Small Computer Rooms by Tim Hogard thogard@abnormal.com Micro Data Centers on a Budget.

Small Computer

Rooms

by Tim Hogardthogard@abnormal.com

Micro Data Centers on a Budget

Specs?

•2 to 5 racks

•Neat

•Easy to maintain

Raised Floor?

• Of course!

Height?

• 150 mm is good for wires

• 300 mm isn’t quite enough for forced air

• More than 150 requires cross bracing on small floors

Tile Size?

• 600 mm for metric racks

• 2 foot for imperial racks

Use the right size tiles for your racks and equipment

Integer math

• For a small room you want as many of the tiles to be removable as possible

• Cut tiles are a pain

• Typical building cuts the decorative flooring to fit the walls

Walls

•Plasterboard on steel studs

•Consider putting wire mesh in the walls

•Security

•Helps keep RF energy out

Floor

• Racks are heavy

• Ground floors may work best

• Reinforced flooring is expensive

Insulation

•Pack in as much insulation as you can

•Consider non-fiberglass insulation

•Seal the room with a good plaster and paint

Electrical

• Figure out what you need

• Then double that

• Then double it again

• Then double it again

Power

• 4 Power points per rack is minimal

• Put your UPS and batteries elsewhere

• Consider several UPS circuits

UPS

• Rolling blackouts for 2 hours

• Cheap UPS will fail

• Lots of batteries are heavy

Comms

• Put IDF in machine room

• parallel all MDF circuits to machine room IDF

Alarm

• PIR sensors in room

• Door switches

• one hooked to alarm system

• one hooked to computer monitor system

Monitoring

• Door

• Temperatures

• Air conditioners

• Water on or under the floor

Air Conditioning

• Dual split units

• Must be small enough to run off generator with emergency heat load

• A fan and a window can remove a great deal of heat in a hurry

Footnotes

• TIA/EIA-942Data Center Standard

• Past talks by Geoffrey Day and Don Gingrich

• web.abnormal.com/computer_room

• Fergus Electrical 0438 855 707