Get More from Your Data Center
Creating An IT Infrastructure to Support Consolidation & Virtualization

Server consolidation and virtualization can increase computing and data center performance while reducing costs. But they also change the power and cooling profile of your data center and can introduce potentially crippling power and cooling challenges.

With consolidation and virtualization, computing is concentrated on fewer servers, so each unit becomes more critical, requiring higher levels of protection. Additionally, new high density servers require more power and generate more heat that must be removed to avoid server degradation and allow you to fully utilize rack space.

Adapting your power and cooling strategy for consolidation and virtualization can help you:

     1. Remove power and heat-density constraints to your project
     2. Put more high-performance servers in fewer racks
     3. Save precious data center space
     4. Utilize less energy

Here are eight steps you can take to ensure your infrastructure is ready for a virtualized environment.

1. Assess your situation
Calculate the power required in your consolidated environment compared to your existing environment, and within each individual rack to ensure you have adequate UPS and cooling capacity. Look for points where the failure of one power or cooling component can threaten the system. For cooling analysis or larger data centers, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) assessment can show you exactly how airflow will occur in your consolidated environment and where hot spots and other cooling challenges exist.

2. Improve physical security
IT equipment is vulnerable to failures caused by unauthorized access, unauthorized adds and changes, and adverse environmental conditions. Utilize racks with key or card swipe locks so you can assign access authorizations. Smart PDUs can let you monitor power at the receptacle level to prevent unauthorized equipment adds and changes that can lead to circuit overloads, as well as simplifying in-rack power distribution and reducing cabling.

3. Ensure you have adequate UPS capacity
Ensure that UPS sizing and backup have the capacity and scalability required for the upgraded servers. Make sure you calculate your UPS size based on the full load of protected equipment – not “nominal loads,” which are estimates of average loads and could result in under-sizing your UPS capacity. When total room load exceeds 15kW, consider replacing multiple rack-based UPS systems with a single room system that has higher reliability and is less costly to maintain and service.

4. Increase the reliability of your UPSs
The criticality of the consolidated environment makes it better suited for online UPSs which are twice as reliable as traditional line-interactive UPSs. Room level UPSs are even more reliable than rack mount UPSs, with batteries lasting twice as long and predictive monitoring capabilities.

5. Plan for power redundancy
Dual corded equipment is designed for redundancy – two PDUs, two UPSs, two power circuits – to protect availability in case a single component in the power chain fails. Redundancy down to the dual corded load, not just the UPS, is required to maintain highest levels of availability.

6. Increase the criticality of your cooling systems
Consolidation most likely will create a need for dedicated, precision or high density cooling which are designed for computing equipment and operate at higher efficiencies and with fewer breakdowns than building air conditioning. Precision cooling systems commonly used in data centers provide tight temperature, humidity and filtration control. Supplemental high density systems provide spot cooling of racks in rooms with existing precision cooling.

7. Gain real-time visibility and control
Use software to connect power and cooling equipment to your network for monitoring and trend analysis. The goal is to be notified of potential problems before they adversely impact your equipment. You can also monitor environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity and water leakage, to avoid problems.

8. Upgrade service and maintenance
Before undertaking a consolidation, review and modify service level agreements with higher criticality in mind, and after adding new power and cooling equipment, be sure to use factory-certified service technicians for maintenance. For smaller UPS implementations, consider assurance packages that include multi-year service and maintenance support for ensuring higher availability.

Consolidation and virtualization can pose many challenges for power and cooling. Liebert Network Solutions Partners can help you assess your IT spaces and determine appropriate power and cooling solutions. See www.liebert.com for details.