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Datacenter 'Last Mile' Challenges - A Rack Perspective S.

Venkatraman 10th September09

DATA CENTER LAST MILE RACK PERSPECTIVE


Thermal Management Level 1 Thermal Management Level 2 Thermal planning & Consultancy Services - CFD

Space management

Power Management

Security management

Environment Monitoring

Cable Management

Thermal Management & Planning Cooling /Air flow in the Data Center

THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM
Thermal & Vapour Barrier

Q1

R1 Q1 Q2

R2

R3 Q1

R1, R2, R3 Racks Q1 Outside Heat C1 C1 PAC Cooling

C1 = Q1 + Q2 Q1 Eliminate Q1 using thermal & vapour barrier to save on Opex

THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM

THERMAL MANAGEMENT - BASICS


Q = M Cp T T = (Tl - Te ) Q = 1.08 x cfm x T Limitations Precision AC T across evaporator coil cannot exceed 10C (std products) Better heat removal By improving air flow Effective utilization of cold air Key factor Air quantity & Distribution

Te

Tl

THERMAL MANAGEMENT - BASICS

LETS BIFURCATE THE PROBLEM Low & medium density cooling Focus on Air flow management

High density cooling Focus on using chilled water as the medium of cooling

AIR FLOW MANAGEMENT Under floor air management

Above floor air management (including above the false ceiling)

THE PROBLEM: Subfloor Air Velocity


Air Handlers generate a great deal of air velocity in the subfloor, causing a reduction in static pressure, which results in low-flowing and negative-flowing tiles. In many cases, simply adding additional Air Handlers creates more velocity, causing more hot spots to occur. As additional or hotter-running equipment is added to the room, the hot spots spread and cause the entire room to run warmer The Goal - Slow down the subfloor velocity, thereby increasing static pressure

CURRENT SITUATION

This typically requires a lower air handler temperature set point and/or additional air handlers to keep the equipment cool, which requires increasing the energy consumption being used.

DID YOU KNOW


The average data center has 2x the number of Air Handlers actually needed to cool the equipment Approximately 60% of all cool air produced by Air Handlers never actually hits the heat load (Servers, Hubs, Routers, Switches, etc) ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air- Conditioning Engineers), is encouraging data center managers to raise the temperature set points to lower energy costs 95% of all data centers are paying a large energy penalty caused by poor subfloor air distribution

WHY SUBFLOOR AIR MANAGEMENT


Eliminate hot spots Direct more cool air to the heat load Completely balance your subfloor air Allow you to raise the temperature set points on your air handlers Reduce your energy costs from 23% - 42%

AFTER CORRECTIVE ACTION

Now that the room is balanced with cold air, the air handlers set points can be raised to save on energy costs. In some cases, air handlers can even be shut off or removed.

STEP ONE
Before
A Below-Floor CFD Analysis Includes Before and After: CFM Readings Cable Cutout Leakage Lowest/Highest Flowing Tiles Velocity/Vector/Pressure Readings Deliverable

After
Below-Floor CFDs show us how the air flows from the Computer Room Air Conditioner (CRAC) through the subfloor plenum up into the ambient room.

STEP TWO
Air Balancers
By balancing the subfloor pressure, we manage it and can properly deliver air to the heat load. Air balancers are strategically placed, using our intellectual properties, to enhance and balance static pressure

RESULTS FROM INSTALLED Air Balancers Every perforated tile within the data center will produce a significantly higher plume of air. Each perforated tile will provide greater cooling. Helps eliminate hot spots Increased air stratification

STEP THREE
Air Plumes Before FlowLogix

Eliminate Bypass Airflow

Between 100 600 CFM is leaked through a cable cutout opening; this causes loss of CFM and a decrease in static pressure The mixing of hot and cold air increases energy consumption.

