13 Core points that must be determined for the construction of a data center computer room

Everyone knows that a comprehensive data center computer room construction project generally includes: integrated wiring, anti-static floor laying, ceiling and wall decoration, partition decoration, UPS, dedicated constant temperature and humidity air conditioning, computer room environment monitoring system, fresh air system, water leakage detection, ground wire system, lightning protection system, access control, monitoring, fire protection, alarm, shielding engineering, etc. What are the key issues in the design and construction of data center computer rooms? Let's take a look together in this issue.

1. Where will the data center be built

It is very important to analyze the climatic conditions of the location where the newly-built data center is situated. This will help determine the most appropriate cooling measures, including water-cooled units, mechanical refrigeration air conditioning, natural air cooling, indirect air cooling, adiabatic cooling, etc., all of which are aimed at achieving the lower PUE target for data center facilities.

2. How many racks are needed and what are their dimensions

The number of racks determines the space requirements of a data center. The size of a traditional IT rack is 600x1000mm (width x depth), while a 100-square-meter data center can accommodate approximately 50 racks. Of course, racks also come in other sizes. Knowing the size of the racks and the number of racks makes it easy to estimate the space required for your data center.

3. What level of data center is needed

The Tier level of a data center determines the redundancy requirements and power distribution paths of the data center. For a Tier2 data center, the redundancy of power and cooling equipment deployed in an "N+1" architecture is sufficient. However, for a Tier3 data center facility, it typically includes "N+1" cooling equipment redundancy, dual power supply 2N power redundancy, and independent dual power distribution racks. Therefore, understanding the level of the data center can determine the required redundant design.

4. What is the average power density of each rack

It is important to note that when designing the power capacity of a data center, it should be based on the average power density rather than the maximum rated power supply. The maximum IT load capacity of a data center is the average power density of the racks multiplied by the number of racks. Then, add the power of the data center's power supply system, cooling system, and facilities such as switches and storage devices.

To avoid incurs high costs and make full use of the power system, it is wise to adopt a modular strategy to ensure that the data center has appropriately sized power supplies and space, which can reduce costs without sacrificing the flexibility for future expansion.

5. Whether operation and maintenance personnel should participate in the planning and design

The answer is definitely yes! Normally, the following points should be achieved:

A. The participation of operation and maintenance in the early planning and design can make up for the lack of knowledge of system operation and management among designers, improve design quality, and avoid or eliminate design deficiencies.

B. The participation of operation and maintenance in the early planning and design can fully consider the requirements of the operation and maintenance stage in the planning and design.

C. The participation of operation and maintenance in the early planning and design stage enables a thorough understanding and grasp of the structure, weak links in reliability, remaining issues, and potential risks of the system under maintenance. This is conducive to improving the quality of operation and maintenance, formulating operation and maintenance plans based on evidence, and developing practical and feasible renovation plans.

6. Avoid being influenced by internal and external factors

For issues that fail to properly handle the differences in tendencies, preferences, limitations, and constraints, and do not adhere to scientific design principles, the following suggestions are made:

A. It is necessary to avoid being influenced by individual decision-makers in the approval and decision-making processes, and to prevent the deletion and adjustment of some key functions based on the opinions of some individuals, which may result in the final delivered data center functions failing to meet the operational and maintenance requirements.

B. One should avoid being driven by tendencies, preferences or interests. During the planning and design stage, some equipment manufacturers may influence the scheme formulation and equipment selection of planning and design personnel by exaggerating equipment performance and confusing concepts.

7. What level of backup battery is required for an AC rack or a DC rack

Server racks may require the deployment of 100% DC power supply, or 100% AC power supply, or a combination of both.

For instance, if a data center is being built for hosting purposes, there may be a need to be equipped with an AC (UPS) power supply system, while if it is to be a telecommunications facility, a DC power supply system may need to be deployed. Knowing this, one will know the size and scale of the required DC power supply or UPS power supply system.

When deploying backup batteries, it is best to configure them based on a 15-minute standby discharge time. Deploying backup batteries in this way will not significantly increase capital expenditure. Although it will be hard to justify, it is more cost-effective. Enterprises need to enhance the redundancy of backup generator sets instead of wasting more funds by increasing the number of batteries.

8. Avoid emphasizing construction over planning and design

There is a current situation in the industry where planning and design are neglected while construction is emphasized. This is mainly manifested in:

A. Building the building structure first and then planning the data center brings insurmountable difficulties to the planning and design of the data center.

B. The phenomenon of starting renovations immediately after the completion of computer room construction and equipment installation is widespread.

C. First, determine the equipment, then the plan. If the purchased equipment's functions do not meet the requirements of the plan or the site does not meet the installation conditions, the equipment should be replaced before it is put into operation.

D. The construction structure is difficult to meet the layout requirements of the data center site, resulting in unreasonable zoning planning of the computer room. The outdoor unit of the air conditioner cannot be installed or is too far away. The power room is too far from the main computer room, which increases the difficulty of transmission and management, raises costs and reduces reliability.

