Geeks in Paradise | Brian Chee » Blade Shootout 2006: InfrastruXure setup!

October 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Blade Shootout 2006: InfrastruXure setup!

TAGS: Toys and tools

Paul Venezia has joined me in Hawaii for our Blade Shootout 2006 where we're pitting Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard, and Dell against each other in our continuing effort to bring you solutions based comparitive reviews of enterprise grade IT tools. Far from the speeds and feeds world, we compare the entire solution with our performance section of the review based upon sound scientific methodologies that can be repeated by anyone that chooses to. In this case we're using SPEC Evaluation Technologies HPC Benchmarks to quantify performance. We add in things like management, ease of setup, value, and a host of other grading criteria to help decision makers out. It isn't my intent to steal any thunder from Paul's story, but here are a few snaps of the setup process...

1st and foremost...these blades generate a whole bunch of heat and each vendor had their own interpretation of how you should power their solution...some wanted L6-20 (20amp 208volt twist lock) some wanted L6-30 (30amp 208volt twist lock) with folks like Dell bringing a PDU (Power Distribution Unit) that could be ordered in various flavors to accomodate what you might already have in your data center. Our long time friends at American Power Conversion (APC) stepped up to the plate with their brand new InfrastruXure InRow SC cooling system which brings fast easy setup that doesn't require expensive building modifications. The scenario is that you can simply unpack the unit, roll it into place next to your racks, vent to the return air plenum (ie. return air ceiling) and turn it on. By supplying cooled air directly to the front of your racks (where the blades or server suck it all in) and pull the hot air from the back of the rack (where the blades and servers exhaust the hot air) you greatly increase the efficiency of the cooling system and reduce the mixing of the hot and cold air. Better to cool the gear than cooling the entire room. They even have special bolt on enclosures to contain the flow of the hot and cold air paths to further increase the efficiency.

 

Here's a diagram (thanks to APC) that shows two SC units on either side of a rack of blades with both front and back containment units used. So while the units are nominally rated at 5KW of cooling per unit, containing the air paths can possibly jump it to 7KW. (depending upon ambient temp of the cooling air, humidity, etc)

 

I should also point out that if you happen to be able to provide chill water, they also have their RC line that can take in chill water from your existing hard pipe (copper feed) and then using continuous PEX hosing (similar to what is used for water connections in RV's) to reduce the chance of leakage and allow you to place the cooling units right where you need it. The chillwater system is rated to around 20kw maximum.

 

We've previously installed APC's InfrastruXure line of computer room UPS and in ANCL's case we have a 20KW unit that is fed by 100amps of 208volt three phase power. This system has it's own breaker panel running to power whips terminated in whatever I could possibly need for connectors. This additional flexibility to quickly change breakers and connections has been a total godsend for testing, and gives me the flexibility to size my battery back and power conditioning needs to the application. Combine this with APC's unparalleled control options through the web/SNMP modules and I can sleep better at night knowing that auto shutdown will keep my precious test data from being corrupted.

Here's the SC unit still wrapped in plastic after I've taken off the plywood sides for its shipping container.

With ramps to safely roll the unit off the pallet and accessories wrapped up in a single container, this is one system ready to go once it arrives on site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Truly solid shipping brackets!

 

Ready to roll down the ramp and into the lab...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The SC unit is 1/2 the width of a normal rack with the same footprint front to back...notice the symmetra like front control panel...

 

It's sitting right next to the lab's 20KW Symmetra, but since it's compressor based technology, we opted instead of use building power so that the spikes caused by the compresser wouldn't trip a breaker during startup inrush.

 

 

Since I don't have a drop ceiling in the lab...we instead opted to block out a window (using the plywood from the shipping container...recyling at its best!) Notice that we just cranked open the windows and lined up the hoses with the hot air exhaust on top and the cool air input one window pane below it. What came just after I took this picture is some screen stapled over the input to keep bugs/birds/trash from getting sucked in.

 

Here is APC's Brian Standley routing the condensate (translated the water that get sucked out of the air during the cooling process) hose to the top of the unit so that we can just let it pump the water out onto the roof.

 

We also uncoiled the supply air temp sensor so that we could clip it to the rack in front of the blade servers. Being able to monitor the temperature of the air feeding the servers allows the system to tailor the airflow based upon demand.

 

 

 

Here's some screen shots of the web console (SSH, telnet, SNMP are also available) from the unit we just setup...

The home page for the web console...

 
Hmmm...Radius or local authentication...

 
The two Brian's started here to tweak the thresholds to even out the airflow.

Posted by Brian Chee on October 28, 2006 02:05 PM

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