Air Plumes After FlowLogix

STEP FOUR
Increase Return Air Temperature A 30 ton nominal, down-flow, chilled water Air Handler might have a sensible capacity of 27 tons when operated at 22C but only 23 tons when operated at 20C. Eighteen percent more capacity at the higher operating temperature! From a cost viewpoint, it might be possible to eliminate one in five Air Handlers.

With Riser Added


The performance of that same 30-ton unit with improved air stratification and a return air temperature of 31C the unit will put out more than 30 tons. At the higher return air temperatures, the Air Handler capacity is increased and the chiller plant operates more efficiently.

Please view ASHRAE TC9.9 & ambient conditions

RESULTS BASED ON ACTIONS


Re-circulated airflow Re-circulated airflow eliminated

Short-cycling airflow Uneven plumes of air from perf tiles Bypass airflow

Increased and even plumes of air from all perf tiles

Short-cycling eliminated

Eliminated bypass airflow

Unbalanced subfloor airflow

Your data center before FlowLogic installation

Your data center after FlowLogic installation

Balanced airflow throughout subfloor

RESULTS
Based on CFD analysis and corrective action thereof
Average reduction in data center energy costs ranging from 23% - 42% Drops of cold aisle temperature ranging from 3 11 degrees Elimination of hot spots Increased static pressure in the subfloor Moving 95% +/- of available conditioned air delivered to the heat load

AIR FLOW MANAGEMENT Under floor air management

Above floor air management (including above the false ceiling)

DATA CENTER - AIRFLOW ISSUES


Over 60% of cooling energy is wasted in the form of bypass air Re-circulated air from IT equipment exhaust can reduce server performance Air stratification forces set points of precision cooling equipment to be lower than recommended Air remixing drives down precision cooling efficiencies Most data centers produce significantly more cold air then is required by the IT devices

DC COOLING ISSUE DEFINITIONS


Bypass Airflow Air supplied from precision air conditioning units that bypasses the rack-mounted equipment Recirculation Exhaust air from rack-mounted devices that makes its way back to the device inlets Air Temperature Stratification Layer effect of temperature gradients from the bottom to the top of the enclosure

BYPASS AIRFLOW
A comprehensive study performed by Upsite Technologies Inc. concluded that 60% of the air supplied in traditional data centers is wasted due to bypass airflow Significant efficiencies and cost savings can be realized by eliminating bypass airflow.

RECIRCULATION
Hot air exhaust circulating back into its own intake can cause device thermal overload. Typical manufacturer inlet temperature threshold for device operations is 35C. Exceeding manufacturers operating device threshold can lead to unplanned computing system outages and data loss.

TEMPERATURE STRATIFICATION
Significant gradient of air temperatures beyond ASHRAE TC9.9 places devices at risk of thermal overload Maintaining inlet temperature gradients within the ASHRAE recommended range significantly saves energy

TEMPERATURE BOUNDARIES
ASHRAE Technical Committee 9.9 has provided a standard as a statement of reliability Manufacturers specification is an allowable range within which the products can run effectively

ASHRAE TC9.9 Device Inlet Temperature Range

Manufacturer Specification

(64.4 - 80.6)F

(50 - 95)F

HEAT CONTAINMENT SYSTEM


HCS optimizes the use of existing precision cooling capacity within the data center to deliver effective cooling to IT loads - Balance cool air supply with demand

HCS is a scalable, flexible and proven design that can be adapted to existing infrastructures as capacity demands increase - No stranded supplemental cooling assets

FLEXIBILITY AND HCS CHIMNEY


The HCS chimney allows both active and passive ducting options Using the passive solution will reduce energy usage when the server exhaust within the enclosure is substantial. However, for enclosures with potential backflow, active hot swappable fans can mediate the risk of thermal overload

BACKFLOW AND STAGNATION


Low density racks with passive chimneys can be susceptible to backflow Backflow can lead to high temperature air leaking through undesirable regions of the enclosure Backflow increases pressure buildup which may lead to server exhaust fan stagnation and ultimately damage to computing equipment

