APC Multiple Cooling Issues With Rack & InRow Solutions

Addressing multiple cooling challenges
with rack and row cooling architecture

Presented by: Kevin Dunlap
Director, Business Strategy - Cooling
The problem
Rack power densities of up to 30kW or more per rack thermally
challenge traditional data centers that were designed for an
average of 3kW per rack
Data center lifetime will span refresh cycles involving unknown
load and therefore heat profiles
Newer IT equipment exhibits dynamic power variation where
power and heat output vary more than 3:1 over time
Pushing traditional data centers to achieve high density
reduces the efficiency of air conditioners, unnecessarily
driving up electricity use
Users cannot predict if the designed-in cooling redundancy of
their system will actually work
Result: an impossible planning challenge
© 2006 American Power Conversion Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks provided are the property of their respective owners.
Cooling Challenges
Increasing Densities
Rack loads may vary from 2-30 kW in the same environment
A scalable cooling solution to handle future densities
Efficiency Strain
Not addressing increased heat load can result in reduction of
server efficiency
- Pull back on processing power
- Increase in server fan speed
Fewer Instructions per Watt !!!

2006 Average
= 6-8 kW rack
Source: IDC
Drivers for Energy Efficient Cooling
Real estate
Energy efficient infrastructure allows more space for IT
Compaction of IT equipment
Increasing energy costs
Commercial costs as high as $.13 kW/hour
Maximizing the investment in IT equipment
Lowering the kW entering the data center for every 1 kW
consumed by IT
Maximizing the computing per watt (Mips/kW)
Power Availability
Limits on available power for new and existing data centers
40% of end users claiming that demand is greater than supply
New power generation is only 1.3% increase per year
Source: U.S. Department of Energy, IDC
Inefficient Response to Drivers
Supply colder air to the room

This lowers the return air and reduces the actual cooling
capacity
Increases moisture removal which must be added back to the
room
Adding Units to Increase Capacity
May slightly address some heat issues at an electrical cost
These Cost Money and Don’t

Solve the Problem: Air
Distribution
Cooling Challenges Not Limited To Data
Center
IT/Wiring Closets
VOIP and POE driving up densities
Space not designed for high heat loads
5-7 watts/ft2 as office space
50-100 watts/ft2 as wiring closet or small data center
Solutions for Wiring Closets and Small
Computer Rooms
InRow SC
Self Contained 5 kW
Heat rejected to plenum
Ventilation Unit
Airflow enhancer
Promotes circulation
Same racks, same room, slightly different
cooling design
Totally different cooling airflow results!

Current approaches provide unpredictable performance
High density cooling systems of the future
Rack-mount IT equipment will continue to be air

cooled for the foreseeable future
Row or cabinet based distributed cooling systems
will be used to scavenge hot air closer to the IT
equipment
The cooling technology at the row and cabinet
level will be water or refrigerant based
This equipment will be modular and will not
fundamentally require a raised floor
The legacy raised floor cooling architecture will be

superseded for high density applications by more
predictable and efficient approaches
Alternative cooling architectures
Method Application Density
Traditional room- Low density 1-5kW per rack
oriented raised Very flexible
floor cooling
In-row Medium density 3-15kW per rack
General use
In-row with hot Very high density 10-25kW per rack

aisle containment Targeted zones
Assured redundancy
Rack-coupled Very high density specific 20-45kW per rack

racks
Mix of very high and low
density
Close Coupling: In-row approach (InRow RC)
½ Rack form factor
20kW rating
N+1 hot-swap variable speed
fans
Captures hot air exhaust from
nearby IT racks
Overhead or under-floor piping
Works with any brand of IT
cabinet
Add units for redundancy or
density
InfraStruXure Cooling Distribution Unit
InRow RP
Full Rack In-Row

Chilled water or
refrigerant
Variable speed fans
Variable capacity
compressor
40-60 kW
Precision AC –
Dehumidify/Reheat/Hum
idifier
Global Product
Integrated Management
Basic in-row design
Hot-aisle air enters
from rear preventing Cold air is supplied to
mixing the cold aisle
Heat captured and

rejected to chilled
water
InRow RC
Can operate on hard
floor or raised floor
InfraStruXure® InRow RC
CFD model of in-row system:
Modeling failure of one CRAC
In-row rack-coupled CRAC
Bayed to adjacent IT racks
Up to 40kW rating
N+1 hot-swap fans
Directly ducts hot air
exhaust from connected
IT rack
Front may be open or
ducted
Mix into existing legacy
data center
Add second unit for
redundancy or capacity
InfraStruXure Cooling Distribution Unit
Rack Air Containment System
Rack Air Containment

