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#11
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Are any of the adjoining spaces unoccupied? Perhaps, you could put a
window A/C through a wall and dump the heat 'next door'. The room is surrounded by an office, a storage room, and the office hallway. I don't think blowing a hole in the wall will be well-seen by the company execs or building management. Others have recommended a fan in place of a ceiling tile. I've never seen any of these around. Anyone used these before? Would they work for this application? I figure the HVAC vent will bring in cold air while the fan could take out the cold air. -- Yoann Roman |
#12
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My main concerns a
- to protect the equipment from general dust Air filtration can be necessary. Could be whole-room, could be on a sealed cabinet, either way if this is a dusty environment then a service interval needs to be maintained for the filter inspection and/or replacement. It's not too dusty, really. Right now, the equipment is housed in a regular office, which is probably the source of most of the dust. I figure that once this is in an isolated room, the dust will reduce significantly. The enclosed cabinet was an additional precaution. - provide a stable physical environment (safe from bumps, hits, etc...) If people are getting in and hitting the racks, you need better locks or a guard or pre-employment screening or something of this nature. The room is also the telco room, so telco guys may accidently hit against the equipment when working in that room. It's really more of a closet, so there isn't too much space. It should be fine, but, again, precautionary. - have a setup that allows easy maintenance and setup, but nothing regular - protect against accidental pulling of cables (the room is also the telco closet open to telco companies) You can partition things off, demand a telco check-in and supervision, or have insurance cover any damage, yours or theirs. It's not a large room so is there even space for everything you need in it and still the realistic expectation that a stranger can walk in and service something? Depends on where you situate everything. We can't easily do that or advise on it. From my measurements, space shouldn't be too big a problem. There's only going to be one rack inside the entire room. The telco stuff is all wall-mounted and takes up basically no space. The note about preventing accidental pulling of cables is that, once we know the telco guy is in there, we don't watch over him/her 24/7. It's too small a room to do so. So, while they're not idiots, I just want to be cautious. This is a small/medium business, as you can tell by the number of servers, so cost is the key. Dedicated HVAC is probably hard to obtain from the building. Regular HVAC is never shut off during the year, though. There will be a duct added to the room. I suggest not only a duct but fan local to the room. I take it this fan would take air out of the room. How would you suggest installing this? The room is surrounded by an office, a storage room, and the main office hallway. It has no windows. It does have an acoustic ceiling, so I could place a fan there, but I haven't come across any such models. If air flow became a problem, maybe some of APC's air flow products would help, although the room has no raised floor. It has tiled ceilings, but I don't think there is much air circulation up there. There's where a fan comes in. If the fan is exhausting into the ceiling, then there is air circulation... providing the room isn't so sealed off that no air gets in but HVAC duct will help there too. In other words with a localized AC system the room can be fairly well sealed (except the back-end of the AC unit itself) but without localized AC, you'll want the room not so well sealed up, meaning typical doors over carpeted areas are too much restriction without *something* else to allow that flow while still keeping the room secure. The room does not have localized A/C, but it does have its own HVAC vent. It is not sealed off very well. There is a fairly large gap under the door that can aid in air circulation. I'm thinking that a fan in the ceiling may help, but I'm not sure where to buy such a device. This will be the only rack/cabinet in the room and I figured I could center it so that it had plenty of space on all sides. The rack I'm looking at is a SMC rack on casters with fully perforated rear door, fan at the top, and perforated sides on either side of the front door's plexiglass. With a 42U rack/cabinet, I think I could guarantee at least 1U of space between each component. I didn't notice any component giving off much heat other than the UPS's. Are any of these passively cooled devices? If not, space between racks should not be an issue, each component should be self-sufficient in cooing providing the ambient (intake) air temp is low enough. One of the switches has no fan (I figured that's what you meant by passively cooled device). The rest of the equipment has fans, but I've typically been recommended to have 1U of space between switches/routers and the such. Not so much with servers, but I plan on doing it anyway as a precautionary measure, if I have the room. I realize this is no where near the ideal data center, but I don't think the hardware/application demands that type of setup, right? Same environment, smaller scale. My reason for this comment was cost, really. This is a small business, so cost is a very important factor. Second, this room already exists and has already been in use for the DMARC and other telco equipment. I'm just relocating the server equipment into it. Lastly, the room is very close to offices and off the main hallway, so noise is an issue. I don't want to put in an air conditioning unit that makes it sound like the room will collapse. The servers, all combine, aren't noisy enough themselves. Thanks for the advice/time. -- Yoann Roman |
#13
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On Fri, 9 Sep 2005 11:45:32 -0400, "Yoann Roman"
