Data-centre cleaning
Most data centres cannot be switched off to be cleaned, so the clean happens around equipment that stays on load. That changes what can be done and in what order. This guide walks through a visit from the UPS owner's side: what is agreed before anyone arrives, the rules that protect the running equipment, the clean itself, and the checks afterwards.
Everything that is running stays running, so every step is judged by what it could do to the load. A dust cloud is drawn straight into the server and UPS intakes. A lifted floor tile changes the airflow under the floor and can release zinc whiskers. A cart that bumps an emergency power-off button can take down the room. Uptime Institute notes that accidental EPO activation is a recurring cause of downtime, which is reason enough to plan a clean as carefully as any other work in the room.
For the UPS owner the question is simple: which parts of the visit could touch the UPS, its batteries or its power path, and who is watching them while the work goes on?
The scope, the sequence and the rules, in writing. A good pre-visit walk-through settles:
The last point matters where the room has very early smoke detection: aspirating detectors are built to notice small amounts of airborne particles, so the fire alarm team should know a clean is under way. The early warning detection guide explains how those systems raise alarms.
For two reasons, airflow and whiskers. In a room cooled through the raised floor, every open tile changes where the cold air goes, and a row of open tiles can starve the equipment it was feeding. The second reason comes from ASHRAE: zinc whiskers on the underside of some steel tiles and pedestals become dislodged and airborne when tiles are disturbed during removal or when underfloor cables are pulled, and from there they can reach equipment circuits.
So tiles come up a few at a time, the void is cleaned below them, and they go back before the next ones are lifted. The tile-lift is also the moment for ASHRAE's flashlight test: standing a lifted tile on edge in a dim area and shining a light across the underside at a 45° angle shows twinkling speckles if whiskers are present. Tiles that show them are set aside for testing and replacement, not cleaned and put back. The dust and contamination guide covers what whiskers do.
Usually the parts of the room nobody reaches day to day: the raised-floor void and slab, the cable trays, the tops and outsides of racks and cabinets, and the floor. The work goes from high to low, so dust falls onto areas not yet cleaned, and it captures dust rather than moving it around: ASHRAE's whole point is that dust settled on hardware is the risk, so blowing it off one surface only moves it to another.
Two rules from ASHRAE apply to the crew as much as to the site. No packaging comes into the room, because fibrous dust from cardboard and paper fouls heat sinks; supplies are unpacked outside. And nothing wet goes near equipment intakes, since dust only becomes corrosive when it absorbs moisture.
Outside surfaces only during the clean. The inside of a UPS, its filters and its batteries belong to UPS maintenance. EnerSys's battery cleaning procedure starts by disconnecting the battery, which rules it out of any live clean: a disconnected string is a UPS with no battery behind it. The same manual forbids oil, solvents, detergents and ammonia on the jars and covers, which is a good reason to keep general cleaning products away from battery cabinets altogether.
What the cleaning crew can usefully do is report what it sees: a clogged UPS filter, a dusty fan grille, white or green deposits on battery terminals. Schneider Electric's manual says not to run its on-line UPS where there is excessive dust or humidity, so a UPS sitting in visible dust is worth a note in the report. Those notes go to the next UPS maintenance visit.
That the room is back to normal and the UPS has not noticed the visit. That means every tile back in place, every EPO cover still fitted, and no new alarms in the UPS event log or on the monitoring system. It is also a good moment for the UPS air filter check Eaton asks for every month, since a clean room is the best time to fit new filters.
The report should list the areas cleaned, before and after photos, any tiles set aside for whisker testing, and every UPS or battery observation passed to maintenance. Filed with the UPS records, it becomes part of the history the cleaning schedule relies on.
Live-room cleaning is delivered through specialist partners who work in running technical rooms. The UPS side, filters, fans and battery terminals, is handled during UPS maintenance; data centre UPS maintenance programmes cover that side for larger sites. Replacement batteries for data centre UPS are on the UPS battery page for data centres.
Yes. A live-room clean works around equipment that stays on load, with rules for floor tiles, EPO buttons and the UPS and battery cabinets.
No. EnerSys's battery cleaning procedure starts by disconnecting the battery, so it belongs to UPS maintenance, not to a live clean.
Open tiles change the cooling airflow, and ASHRAE notes that lifting tiles can release zinc whiskers into the air.
It can trigger very early smoke detection, which is why the fire alarm team should know a clean is under way.
Areas cleaned, photos, tiles set aside for whisker testing, and any UPS or battery observations for the next maintenance visit.
Sources, checked 2026-10-04:
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