IT@Intel Blog

The Eco-Technologies Great Debates - Client Architecture and the Data Center

baellison — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:16:34 GMT

I have just returned from the Intel sponsored Eco-Technology Great Debates where I was slotted into the topic of Thin vs. Thick Client Energy Efficiency. I had the opportunity to weigh in on the side of "Thick" clients as the most energy efficient. The bad news is that our team lost; the good news is that we didn't lose by much (29 to 24)! The best news is that all of the teams had some very strong arguments (and even several very entertaining exchanges).

Being a simple data center guy, I learned a lot, especially as it relates to thin client architecture and energy impacts. No contest, thin clients consume less energy at the device level than do thick clients (PCs and Laptops). But is that really the energy efficient answer?

For thin clients, compute and storage are necessarily displaced to the data center. Data centers with thier concentrated IT equipment are typically inefficient to power and cool relative to laptops and PCs which are distributed by nature and cooled by ambient air. Generally data centers require 1 watt of power for cooling and electrical distribution (house load) for 1 watt of IT load (newer data centers are more efficient but still incur additional power costs simply to power and cool). Therefore, every kW of power that is shifted from distributed thick client use to a data center causes more or less 2 kW of impact in the data center! Wow!

With the majority of the world's data centers facing power or cooling capacity constraints and some with no additional grid power available at all, total energy costs extend beyond the simple house load + IT load equation. Expansion and upgrade of facilities increases energy consumption, as well. There are too many areas to detail here but needless to say the total power consumption for extracting and manufacturing data center components, transporting them to a site and construction of new facilities is non-trivial and likely larger per unit of compute than for the typical laptop. This collateral consumption is not comprehended in any calculations of alternative client model power efficiencies of which I am aware..

I also have no specific data on the power efficiency of PCs or laptops to provide rigorous comparison to data center power utilization efficiency. The above arguments, however, do appear to be logical. More work needs to be done to collect the data and analyze these concepts in detail.....

If you want to see the instant replay of all of the debates (including the client debate, liquid vs. air cooling and ac power vs dc power in the data center), click on the web link above and look for the embedded webcast URL at the bottom of the resulting page. There are also a couple of links to other articles on the subject that are well worth reading.

TTFN!

What if you invested a dollar and it returned 10?

Doug Garday — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:04:41 GMT

If you invested one dollar and it returned 10 dollars, you'd think that was an excellent return wouldn't you? So what if you could get this same 10X return on energy? An industrial heat pump system called Heat Recovery where an additional 100 kW of power used returns 1 megawatt of heat energy.

This return or ratio of energy in vs energy out is called Coefficient Of Performance (COP). A resistance heater uses 1kW of power to produce 1kW of heat, providing a COP of 1. Residential Heat Pumps are efficient but very dependent on ambient weather conditions and produce less usable heat when outside conditions are colder. So how about a system that works at a COP of 10 regardless of weather conditions outside?

I hope you have seen our discussion on whether the data center is green or efficient Greening Data Centers or Make 'em Efficient? but either way you slice it the data center consumes energy. How can we reuse that energy for other purposes? Check out Part 1 of a two-part podcast (look for this next week) that describes how we have designed a system to capture the heat coming off all the equipment in the data center and recycle it to heat offices and warm water for cafeterias and other domestic water purposes.

http://www.podtech.net/home/5053/data-centers-recycle-excess-heat

Check out the brief for more details Data Center Heat Recovery Helps Intel Create Green Facility.
Update: Part II of the podcast series is now available Part II: What if you invested a dollar and it returned 10? This is where I get into discussing the numbers and the total cost of ownership.

Green Data Centers, Recycle Your Energy

Doug Garday — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:12:30 GMT

Another twist to energy conservation is energy reuse. It is possible to use the waste heat generated in a data center for non data center heating needs. This can be thought of as Energy Recycling, a method of reducing the impact of data centers on the environment. A great opportunity to enable a data center for energy reuse is at their conception as a goal during the design. With the growing number of data centers being built, now is the time to integrate energy saving and reuse methods. Data centers located in climates with a need for heating, will hopefully recover and reuse a majority of their operating energy for heating non data center areas and adjacent buildings in the future. Since data centers operate at a relatively constant energy demand, they offer a stable and near constant source of heat. The colder the environment, the more financially attractive it can be to install the equipment needed to recover and transfer the heat from the data center to adjoining areas or even neighboring buildings. Imagine data centers located in downtown areas of the city sending off their heat energy and heating other buildings as if they were a utility provider!

Read Data Center Heat Recovery Helps Intel Create Green Facility to see more about what we are doing to reclaim and recycle energy.

