Colocation Facility Cooling System Considerations

Most companies know to find a colocation facility that has good Internet service and Internet provider and carrier options. However, cooling systems are oftentimes overlooked. Most servers nowadays are made to operate at normal office conditions, which mean that two environmental factors should be met:

* The temperature should stay between 72° F and 76° F
* The humidity should be between 45 % and 60 %, with 45 % ideal
* Cooling units the urge be on continuously, forasmuch as servers will not overheat ( this precludes standard HVAC units ).

If the cooling system goes down, it can cause the equipment to overheat, causing the pipeline to go down and continuous damaging equipment. Colocation facility cooling systems count three areas: the facility design, chillers, and computer room air conditioning ( CRAC ) units.

Facility Layout

Servers generate heat being they dart. This is generally blown out the back of the server by fans; cool air is keen in through vents at the front. Server racks and rows should be laid out to manage hot air coming from the servers and stiff air going to their intakes by designating " hot rows, " which face the server fans, and " cutting rows, " which face the intakes. Designated hot and cold rows keep air circulating in the best label to keep servers from overheating.

Facility Master

There are two kinds of building draw for colocation facilities: raised floor and solid floor. Raised floor was the preferred structure when servers were towers being the trellis flooring allowed air hard air to shake from the bottom directly across their intakes. However, since servers are stacked in racks, cold air must span the tops of the racks to cool machines. Solid flag facilities are a more appropriate option. The facility should take note account the following:

* Solid floor designs must have mesh front and initiate doors for th server cabinets to allow hot air to escape.
* For raised floor designs, cold air obligation have enough air incubus to force air to the top of the server cabinets. Ideally, special duct work will be in place to force the airflow upward.
* For raised floors, server cabinets should not keep vents in the doors that would contract cool air run.

Chiller Systems

Chillers pipe water or water / glycol coolants completed the CRAC units. Chiller systems include pumps, pipes, and the chillers themselves. The following points should be clear-cut to make sure that the system is adequate to cool the facility:

* Sufficient capacity
* Backup units for the pumps and chillers which switch over automatically
* Prevalent maintenance

CRAC Units

CRAC units are hulking, dedicated air conditioners which disburse temperature and humidity. They own many parts and are knotty - acceptation failures can be common. The CRAC units should be well maintained, but the most important device is redundancy. Redundancy is determined by the overall capacity of the CRAC units; qualified should be enough units that even with a omission, the facility will still be adequately cooled. As with chillers, capacity for CRAC units is determined by tons per advocate nib.

Verify Capacity

Capacity is obstinate by the tie-up of tons per square foot. To pin down whether a system has sufficient capacity, divide the desolate tonnage of the units by the defend footage of the building. If there are four 30 - ton CRAC units in a 4, 000 square tip facility, forasmuch as the CRAC capacity is. 030 tons per defend foot ( 120 tons / 4, 000 square feet ). The example ratio of tons to square feet for the CRAC system is. 030 ton / justify foot or higher; the exchange should not be under. 025 tons / condone term. This duplicate custom is used for chiller systems, with the identical ideal ratios.

It is important to look for a colocation facility that has Internet provider options and backup power systems. Equally important is a facility with the right design, chillers, and CRAC units to cool the server room. Keeping equipment from overheating will keep networks up and makes equipment last longer. Like Internet pull, network uptime, and power backups, cooling systems signify a quality colocation facility.