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Edge Computing: Considerations for Reliable Operation

This technical bulletin highlights the environmental and reliability challenges of edge data centers and the design and maintenance challenges of these data centers that are surrounded by semi-controlled or even uncontrolled external environments.

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ASHRAE Datacom Series

The Datacom Series provides a comprehensive treatment of data center cooling and related subjects, authored by ASHRAE Technical Committee 9.9, Mission Critical Facilities, Data Centers, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment.

  1. Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments, Fifth Edition
  2. IT Equipment Power Trends, Third Edition
  3. Design Considerations for Datacom Equipment Centers, Second Edition
  4. Liquid Cooling Guidelines for Datacom Equipment Centers, Second Edition
  5. Structural and Vibration Guidelines for Datacom Equipment Centers
  6. Best Practices for Datacom Facility Energy Efficiency, Second Edition
  7. High Density Data Centers - Case Studies and Best Practices
  8. Particulate and Gaseous Contamination in Datacom Environments, Second Edition
  9. Real-Time Energy Consumption Measurements in Data Centers
  10. Green Tips for Data Centers
  11. PUE™: A Comprehensive Examination of the Metric
  12. Server Efficiency - Metrics for Computer Servers and Storage
  13. IT Equipment Design Impact on Data Center Solutions
  14. Advancing DCIM with IT Equipment Integration

Data Center Standards from ASHRAE:

  1. Standard 90.4-2019 -- Energy Standard for Data Centers (ANSI Approved)
  2. Standard 127-2012 -- Method of Testing for Rating Computer and Data Processing Room Unitary Air Conditioners (ANSI Approved)

Related Courses

Energy Efficiency in Data Centers

IT Equipment Design Evolution & Data Center Operation Optimization


Additional Resources:

Datacom Training from ASHRAE

eLearning


1. Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments, Fifth Edition 

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This guide provides equipment manufacturers and facility operations staff with a common set of guidelines for the design and construction of their respective equipment or facility, thereby aiding in maximizing the performance and health of the facility and its contents.

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Bonus – Free Supplemental Download: Cold Weather Shipping Acclimation and Best Practices
This white paper addresses the prevention of damage to sensitive IT equipment caused by cold weather shipping conditions, providing additional guidance for shipping IT equipment that is not covered in the latest edition of Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments. In addition to outlining cold weather shipping practices and packaging for various modes of transportation, this white paper covers acclimation time guidelines for both large equipment such as racks, cabinets, and frames and smaller field-replaceable components such as disk drives, PCIe cards, and memory modules.

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Bonus – Free Supplemental Download: Data Center Power Equipment Thermal Guidelines and Best Practices
This white paper discusses how changes to the data center thermal environment may affect power distribution equipment. In some cases, power equipment can be subjected to higher temperatures than the IT equipment. Higher temperatures can impact equipment reliability. Exposure to warmer temperatures, coupled with the fact that usable life cycle of power equipment is typically longer than IT equipment, increases the importance of this topic. This paper also provides an overview of data center power distribution and describes the typical power equipment used for both IT loads and non-IT loads (i.e. lighting and cooling). Included in this list of equipment is switchgear, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), static transfer switches, switchboards, transformers, power distribution units (PDU), remote power panels (RPP), panelboards, rack PDU, line cords, facility receptacles and IT cable trays.

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2. IT Equipment Power Trends, Third Edition 

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The future of information technology (IT) equipment is very bright. Not only do the current trends show this, but so does the rate and pace for which advanced research and development is being applied to deal with these trends. More than ever before, companies are relying on their data communication (datacom) infrastructure to advance their business models and solutions. Computers have become a powerful extension of human beings, designed to augment intelligence, learn, and communicate more effectively. So, how does this bode for the future?

Energy efficiency and the power required by the IT equipment continue to be a concern for all organizations that use this equipment. This is an industry that continues to focus on innovation in this space. How these innovations translate within the server and storage power trends is extremely important to the end user. The third edition of the ASHRAE IT Equipment Power Trends book is meant to update the industry on what to expect in the coming years in terms of electrical power and cooling capacity required for future IT solutions. As with the previous editions, we had engineering professionals--many of them responsible for developing the products for which these power trends in this edition are created--update this datacom book. In 2005, the ASHRAE Technical Committee 9.9 (TC 9.9), Mission Critical Facilities, Data Centers, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment published the power trends for IT equipment up to 2015 and released a second edition in 2012 that extended the trends to 2020.

The third edition extends these trends to 2025. A key focus on planning for power and cooling required for the IT equipment within the data center is to have knowledge of the best estimates for future IT equipment power trends.

