UPS Installation Distances?

[hotwired007]

I have bought 2 APC 3000KVA UPS recently and just finished mounting them in the base of my new 42U Server Cab...

 

They are on top of each other - this shouldn't cause any issues with heat etc? Just a worrying thought i had...

 

can anyone say that they have the same setup?

[soveryapt]

I seem to remember there was some information with ours when we got it about safe operating distances from other kit etc .. but I can't remember what that was .. I know that there is a fan on one side of them which I'm guessing should have airflow room but outside of that ..

[SYNACK]

Should be fine with heat, they are designed to be rackmounted inbetween a whole bunch of other stuff; servers, switches that give off much more heat than the UPS units do. Can't say that I have done it myself with those 3000va units but we had some 1500VA tower ones side by side seporated only slightly for ages and it never did them any harm.

 

http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/ASTE-6Z8L9T_R0_EN.pdf

http://excessups.com/manuals/SmartUps_2200rm_(3U)_users_manual.pdf

Edited July 8, 2010 by SYNACK
added manual links into evidence

[DarrenM]

We have two of those right on top of each other and our ISA server right on top of that has been so for five years...

 

And now something is going to make it go horribly wrong!!

[hotwired007]

Ultimate plan... anyone see any issues?

 

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp237/hotwired007/DATACAB.jpg

[pete]

Should be fine. Incidentally, how are you finding that Igloo box?

[plexer]

Personally I'd put the copper patch panels towards the top with the firbe and switches.

 

Ben

[hotwired007]

Not got it yet... just waiting for delivery and to have it installed... going to be running hyper-v accross the four servers with failover and load balancing and 2 seperate DPM servers...

[hotwired007]

Personally I'd put the copper patch panels towards the top with the firbe and switches.

 

Ben

 

the 2 24port at the top is for thye servers with the 96 port at the bottom for the rest of the patch panels in the cab - hopefully this will get moved out in the future - plus im limited by the cables themselves! lovely installation of CAT5 cables here!

[MatthewL]

We have both our big UPS's which are on 3-Phase at the bottom of the cabinet and then a pile of servers on top.

[featured_spectre]

seems fine, but if you are limited in terms of cabling, why not have all of your switches, fibre and panels down the bottom then rather than at the top or am i missing something and being dense? (good diagram btw, looks like a clean setup)

[featured_spectre]

also, would you not want a KVM console in there? Buy a splitter and have it connected to each server.

[joe90bass]

We have both our big UPS's which are on 3-Phase at the bottom of the cabinet and then a pile of servers on top.

 

Same here (APC 3000kva jobbies). Two years and working fine - famous last words............................

[apaton]

UPS's battery life span is largely based on quality of the battery and room temperature. Battery life span is reduce by 25% for ambient room temperatures over 28C. Racking UPS's on top of each other isn't a bad thing, but make sure the air con is on.

 

Most people put network switches at the top of a server rack. I disagree with this practice, but I would agree its the most practical thing to do.

 

In racks with high density of servers (18+) I would recommend network switches to be installed at the bottom of a rack, keeping them cooler. All rack servers are front to back cooling but network switches are typically side to side cooling, thus your network switch may suck in all the hot air at the top of the rack.

 

Andy

[Butuz]

Your ultimate plan looks fine to me! UPS's and servers are front to back cooled and best practice is to leave no gaps at all as this maximises the front to back "tunnel" effect.

 

As apaton rightly says many switches (particularly smaller 1/2u ones) are side to side cooled. As he says, either put them at the bottom, or purchase extra 240v fans to bolt onto the rear door at the top of the cab in order to make sure any stagnant hot air gets sucked out at the back. This works really well!

 

Butuz

[featured_spectre]

Has anybody seen the new aircon jobby from Delphi? Its 2u, one sits at the top blowing cold air down at the front, one sits at the bottom blowing cold air up at the front, and they keep an entire 42U enclosure (which is completely rammed with servers) at a constant 15°C, with server temps never going above 28°C (even when utilised fully). I saw this in the academy down the road, which looks great, so I am asking for a test unit myself to see how well it does my servers as they tend to sit near 45°C mark.

[Butuz]

Hi nephilim have you got a link? Sounds very interesting.

 

Butuz

[soveryapt]

You're all making me jealous that you have racks and places to lock away your servers from prying students .. lol .. mine are sat on a desk in an art lab which joins onto the ICT lab .. I feel ICT was an after thought when planning .. but there's talk of a full server move over the summer! Should be fun, as that would mean a rewire of the school me thinks .. hmmm ...

[hotwired007]

You're all making me jealous that you have racks and places to lock away your servers from prying students .. lol .. mine are sat on a desk in an art lab which joins onto the ICT lab .. I feel ICT was an after thought when planning .. but there's talk of a full server move over the summer! Should be fun, as that would mean a rewire of the school me thinks .. hmmm ...

 

you have them anywhere near students? WOW! thets tempting providence - i'm suprised they havent decorated the cases with PVA and sticky paper!

[hotwired007]

seems fine, but if you are limited in terms of cabling, why not have all of your switches, fibre and panels down the bottom then rather than at the top or am i missing something and being dense? (good diagram btw, looks like a clean setup)

 

I just didnt want the servers up to high but i'm agreed on the whole moving the switches down... the joys of visio!

 

I'm doing a complete rebuild of my serevr rack and combining two small cabinets into one... along with a complte rebuild of my domain... oh the fun... need to reinstall over 250 PCs and Laptops and create a complete 2008 R2 domain... ... ... oh and transfer a ton of data over and then re-create all the file access permissions!

[hotwired007]

new visio diagram:

 

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp237/hotwired007/DATACAB-EDIT.jpg

[featured_spectre]

Much nicer! Looks clean and clear, and should be easier to manage! Make sure its all labelled up in your rack and u r good to go!

[hotwired007]

Yup.. got my dymo 1000 ready

 

i forgot to include the CAG in the first one anyway!

[featured_spectre]

Sorry just reviewing, I would put the fibre connections underneath the procurve 4208v1, but thats just me! Take a pic when its all done and dusted!

[SYNACK]

I'm going to jump in here and disagree vehimently to that arrangement, servers are way heavier than switches and vastly heavier than patch pannels. Your heaviest stuff should be at the bottom for safety, pulling out a 2U server at head height is asking for a serious injury. UPSs at the bottom, then servers then from the top Fibre, Cat5 pannels, switches. You can mix the switches and pannels together for cleanlyness but this will make matinence and installation much safer.