What to Do for Data Centers in Summer - Systems Management News On The Web

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AS OF 8/20/2008 9:24AM EST

What to Do for Data Centers in Summer
By Jeff Feinman

June 18, 2008 — As the summer sun sends temperatures soaring, power consumption by air conditioners spikes just as high.

Organizations are asking what they should do to keep their data centers running smoothly through the summertime heat. Representatives of data center supply companies said that having proper generator and backup capabilities that have been tested are one of the main ways of avoiding problems.

Sam Somashekar, director of product management for CA, said that summer months usually signify a dramatic increase in power consumption at the power grid due to increased load on cooling equipment. For a data center that is not monitoring power usage and does not have proper power backup policies in place, the effects of the increased load “could be disastrous,” he said.

“One should test their backup power setups to ensure that in the event of a failure, power is readily at hand—whether in the form of UPS (uninterruptible power supply) devices or backup generators,” Somashekar said. “Also, due to the potential need of extra cooling, it is wise to inspect your HVAC equipment to ensure it has been serviced and is fully operational for the potential increase in load.”

Added pressure on the power grid from more use of air conditioning can lead to blackouts, like the 2003 power outage in the northeast region of North America, which left an estimated 50 million people in Canada and eight U.S. states without power. Ashish Moondra, senior product manager at Avocent, said that data centers should be prepared to handle possible blackouts.

Organizations should ensure that a UPS is backing up all mission-critical equipment, Moondra said. A UPS is the “first line of defense” during blackouts, he noted, and batteries for UPSes should be tested at the beginning of summer and replaced if they do not function properly.

A backup generator should be available to handle longer outages during the summer. Organizations should test the switchover to generator prior to summer months and should always make sure there is a good supply of fuel available for the generator.

“If having a generator isn’t an option due to the location of the data center, ensure that you have graceful shutdown software deployed to turn off all equipment that does not need to run for longer durations,” Moondra said. “UPS can, in this way, be conserved to provide longer periods of runtime for the most critical equipment.”

Watching What’s Not Being Used
Somashekar added that it is important for an organization to understand the amount of power coming into its data center so that IT can better manage new equipment when bringing it online. That way, it can be determined what assets aren’t being used so that they may be shut down or brought offline. Intelligent capacity techniques can be employed to automatically suspend or shut down machines when workloads decrease, Somashekar said. CA, for example, has policies that automatically set up power schemes on the desktop, like turning off monitors during a specific interval.

“If you can schedule processes to run in the cool of the night, this will not only reduce peak loads, but also save money on time of use rates,” he said.

Mark Peters, an analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group, said he thinks data centers wouldn’t carry out major changes for the summer and compared it to getting a car ready for winter. “It’s hard to add four-wheel drive once the car’s at home in the garage,” he said. Peters noted that an organization is unlikely to do major new migrations or additions “when your staff will probably want vacation time.”

One of those maintenance procedures for data centers is changing the filters on cooling equipment at the beginning of the summer, said Moondra. He added that remote access should be encouraged as much as possible so that data center cooling settings aren’t disrupted.

Somashekar said other energy-saving measures include replacing belts and having motors and compressors serviced.

Related Search Term(s): Backup & recovery, data centers, power, Avocent, CA

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