MODELED RESULTS - 3D View Traditional


Data Center containing all airflow issues

MODELED RESULTS - 3D View HCS Data


Center optimized results of full containment

COLD AISLE CONTAINMENT

BEFORE & AFTER COLD AISLE CONTAINMENT

oc o 2727 c

21oc 17

o 16 c 16oc

ARCHITECTURAL VIEW
Warm return air Warm return air

Cold supply air

Cold supply air

COLD AISLE CONTAINMENT - Schematic

WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF CONTAINMENT


All energy used to move or produce cool air is used to cool IT equipment IT equipment will only receive conditioned air, maintaining ideal operating environment leading to better performance Air conditioner set points can be tuned to deliver ideal inlet air temp to IT equipment and eliminate the energy from overcooling Warm air is sent directly back to conditioning systems increasing overall cooling performance Predictable air management is obtained

Yields a savings greater than 30% reduction in the energy consumed in a typical legacy datacenter CRAC cooling system

DATA CENTER FLEXIBILITY VS. COOLING PERFORMANCE


Demand for Flexibility Ability to support any Vendor IT Rack of any depth or height Ability to support any density anywhere on the white space Available Rack space unencumbered by cooling equipment in the rack rows Adds, Moves and change happens everyday Demand for cooling Performance Efficient cooling systems cost less to operate Optimized designs that match cooling capacity and demand cost less to purchase Predictable performance in a dynamic environment drives reliability

Cooling Performance and Flexibility can co-exist

LEGACY DATACENTER COOLING STYLE

LEGACY DATACENTER COOLING STYLE

SOLUTION: CREATE COLD AND HOT AISLE

LEGACY DATACENTER COOLING STYLE

COMMON MISTAKES DONT DONT

Enclosure without Blanking Panel

Enclosure without Blanking Panel and common outlet for Hot and Cold Air through Top Mounted Fan

LEGACY DATACENTER COOLING STYLE

NO INSULATION BETWEEN TWO ENCLOSURES RIGHT WAY WRONG WAY

HOT AIR /COLD AIR MIXES BETWEEN TWO ENCLOSURES

INSULATED SIDE PANELS

IN SUMMARY
Focus on air flow for addressing thermal issues in DC Follow air containment options for enhancing performance of existing & upcoming DC Thermal planning using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) & deploy corrective actions and do a periodic audit Energy saving proposition

HIGH DENSITY COOLING


Water has 3500 times higher density than air Cooling using water has become common in critical spaces and the traditional beliefs are being broken by use of appropriate technology 50%+ energy saving with major space savings with use of chilled water based cooling for the DC

How Does It Work?


Rear Door Heat Exchanger replaces existing rear door of IT enclosure Rear door has chilled water Supply & Return quick connections at bottom or top Chilled water circulates through fin+tube coil from Supply connection Equipment exhaust air passes through coil and is cooled before re-entering the room Heat is rejected from room through Return water connection

Tube+Fin Heatexchanger Rearof Enclosure Frontof Enclosure

Chilled Water Cooling System


Rear door provides 100% sensible cooling No condensation, no need for reheat or humidification Chilled water distributor creates a fully isolated, temperature controlled Secondary Loop Chilled water source - city water, building chilled water, packaged chiller

~65oF ~45oF

Thermal Image - Before & After

50

IN SUMMARY
For higher density racks use chilled water cooling solution

RACK ENVIRONMENT MONITORING

"You can manage what you can monitor"

IN SUMMARY
What is measured is managed Monitor environment parameters for corrective action & resource optimization

CONCLUSION
Proper Air flow management below and above false floor for effective cooling & hence optimization of energy & resources for low & medium density DCs Plan thermal management through audit & simulation using CFD techniques Use Chilled water based system for high density cooling requirement in DCs Monitor environment parameters for corrective action & resource optimization

S.Venkatraman VP Sales APW President Systems Limited Mob: 09324235923


Email: venkatraman@apwpresident.com

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