Data Center Toolbox "Data Center Power & Cooling Health Check with Infra Red Gun"

John Musilli — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:51:00 GMT

Do Not Wait for an Alarm or Failure Give your Data Center a "Health Check" using a simple hand held Infra Red (IR) Gun. This tool can provide early warning for electrical breaker overload, CRAC unit calibration issues, server air supply stratification, source of CRAC short-cycling. See the image below and use the number references for legend. The cost of the tool is between $100 and $500 the higher priced guns are recommended for the multiple features

1. Check temperature range of breakers
Check panel cover for ambient temperature, then breaker temperature range. Look for outliers hot and cold. Hot could be loose wire or overloaded circuit.
2. Check under floor for poor air flow
Floor tile temperature is a quick check for restricted air flow or range beyond CRAC.
3. Check actual temperature of delivered air (Supply air)
Concrete in front of CRAC should be around 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Server in-take temperature on rack frame low
Rack frame at first server position compared to temperature at top of rack shows air temperature stratification or rack heating from conductive heat loads. Temperature range of 6 degrees is good. If more than 10 degrees, look for hot air mixing from above or behind servers. Max intake air temp greater than 90 degrees is a great risk to the server platform.
5. Server in-take (supply) temperature on rack frame high
Plus 6 to 10 degrees is the range from good to poor. (See note in 4 previous)
6. In-coming air (return air) temperature off sheet metal frame
Temperature in center of CRAC filter bank is a good indication of actual ambient mixed air returned to CRAC. Compare this temp with CRAC thermal readout for indication of short cycling or bad CRAC temp sensor.

See previous Blogs at
Data Center Toolbox for Power and Cooling

See Published articals at
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid80_gci1275008,00.html
http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;537667845;fp;4;fpid;51245
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9028098&pageNumber=1

Please comment on and rate this Blog.

New topics coming soon:
"Generic Data Center Racking, Cost and Space Benifits"
"Data Center Layer One and Structured Cabling Designs, Without Costly Patch Panel Installations"
"Server Power Cord Management"
"Humidity Management to "Humidify or Not Humidify"

Disclaimer

The opinions, suggestions, management practices, room capacities, equipment placement, infrastructure capacity, power and cooling ratios are strictly the opinion and observations of the author and presenter.
The statements, conclusions, opinions, and practices shown or discussed do not in any way represent the endorsement or approval for use by Intel Corporation.
Use of any design practices or equipment discussed or identified in this presentation is at the risk of the user and should be reviewed by your own engineering staff or consultants prior to use.

Data Center Toolbox "Watts per Square Foot of What"?

John Musilli — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:09:00 GMT

Things You Need to Operate a Successful Data Center Infrastructure.
This is number 2 in a series of Toolbox topics.

If you have spent more than 3 months in data center operations someone has asked, "What is your Watts per Square Foot (W/sq.ft) Data Center design"?

Odds are your room design is somewhere between 40 watts per sq.ft and 100 watts per sq.ft This value is most likely the room envelope, Wall to Wall area including staging, telecom, tape storage, PDU,s (Power Distribution Units) and CRAC units (Computer Room Air Conditioner) See diagram below. Although this is the correct answer from the architect's perspective and the electrical,mechanical capacity construction designs, it causes great confusion in the industry. What we really want to describe and reference is the area or space the work is being performed in. In other words where the POWER (Heat) is delivered, and COOLING, (heat removal), is required. To better understand this concept and use this knowledge to communicate with others, please review the drawing below. This is an example of the possable interpretations of Watts per Square Foot data center design. Note as you are going through the exercise that I started out with a 50w/sq.ft room and by re-evaluating my environment I created a room design at 130w/sqft without spending a dime! The point is Do Not be Confused by The Facts you may have a 50w/sqft room but you can produce 130w/sqft of capacity

Data Center Math
Watts Per Square Foot Of What?

Room Envelope = Gross Raised Floor sq.ft. This is the wall to wall space of the entire room including ramps, tape storage, PDU,s CRAC's staging area
Production Area= Servers Plus Support Equipment (*Traditional Layout)* This area is represented in blue and is the actual recommended space access (48in front 36in rear) PLUS the direct support equipment CRAC's that need to be near the heat loads
Equipment Footprint or Work Cell = Racks + Required Access Space (~16sq.ft. per rack) this is the recommended space for access (48in front 36in rear) and average rack size (24x40in)*
Server Rack Load The actual electrical load of the installed server base in Kw (kilo watts)

Please see my earlier blog Data Center Toolbox for Power and Cooling. Please comment on and rate this Blog. New topics coming soon:

"Use of a Hand Held IR (Infra Red) Gun for a Data Center Health Check"
"Generic Data Center Racking, Cost and Space Benifits"
"Data Center Layer One and Structured Cabling Designs, Without Costly Patch Panel Installations"
"Server Power Cord Management"

Disclaimer

The opinions, suggestions, management practices, room capacities, equipment placement, infrastructure capacity, power and cooling ratios are strictly the opinion and observations of the author and presenter.
The statements, conclusions, opinions, and practices shown or discussed do not in any way represent the endorsement or approval for use by Intel Corporation.
Use of any design practices or equipment discussed or identified in this presentation is at the risk of the user and should be reviewed by your own engineering staff or consultants prior to use.