[AusNOG] Electrical Safety in Data Centres

[Brad Peczka]

Hello All,

For those on list who run data centres, either in house or as a commercial operation like NextDC/Metronode - can anyone shed some light on the requirements (or lack thereof) for RCD protection within a Data Centre?

My experience in the past has been that, where PDUs are connected via 32A sockets or similar, RCDs are not required. That being said, an interesting presentation a few years back from the folks at CITEC (http://www.server-racks-australia.com.au/News_articles/Residual%20Current%20Protection%20in%20the%20Data%20Centre%20DM.pdf) would seem to indicate that this is not the case, and that their interpretation of AS3000:2007 requires RCDs to be fitted to or upstream from PDUs. The installation of emergency stops for facility power also seems to be very hit and miss, and varies depending on when/where and who.

I'm curious to know if this is a common view and, if not, how others are handling electrical safety within Data Centres/Comms Rooms/Server Rooms.

Regards,
-Brad.