New build - IT suites/office/server room ideas and layouts

[Friez]

Myself, I think the modern ICT suite should be treated like a sterotypical nuclear powerplant workplace. They are behind a reinforced impenetrable screen where they can only access the machine by putting their arms through two holes.

 

They cannot: vandalise anything, steal anything etc.

 

A shame it'll never be a reality!

[torledo]

Just to add to this....

Full new build happening here and have heard some of the horror stories of other projects like this. I would like to be able to present an argument re size of server room, air con, a dedicated tech room etc. If people could let me know of there experiences and the approx cost of fixing blatent S*** ups it would help me a great deal when putting my point across to the SMT and Architects when they start the real planning.

All input greatfully recieved

 

Well air-con is a no-brainer. The effects of overheating are obvious... equipment failure. Plus directed airflow is important. One of the arguments for having a rack full of equipment is efficient front to back airflow. If you've got pedestal servers sitting on one of those hideous large workstation/build thingies you're not getting any directed airflow. Plus you can reduce the risk of dust getting into servers.

 

Also there's the issue of security, a server rack can be locked from all sides, meaning you can restrict access to only those who need it - and with improved cable management it means it's impossible for someone to trip over a stray cable or use the equipment as a tea coaster. Plus if you're really paranoid you can attach alarm sensors to the door.

 

As for room size, well that you need is to cater for the size of the racks you'll need. a 42U rack will need a reasonably high ceiling (suspended ceiling is ideal to hide a multitude of sins, sorry, conceal cable runs )

plus with a suspended ceiling you can put a single AC cassete in the centre and have a choice over where you locate the racks.

 

Plus you're looking at a minimum 1 metre depth of the servers plus an additional half a metre minimum behind the racks. Conversely recommending server racks mean you don't need that big a room. Particularly if you're not going to be using it as an office. Because it's a more efficient use of space.

 

Big UPS is essential, to protect expensive equipment and to give you an hour or two runtime if there's a power problem in the area.

 

Data Center design is a huuuge topic I could go on for ages. PM me if you need information on specific aspects but the argument FOR isn't a hard one to make at all.

[localzuk]

Big UPS is essential, to protect expensive equipment and to give you an hour or two runtime if there's a power problem in the area.

 

If you have anything more than a couple of servers, an hour or 2 is far too much to expect from a UPS at school level - unless you have lots of money lying around.

 

We have 2 UPS units - one for ensuring the phone system runs for at least an hour when the power is off, and the other for keeping the half a dozen or so other servers running for 10 minutes in a power cut. These take up 10U by themselves...

 

I would need to fill a rack with UPS's in order to provide 2 hours of backup power for the servers, which is unlikely to say the least.

 

It would probably be cheaper to get a emergency generator instead of all those UPS's ) whilst keeping one or 2 to ensure continuity whilst a generator kicks in.

[torledo]

Big UPS is essential, to protect expensive equipment and to give you an hour or two runtime if there's a power problem in the area.

 

If you have anything more than a couple of servers, an hour or 2 is far too much to expect from a UPS at school level - unless you have lots of money lying around.

 

We have 2 UPS units - one for ensuring the phone system runs for at least an hour when the power is off, and the other for keeping the half a dozen or so other servers running for 10 minutes in a power cut. These take up 10U by themselves...

 

I would need to fill a rack with UPS's in order to provide 2 hours of backup power for the servers, which is unlikely to say the least.

 

It would probably be cheaper to get a emergency generator instead of all those UPS's ) whilst keeping one or 2 to ensure continuity whilst a generator kicks in.

 

For a half a dozen servers a 5kVa UPS would not even be at half-load if required to provide backup power to those servers. Plus additional battery runtime would be longer if load was at 50% or less. With 2 or 3 cascaded batteries you could quite easily run the servers for atleast an hour maybe more. Sure that's a few thousand pounds outlay but it's still a hell of a lot cheaper than a generator which I think runs into tens of thousands.

 

Plus you could use the same 5KVa unit to power your ip pbx and voip phones and get the runtimes you currently get.

 

You're right in that you could easily fill an entire rack for 2 hours runtime but not with additional UPS's. A single three-phase 5KVa unit is all you'd need... it would be the batteries that took up the space.

 

Would say that at the minimum you should have enough capacity to allow your servers to shut down gracefully (in your case the 10mins is perfectly adequate for this purpose).

 

This isn't a school level solution, but some schools are having a lot of money to spend on their infrastructure in which case this wouldn't break the bank. 6 or 7K tops including installation and PDU's is justifiable in order to provide runtime and protection for tens of thousands of pounds worth of equipment.

[DMcCoy]

Do remember to have your core switches on a ups too, my ups sends the shutdown signal over the network so I thought about it already.

 

Make sure you have the following: 3 phase power supply NOT shared with any other rooms. Get at least 2 (4 for new build imo) 32A IEC sockets put on the wall. Instead of hardwiring my ups I get them wired up to an IEC plug, as it locks in to turn on its fine, but also means you *can* unplug it when moving server cabinets or wiring. Just need an electrician once then

 

You need somewhere to earth your cabinets. Also make sure that the power distribution for the room is accessible and that it can be turned off in the room and at the main plant room.

 

Oh, server rooms also need decent lighting, the number of times I've had to get a torch to find a cage nut thats dropped into the bottom of the cabinet...

 

Something I really would like is a small amount of storage with the servers to keep all the screws and rack mount bits in but its not essential

 

Oh, make sure you aren't planning for just one rack, I've now got 3 42u cabinets full of stuff!

 

Final note on the aircon, be generous with the power rating to make sure you can cool stuff in the future (servers are putting out more heat that ever)

[Andrew_C]

APC have free white papers on cooling and UPS specification. A bit over-the-top for what you are doing, but will guide you towards the right questions if nothing else.