Data centers – even small ones – are constantly pumping with electricity to ensure the servers remain active and working. In order to keep the entire process in check, you’re going to need the following six data center airflow management tools for your data center.
Proper Thermal Modeling
The first item on our list isn’t really a tool, but it is still extremely important. If you don’t cover this part of the checklist thoroughly, none of your other attempts at airflow management will amount to much.
Begin with thermal modeling. This means assessing where your servers will go and how this will affect airflow. Everyone is going to have something a bit different, so it would be impossible to provide too many details here. The point is that before you spend money on a fan, much less servers, you should have some idea of what to expect. Sure, there will be minor changes to make later on, but the fewer you have to make, the better off you’re going to be.
Keep in mind, too, that thermal modeling isn’t something you do once and that’s it. You’re going to need to continuously assess your datacenter for hot spots and a sense for how air is moving around.
CRAC
It should go without saying that your datacenter is going to get very hot as soon as you start the servers. Mitigating the damage that can be done by this heat is really what we’re talking about when discussing airflow management.
Perhaps the most basic unit in this conversation is a CRAC (computer room air conditioning) unit. Aside from producing cold air, these units can also monitor the temperature, humidity and air distribution.
Free Cooling Systems
Fortunately, you can also keep your datacenter cool without spending much in the process. Permanent enclosures and ducting should be used to ensure that the “hot aisle” behind the server – where hot air is expelled – is kept separate from the “cold aisle” – where cold air is pumped in – out front. Simply doing this will make airflow management much easier.
This generally comes down to simply organizing your datacenter so that you don’t need to spend a ton of money on fixing the problem later.
If at all possible, choose water for your cooling agent over chillers. Google does this to keep their overhead in check, but also because chillers need electricity, which eventually turns into heat.
Plastic Curtains and Blanking Panels
Another really affordable way to improve your datacenter’s airflow management is with plastic curtains and blanking panels. The latter is simply a measure you can attach to your servers to control air traffic, while the former is meant for sealing off the cold aisle, much like they use in industrial meat lockers.
Cooling and Airflow Redundancy
Redundancy is a hugely important factor when it comes to data centers. One natural disaster or other unforeseen circumstance and your servers could all go down, taking thousands of clients’ accounts with them.
While redundancy can mean a number of different things when it comes to data centers, it’s essential that you put some time into applying this concept to your airflow management. If so much as a fan goes down, you must be able to replace it right away. Airflow management relies on a delicate, interlinked architecture; if one component goes down, the rest is at risk.
Monitoring Tools
This is another obvious one, but suffice it to say, you’ll need a tool for monitoring the temperature in your datacenter. A simple thermostat obviously won’t do because you need to know the temperature in every corner and crevice. As we mentioned above, one tiny drop in temp is going to cause a destructive ripple effect. Though CRACs have monitoring tools on them, you’ll still want versions for a macro view.
There you have it. You now know the six essential tools to managing data center airflow. Don’t take a single one for granted or the others won’t be able to do much.