DVL Group Blog with Helpful Information on Running Your Data Center

Why Test Your Circuit Breakers? Because They Fail

by Mike Rinaldi on 6/21/12 1:53 PM

Amazon Traces Cloud Outage To Faulty Breaker

Improperly configured breaker opened and brought down portion of cloud

[Data Center Dynamics]

Amazon Web Services has released details about the root cause of the outage of one of its public-cloud’s availability zones that started in the evening on 14 June and lasted until next morning, US Pacific time.

In a note posted on the cloud’s status dashboard, the company said the outage was caused by a cable fault in the power distribution system of the electric utility that served the data center hosting the US-East-1 region of the cloud in northern Virginia.

The entire facility was switched over to back-up generator power, but one of the generators overheated and powered off because of a defective cooling fan. The virtual-machine instances and virtual-storage volumes that were powered by this generator were transferred to a secondary back-up power system, provided by a separate power-distribution circuit that has its own backup generator capacity.

But, one of the breakers on this backup circuit was configured incorrectly and opened as soon as the load was transferred to the circuit. The breaker was set up to open at too low a power threshold.

“After this circuit breaker opened … the affected instances and volumes were left without primary, back-up, or secondary back-up power,” Amazon’s note read.

> Read the full article" target="_blank"> >> Read the full article

A survey by Hartford Insurance Company found that air circuit breakers represent 19.5% of electrical power system failures. Test results on circuit breakers by NETA (InterNational Electrical Testing Association) firms show over a 15% failure rate. Defective circuit breakers can allow extensive damage, personal injury, or make an outage more widespread when a fault occurs. They can also trip when they shouldn’t, causing expensive downtime.

> Request Circuit Breaker Test Information

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Topics: data center infrastructure, reduce cost, Data Center, data center design, cloud computing, data center infrastructure management, robust data center, electrical distribution, reduce downtime, data center outages, cloud strategy

How Much Energy Does the Internet Use?

by Mike Rinaldi on 6/18/12 4:11 PM

“No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.” It’s a funny email signature, but how many inconvenienced electrons does it take to power the internet?

In 2011, the digital universe, or the amount of information created and replicated, reached 1.8 trillion gigabytes, and this digital universe is doubling in size every two years. Much of that digital information is housed in data centers around the world, and running these data centers requires a huge amount of electrical energy.

A 10-megawatt (MW) data center can use the energy of a small town at a cost of around $300,000 a month. Couple that with the fact that there are over 500,000 data centers in the world, according to Emerson Network Power, and we’re talking about 2% of all electrical energy used globally. So, running the internet uses upwards of 406 terawatts per year, assuming 20.3 petawatt-hours as the world’s annual electrical energy consumption.

The odd thing is that in traditional data centers, only half of the energy consumed is useful for running the digital universe: powering the servers that hold our emails, social networking profiles, and the like. The other half of the energy goes into cooling those servers, or it’s lost as heat when electricity is changed between alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC).

What are the 4 trends driving the future of Data Center infrastructure design and management?

Internet Energy Usage

Click here to read the full energy usage article

Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, reduce cost, Data Center, data center design, kW per rack, data center infrastructure management, DVL, electrical distribution, reduce downtime, data center outages

7x24 Exchange Data Center Event | Tonight at UPenn

by Mike Rinaldi on 5/31/12 11:56 AM

Register for the upcoming 7x24Exchange Chapter Meeting on May 31, 2012 from 5:30 - 8:30 PM.

This meeting features 2 great data center presentations

Date: May 31,2012

Host: Information Systems and Computing (ISC) at Penn

Location: Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall in Perelman Quadrangle on the Penn
Campus | 3417 Spruce Street Philadelphia, PA [Map]

Register and Pay

Costs: Member: $40 | Non-Member: $60

AGENDA

5:30 PM Dinner

6:30 PM Presentations

Extending the Runway: Maximizing a Legacy Data Center's Utility Through Strategic Analysis, Reengineering and PlanningFor the past seven years, ISC Computer Operations has been developing creative ways to extend the utility of its Data Center. See how the combination of strategic analysis, reengineering, and planning using the ITIL Methodology, various tools, and Data Center technologies made this the only IVY League Data Center to achieve ISO 9001:2008 certification. A virtual tour will help tell the story.Presenter:

Donna M. Manley, IT Sr. Director, University of Pennsylvania

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Adapting New IT Tools For a Mature Data Center: How Virtualization, Connectivity and Creativity Transformed a Univserity's Mid Range Platforms and Played A Critical Role in Extending the Useful Life of the Legacy Data Center

Virtualization is one of a number of technical solutions that played a key role in the sustainability of Penn's legacy Data Center. Hear how the combination and creativity of implementing complimentary technologies added additional years onto the useful life of this facility.Presenter:

William G. Ramirez, IT Technical Director

Topics: data center infrastructure, data center energy, data center infrastructure management, electrical distribution, data center outages, 7x24 exchange

Are you prepared for the top 10 Data Center surprises?

by Mike Rinaldi on 4/23/12 2:47 PM

Get prepared for the top 10 Data Center surprises at DVL

Emerson released a list of 10 common surprises for data center and IT managers and offered tips on how to be prepared for them. The list, released at AFCOM Data Center World Spring, includes information on a surprising cause of data center downtime, what data center managers might not know about that next server refresh, and the growing trend sneaking up on virtually every IT manager.

“When you are a data center or IT manager, very few things are more unsettling than the unexpected,” said Peter Panfil, vice president of global power, Emerson Network Power. “We hope this list helps IT professionals better anticipate these issues and prepares them with the appropriate technologies, solutions and best practices.”

data center challenge

Get Prepared for the Top 10 Data Center surprises (click below).

Download Top Data Center Surprises (click below).

Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, Data Center, Green IT, data center design, kW per rack, data center infrastructure management, robust data center, DVL, electrical distribution

Are You Looking For a Tool that Data Center Facilities & IT Can Use?

by Mike Rinaldi on 4/18/12 10:50 AM

Will you be using a DCIM solution within 2 years?

While many management organizations have already invested in technology resources (people, processes and tools) to manage data center infrastructure, critical gaps still remain in the physical infrastructure, virtual infrastructure and IT workloads. The Trellis platform provides a fundamentally new perspective on managing the entire data center in that it recognizes:

The importance of real-time data to understand the true capacity of available infrastructure
The criticality of interdependencies between logical and physical layers
The need for holistic management capabilities and visibility of IT and physical infrastructures
The need for more powerful management tools that offer a rich, visual view of the infrastructure and can guide design and change management

DCIM