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

The business and project information contained in this document is the property of Focus Group Technologies Pty Ltd, and is
supplied without liability for errors or omissions. This information has been prepared for ACME INC who is entitled to use or
copy the information only for the purposes for which it is intended, otherwise no other part may be reproduced, used or
disclosed except as authorised in writing by Focus Group Technologies Pty Ltd
Contents
1 Document Information.................................................................................................................3
2 Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................4
2.1 Observations:.........................................................................................................................4
2.2 Recommendation Summary ...............................................................................................4
3 Physical infrastructure...................................................................................................................5
3.1 Quality Racking .....................................................................................................................5
3.2 Blanking Panels......................................................................................................................5
3.3 Monitors within racks ............................................................................................................6
3.4 Cable Management ............................................................................................................6
4 Power Audit ...................................................................................................................................7
5 Rack Location .............................................................................................................................11
6 Power Analysis Summary .............................................................................................................9
7 Power Analysis Detail..................................................................................................................10
8 Temperature Heat Map Floor View .......................................................................................11
9 Temperature Heat Map - Rack .................................................................................................13
10 Power Observations ...............................................................................................................15
11 Power Recommendations ....................................................................................................16
12 Cooling.....................................................................................................................................17
13 UPS Power ................................................................................................................................17
14 Environmental Monitoring .....................................................................................................18
15 Subsequent recommendations: ...........................................................................................19
16 About Us...................................................................................................................................20
16.1 Focus Group Technologies ................................................................................................20

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1 Document Information
Document Author

Name: Phil Jones

Principal Consultant
Focus Group technologies

Telephone: 0422 58 40 60

E-Mail: phil.jones@fgtech.com.au

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
Mr DC manager Data Centre Facilities Manager ACME Inc

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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.

Focus Group Technologies is happy to provide CUSTOMER with a quotation to perform any
or all of these services.

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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

Implement blanking panels in the racks

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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

Improve cable management by routing cables to the side of the servers.

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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

Implement ATS technology for single power supply devices.

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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.

The data recorded was a series of point in time measurements of a 2 hour period. As such
the data does not represent a maximum or average power utilisation, rather the draw as
measured.

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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 82.5%
failure: (must be < 100%)

Rack Number: 2
Total Power (Amps): 7.6A
Total Power (Watts): 1824 watts
Available Amps (Both PDUS): 32A
Utilisation of PDU: (must be < 50%) 23.75%
Utilisation of PDU in the event of single PDU 47.5%
failure: (must be < 100%)

Rack Number: 3
Total Power (Amps): 4.0A
Total Power (Watts): 960 watts
Available Amps (Both PDUS): 32A
Utilisation of PDU: (must be < 50%) 12.5%
Utilisation of PDU in the event of single PDU 25.0%
failure: (must be < 100%)

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7 Power Analysis Detail
8 Rack Location
The diagram below shows the rack locations and orientation within the data centre.
9 Temperature Heat Map Floor View

This heat map shows the surface temperature of the data centre floor around the racks.
The monitored temperature is between 16.4C at the front to 21C at the rear.

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10 Temperature Heat Map - Rack
Rack Front View

This heat map shows the surface temperature of the front of the racks. The monitored
temperature is between 15.4C at the bottom to 26.2C at the top left (west)

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Rack Front View

This heat map shows the surface temperature of the rear of the racks. The monitored
temperature is between 18.6C at the bottom to 32.0C at the top right (west)

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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.

For example, greater power draw in rack 1 results in a hot spot near the top of the rear of
rack 1. This also results in a slightly higher temperature at the front of rack 1(26.2C) from
hotter air circulating to the front and not being sufficiently cooled.

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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.

With either situation, we recommend that the 3 (or more) racks are evenly distributed for
power load so as to even out temperature variations.

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

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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:

Implement an environmental monitoring system that provides alerting and historical

reporting.

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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

A move or redistribution of racks equipment would be an ideal time to implement such

technology.

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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.

Website: www.fgtech.com.au

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