies

Zdenek Pala
Rank
Userlevel 6
There are switches what can reverse the flow by replacing the powersupplies and rotating fans. (SSA180). I have no idea what switch you have, may be you are lucky and you can just replace PS... Just my 2cents...
Z.
L
Userlevel 1
That s why i love this forum...thanks! On x670 seems to be possible i have to figure out unless someone knows wheter i can do it via CLI or if i have to change the fans. Also i noticed all my FANS on my PSU were stopped. Not sure if it is by design or i have faulty PSUs... But thanks!
P
Userlevel 4
Localhost wrote:

That s why i love this forum...thanks! On x670 seems to be possible i have to figure out unless someone knows wheter i can do it via CLI or if i have to change the fans. Also i noticed all my FANS on my PSU were stopped. Not sure if it is by design or i have faulty PSUs... But thanks!

Here are some resources, unrelated to Extreme Networks, that I've found helpful in years past. Do note that they're about ten years old, but have enough residual value to be worthy of mention now:
Drew C.
Rank
Userlevel 7
Localhost wrote:

That s why i love this forum...thanks! On x670 seems to be possible i have to figure out unless someone knows wheter i can do it via CLI or if i have to change the fans. Also i noticed all my FANS on my PSU were stopped. Not sure if it is by design or i have faulty PSUs... But thanks!

To reverse the airflow (from either back-to-front or front-to-back), you will need to purchase a new fan module and PSU. The two types are BF and FB, used to specify the airflow direction desired. In your case, it sounds like BF is what you need.
Community Manager // Extreme Networks
P
Userlevel 4
Here are some resources, unrelated to Extreme Networks, that I've found helpful in years past. Do note that they're about ten years old, but have enough residual value to be worthy of mention now:

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