How to build and run a machine room?

The last guy quit (I think a lot of adventures begin this way?) and I've been given the job to build a new machine room. I am coordinating with 2 engineers, campus ITS, campus Facilities Management, a project manager, a construction company and 2 subcontractors (electrical and mechanical). Yay.

Most of these folks have done this before, but I have not. The construction is underway, and everything is fine, but honestly I'm at a total loss about things like where the racks should go, where the floor cutouts should be made, etc. I need to understand things like power consumption, PDUs, CRAC units, BTU generation, cabling, etc. After the construction is finished, I will be in charge of who gets to use the room and what the rules are.

I know there are people who are experts at this stuff, but none of the people involved so far know much (including me). Where do I learn this stuff? Google hasn't turned up much for me.

To summarize, I'm looking for a tutorial reference that answers questions like:

Understanding cooling requirements and cooling capacities in a server room
Understanding power supply and consumption
How to set policy for users in a server room (including things to think about like safety, fire prevention, data security, good custodianship)

I'm a competent software guy, but have very little experience with machines beyond building my own small computers.

Solution 1:

You might take a look if you have not come across this site yet (http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/). A ton of white papers across the topics. Some are "marketie," but still good starting points at the very least.

Solution 2:

Start with the power. It will pretty easily show you how much of everything else you need.

Get a number, maybe ask the electricians, of how many KW or KVA the project is.

If it's less than say 12 KW, you are talking a medium size build out. Few racks, say five, a hundred or so servers.

100 * (1 amperes) * (120 volts) = 12 000 watts = 12KW

Account for some redundancy in your power. Again, ask the electrician about redundant circuits. Get a drawing if you can. Get UPS.

The cooling will be a function of the power. Depending on the size of your room, you may be able to put cooling right there, called CRAC. The cooling will require more power.

You hit on one last point which comes down to physical security. I've used biometric hand scanners in the past. Another option is a simple proximity card system. You may want video surveillance setup as well as other monitoring of temperature, humidity, and things of that nature.

Good luck.

Solution 3:

Barroso's book is a great resource; although it doesn't answer every question I have, you can't do much better than a free book by a Google data-center designer.

Solution 4:

My organization is moving into a new office and I found myself referring again and again to The Practice of System and Network Administration. It has quite a bit of information about other topics, but I learned a lot from their discussion of data centers, especially each author's ideal data center.

Solution 5:

A quick browse through Amazon brought up this: it's old, but might give you a solid foundational understanding, so sales people and fast builders don't leave you in a bind:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Data-Centre-Design-Constructing/dp/0471825794/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1307723182&sr=8-3