wrote: Are any of the adjoining spaces unoccupied? Perhaps, you could put a window A/C through a wall and dump the heat 'next door'. The room is surrounded by an office, a storage room, and the office hallway. I don't think blowing a hole in the wall will be well-seen by the company execs or building management. The company execs then, will need adequately briefed about the need for the room to be suitable for the purpose... IF whatever you decide to do requires modifications. Others have recommended a fan in place of a ceiling tile. I've never seen any of these around. Anyone used these before? Would they work for this application? I figure the HVAC vent will bring in cold air while the fan could take out the cold air. Such a fan should have a bracket and be supported from above, not just a hole cut into a ceiling tile (if that were what you were thinking of based on my non-descript concept). Would just a hole work? Maybe, but I wouldn't count on it without knowing the rigidity of the ceiling or any other unforeen variables... I'd plan on a very secure mounting. As for building management, they might not like a fan either, you might have someone keen to lease/legal issues look over details this impinge... in other words such a project should be done with all having full knowledge of it. |
#14
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I think there's some confusion about air circulation and HVAC. Often,
the space above a drop ceiling is an air plenum, pulling 'used' air back to the fans (and heating/cooling equipment) for the building. At other times, duct work is used to pull the air back (return air as its called); in this case the space above the ceiling tiles is just dead space. You've got to determine whether your ceiling is a return plenum or whether it is just dead space. Go into a room near your proposed server room that has two grills, probably one in the room's center and one at the periphery. The center one is probably supplying air while the one at the edge is probably pulling out 'used' air. A Kleenex on a stick will show which way the air flows. Then investigate whether the return air grill is tied to duct work or is just a hole in the ceiling. If you have an active plenum, then one supply duct at one end of the server closet and a hole in the ceiling at the other end might provide sufficient ventilation. If the ceiling is dead and a return duct can't be installed, perhaps louvers in the door would let the heated air escape. Putting a fan in the ceiling blowing up might help a little but I wouldn't count on it. Just get a $20 box fan at K-Mart, cut a hole in the ceiling tile, and lay the fan on the tile. If you want, you can tie some strings to the fan and to the ceiling tile hangers for extra security. And I repeat an earlier question - do you know for sure that the building will be supplying cold air during the heating season? Yoann Roman wrote: My main concerns a - to protect the equipment from general dust Air filtration can be necessary. Could be whole-room, could be on a sealed cabinet, either way if this is a dusty environment then a service interval needs to be maintained for the filter inspection and/or replacement. It's not too dusty, really. Right now, the equipment is housed in a regular office, which is probably the source of most of the dust. I figure that once this is in an isolated room, the dust will reduce significantly. The enclosed cabinet was an additional precaution. - provide a stable physical environment (safe from bumps, hits, etc...) If people are getting in and hitting the racks, you need better locks or a guard or pre-employment screening or something of this nature. The room is also the telco room, so telco guys may accidently hit against the equipment when working in that room. It's really more of a closet, so there isn't too much space. It should be fine, but, again, precautionary. - have a setup that allows easy maintenance and setup, but nothing regular - protect against accidental pulling of cables (the room is also the telco closet open to telco companies) You can partition things off, demand a telco check-in and supervision, or have insurance cover any damage, yours or theirs. It's not a large room so is there even space for everything you need in it and still the realistic expectation that a stranger can walk in and service something? Depends on where you situate everything. We can't easily do that or advise on it. From my measurements, space shouldn't be too big a problem. There's only going to be one rack inside the entire room. The telco stuff is all wall-mounted and takes up basically no space. The note about preventing accidental pulling of cables is that, once we know the telco guy is in there, we don't watch over him/her 24/7. It's too small a room to do so. So, while they're not idiots, I just want to be cautious. This is a small/medium business, as you can tell by the number of servers, so cost is the key. Dedicated HVAC is probably hard to obtain from the building. Regular HVAC is never shut off during the year, though. There will be a duct added to the room. I suggest not only a duct but fan local to the room. I take it this fan would take air out of the room. How would you suggest installing this? The room is surrounded by an office, a storage room, and the main office hallway. It has no windows. It does have an acoustic ceiling, so I could place a fan there, but I haven't come across any such models. If air flow became a problem, maybe some of APC's air flow products would help, although the room has no raised floor. It has tiled ceilings, but I don't think there is much air circulation up there. There's where a fan comes in. If the fan is exhausting into the ceiling, then there is air circulation... providing the room isn't so sealed off that no air gets in but HVAC duct will help there too. In other words with a localized AC system the room can be fairly well sealed (except the back-end of the AC unit itself) but without localized AC, you'll want the room not so well sealed up, meaning typical doors over carpeted areas are too much restriction without *something* else to allow that flow while still keeping the room secure. The room does not have localized A/C, but it does have its own HVAC vent. It is not sealed off very well. There is a fairly large gap under the door that can aid in air circulation. I'm thinking that a fan in the ceiling may help, but I'm not sure where to buy such a device. This will be the only rack/cabinet in the room and I figured I could center it so that it had plenty of space on all sides. The rack I'm looking at is a SMC rack on casters with fully perforated rear door, fan at the top, and perforated sides on either side of the front door's plexiglass. With a 42U rack/cabinet, I think I could guarantee at least 1U of space between each component. I didn't notice any component giving off