Georgetown University’s Enterprise Data Center, containing a 2,000 square foot machine room, was designed and built in 2009. Physical security is layered in a series of perimeters between the public areas and secure areas of the data center. Electronically controlled locks are tied into the Georgetown One-Card (GOCard) system for quick adjustment to allow or deny access, and to provide audit capabilities that show forced doors, doors held open, etc. IP cameras located at every door, and positioned to observe each data center row, record upon detecting motion. Security windows and intercoms allow data center personnel to interact with visitors indirectly prior to the verification of credentials. Portable media are degaussed or destroyed when they leave the machine room.

HVAC

Four Liebert DS Precision Cooling 105kW (30 ton) CRAC units provide 90 tons cooling in an N+1 configuration. The machine room has hot and cold aisles with the CRACs providing ambient cold air. Hot air, exhausted from locking cabinets, is contained in hot aisles and ducted through a return plenum to the intakes of the CRACs. This configuration maximizes the difference between return and supply air, while maintaining an ambient-cool environment. Thermal inertia of racks, cabinets, etc., helps to keep temperatures from climbing rapidly in the unlikely event of a cooling outage. Temperatures are constantly monitored at high, middle and low points in each cabinet, as well as at the intake and output of the CRACs themselves. Temperatures above nominal that persist for more than 5 minutes are reported to the Operations console and via email to multiple UIS staff.

Power

225 KVA is supplied in a 2N configuration to the data center. BG&E power and a 400 KW generator supply power to two, parallel power distribution paths to every cabinet. The two power supplies connect to parallel sets of uninterruptable power supplies (UPS), power distribution units (PDU), StarLine buss-way distribution systems, and cabinet distribution systems. The parallel delivery systems supply two feeds to every cabinet that are each capable of carrying the maximum cabinet load. Power can be provisioned quickly at any location in the data center using tap boxes that connect to the buss-ways and are field-installable by data center staff. Circuit breakers in the tap boxes alleviate concerns about the length or gauge of wire needed to reach the powered devices. Power is monitored at multiple points in the delivery path. Power Distribution, Inc., PDUs supply power to the entire machine room. Each buss-way is monitored for power going to each row. Server Technologies CDUs provide data on how much power is being consumed in each cabinet. APC Infrastruxure systems summarize and provide trend data on power consumption.

Space

Cabinet RUs are tracked and allocated through a provisioning control procedure that makes reservations against project requirements, tracks consumption and evaluates needs based on mission priorities. Locations for device installations are determined based on power availability, heat load, cabling requirements, and the number of RUs required and available.

Cabling

Any-to-any connections for Ethernet, SAN, console and peripheral system cabling are provided through a structured cabling system that routes cable through ceiling mounted trays, separate trays for fiber and copper, to patch panels. Each cable is run using new cable, labeled at both ends during installation, and tracked in a cable management system. Decommissioned devices have their cables removed. Bad ports are plugged to prevent accidental re-use.

Procedures

In addition to the multiple technologies mentioned above, the Enterprise Data Center relies on numerous procedures to maintain reliability and consistency in its production environment. NCS staff maintain a 24x365 presence in the data center and are the first level of procedural administration.

A Provision Control Board allocates resources based on mission priorities. University change control procedures manage changes to the production environment. Incident Managers and an On-call and Escalation procedures manage Unscheduled Outages. Purchasing, shipping and delivery are coordinated with the UIS Business Services Center to ensure that asset management, property accounting and business needs are met. The data center building has a full-sized loading dock with ramp-only access to the machine room. A Staging Area handles packing/unpacking as well as degaussing and record keeping for portable media that leave the machine room.