New Server Room build

C

corge

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
248
We have recently had some issues with the current server room we are in and decided to spend the money to move into a newer room of the building and get it setup correctly for a server room. This is all currently going and taking some time...but hopefully in the next month or so, everything will be done and I can start moving into the new room.

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This is a picture of the current server room. You can't see it in this picture, but we have a couple of ceiling tiles pulled out so that we could pull more A/C ducting into the room to keep it cool. We currently have two racks of servers, 20 or so in total and one network rack.
The servers run email, ERP, database, file server, etc... Our current internet connection is 6mb brought in over four T1 lines that are bonded together (this is being upgraded to 30mb/30mb fiber as you read.)

New Room Contruction
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We ordered one mini-split system at the moment and another will be installed in three months or so.

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Hot air returns at the back of the new server rack.

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New lights in the room. The ceiling is torn out because we are putting in a drywall ceiling.

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The metal duct in the wall is for the new cabling coming into the room. It will be sealed with a rubber surround and then a flexible rubber in the middle to guard against air flow through that duct.

Our old servers consisted of a variety of Dell models. Some are as old as 6yrs old, others are a few months old.

We are moving to a virtual server environment with Citrix XenServer. We purchased four new servers and a new SAN for them.

Server specs:
Dual quad-core Xeon 2.93ghz
48gigs of ram
150gb for hypervisor via four 10k drives in RAID 10.
2gb bonded NIC links to redundant switches

The SAN is a 7.2TB HP iSCSI SAN.

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16 port Avocent IP KVM
Dual HP ProCurve 2910al 48-port L2/3 gigabit switches.

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Servers and the SAN

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Back of the servers and the SAN

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Some cabling started

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Network cabling going in for Management VLAN

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Red cables are Network Management VLAN. Purple cables are bonded ports between switches as well as for fail-over.

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I'm using 1ft power cords to connect to the PDU. I'm using short ones just for air flow and for the fact that if these machines come out of the rack, they're going to be fully powered off. We used to use the cable management arms for our Dell servers and with 900 ft. power cords; they just get in the way. Since we're using VM's, I can just push all of the running VM's on a particular server to one of the others.

More pictures to come...
Also, if anyone has suggestions on something, please feel free to post.
 
Last edited:
jeffmoss26 said:
Nice...but omg, the wires in the first picture...wow
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The wiring in the first picture was done many years ago. None of the cables are labeled so I have no clue where they go. Also, the building we're in was added on to about 5 years ago for new offices and warehousing space.

The old building is terminated 568A and new building is 568B.

On the network rack itself, all of those cables used to be yellow, so even between switches and patch panels I had no idea where anything was going. I at least cleaned all that up with different colored cables.
 
May I ask WHY a drywall ceiling? Thats like an IT guys worst nightmare... what if you need to run more lines down the road? You'll have to use that chase? Im assuming theres drop ceiling in the room connecting that chase perhaps?
 
A hard lid is a no no for an MDF. Though it's not as bad if you are doing ladder rack

Also, how is your hot air return ducting working? Mini splits do not have returns ducts, they just suck in air from above and spit out cold air below.
 
install twistlock receptacles while you can! looks like they're all 5-15R's right now.
 
Berg0 said:
install twistlock receptacles while you can! looks like they're all 5-15R's right now.
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I see a big APC symetra on the left side of the first pic. Judging by how big it is I'm sure it has plenty of twist locks. Looks like a 10kva at least.
 
Wow looks like a nice setup, and finally, a server room that actually puts the receptacles on top! I don't get why so many people put them at the bottom and have the power cables on the floor. BAD! And yeah I'd also put in some twistlocks, maybe even some 208 or 240v ones depending on power there (properly labeled!)

The hot air return being behind the server is a great idea too.

Also I would rethink about drywalling the ceilings, best to go drop ceiling especially in a server room. You may need to add another rack in the future, or add more drops, or what not.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Wow looks like a nice setup, and finally, a server room that actually puts the receptacles on top! I don't get why so many people put them at the bottom and have the power cables on the floor. BAD! And yeah I'd also put in some twistlocks, maybe even some 208 or 240v ones depending on power there (properly labeled!)

The hot air return being behind the server is a great idea too.

Also I would rethink about drywalling the ceilings, best to go drop ceiling especially in a server room. You may need to add another rack in the future, or add more drops, or what not.
Click to expand...

Hey now my outlets are in the ceiling, quads and dedicated twist locks for my higher amped/dedicated circuits
 
The APC Symmetra is a 16kva battery backup that will be moved into the new room. Right now it powers the current servers for about 15 minutes. We also have a natural gas generator that is being replaced from a 17kW to a 24kW.

For the air conditioning....we have a unit on the roof right now that we will use in addition to the mini-split system. This is why you see the air returns and duct work in the pictures. In three to six months, another mini-split system will be installed on the same wall as the current one going in. This is why in the picture, the mini-split is offset.

Twist locks are going to come down from the ceiling about every 6 feet or so.

There is a red line around the wall in the pictures for the new server room. Cable ladder is being installed along that line to carry the cables.
 
schapman43 said:
I prefer power below the floor.
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I would like power and cabling and air conditioning beneath the floor as well. It's on a concrete floor right now and beneath it is our production floor. Raised flooring would be overkill for this operation. I come from a university where we had all of that...it was nice for sure.
 
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