9. Avoid neglecting the design of system maintainability and repairability

A system is 30% about construction and 70% about maintenance. Any equipment can malfunction, and the ability to be quickly repaired has become a key indicator for improving availability.

The phenomenon of neglecting maintainability and repairability is manifested as:

A. During the planning and design stage, the later maintenance channels and Spaces were not taken into account. For instance, the equipment was placed too close to the wall, batteries were placed against the wall, the cable layout was unreasonable, cable conduits or cable trays blocked the weak current troughs above, making it impossible to carry out maintenance later, and maintenance tools were difficult to operate, etc.

B. When a malfunction occurs, emergency supplies and spare parts cannot be moved quickly, and there is no space for maintenance operations when replacing faulty equipment and components, which delays the time limit for handling the malfunction and even leads to major accidents.

C. The redundancy guarantee capacity of the system when equipment maintenance is carried out in the event of a failure in the future has not been taken into consideration.

D. Adopt automated means as much as possible to minimize the manual operation links of maintenance personnel and reduce the uncertainty and uncontrollability caused by manual operation.

10. Avoid usability design lacking scientific basis

System availability is the most important indicator in the planning and design of data centers, but there is a lack of scientific basis during the planning and design process. The main manifestations are:

A.When planning and designing data centers, the reliability of each system is calculated. However, at present, the basis for reliability calculation and data sources of different design institutes and designers have not been unified, resulting in different definitions and results of the design level and reliability of the same data center.

B. There are cases where the usability is first planned and designed, then constructed, and the design grade is reverse-engineered after the construction is completed. The reverse-engineered grade standards are then recommended to data center users. This is a design that puts the cart before the horse. Often, due to certain key flaws in the design, although the vast majority of the designs meet the grade requirements, the existence of these key flaws leads to a decline in the grade.

C. Only focusing on the availability of equipment or links (subsystems), while ignoring the impact of the correlations among subsystems within the entire system on availability.

11. avoid setting high targets that are divorced from actual needs and feasibility

A.In the early stage of planning and design, the functional indicators of the data center are subjectively determined, and there is an unrealistic pursuit of large scale, high availability level, high rack power density, and low energy consumption index PUE.

However, when it came to the specific planning and design, detailed arguments were not conducted strictly in accordance with the planning principles and procedures. As a result, the specific plans and practical measures did not match the overall planning. The consequence was

Due to the unclear actual demands and the lack of necessary conditions for feasibility, repeated designs and modifications not only result in cost waste but also significantly prolong the construction period.

B. The computer rooms that have been built and put into use are not fully utilized. The reasons for this may be that there is no expected business demand or that the conditions of the computer rooms do not meet the needs of users and must be further optimized and renovated before they can be used.

C. The functions envisioned in the planning cannot be realized, such as the system availability failing to meet the planning level, the refrigeration scheme not supporting the high power density of the planned racks, the generator not supporting the continuous operation conditions of the system, and excessive planning causing the system energy consumption index PUE to remain high, etc.

12. Avoid the misunderstanding of emphasizing equipment over systems

In the industry, especially among planning and design personnel, there is a widespread phenomenon of emphasizing equipment over systems and focusing on the details while neglecting the overall situation. This is mainly manifested in:

First, determine the equipment specifications, model and even the manufacturer, and then select or modify the design plan based on the equipment.

B. The power supply system is designed with the highest availability level of 2N redundancy, but the result of the design is that only the UPS system has 2N function, while the entire power supply system has a single-path fault point.

C. The entire system is designed as the highest level of redundant fault-tolerant system, but the air conditioning and refrigeration equipment is powered by a single path.

D. The system was equipped with an AC backup energy diesel generator, but the generator did not have an automatic start function because the planners and designers lacked the understanding that continuous cooling is also an important condition for the continuous operation of the system.

13. Emphasize overall planning and design

A.Improving the ability of systematic overall design is of great significance for the high-quality completion of planning and design tasks.

During the construction of data centers, there are numerous issues where the planning and design do not adequately consider the phased and specialized implementation of the project, as well as the connection between different specialized constructions. As a result, the delivered data centers fail to meet the business and maintenance requirements. Some problems even require significant investment for renovation to be completed.

B. Different designers only focus on the content they are responsible for, lacking a comprehensive consideration of whether the connection with other specialties is perfect and whether there are contradictions and conflicts with the designs of other specialties.

C. The planning and design personnel lack an accurate grasp of the future business development and do not give sufficient consideration to the later capacity management, expansion and other aspects.

D. If the planning and design personnel are not familiar with the surrounding resource environment and physical environment, the schemes they design will have poor implementation feasibility or bring insurmountable difficulties to the subsequent operation and maintenance work.

Summary

There are still many other issues to be considered in the construction of new data centers. However, industry experience tells us that mastering these thirteen key points in the process of data center construction and design can help ensure that the final construction result is as close as possible to the true needs of users, which is worth learning from.