Data Centre Infrastructure Assessment

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Data Centre Infrastructure Assessment

Prepared for: ACME INC – SAMPLE REPORT

Attention: Mr DC Manager

This report represents a generic sample data centre audit for a generic customer by Focus Group Technologies. This report gives an indication of the areas of identification and recommendations that FGT will perform.

Date: Tuesday, 2 March 2010 Version: 1.0

Prepared by: Phil Jones

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COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE

Focus Group Technologies Pty Ltd. ACN 140 391 171 ABN 51 140 391 171 Page 2

1 Document Information

Document Author

Name: Phil Jones

Principal Consultant

Focus Group technologies

Telephone: 0422 58 40 60

E-Mail: [email protected]

Document Review

Date Version Description Author Reviewer 1/02/2010 Version 1.0 Initial Draft Phil Jones AAA

Document Distribution

Name Title Organisation

Phil Jones Principal Consultant FGT

Mark Polti Sales Executive FGT

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2 Executive Summary

ACME Inc engaged Focus Group Technologies to undertake a Data Centre Assessment of their current rack infrastructure located at Harbour MSP.

The onsite visit by the engineer had the following observation and recommendations:

2.1 Observations:

• The current installation is of 3 racks within the Global Switch Data Centre. • Overall environmental conditions are excellent as provided by the DC • Current Power draw is over utilised above available capacity

• Operating temperature of racked equipment is within range of ASHRAE guidelines • Some efficiencies can still be gained via following data centre best practices

2.2 Recommendation Summary

Priority High – Impact is High. Action must be taken and be addressed immediately

• Power utilisation of Racks 1 and 2 are above allocated power. This is currently resulting in excess charges from your service provider. This can be achieved by:

o Acquiring additional racks adjacent to the current racks and move some devices in to the new racks. i.e. .spread the load across more racks

o Or moving the current equipment to rack space that provides more power per rack. With at least 50-100% more than measured to account for peaks and growth.

Priority Medium – Action should be taken and be addressed in the next month or so. • Implement environmental monitoring

Priority Low – Action will result in “Best Practice” and can be addressed in time. • Implement blanking panels in the racks

• Replace the monitor in Rack 3 with a pull out flip-top LCD monitor.

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3 Physical infrastructure

3.1 Quality Racking

Server rack cabinets are important to your business success because they provide space for vital equipment that is crucial to the survival of your organization. If you select the right server rack, you will keep your equipment cool, your power running, and your downtime minimized.

Racks should be a size and quality that allow for the intended equipment and provide room for cable management and airflow.

Observation

Quality racks are implemented

Recommendation

Nil

3.2 Blanking Panels

Unused vertical space in rack enclosures creates an unrestricted recycling of hot air that causes equipment to heat up unnecessarily. The use of blanking panels can reduce this problem.

Observation

Blanking Panels are not implemented

Recommendation

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3.3 Monitors within racks

Monitors on shelves create an open space that permits hot exhaust air to return to

equipment air intake resulting in overheating. This is a similar effect to not having blanking panels.

Observation

Monitors on shelves are being used

Recommendation

Replace the monitor in Rack 3 with a pull out flip-top LCD monitor.

3.4 Cable Management

Cable management refers to the process of routing and placing cables within a rack environment.

Poor cable management can not only lead to damaged cables or increased time to add or change out cables, but can block critical airflow or access. This can lead to inefficiencies in the performance of your equipment or even downtime

Bad cable management Good cable management

Observation

Cable management was observed to be adequate, some improvements could be made to improve airflow and cable identification.

Recommendation

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4 Power

4.1 Redundancy of Power to Racks

Power to the rack should be provided by dual sources to dual Power Distribution Units (PDUs). Redundant PDUs ensure uptime in the event of issue or failure in the power source, PDU or cabling.

Observation

Redundant PDUs were implemented.

Recommendation

Nil

4.2 Redundancy of Power in servers

In addition to redundant connections to the individual devices, redundant power supplies should be implemented.

Where redundant power supplies do not exist in the device, an Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) can assist. The ATS is a dual input, rack-mountable power distribution unit (PDU) with a built in automatic transfer switch. The Micro Smart Switch is capable of receiving power from two independent AC power sources and utilises a built-in automatic AC transfer switch to quickly switch between them. This provides AC power line redundancy to critical computer or communications equipment in a rack environment.

Observation

ATS have not been implemented

Recommendation

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4.3 Audit of Power Usage

ACME Inc engaged Focus Group Technologies to undertake a power audit of their current rack infrastructure located at Harbour MSP.

