We have a couple of tower servers in a small server room. The carpet is wet as a result of the cooler and no-one else really seems concerned about this but I'm not too happy. I'm only a lowly developer, but I seem to be more concerned than the hardware guys!
Is this dangerous? What's the worst that could happen? My instinct says water + (electric * allOfOurData) = dangerous.
Carpet is a big 'NO! NO!!' for a room hosting equipments that are of high value, because of the fire risk. Water is too, for obvious reasons. You should straight call maintenance immediately and have them repair the drainage system. The water could really cause problems, inform your superiors right away and draw their attention on the matter.
Nobody has mentioned "why" water in a server room is dangerous. It might be obvious, but just to put it out there...
Server rooms have a good deal of electrical equipment running on AC and DC current. Usually they are well grounded, but sometimes insulation breaks down, or a wire gets pinched. A person touching an electrical potential is protected by their skin or clothing (gloves). This provides a resistance that prevents a current running from the higher potential piece of equipment to ground. Adding water to this situation decreases the resistance allowing more current to pass through the body. (in both the AC and DC forms of Ohms law Current = Voltage / Resistance(Impedance))
If you are wet, a 60V potential difference can send enough current across your heart to kill you. Not 120V, not 240V, 60V. You don't need a main electrical cord to cause the short.
To keep beating the horse... You are likely legally permitted to refuse to enter the server room. In the United States, OSHA and the DOL regulations may apply to this situation. OSHA standard 1910.22(a)(2) is what you can reference. Not that it is a good idea to throw around OSHA regs, but they exist for a reason.
If you do need to work in that environment, then invest in some good PPE (gloves, shirt and shoes) to afford yourself some protection. But seriously, this is a bad situation and should be fixed.
If these machines are directly on the carpet (carpet in a server room ? seriously ?) then you might want to lift them off a few inches.
Any non-conductive material will do - wood, stone, plastic, foam, whatever.
In a pinch, put some cardboard under them.
You're 100% right to be worried, you need to inform your management and recommend that the servers be shut down and the room powered off until the problem is resolved. Anything else is negligence.
$10 says that it's "leaking" because nobody is venting the AC unit to the outside - given the ad-hoc sound of this set up, I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't installed the unit properly. That means, of course, that the room is likely also overheating on a regular basis.
Turn everything off and go to the pub ... if asked simply state that you will begin taking things seriously when everybody else does.
Things to do:
But please for the love of all things binary do not leave this kit sailing towards the iceberg.
Ummm. As you said Water and electric = BAD... in a server room = Dangerous.... I would soon rather turn everything off clean it up than someone get hurt.... Is cheaper in the long run.. Talk to the "IT manager" if not go higher... that is dangerous.
Even if this is not a problem short term, the chances of this causing other problems like rusting cases and rotting floors and walls makes it a must fix. The first is a pain but the second could end up forcing you to completely vacate the room to fix.
One word: mold
Now you not only have a safety issue (shock hazard) and a reliability issue (potential equipment failure), you have a health issue.
Document EVERYTHING, signed and dated, with pictures. First alert your immediate superior, and failing that, go up the chain of command. Make a record of every communication. If necessary, consult your company's legal counsel (if their attorney says they need to fix it, they might jump). If still nothing happens, go to OSHA or your local equivalent.
Then when they fire you for whistleblowing, take your mountain of documents to your attorney and sue their pants off for illegal termination of employment.
WOW -- I can't believe this situation. I wouldn't even want water on the floor of the bathroom let alone an office or server room environment. Many of the risks/hazards have been addressed here but honestly, the "cooler" which I assume is an air conditioner, shouldn't have leaked condensate onto the floor in the first place. When the portable air conditioner is replaced, be sure to get one that has an automatic safety that cuts off the unit if the condensate is full or the condensate line is blocked. Then you avoid the water on the floor issue.
I was in a similar situation where the roof had a leak and there was water in the server room. There was a power distribution panel in the room. I talked to a person that used to work for the electric company. I asked him what would happen if I would have accidentally touched the power distribution panel. He said it probably wouldn't kill you but it would explode the arm that you touched it with and the opposite limb.
In my early career I visited a site where the cleaner used the server room to store her mop bucket. The cantankerous elderly lady cast me sideways evil glances for the next 2 weeks after I issued an ultimatum to the Managing Director of the site. I left site with guarantees a locked door would be installed and the cleaner would be forever banished from the server room.
Needless to say a year later I was back on site - no locked door - soaking wet server and the UPS had short-circuited. Needless to say the tape backup had not been changed for 8 months and the a lot of people lost a lot of work. At least the cleaner had somewhere convenient to store her bucket in the interim.
The moral is bad things usually happen when people don't give a cr*p. Your situation is so absurdly bad you need to keep on moving up the chain until you can find someone who gives one. Try the hardware guy's boss- same response - up a rung until you get to the top. If you still can't find anyone who cares you need to look for another job.
In addition to all of the other answers I'd be very concerned if there was a false floor in the equation, who knows whats under there and what state it's in. If your in a warm climate you might have all sorts of critters nesting next to your servers by this point.
I've heard of putting servers in the cloud, I don't think they meant raincloud... but seriously, start migrating the software functions out, if it's damp and has been for a while, you might not know whats gotten rusty and prone to failure. Backups would be a good idea too.
Water aside, carpet + movement = static. I wonder how long before some shoe-dragging sysadmin goes to replace a component and doesn't wear his ESD strap (if he even has one)?
Common sense dictates here -- if you think it's a problem, it probably is.
I know this may seem like a pretty obvious solution, but I'll mention it anyway: Install one of those old metal clawfoot tubs; leave a hair dryer and a toaster (include pop-tarts for style) balanced on the rim; then on the outside of the server room door post a sign that reads: "Executive Suite".
Oh yeah, and while you're at it, wring out your resume and hang it up to dry somewhere.
