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September 9, 2010
So, you’ve built a state-of-the-art lights-out data center with all the latest best-of-breed technologies. You have virtual machines, Windows servers, Linux/Unix servers, assorted service processors, blade systems, and a resilient network and security infrastructure. You also have a heterogeneous assortment of technologies, that each requires a different set of access and administration tools. How can you provide your systems admins a centralized system to access everything from a “single pane of glass” to simplify their daily job responsibilities?
Enter Command Center, a vendor-agnostic data center access and management system. Command Center was originally designed to manage KVM and serial switches, but the IT world has changed, and so has Raritan’s Command Center. Command Center offers a wealth of IP-centric tools that are perfect for providing network-based access and management capabilities for today’s modern data centers. Server access tools include RDP, VNC, and SSH for your Windows, Unix, and Linux systems. VMware Virtual Machines are dynamically supported by tight integration with Virtual Center and offer VI Client, RDP, VNC, and SSH access in addition to virtual server system information. Service processors can be integrated by using the native ILO/RILO, DRAC, IPMI, and RSA interface capabilities of Command Center. Network and security systems can be accessed via a web browser, SSH, and Telnet. And if you are using KVM and Serial switches, they can be centrally managed and accessed too!
September 8, 2010
So many people have lost sight of the fact that cooling within a data center is not really a philosophical activity, it’s about moving heat away from the sensitive electronics inside various types of equipment within a temperature range specified by the manufacturer. Unfortunately, the smallest unit or element within this world is typically a semiconductor of some type, most commonly a chip buried deep inside a circuit board, buried deep inside an enclosure, deep inside a rack, somewhere inside a row or pod, and ultimately within a room. The trick is, how can one cost-effectively move heat away from these components? How do we move heat away from JUST these components? It is absolutely true that the most cost effective cooling would be using some technology that directly removed heat just from the devices that needed it. There really is no need to cool everything, the circuit boards or the cabinets or the racks or even the rows, IF we had the ability to remove heat from heat-generating active devices at the chip level. But, that is VERY, VERY hard to do cost-effectively.
Various approaches have been attempted over the years, using combinations and exotic applications of air and liquid plumbing and channeling schemes, trying to minimize the amount of collateral cooling, but in the end, the vast majority of us simply focus on moving vast amounts of air through the aisles closest to each piece of equipment’s inlet air vent, which in turn gets sucked into active devices by more fans through these inlets. The simple goal is to move enough air which is lower in temperature across the whole surrounding environment so that the chips can comfortably bathe in. Tons of inefficiency (or should that be tonnes?), but years and years of tried and true best practices, experience, and products that do just that.
A couple of details about moving air are important here.
So, what can we all do? Try to keep the INLET temperature for all active devices at 76-degrees. Period. NOT higher or Lower. Treat this as a magic number. Any lower (than 76-degrees) and it is wasting energy. Anything above 76-degrees and the internal FANS kick into HI speed and waste a ton of energy. The core goal today would be to get the inlet temperatures for ALL devices to 76-degrees. (And use active real-time monitoring like the Raritan PX-series environmental monitors to assure this happens)
Lastly, you will be rewarded! As a rule of thumb, when changing data center temperatures over the ASHRAE TC9 specified range, every degree of cooling can be estimated at 4% in energy costs. Just turning UP the temperature by 1-degree could save 4% off your energy bill. BUT remember that magic 76-degree figure or you may bite off more than you can chew!
September 3, 2010
2010 AFCOM Data Center World Fall Conference
Raritan Booth #609
Oct. 4-5, 2010
Mirage Hotel and Convention Center
Las Vegas, Nevada
September 3, 2010
Raritan Booth #118
September 12-15, 2010
MGM Grand Hotel & Convention Center
Las Vegas, Nevada
Greg More
August 30, 2010
Today’s high power demands, increasing power costs and constantly changing equipment require data center and facilities managers to look for power solutions that can deliver a lot of power but are flexible. A typical data center has both medium density (5-10 kW/rack) and high density (15-30 kW/rack) equipment racks. For example, some racks may have 2U/4U application and database servers, others may have 1U Web servers, still, others may support blade servers, storage networks, or high density networking fabric.
The power requirements for this variety of equipment can range from single phase to three phase, rack power (kW) may be anywhere from 5 kW to 30 kW per rack, and there could be dozens of different physical receptacles. The key is to efficiently utilize the available power capacity and to maintain uptime to the greatest extent possible while changes are made. The traditional approach uses pedestals at several locations in the data center with under-floor conduits or whips from the pedestal to racks. All the cable under that raised floor can impede airflow and cooling. The fixed feeds lead to decreased flexibility and challenging serviceability. In fact, it is not uncommon for some cables to be abandoned in place.