The purpose of this audit is to perform device level analysis of the power consumption so as to determine which devices are consuming what power.

In addition, temperature measurements of the rack and surrounding areas were taken.

Method

As downtime could not occur, out of band external power monitoring was selected as the method of monitoring the power consumption. External monitoring in this case was conducted via a handheld clamp meter on each individual device

Accuracy

In band monitoring techniques (such as intelligent PDUs, in line power meters) are the most accurate form of measurement, but requires that the equipment is already installed or downtime occurs to place them in the “power path”.

External monitoring in this case was conducted via a handheld clamp meter. The clamp meter has a resolution of 0.1 AMP with a ± 5% error rate.

Individual devices or servers were measured at a point in time and those measurements added to provide a rack total.

While the total power usage measured per rack will be accurate to within a few amps, more importantly the relative power usage of the devices will be comparable and valuable.

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6 Power Analysis Summary

Location: DC – Smith St

Date and Time: Monday 1st_{March 10am -12pm}

Performed by: Phil Jones/FGT

Rack Number: 1

Total Power (Amps): 13.2A

Total Power (Watts): 3168 watts

Available Amps (Both PDUS): 32A

Utilisation of PDU: (must be < 50%) 41.25% Utilisation of PDU in the event of single PDU

failure: (must be < 100%)

82.5%

Rack Number: 2

47.5%

Rack Number: 3

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8 Rack Location

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9 Temperature Heat Map – Floor View

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10 Temperature Heat Map - Rack

Rack Front View

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Focus Group Technologies Pty Ltd. ACN 140 391 171 ABN 51 140 391 171 Page 14 Rack Front View

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11 Power Observations

It is our understanding that the allocated power per rack is 1600Watts.

The table below shows the relative power usage versus allocated:

Rack Power Usage (W) Allocated (W) % difference

1 3168 1600 198%

2 1824 1600 114%

3 960 1600 60%

Total 5952 4800 124%

Clearly Racks 1 and 2 are over utilised from a power draw perspective, while rack 3 is well within limits.

As shown in the analysis detail, no particular single device appears to be a major contributor to the power usage, rather the number and density of the devices.

Rack 1 is over drawing the power allocation due to: • More devices than the other racks

• Larger number of high power draw devices (e.g. storage, v245s)

The power draw of these racks is well within current industry norms (usually 16 or 32 amps per rack).

A concentration of high power draw equipment also results in temperature hot spots.

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12 Power Recommendations

As mentioned in the observations no particular single device appears to be a major contributor to the power usage, rather the number and density of the devices.

Additionally the total power usage is 124% over the total allocated; as such redistribution within the 3 racks would not solve the current problem.

As such the recommendations are as follows: (in no particular order)

• Acquire additional racks adjacent to the current rack/s and move some devices in to the new racks. i.e. .spread the load across more rack/s

• Move the current equipment to rack space that provides more power per rack. With at least 50-100% more than measured to account for peaks and growth.

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13 Cooling

Cooling capability is provided by the service provider and as such the infrastructure was not assessed in this document.

14 UPS Power

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15 Environmental Monitoring

Environmental Monitoring and control is crucial to the smooth running of your data centre. To maximise system reliability you should aim for a stable environment free from wild

fluctuations. The key areas of concern are:

• Temperature • Humidity

• Wetness (optional) • Airflow (optional)

Observation:

Environmental monitoring is currently not implementation

Recommendation:

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16 Subsequent recommendations:

Lastly, if the type of data prepared from this report is beneficial to you in the longer term, we would recommend that Intelligent PDUs or inline power meters be investigated to provide more accurate and detailed information.

Intelligent PDUs will allow you to have features such as:

• Outlet-Level Current/Voltage/Power Metering with Threshold/Alert Capabilities • Long term reporting and trending of power usage

• Capability to Remotely Switch Outlets Through On-Board Web • Electronic Overcurrent Protection

• Sequential Startup

• Internal Temperature Sensor and Two Optional External Sensors

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17 About Us

17.1 Focus Group Technologies

Focus Group Technologies is a specialist data centre management solution provider combining best of breed technology with experienced design, consulting and implementation skills. Here at Focus Group Technologies we like to do things a little different from your typical reseller or systems integrator.

Our business is based upon the following guiding principles:

Focus

Hence our name. We WILL focus on what we do and nothing else. This means we are good at what we do. If we are not the experts we are not going to try and sell you that solution.

Sustainability

Is vital in all our dealings and relationships with our vendors, business partners and you, our customer. FGT is here for the long haul. Sustainability guarantees we will be here to support your business now and into the future.

Data Centre Infrastructure Assessment