Advice on Power for New Server Room

[victory2012]

Hi

 

Can someone advise me on the requirements for power for a server room, what should i be asking for and making sure is installed to make sure i have the right power installed. Does it have be 13A? commando sockets?

 

Thanks

[localzuk]

That's a wide reaching question - what size server room? How many servers are likely to be in there? Will it have AC?

 

The power to provide should exceed the power requirements of your devices.

 

If you use a UPS, that can sometimes outline how best to serve it - for example, our APC 5000VA units each have a 16A connection. We then also have a double socket for things such as cabinet fans etc... And we also have AC in there which is hung off the same circuit as the double socket.

 

So, you'll need to provide a bit more detail.

[glennda]

As above all depends on what equipment you want to run - Ideally you want a minimum of 16 amp commando sockets I would say.

 

Spec out your requirements of servers against a UPS manufacture and see what the Input is - I would recommend the Borri units over the APC ones if I am honest, had to many "Just die"

 

Ideally as well depending on Size you want the UPS to feed a fuse box on the wall which also supplies the AC. So that when the batteries are running for the servers to shutdown you can power the AC.

[dhicks]

Ideally as well depending on Size you want the UPS to feed a fuse box on the wall which also supplies the AC. So that when the batteries are running for the servers to shutdown you can power the AC.

 

That might be overkill for the average school - if your server room hits critical temperature within 10 minutes of the air conditioning being switched off then you're using a lot of power somewhere.

 

We have two 16 amp connectors in our server cupboard, which seems to be ample - one supplies the UPS, which then supplies a power distribution strip which is plugged in to each server / switch / etc, the other directly supplies a power distribution strip with supplies the second power supply in most of the servers.