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July 19, 2010
How do you use PUE to minimize wasted power? How do you identify stranded power and thereby possibly delay the construction of a very expensive new data center? How do justify the investment to gather detailed power information? Attend our Data Center Power Savings presentation at BICSI and learn how.
BICSI Region Meeting - Indianapolis, IN *
IUPUI Campus Center
420 University Blvd.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
*source: www.bicsi.org/event_details.aspx?sessionaltcd=MT-NCRGN-IN-0710
Richard Dominach
July 19, 2010
Dominion KX II Release 2.3 is now available on raritan.com for customer download. With this new firmware, the KX II will support “tiering,” two levels of connection supporting the access of up to 1024 servers. In addition, the Dominion KX II becomes the first digital KVM switch to support remote HD video resolution of 1920x1080. Other advancements include:
In addition, there are new security features and support for the Paragon Dual CIMs, which can connect one server to two KX II switches for increased reliability and access.
With this release we are reaffirming our leadership in the digital KVM market with support for HD video resolutions, supporting new customer configurations (tiering and the Paragon Dual CIMs), providing new levels of IT productivity, and remaining the most secure digital switch in the industry.
For more information on this free firmware upgrade, see:
https://www.raritan.com/dominion-kx-ii
https://www.raritan.com/support/dominion-kx-ii/
July 15, 2010
One would assume that data centers are a place where high tech gets introduced and the mass PC market is a followers market. However, there are plenty of examples where it is just the other way around. For years the processor market was driven by the battle between Intel® and AMD®. This battle was fought where the volume was and is — consumer PCs. Another good example is the keyboard interface. Servers still used PS/2 when it was already hard to get a non-USB keyboard for consumer PCs. Also, the good old VGA interface has only survived in the metal rack cabinets of data centers and data rooms.
Two more innovations from the mainstream consumer PC market are about to enter the DC world and worth to be mentioned:
July 8, 2010
Data Center automation is a worthy and important goal for most organizations. This may be true whether you are running lights out, collocated or just with a lean staff. The more routine operations and processes that can be removed from required human intervention the better. Potential benefits range from improved delivery on SLAs, extended equipment life, reduced labor costs and even enhanced job satisfaction.
Automation systems are simply feedback loops. The components may already exist in your datacenter including sensors, polling and trap management and rule driven software to effect change. Unfortunately the right sensors in the right places in the right quantities are often lacking to complete the loop.
This is part one of a multipart series on automation techniques beginning with heat load management and related sensors.
CRAC / AHU Feedback Control
Below are just a few scenarios that can be a high value target for temperature sensor based automation:
Temperature sensors can provide the input necessary to proactively alert and remedy these situations.
Scenario One:
With temperature sensors in the rack and an application that can perform power control we can automatically shed the heat load where temperatures have passed a critical threshold in a zone.
Raritan PX PDUs have this capability when temperature sensors are attached. No additional software or hardware needed. Furthermore we can turn the same systems back up automatically when the temperature is sensed to have lowered to an acceptable level.
Additionally a Raritan PDU can send an SNMP trap alert based on temperature sensor readings to any SNMP trap manager and any SNMP enabled application may perform the same outlet control on the Raritan PDU.
Scenario Two:
Without automation if your heat load varies by utilization you have two choices. Run cooler than needed for much of the processing day wasting energy or run hot and impact the reliability of your equipment. When we introduce automation we can change our cooling output to match the heat load and eliminate the undesirable outcomes above.
Temperature sensors in the rack can provide trigger data to an application capable of altering the CRAC unit output to match the current heat load. A poll of all sensors could be implemented or SNMP alerts could be sent to this controller application based on thresholds such as with the Raritan PDU attached sensors.
Scenario Three:
Increasing compute densities require increasing levels of precision when managing environmentals. Ashrae recommendations are for high, mid and low sensor placement that can facilitate temperature gradient mapping. With a single sensor in a rack an open KVM drawer could go undetected while obstructing airflow to equipment behind it. Similarly missing floor tiles can alter air pressure needed for the cool air delivery. Both air flow and temperature sensors are useful in this scenario.
Raritan PDU connected sensors have associated X, Y & Z coordinates to facilitate a proactive approach for immediate identification and location of these types of situations.
The next feedback loop automation we will look at next will focus on applications.
Jonathan Davis
Dorothy Ochs
July 7, 2010
This conference is the premier forum to bring Government and Industry together to openly communicate commercial best business practices and government implementations. Learn about Raritan’s latest KVM, power and infrastructure management solutions. For more info, visit http://www.afcea.org/events/landwarnet/10/intro.asp.