[AusNOG] Data Centre Design was Internode goes Carbon Neutral

Thu Nov 19 14:31:04 EST 2009

McDonald Richards wrote:
> Green DC is one thing but you have to consider access to infrastructure. SA
> and Tasmania are not exactly the most ideal places to be distributing your
> content from if you are trying to reach a global or even national
> audience...
>
>   
Can you be more specific about infrastructure SA is apparently missing?
> Macca
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net
> [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of Daniel Hooper
> Sent: Thursday, 19 November 2009 1:21 PM
> To: ausnog at ausnog.net
> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Data Centre Design was Internode goes Carbon Neutral
>
> I'd like to see idea's on the most ideal place in .AU to build a green DC.
>
> I'm still pondering if the location would be based on cheap cooling or cheap
> power (forgetting about current carrier & power infrastructure)
>
> Ie, you could build somewhere in SA and take advantage of geothermal power,
> or you could build in Tasmania where (correct me if I'm wrong) the average
> summer temp is 22 degrees.
>
> -Dan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net
> [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of lists
> Sent: Thursday, 19 November 2009 10:38 AM
> To: Matt Carter; 'Curtis Bayne'; Mark Prior
> Cc: ausnog at ausnog.net
> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Data Centre Design was Internode goes Carbon Neutral
>
> Thanks for everyones input.  There has been some good points raised in this 
> discussion
>
> I am like some others, and am one of those that is investing in technolgies 
> that reduce the amount of power I use.  For those in that camp there seems 
> to be a lot of focus on designing data centres to suit the existing building
>
> designs.  Correct me if I am wrong, but many data centres are located in 
> existing buildings in capital cities.  These are generally the larger of the
>
> data centres, and as such these are where the major data centre vendors are 
> focusing thier attention and solutions.
>
> Some have mentioned good data centre design, which raises the question, what
>
> is good data centre design?
>
> If we were to build a new data centre from scratch and we wanted to build it
>
> to be enviromentally friendly and power efficient then how would we do it?
>
> Leaving aside having the data centre located as near as possible to 2 power 
> grids and good access to carrier fibre and those issues and looking at it 
> from a purely efficient power and cooling design point
>
> Do data centres need to be located in capital cities?
> Do we need physicall access to the data centres or do we need some capable 
> hands and legs.?
> When it comes to building design which material is best for maintaining low 
> ingress or egress of heat and cold?
> Is 240 volts the most efficient voltage to power such data centre equipment?
>
> perhaps 48volts DC may address some heat issues
> Do we need raised floors?
> etc etc
>
> Personally I think there may be a case to do away with raised floors, there 
> may also be a case for extracting heat from the racks and reusing it for 
> alternative uses.  It may be possible to locate a data centre outside of a 
> metro area and provide redundant paths back to metro areas.  There are many 
> possibilities, and most of them in one way or another relate to the 4 or 5 
> questions above.
>
> While I commend Internode for taking the carbon neutral approach, I would 
> like to see some discussion regarding what is "needed" to enable a data 
> center to maintain uptime and avoid equipment failure.   Many of the vendors
>
> are now saying their equipments working temperature range is 18 to 28 
> degrees C or even higher.  Perhaps 22 degrees is not longer what needs to be
>
> achieved.
>
> My analysis shows that equipment will survive at higher temps, and I am 
> always puzzled why we are using 240 volts instead of 48 Vdc.  The excess 
> heat generated is substantial.   I did an install of some equipment in 2004,
>
> which had a 240 volt power supply that did POE at 48 volts to the equipment.
>
> Due to the location we wanted to solar power it.  We installed it on solar 
> power and it worked fine using the manufactures power supply and an 
> inverter.  The issue was that we needed to but 16 solar panels and the 
> associated battery capacity to make it reliable.  We then decided to ask 
> "why", we found the equipment itself used 0.133 amps at 48 volts,  yet it 
> used 2.2 amps at 48v when using the manufactures power supply, most of which
>
> was disapated as heat.   We built a new power supply did away with the 
> inverter and manufactures power supply, used 4 solar panels and a much 
> smaller battery bank and 5 years later it is still working like it was in 
> 2004 ( with higher uptime than mains power), which is why I raised the 
> questions above.  Each of us on our own are not big enough purchases of 
> equipment to influence vendors, however collectively over time we may be 
> able to drag the vendors along.  We just need to work out what in fact is 
> actually needed as opposed to the status quo.
>
> Regards
>
> Tim McCullagh
>
> HaleNET
>  
>
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-- 
Regards,

*Mark Smith*
Technology Group

Adam Internet

*Office* Level 2 / 117 King William Street, Adelaide, SA, 5000
*Postal* GPO Box 121, Adelaide, SA, 5001
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