Temp at Level 3 data centers

Thu Oct 12 22:43:55 UTC 2017

On Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 8:31 AM, David Hubbard <
dhubbard at dino.hostasaurus.com> wrote:

> Curious if anyone on here colo’s equipment at a Level 3 facility and has
> found the temperature unacceptably warm?  I’m having that experience
> currently, where ambient temp is in the 80’s, but they tell me that’s
> perfectly fine because vented tiles have been placed in front of all
> equipment racks.

Hi David,

The thing I'm not understanding in this thread is that the last time I
checked Level 3 was a premium player not a cost player. Has that changed?

If a premium data center vendor is asking you to swallow 80F in the cold
aisle, something is very wrong. But realize I just said 80F in the *cold
aisle*. DC cooling is not about "ambient" or "sensible cooling" or similar
terms bandied about by ordinary HVAC professionals. In a data center, air
doesn't really stack up anywhere. It flows.

If you haven't physically checked your racks, it's time to do that. There
are lots of reasons for high temps in the cabinet which aren't the DC's
fault.

Is all the air flow in your cabinet correctly moving from the cold aisle to
the hot aisle? Even those side-venting Cisco switches? You're sure? If
you're looping air inside the cabinet, that's your fault.

Have you or your rack neighbors exceeded the heat density that the DC's
HVAC system supports? If you have, the air in the hot aisle may be looping
over the top of the cabinets and back in to your servers. You can't
necessarily fill a cabinet with equipment. When you reach the allowable
heat density, you have to start filling the next cabinet. I've seen DC
cabinets left half empty for exactly this reason.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>