| The following describes a possible procedure for planning the equipment set-up and utility feeds for the data center. -
Determine what equipment will populate the data center. Based on the project scope (including budget), and working with your capacity planning information, determine what equipment will be connected into the data center. Using your RLUs and capacity planning information, you now have a basis for determining the number of racks needed, as well as their space and utility requirements. -
Define RLUs for these racks. Use the information in the previous sections of this chapter to determine RLUs. -
Determine maximum utility feeds based on RLUs. Knowing how many RLUs you must accommodate, figure out the following requirements and specifications: -
Power (number of outlets/type/watts/amps) -
Cooling (number of tons of HVAC) -
Space (square footage needed - see the "Cooling" section) -
Bandwidth (number of copper , number of fibre connections) -
Weight of racks -
Determine the number of RLUs needed to meet the project scope. For example, 25 RLU-X racks require a total of 1.2 megawatts of power and only 900 kilowatts are available. To solve this problem, the designer must make some decisions. Some options are: -
Get more power (add another 300 kilowatt feed). -
Get larger drives installed in the racks. The racks will use the same amount of power, but there will be fewer racks needed, thereby decreasing the amount of power needed. This involves changing the RLU definition to change the power-to-capacity ratio. -
If neither option is available, you have hit a limiting factor. -
Determine limiting factors. Possible limiting factors are insufficient power, bandwidth, space, vertical height, and budget. -
Can the problem be corrected? If so, how much will it cost? -
Can the scope of the project be modified to accommodate the limitation? -
If the scope cannot be changed and the limiting factors are not corrected, should the project be abandoned ? -
Begin rough planning of space. This can be done in many different ways, depending on personal preference. You'll want to visualize where and how many racks you can fit in the space. One way to do this is to get a large plan view of the data center space, usually from a blueprint. Then cut out pieces of paper about the size of your racks and start placing them. You can also draw directly on the blueprint with colored pens and draw in boxes that represent the racks you need to place, but you'll need several blank copies of the blueprint as you make changes to it. Using a plastic overlay with a grease pencil will make it easier to make corrections. The most flexible way to plan out the space is with CAD software. Even better, there is facility and technology management software from companies like Aperture (http://www.aperture.com) that allow you to do this type of layout. The advantage of using this type of software is that you can continue to manage the state of the data center using this type of tool, after the data center is built and online. Also Flomerics (http://www.flometrics.com) has software called Flovent that will allow you to do thermal simulations of your data center to see if the layout you are working on will actually cool the racks effectively. See Appendix B, "Bibliography and References" for more information. |