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I was confused about the part where he mentions a rack full of 1Us was generating too much heat and the solution was to put less servers in a rack. I can't thin

I was confused about the part where he mentions a rack full of 1Us was generating too much heat and the solution was to put less servers in a rack. I can't think of a situation where there is nothing at fault besides the servers. The chillers should be able to keep up with 1Us like that, and it's likely there was something else going on. The situation we're running into at my job is with double density servers (i.e. Dell C6105's). The problem we're having with heating double density servers. Maybe somebody with more experience than me can explain why cooling 1Us would ever be a legitimate problem?

BryantD 14y ago
Depends on the datacenter. Any modern datacenter won't have an issue. However, if you didn't do your research and wound up in something that wasn't built to current specs, I can easily imagine a 42U rack overloading. Similar example: there's a tier 1 network provider with a solid datacenter business; I had servers in one of their facilities during the period in which blade servers were becoming common. They literally ran out of power; we had some empty racks with a contract allowing us to turn on power for them at any point and they couldn't fulfill it. Looking back on the specs for 80s and 90s datacenters can be really amusing in retrospect.
- carlisle_ 14y ago
  That is really interesting to hear. How much power were these blades pulling per rack out of curiosity?
packetslave 14y ago
I can think of at least one MMO who had to buy 50% more floor space in their cage because their blade server deployment exceeded what the colo provider could provide in terms of power/cooling per square foot. They literally had to leave an empty space to the left and right of each rack.
illuminate 14y ago
"I can't think of a situation where there is nothing at fault besides the servers. The chillers should be able to keep up with 1Us like that, and it's likely there was something else going on. ... Maybe somebody with more experience than me can explain why cooling 1Us would ever be a legitimate problem?" The situation in server labs, hardware and infrastructure-wise was much worse seven years ago. Is it that hard to imagine?
- carlisle_ 14y ago
  I was in high school 7 years ago so yes, it is hard to imagine because I really don't know how things used to be. I do appreciate the condescending tone though.
  - illuminate 14y ago
    It wasn't consdescension, the design and supporting environment really was that bad.
donavanm 14y ago
DCs have been constrained on power and cooling for the last decade or so. Existing colo sites are most likely to have 5kva (4kw) rack positions. That's only 90 watts/ru. Newer facilities will have 10kva racks. Minus a couple ru for cabling and tor and the power budget is 250 watts/ru.

BryantD 14y ago

Depends on the datacenter. Any modern datacenter won't have an issue. However, if you didn't do your research and wound up in something that wasn't built to current specs, I can easily imagine a 42U rack overloading. Similar example: there's a tier 1 network provider with a solid datacenter business; I had servers in one of their facilities during the period in which blade servers were becoming common. They literally ran out of power; we had some empty racks with a contract allowing us to turn on power for them at any point and they couldn't fulfill it. Looking back on the specs for 80s and 90s datacenters can be really amusing in retrospect.

carlisle_ 14y ago
That is really interesting to hear. How much power were these blades pulling per rack out of curiosity?

packetslave 14y ago

I can think of at least one MMO who had to buy 50% more floor space in their cage because their blade server deployment exceeded what the colo provider could provide in terms of power/cooling per square foot. They literally had to leave an empty space to the left and right of each rack.

illuminate 14y ago

"I can't think of a situation where there is nothing at fault besides the servers. The chillers should be able to keep up with 1Us like that, and it's likely there was something else going on. ... Maybe somebody with more experience than me can explain why cooling 1Us would ever be a legitimate problem?" The situation in server labs, hardware and infrastructure-wise was much worse seven years ago. Is it that hard to imagine?

carlisle_ 14y ago
I was in high school 7 years ago so yes, it is hard to imagine because I really don't know how things used to be. I do appreciate the condescending tone though.
- illuminate 14y ago
  It wasn't consdescension, the design and supporting environment really was that bad.

donavanm 14y ago

DCs have been constrained on power and cooling for the last decade or so. Existing colo sites are most likely to have 5kva (4kw) rack positions. That's only 90 watts/ru. Newer facilities will have 10kva racks. Minus a couple ru for cabling and tor and the power budget is 250 watts/ru.