System
Plan View
Hot Aisle Containment
Shared
Capacity
Ease of
Redundancy
Zoned
approach
Room
independence
Room-oriented cooling airflow patterns
Row-oriented cooling airflow patterns
Dynamic power of loads amplifies the
problems
Power consumption of new servers varies by 2:1 or more
depending on computational load
The variation in server power means thermal output also varies
by 3:1 or more
This means current data center temperatures tell you little
about what the temperature will be minutes or hours from now
CFD analysis or ASHRAE TC 9.9 testing will be useless in
determining the condition of your cooling system
Users cannot predict if the designed-in cooling redundancy of
their system will actually work even if it works right now
Measurement is futile: A cooling system with

assured predictable performance is required
A Hybrid Approach to Cooling
Most Data Centers will have a mix of heat densities
and therefore cooling solutions
IT Refreshes happen every 2-4 years resulting in a mix
of distributed IT assets
IT management of blades and storage deployments is
often in clusters
- Concentrated high density loads
Older server assets may be well served by room cooling
units
Row-oriented
Rack-oriented
d
Room-oriented
What about installation and piping?
Water in the data center?

What about leaks and condensation?
Complicated installation?
Retrofittable to existing data center?
InfraStruXure® InRow RC
PEX/Aluminum laminated seamless piping
Flexible:
Earthquake and
impact resistant
Joint-less bends
Eliminate leaks
Under-floor or overhead water distribution
Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU)
Main supply and return headers
Supplies and returns coolant to and from the
Chiller
Isolation and balancing

valve
Allows isolation for servicing and
provides coolant flow adjustment Top or bottom piping
connections
Individual supply and return Allows the CDU to be top or bottom

piped
lines
Supplies and returns coolant to and from Casters
CRAC units
Allows the CDU to be installed
Isolation valve easily
Condensate pan
Allows isolation for servicing
with drain connection
InfraStruXure® Cooling Distribution Unit

Typical piping layout
Cooling becomes more like power!
Power Cooling
Power Coolant
Distribution Unit Distribution Unit
Power Whips Cooling “Whips”
More Information
For further information on these topics

consult APC white papers on
www.apc.com
#130 The Advantage of Row and Rack-Oriented

Cooling Architectures for Data Centers
#131 Improved Chilled Water Piping
Distribution Methodology for Data Centers
#125 Strategies for Deploying Blade Servers in
Existing Data Centers
#43 Dynamic Power Variations in Data Centers and
Network Rooms

APC Multiple Cooling Issues With Rack &amp; InRow Solutions

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

APC Multiple Cooling Issues With Rack &amp; InRow Solutions

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Addressing multiple cooling challenges

with rack and row cooling architecture

Result: an impossible planning challenge

Fewer Instructions per Watt !!!

Source: U.S. Department of Energy, IDC

 Supply colder air to the room

These Cost Money and Don’t

Totally different cooling airflow results!

 Rack-mount IT equipment will continue to be air

The legacy raised floor cooling architecture will be

In-row with hot Very high density 10-25kW per rack

Rack-coupled Very high density specific 20-45kW per rack

 Full Rack In-Row

Heat captured and

 Rack Air Containment

Measurement is futile: A cooling system with

 Water in the data center?

Under-floor or overhead water distribution

Isolation and balancing

Individual supply and return Allows the CDU to be top or bottom

InfraStruXure® Cooling Distribution Unit

Power Whips Cooling “Whips”

For further information on these topics

 #130 The Advantage of Row and Rack-Oriented

You might also like

APC Multiple Cooling Issues With Rack & InRow Solutions

APC Multiple Cooling Issues With Rack & InRow Solutions

Supply colder air to the room

Rack-mount IT equipment will continue to be air

Full Rack In-Row

Rack Air Containment

Water in the data center?

#130 The Advantage of Row and Rack-Oriented