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Monitoring & Control
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| These days, even your average
company will spend thousands of pounds investing in IT
equipment that allows them function in todays business
world. This equipment represents a significant investment
and companies rely on the services provided by these rooms
or data centres to keep their businesses running effectively,
or even afloat. To ensure the best possible return on
investment they should be resilient; closely monitored
and managed and any future investment should be able to
integrate with the existing systems. |
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There are several key factors to successfully
managing a data centre or sever room environment, which have
been comprehensively addressed by TPT:
 Space
ManagementThere
has to be enough space to install new hardware, prior to decommissioning
obsolete equipment; and to allow the business to grow.
This can be managed manually or using automated tools, which
more and more companies are turning to. Sensorium iBMS can integrate
with these tools to maximise existing investment and accelerate
the installation process.
Power
It is essential that there is sufficient power of the correct
phase to service the equipment. This is usually monitored at
PDU level by the M&E team, but they are unable to help with
the strategic planning as they only have data on total load
per distribution board or breaker. It is possible to obtain
power data from manufacturer’s, but these values tend
to be the maximum possible readings that are rarely achievable.
In response Installation Planners usually take 30-40% of these
figures for planning purposes. This is not very accurate and
can lead to significant over or under specification of power
requirements. It is also known that power loads vary between
the same make and model of equipment, depending on the specific
internal configuration, applications running and even the time
of day; making strategic planning very difficult.
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The Power 2 U range
monitors power at cabinet entry and also at each outlet on a
power strip allowing the management team to create a historic
database that becomes an accurate modelling tool. It will be
possible to know the inrush on a device when it starts up and
running current. By aggregating this information for a server
cabinet it will be possible to know the total current used and
how much remains. Sensorium iBMS also stores server data so
you can model against the applications as well as the hardware.
With the stored power data you can report on power consumption
over time to identify peaks at month end, Christmas etc; as
well as peaks and troughs throughout the day. This information
can be used for strategic placement of equipment to balance
power consumption across the room.
Inrush
When a piece of equipment is powered up
it will use a significantly greater amount of power than when
it is running normally, this is known as the inrush and can
cause major issues if not managed correctly. Many servers will
run at between 2-6 amps, but their inrush could be a lot higher.
If you have a number of these in a server cabinet the running
current will probably average at about 28 amps, which is not
a problem on a 32 amp circuit breaker. If the cabinet is being
powered up after a shutdown the inrush could reach over 100
amps and trip the breaker shutting down the power. The only
way to resolve this would be to turn the devices on manually
one at a time and wait 30 seconds between each one. However
in a small data centre with 100 server cabinets there could
be 500 pieces of equipment to turn on individually and it becomes
a major task.
The Power 2 U range has sequenced start-up
on the power strips so the outlets do not all turn on at the
same time, allowing a much smoother power up and removing the
need for manual intervention.
CoolingThe
greater the power requirements of a piece of equipment, the
greater the heat generated. Monitoring the temperature in these
environments is normally carried-out in the A/C units and at
locations around the room to get an average temperature. Unfortunately,
this does not cater for hot spots, which can occur at different
times of the day and in different locations around the room,
which can adversely affect the equipment.
Not all IT equipment is used at the same time, some will run
online or support systems during the day, others will run overnight
batch, or support other countries in different time zones. It
is quite possible for hot spots to travel around a data centre
depending on the time of day. Equally the power requirements
will also travel in a similar fashion, making it very difficult
for the traditional monitoring methods to work efficiently in
the modern IT environment.
The power 2 U range has the ability to monitor
heat in the server cabinets and store historical data in the
database. This allows trend analysis of the thermal data to
identify hot spots and any associated trends, which in turn
allows the equipment to be placed proactively around the room
to alleviate the hot spots. Equally equipment that is used at
different times of the day can be placed in the same cabinets
to alleviate the thermal load.
Integrated
Data Centre Power & Management SolutionTPT's
Integrated Data Centre Power and Management Solution provides
a unique platform combining monitoring data from TPT's Power
2 U range of products, and provides a comprehensive set of data
centre management tools. Its unique database structure enables
Sensorium iBMS to seamlessly integrate with existing software
to maximise a customers existing investment, whilst greatly
increasing the amount of information and control at their disposal.
The ability to store floor plans and server information means
Sensorium iBMS can be installed as a stand alone product to
manage one or more data centres, server rooms or a combination
of both. Should Aperture be installed, Sensorium iBMS is the
only product that can interface with Aperture passing information
into the Aperture™ database, removing duplication of data and
increasing the power and functionality of Aperture as a data
centre management and planning tool.
Outsourcing companies, or those who cross charge internally
can also use the Sensorium iBMS database for accurate information
on power consumption.
A standard set of reports are supplied with the product, and
additional information can be tailored to meet operational needs
and the skill levels of the user. Unnecessary technical overhead
is removed, as only the information needed by the user is displayed
for review and decision making. Management effectiveness during
critical events is increased. Powerful fault finding and alarm
handling enable faults to be identified and rectified early,
reducing the risk of network and system downtime.
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