1.Introduce liquids into the data center (in canned or bottled form). Liquids can damage equipment, but cans and bottles can cause problems even without being opened. A six-pack, twelve-pack, or a full case of any beverage in the data center likely means someone intends to keep drinks cold in there. Usually the culprit will pull up a raised floor tile. These simple actions are not dangerous in and of themselves; however it means someone is not considering the physics of raised-floor air distribution. Usually just stashing a 12 pack (this goes for holiday decorations too) under the tiles won’t cause a cooling problem as long as the CRAC is running and kicking out cold air, or will it? Altering the environment under a raised floor alters the airflow, which can have a significant impact on performance. There are much better (and easier) places to chill employee beverages than under a very expensive and highly engineered raised floor.
2. Attempt to solve problems with a floor tile puller. There is absolutely nothing wrong with an IT person using a floor tile puller; most need routine access to cabling and J-boxes to do their jobs. The issue here is more of education. IT personnel need to understand that the pressurization/airflow of a raised floor “system” is vital to maintain the performance envelope of the cooling system. Airflow is unpredictable, and the cause of the slightest change to its path can take weeks to identify and correct. There are also many other sensors under the floor (rope leak detectors, smoke detectors, etc.) that are easy to disturb. Every time a leak detector is inadvertently triggered, a poorly terminated J-box is disturbed, or a data cable dead ended, a facilities engineer or contractor may wind up digging around for an hour or two to fix it. The operational pain is one thing, but the unscheduled service call just cost someone real money.