http://www.openxtra.co.uk/blog/data-centre-heating-effects/ Your daily IT cuppa Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:12:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://www.openxtra.co.uk/blog/data-centre-heating-effects/#comment-5465 Jack Hughes Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:12:18 +0000 http://www.openxtra.co.uk/blog/data-centre-heating-effects/#comment-5465 @Ronald - thanks for dropping by. With Intel's new experimental prototype the POLARIS chip generating 260 Watts @ 5.6 GHz, it's hard to see the problem getting much easier anytime soon. ;) @Ronald - thanks for dropping by. With Intel’s new experimental prototype the POLARIS chip generating 260 Watts @ 5.6 GHz, it’s hard to see the problem getting much easier anytime soon.

]]> http://www.openxtra.co.uk/blog/data-centre-heating-effects/#comment-5464 Ronald Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:52:55 +0000 http://www.openxtra.co.uk/blog/data-centre-heating-effects/#comment-5464 This is true as I recently experienced a similar situation. The temperature starts to rise so that it is noticeable by a person within 5 minutes and within 45 minutes you could cook eggs. But servers should not suffer irreparable damage? All modern servers have settings to do a critical shutdown on high temperature. In the situation above, some servers started shutting down after 30 minutes. The solution and cause is not that complex as the Rackspace annoucement makes it out to be. I assume Rackspace has the same issue. 1. Chillers aren't connected to UPS. They draw to much juice! They are powered in a failure by generator power. The UPS is there for the server and communications equipment. 2. The Chiller controller's must be wired to UPS!!! The controller starts the chiller, monitors is function, temp, etc, etc. If the chiller controller is on generator power as well then the startup happens incorrectly. 3. The Chiller startup needs to be staggered. If you have 10 chillers starting at once they overload the generator which then protects its circuits and the chillers cycle. Switching everything on at once is not a good idea due to the power spike - Do you remember the scene in Apollo 13 where Mattingly had to experiment to perfect the power-on sequencing of the LEM? Same thing. 4. The chiller startup is time staggered (even more reason to have the controller on UPS). The chillers are started in batches every 5 minutes. The chillers in the batch should be not be 2 chillers next to each other or a portion of the data centre might hot spot if that area has a chiller batch that is the last to start up. This is true as I recently experienced a similar situation. The temperature starts to rise so that it is noticeable by a person within 5 minutes and within 45 minutes you could cook eggs.
But servers should not suffer irreparable damage? All modern servers have settings to do a critical shutdown on high temperature. In the situation above, some servers started shutting down after 30 minutes.
The solution and cause is not that complex as the Rackspace annoucement makes it out to be. I assume Rackspace has the same issue.
1. Chillers aren’t connected to UPS. They draw to much juice! They are powered in a failure by generator power. The UPS is there for the server and communications equipment.
2. The Chiller controller’s must be wired to UPS!!! The controller starts the chiller, monitors is function, temp, etc, etc. If the chiller controller is on generator power as well then the startup happens incorrectly.
3. The Chiller startup needs to be staggered. If you have 10 chillers starting at once they overload the generator which then protects its circuits and the chillers cycle. Switching everything on at once is not a good idea due to the power spike - Do you remember the scene in Apollo 13 where Mattingly had to experiment to perfect the power-on sequencing of the LEM? Same thing.
4. The chiller startup is time staggered (even more reason to have the controller on UPS). The chillers are started in batches every 5 minutes. The chillers in the batch should be not be 2 chillers next to each other or a portion of the data centre might hot spot if that area has a chiller batch that is the last to start up.

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