much heat other than the UPS's. Are any of these passively cooled devices? If not, space between racks should not be an issue, each component should be self-sufficient in cooing providing the ambient (intake) air temp is low enough. One of the switches has no fan (I figured that's what you meant by passively cooled device). The rest of the equipment has fans, but I've typically been recommended to have 1U of space between switches/routers and the such. Not so much with servers, but I plan on doing it anyway as a precautionary measure, if I have the room. I realize this is no where near the ideal data center, but I don't think the hardware/application demands that type of setup, right? Same environment, smaller scale. My reason for this comment was cost, really. This is a small business, so cost is a very important factor. Second, this room already exists and has already been in use for the DMARC and other telco equipment. I'm just relocating the server equipment into it. Lastly, the room is very close to offices and off the main hallway, so noise is an issue. I don't want to put in an air conditioning unit that makes it sound like the room will collapse. The servers, all combine, aren't noisy enough themselves. Thanks for the advice/time. |
#15
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I think there's some confusion about air circulation and HVAC. Often,
the space above a drop ceiling is an air plenum, pulling 'used' air back to the fans (and heating/cooling equipment) for the building. At other times, duct work is used to pull the air back (return air as its called); in this case the space above the ceiling tiles is just dead space. You've got to determine whether your ceiling is a return plenum or whether it is just dead space. Go into a room near your proposed server room that has two grills, probably one in the room's center and one at the periphery. The center one is probably supplying air while the one at the edge is probably pulling out 'used' air. A Kleenex on a stick will show which way the air flows. Then investigate whether the return air grill is tied to duct work or is just a hole in the ceiling. If you have an active plenum, then one supply duct at one end of the server closet and a hole in the ceiling at the other end might provide sufficient ventilation. If the ceiling is dead and a return duct can't be installed, perhaps louvers in the door would let the heated air escape. Putting a fan in the ceiling blowing up might help a little but I wouldn't count on it. Just get a $20 box fan at K-Mart, cut a hole in the ceiling tile, and lay the fan on the tile. If you want, you can tie some strings to the fan and to the ceiling tile hangers for extra security. And I repeat an earlier question - do you know for sure that the building will be supplying cold air during the heating season? Thanks for the clarifications. This helps a lot! I'll check on the active plenum vs. return vents. From what I've seen by poking around, there are a few ceiling tiles that are just perforated and have no duct work attached up in the ceiling. I don't know if these are potential HVAC ducts that have not been hooked up or proof of an active plenum. I doubt they will be supplying cold air during the heating season. Unfortunately, the building duct work isn't advanced enough to separate hot & cold vents. I did change my decision and will now use open racks. I figure if it gets too hot during winter, I can just block off the vent and install a fan into the ceiling like suggested. Thanks again for the tips. -- Yoann Roman |
#16
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Yoann Roman wrote: I think there's some confusion about air circulation and HVAC. Often, the space above a drop ceiling is an air plenum, pulling 'used' air back to the fans (and heating/cooling equipment) for the building. At other times, duct work is used to pull the air back (return air as its called); in this case the space above the ceiling tiles is just dead space. You've got to determine whether your ceiling is a return plenum or whether it is just dead space. Go into a room near your proposed server room that has two grills, probably one in the room's center and one at the periphery. The center one is probably supplying air while the one at the edge is probably pulling out 'used' air. A Kleenex on a stick will show which way the air flows. Then investigate whether the return air grill is tied to duct work or is just a hole in the ceiling. If you have an active plenum, then one supply duct at one end of the server closet and a hole in the ceiling at the other end might provide sufficient ventilation. If the ceiling is dead and a return duct can't be installed, perhaps louvers in the door would let the heated air escape. Putting a fan in the ceiling blowing up might help a little but I wouldn't count on it. Just get a $20 box fan at K-Mart, cut a hole in the ceiling tile, and lay the fan on the tile. If you want, you can tie some strings to the fan and to the ceiling tile hangers for extra security. And I repeat an earlier question - do you know for sure that the building will be supplying cold air during the heating season? Thanks for the clarifications. This helps a lot! I'll check on the active plenum vs. return vents. From what I've seen by poking around, there are a few ceiling tiles that are just perforated and have no duct work attached up in the ceiling. I don't know if these are potential HVAC ducts that have not been hooked up or proof of an active plenum. I doubt they will be supplying cold air during the heating season. Unfortunately, the building duct work isn't advanced enough to separate hot & cold vents. I did change my decision and will now use open racks. I figure if it gets too hot during winter, I can just block off the vent and install a fan into the ceiling like suggested. Thanks again for the tips. Installing a fan in the ceiling will not help very much unless you have a supply of cool air from somewhere. Consider louvers in the door as a source of cool (70F) supply air during the winter. Keep in mind that to ventilate your heat sources you need to supply cool air to the closet and suck out hot air from the closet. I urge you to get some expert help on this. Convince your bosses that a proper environment is a legitimate cost of business, just as the computers are. And don't forget to add the lighting in the closet as yet another heat source. |
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