DATA CENTER

WHAT IS A DATA CENTER?

A central location where all IT equipment and structured cable are housed
It can be in many forms but will always have

Flooring Equipment Rack

Cooling (HVAC)
Cable Management
Power
DATA CENTER CABLING
CABLE MANAGEMENT

Cable organization in a data center

Cables are normally placed at the top of the room or under the floor
Cables going into the data center can come from other
Rooms, buildings or outside the premise
Cables can be color coded for certain purposes

Overhead Cable Tray / Duct Rack Cable Management

Under Floor Cable Tray
BAD CABLE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE
GOOD PRACTICE
STRUCTURED CABLING

 The design and installation of a cabling system that will support multiple
hardware uses
 Design covers from “work area” to “data center” cabling
 Depending on the country, there are standards for structured cabling
 Europe – EN50173
 US – EIA/TIA 568
STRUCTURED CABLING

 Cabling infrastructure consisting of standardized elements

 It has six subsystems
 Entrance Facility
 Equipment Room
 Backbone Cabling
 Horizontal Cabling
 Telecommunication Room
 Work Area
STRUCTURED CABLING

Image source - http://www.slideshare.net/datacenters/data-centers-4507991

STRUCTURED CABLING SUBSYSTEMS

 Entrance Facility
 Entrance facilities contain the cables, network demarcation point(s), connecting
hardware, protection devices and other equipment that connect to the access provider
(AP) or private network cabling
 It includes connections between outside plant and inside building cabling
 Equipment Room
 Environmentally controlled centralized space for telecommunications equipment
 Usually more complex than a telecommunications room
 Usually houses the main cross-connect
 May also contain the intermediate cross-connects, horizontal cross-connects or both

Source - https://www.anixter.com/en_au/resources/literature/techbriefs/the-six-subsystems-of-a-structured-cabling-
system.html
STRUCTURED CABLING SUBSYSTEMS

 Backbone Cabling
 Provides interconnection between telecommunications rooms, equipment rooms,
access provider spaces and entrance facilities
 Telecommunication Room
 Houses the terminations of horizontal and backbone cables to connecting hardware
including any jumpers or patch cords
 It may also contain the intermediate or main cross-connect for different portions of the
backbone cabling system
 Also provides a controlled environment to house telecommunications equipment,
connecting hardware and splice closures serving a portion of the building

Source - https://www.anixter.com/en_au/resources/literature/techbriefs/the-six-subsystems-of-a-structured-cabling-
system.html
STRUCTURED CABLING SUBSYSTEMS

 Horizontal Cabling
 Extends from the work area’s telecommunications information outlet to the
telecommunications room
 It includes horizontal cable, mechanical terminations, jumpers and patch cords located
in the telecommunications room
 This is normally 90 meters from the work area to the telecommunications room
 Work Area
 Components extend from the telecommunications outlet/connector end of the
horizontal cabling system to the work area equipment
 A minimum of two telecommunications outlets should be provided for each work area

Source - https://www.anixter.com/en_au/resources/literature/techbriefs/the-six-subsystems-of-a-structured-cabling-
system.html
DATA CENTER FLOORING
DATA CENTER FLOORING

 Data center uses a flooring system called “raised flooring”

 Raised flooring has a steel structure that should be able to carry the weight of the
rack
 Flooring is modular and can be opened
EQUIPMENT RACK
 EQUIPMENT RACK

 A physical steel frame that is designed to house servers,

network equipment and cables
 A standard rack is 19 in. wide and 36 in. deep
 Height is specified as a “u”
 A “u” is equivalent to 1.7 in. or 44.45 mm
 Ex: if a rack is 42u this means that it has a height of 71.4 in. or
5.95 ft.
 Holes on the side of the rack is also standardized
 Two adjacent holes are .625 in. apart from the middle
 Equipment uses bracket for mounting on the rack
 Rack-type equipment are also uses “u” for the height
EXAMPLE EQUIPMENT RACK
EXAMPLE RACK-MOUNT EQUIPMENT

1u Bracket for Mounting

2u Rack-mount Server
1u Rack-mount Server
COOLING
COOLING

 Data centers need cooling as equipment in the rack produces heat

 When the room is hot, equipment will not function properly or may overheat
 Cooling should also be energy efficient
 Cooling can take up to 50% of the total power need to run the data center
 Data centers should have a temperature between 21c to 24c
 There are many types of cooling system for the data center
AIR CONDITIONING

 Data center uses air conditioning called Precise Air Conditioning Unit
 Controls the humidity and temperature precisely in the environment
 There are data centers that uses standard air conditioners
 Also known as comfort air conditioners
 Precise air conditioning are better because it ensures the correct environment for
the equipment
CONSIDERATIONS IN COOLING THE DATA
CENTER
 Type of air conditioner
 CRAC (Computer Room Air Conditioning) – uses refrigerant to cool the environment
 CRAH (Computer Room Air Handler) – uses chilled water to cool the environment
 Cooling capacity of the air conditioner
 Normally specified as BTU (British Thermal Units)
 Computed by engineers guided by the heat given off by the equipment and people
inside the room
 Rack placing
 Placement of rack affects cooling
 Normal design uses the hot aisle / cold aisle design
HOT AISLE / COLD AISLE

 One aisle has cold air and is vent into the rack
 All hot air from the equipment goes out in another aisle
 Hot air is then vented out of the data center
POWER
ELECTRICAL POWER

 Each equipment used in the data center has a rating in

 Volts
 Amperes
 Power - Watts or VA (not the same as watts)
 Example:
 A server can be rated as 220V / 3.5A or 220V / 600W
 This means server runs 220Vac at 600W of power

 Data center supply is normally rated with current in Amperes

 Never go beyond the rated power supply of the data center
 Will cause an overload
 Also check the PDU’s rating so as to exceed it
 POWER REDUNDANCY

 Data centers can have electrical generators for power during outages
 Data centers also uses Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) during transition to
generators in power outages
 UPS are not designed for long power outages as it uses only battery to power
equipment

Home / Personal UPS High Capacity UPS Large Data Center UPS
(For data centers)
Electrical Generator
SECURITY
SECURITY IN DATA CENTER

 Physical Security
 Must ensure that only authorized personnel is inside the data center
 Employment of locks or key card type locks
 Fire protection
 Smoke detectors
 Fire extinguishers
 Fire suppression systems
 Safety
 Fire exit
DATA CENTER