Background

Data center environmental control

Data center environmental control is a constructive generic framework for maintaining temperature, humidity, and other physical qualities of air in a limited range in order to allow the IT equipment housed in a data center to perform optimally throughout its lifespan.

Air flow

When discussed in regard to data centers, air flow management is a strategy that addresses the need to improve data center equipment cooling efficiency by preventing the recirculation of hot air exhausted from IT equipment and reducing bypass airflow. There are several methods of keeping hot and cold airstreams separated, such as hot/cold aisle containment and in row cooling units.

Background

IT vendors recommend that data centers housing IT equipment are to operate within a temperature range of 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit. For IT equipment, the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) states that the recommended temperatures is between 68-77 degrees Fahrenheit, with an allowable range spanning 59-90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Today, due to ever growing information processing densities, data center servers continually run the risk of producing heat that goes well beyond these guidelines, even when using (the now commoditized) precision cooling units.

Overheating of data center equipment can result in:

· Reduced server performance or total non-functionality due to re-circulated, hot exhaust air from IT equipment finding its way into an IT inlet.

· Precision cooling equipment being set at temperatures lower than recommended due to air stratification or the layering of different temperature air masses in the data center.

· Minimization, rather than precision, of cooling efficiencies due to by-pass air (the remixing of the cool supply air and exhausted air that becomes part of the return air stream).

Дата добавления: 2015-08-27