Session Title: Demystifying Efficiency in the Data Center Utilizing Airflow as a System Presented By: Jon deRidder Enabled Energy.

Session Title:Demystifying Efficiency in the Data Center

Utilizing Airflow as a System

Presented By:Jon deRidder

Enabled Energy

Learning Objectives:

• Identify how to improve your Power Usage Effectiveness immediately

• Design an efficient airflow system in a data center and apply to your own facilities

• Measure and verify the savings achieved in efficient data centers

• Identify ASHRAE TC 9.9 and its effect on the ecosystem of the data center

BackgroundDefining the terms:• Data center

– The room (regardless of size, age, how anyone “feels” about it, the budget that you have [or had] to build or maintain it, or how reliable it is / is not) that houses your computing equipment.

BackgroundDefining the terms:• Data center• Computing equipment

– Server, network, or storage devices that compute, transport, and store information (data).

BackgroundDefining the terms:• Data center• Computing equipment• PUE

– Power Usage Effectiveness. Taking the total facility power (feeding your data center) and dividing by your IT load (UPS load will get you close) will give you your PUE. This PUE number will be greater than 1 (hopefully less than 3) and provides a “uniform” way of calculating how much power is going to your IT load vs. how much power you are consuming to accomplish your compute (the “tax”). A PUE of 2 is typical in a “legacy center”, while a PUE of 1.5 is “typical” for a new data center build (many are now becoming very aggressive i.e. 1.1 and 1.2).

Courtesy of a very sad data center experience

Air Movement16%

Electricity Trans-former/ UPS

13%

Lighting, etc.4%

Cooling33%

IT Equipment33%

PUE = 3.0

BackgroundDefining the terms:• Data center• Computing equipment• PUE• A tax

– Something you pay because you are forced to or because you are not aware of it.

BackgroundDefining the terms:• Data center• Computing equipment• PUE• A tax• ASHRAE TC 9.9

– The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers Technical Committee 9.9 brought together many hardware manufacturers, locked them in a room, and came up with the latest “Thermal Guidelines for Data Centers”. This is a GUIDELINE NOT A STANDARD.

– Your equipment warrantee is provided by your equipment manufacturer and ultimately this is who gets to decide if you are or are not “compliant” with housing the equipment in a “proper environment”. Examples: power quality; temperature and humidity controls; particulate type; and size.

– In the end data wins…he or she with the most information is likely going to be the person who controls how, when, who, where, and why.

BackgroundDefining the terms:• Data center• Computing equipment• PUE• A tax• ASHRAE TC 9.9• Reliability

– The resulting investment of many painstaking strategy sessions (brain cells) coupled with lots of redundant components (which translates to big dollars) allowing for the concurrent maintainability of your entire infrastructure (planned maintenance to avoid system downtime).

– Hope is not a strategy!

BackgroundDefining the terms:• Data center• Computing equipment• PUE• A tax• ASHRAE TC 9.9• Reliability• Efficiency

– An aggressive pursuit (and an exhausting effort after achieving the appropriate levels of redundancy) to achieve maximum throughput with minimal restriction and waste.

– This starts with doing the best you can with what you have, but working intently and diligently to make it better.– Please note that reliability is and must be first.– Walnuts can be opened with steamrollers, but they don’t need to be and the result isn’t pretty.

BackgroundDefining the terms:• Data center• Computing equipment• PUE• A tax• ASHRAE TC 9.9• Reliability• Efficiency• Problem

– Opportunity

Self Actualization

Esteem

Social

Safety

Physiological

BackgroundDefining the terms:• Data center• Computing equipment• PUE• A tax• ASHRAE TC 9.9• Reliability• Efficiency• Problem

– Opportunity

Optimization

Efficiency

Reliability

Strategy

Communication

Airflow - A Systems Approach

Cause: Meaningful metrics are needed for the data center.Effect: PUE and CUE are now metrics the industry is accepting as “standard” and yet

these are not universally understood or defined.

Cause: Delivery systems were developed around outdated guidelines.Effect: Dramatic overcooling of IT equipment!

ASHRAE TC 9.9 published new thermal guideline for data centers(~78.6˚F at the intake of compute equipment).

Cause: Airflow delivery systems are generally unbalanced and full of air-mixing opportunities.

Effect: Typical delivery systems have >50% “bypass” airflow.

Airflow - A Systems Approach

It all starts with Organization Distribution

It falls apart with Poor communication Bad strategy

DiscoverYour PUE• Calculate how much you are spending now on the system and each part that creates

the total.

Your CRAC/CRAH efficiency• Start with the intake temperature of your server, network & storage equipment.• Then calculate the efficiency of your CRAC/CRAH units

– (CFM * delta temperature) * .9 = BTUs of accomplished cooling.

The path for your airflow• Supply path

– Supply panels– Aisle layout (hot/cold)– Opportunity for recirculation

• Return path– What is the path of least resistance?

Most Valuable Investment (MVI)

Source: UpSite

Bypass Airflow

Most Valuable Investment (MVI)

Backward-curved blades use blades that curve against the direction of the fan wheel's rotation. The blades are single thickness with 9 to 16 blades inclined away from the direction of rotation. Air leaves the impeller at a velocity less than its tip speed. Relatively deep blades provide efficient expansion with the blade passages. The backward curvature mimics that of an airfoil cross section and provides good operating efficiency with relatively economical construction techniques. Backward-curved fans are much more energy efficient than forward curved fans. The EC Fan design moves the air in more of a straight line.

Forward-curved blades use blades that curve in the direction of the fan wheel's rotation. It has 24 to 64 shallow blades with both the heel and tip curved forward. Air leaves the impeller at velocities greater than the impeller tip speed. Tip speed and primary energy transferred to the air is the result of high impeller velocities and operating most efficiently at lowest speed.

Forward Curved Fan EC Fan

17”

Reduced AIR

FLOWAREAS

1.25W/cfm (Standard) Exiting CRAC/CRAH Units

0.75 W/cfm (Good)

0.5 W/cfm (Better) with EC Fans

If cooling units are oversized (most that we

test are 10% to 40% oversized), then the fan speed can be reduced.

Most Valuable Investment (MVI)

Under-Floor Baffle

Most Valuable Investment (MVI)

Proportional Distribution Tiles

Sealing Cable Cutouts

Most Valuable Investment (MVI)

Blanking Openings in Cabinets

Most Valuable Investment (MVI)

Containment

Most Valuable Investment (MVI)

Ducting CRACs to Drop-Ceiling Air Space

Most Valuable Investment (MVI)

Optimized

Thank You!