Server room

Ayoungman configures aWikimedia server in a Kennisnet serverroom.

A server room is a room, usually air-conditioned, de-voted to the continuous operation of computer servers.An entire building or station devoted to this purpose is adata center.The computers in a server rooms are usually headlesssystems that can be operated remotely via KVM switchor remote administration software, such as Secure Shell(ssh), VNC, and remote desktop.[1][2][3][4][5]

Climate is one of the factors that affects the energy con-sumption and environmental impact of a server room.In areas where climate favors cooling and an abundanceof renewable electricity, the environmental effects willbe more moderate. Thus countries with favorable con-ditions, such as: Canada,[6] Finland,[7] Sweden,[8] andSwitzerland,[9] are trying to attract more companies tosite their server rooms there.

1 Design considerations

Building a server or computer room requires detailed at-tention to six main design considerations: [10]

1.1 Location

Computer or server room location is the first consider-ation, before even considering the layout of the room’scontents. Most designers agree that, where possible, thecomputer room should not be built where one of its wallsis an exterior wall of the building. Exterior walls can of-ten be quite damp and can contain water pipes that couldburst and drench the equipment. Certainly avoid exte-rior windows that will not only be a security risk, but alsobe susceptible to breakages. Also, try to avoid both thetop floors and basements that may be prone to floodingor leaks in the case of roofs. If a centralised computerroom is not feasible, server closets on each floor may bean option. This is where computer, network and phoneequipment are housed in closets and each closet is stackedabove each other on the floor that they service.In addition to the hazards of exterior walls, designers needto evaluate any potential sources of interference in prox-imity to the computer room. Check if there are radiotransmitters in close proximity and also consider electri-cal interference from power plants or lift rooms, etc.Other physical design considerations range from roomsize, door sizes and access ramps (to get equipment in andout) to cable organization, physical security and mainte-nance access.

1.2 Air conditioning

Computer equipment generates heat, and is sensitive toheat, humidity, and dust, but also the need for very highresilience and failover requirements. Maintaining a sta-ble temperature and humidity within tight tolerances iscritical to IT system reliability.In most server rooms “close control air conditioning" sys-tems, also known as PAC (precision air conditioning) sys-tems, are installed. These systems control temperature,humidity and particle filtration within tight tolerances 24hours a day and can be remotely monitored. They canhave built-in automatic alerts when conditions within theserver room move outside defined tolerances.Air conditioning designs for most computer or serverrooms will vary depending on various design consider-ations, but they are generally one of two types: “up-flow”and “down-flow” configurations.

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1.2.1 Up-flow air conditioning

This type of air conditioning draws air into the front ofthe air handler unit (AHU), cools the air over the heat ex-changer, then distributes the cooled air out through thetop or through duct work. This air conditioning configu-ration is well suited to retro-fitted computer rooms whenraised floors are either of inadequate depth or do not existat all.

1.2.2 Down-flow air conditioning

Typically, this type of air conditioning unit draws the airinto the top of the air handling unit, cools the air overthe heat exchanger, then distributes the air out of the bot-tom into the floor void. This conditioned air is then dis-charged into the server room via strategically placed floorgrilles and onwards to equipment racks. These systemsare well suited to new office buildings where the designcan encompass raised floors suitable for ducting to com-puter racks.

1.3 Fire protection

The fire protection system’s main goal should be to detectand alert of fire in the early stages, then bring fire undercontrol without disrupting the flow of business and with-out threatening the personnel in the facility. Server roomfire suppression technology has been around for as long asthere have been server rooms. Traditionally, most com-puter rooms usedHalon gas, but this has been shown to beenvironmentally unfriendly (ozone depleting) and unsafefor humans. Modern computer rooms use combinationsof inert gases such as Nitrogen, Argon and CO2. Othersolutions include clean chemical agents such as FM200and also hypoxic air solutions that keep oxygen levelsdown.

1.4 Future-proofing

The demands of server rooms are constantly changing asorganizations evolve and grow and as technology changes.An essential part of computer room design is futureproofing so that new requirements can be accommodatedwith minimal effort. As computing requirements grow,so will a server room’s power and cooling requirements.As a rough guide, for every additional 100 kW of equip-ment installed, a further 30 kW of energy is required tocool it. As a result, air conditioning designs will need tohave scalability designed in from the outset.The choice of racks in a server room is usually the primefactor when determining space. Many organisations usetelco racks or enclosed cabinets to make the most of thespace they have. Today, with servers that are one-rack-unit (1U) high and new blade servers, a single 19- or 23-

inch rack can accommodate anywhere from 42 to hun-dreds of servers.

1.5 Redundancy

If the computer systems in a server room are missioncritical, removing single points of failure and common-mode failures may be of high importance.[11] The levelof desired redundancy is determined by factors such aswhether the organisation can tolerate interruption whilstfailover systems are activated, or must they be seamlesswithout any business impacts. Other than computer hard-ware redundancy, the main consideration here is the pro-visioning of failover power supplies and cooling.

2 See also• Equipment room

• Facility management

• Server farm

• Mini-Data Center Data Vault Layout

3 References[1] Learnthat - server room Definition

[2] Free Online Encyclopedia - server room

[3] ISP.webopedia.com - lights out server room

[4] TechRepublic - What not to do in a server room

[5] CNET Networks - Photos: Server room cabling overhaul

[6] Canada Called Prime Real Estate for Massive Data Com-puters - Globe & Mail Retrieved June 29, 2011.

[7] Finland - First Choice for Siting Your Cloud ComputingData Center. Accessed 4 August 2010.

[8] Stockholm sets sights on data center customers. Accessed4 August 2010.

[9] Swiss Carbon-Neutral Servers Hit the Cloud. Accessed 4August 2010.

[10] Air Intelligence Air Conditioning Computer Room De-sign Considerations

[11] “Black Swan in the Server Room”

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