Keywords: IT equipment, data center, efficiency, design

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3. Design Considerations for Datacom Equipment Centers, Second Edition

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This book provides basic information essentials for the design of datacom (data processing and communications) facilities. It covers design criteria, HVAC loads, cooling systems overview, air distribution and liquid cooling. It will also provides information that is supplemental to basic data center design, which may be of more value to those who already have design and/or operating experience in this field, covering additional topics such as ancillary spaces, contamination, acoustics, structural and seismic design, fire suppression, commissioning, availability and redundancy, and energy efficiency.

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4. Liquid Cooling Guidelines for Datacom Equipment Centers, Second Edition 

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Data center IT equipment today is predominantly air cooled. However, with rack heat loads steadily climbing, the ability for many data centers to deliver either adequate airflow rates or sufficient chilled air is now being stretched to the limit. These trends in the heat load generated from IT equipment can have detrimental side effects, such as decreased equipment availability, wasted floor space, and inefficient cooling system operation. This situation is creating a need for implementing liquid cooling solutions.

The overall goals of the liquid implementations include aspects such as trasferring as much waste heat to the facility liquid cooling loop as possible, reducing the overall volume of airflow needed by the racks, and reducing processor temperatures such that increased compute performance can be achieved.

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Bonus – Free Supplemental Download: Emergence and Expansion of Liquid Cooling in Mainstream Data Centers 
This white paper explains why liquid cooling should be considered, rather than the details around what liquid cooling is or how to deploy it. Future increases in IT equipment power will require additional equipment energy use and cooling resources will result in fewer servers per rack. During the 1990s and early 2000s, IT equipment power draw increased regularly. At the time, nameplate power was the typical planning metric, so a refresh may not have been that problematic. This paper will address three time frames: the early time frame where power increases were acceptable, the period following where power remained relatively constant, and the current time frame where power draw is again on the rise.

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Bonus – Free Supplemental Download: Water-Cooled Servers Common Designs, Components, and Processes
This white paper outlines some of the common processes, parts, and materials for focus in use for future water-cooled designs. Some parts in a water-cooled IT system will be specific to the product design, such as cold plates, manifolds, arrangement of piping, pumps, valves, and so on, but others such as quick connects, hoses, hose connections, materials, and water chemistry fall more into the category of common parts that can be used by all current and potential manufacturers of water-cooled IT equipment. This white paper is an attempt to provide and make available those items that could be classified as common. This white paper also corrects misunderstandings in the latest edition of Liquid Cooling Guidelines for Datacom Equipment Centers and provides guidance for avoiding common mistakes based upon the book's content.

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5. Structural and Vibration Guidelines for Datacom Equipment Centers 

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This book discusses datacom equipment as well as a building's structure and infrastructure in a holistic way while providing best practices for their design and installation. The book is divided into four main sections.

Part 1, Introduction, gives an overview of the best practices in the design of datacom equipment centers, including recommendations for new and renovated building structures, building infrastructure, and datacom equipment. Part 2, Building Structure, covers the design of new and existing structures. In Part 3, Building Infrastructure, the structural considerations of the building's infrastructure, raised-access floor systems, and vibration sources and their control are discussed in detail. The last part of this book, Datacom Equipment, covers shock and vibration testing, seismic anchorage systems and analysis of datacom equipment.

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6. Best Practices for Datacom Facility Energy Efficiency, Second Edition 

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This book provides detailed information on the design of datacom facilities that will aid in minimizing the life-cycle cost to the client, and to maximize energy efficiency in a facility.

The book covers many aspects of datacom facility energy efficiency, with chapters on environmental criteria, mechanical equipment and systems, economizer cycles, airflow distribution, HVAC controls and energy management, electrical distribution equipment, datacom equipment efficiency, liquid cooling, total cost of ownership, and emerging technologies. Appendices cover facility commissioning, operations and maintenance, and the telecom facility experiences.

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7. High Density Data Centers - Case Studies and Best Practices

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Data centers and telecommunications rooms that house datacom equipment are becoming increasingly more difficult to adequately cool. This is a result of IT manufacturers increasing datacom performance year after year at the cost of increased heat dissipation. The power required and the resulting heat dissipated by the datacom equipment has increased to a level that is putting a strain on data centers.

This book provides case studies of high density data centers and a range of ventilation schemes that demonstrate how loads can be cooled using a number of different approaches.

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8. Particulate and Gaseous Contamination in Datacom Environments, Second Edition

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Particle contamination resulting from dust and dirt can lead to unexpected shutdowns of critical IT equipment. This book sheds light on this issue and provides information on how to maintain a high level of IT equipment dependability and availability. The book identifies datacom equipment susceptibility and operational impact, as well as strategies for prevention, control, contamination testing, and analysis.

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9. Real-Time Energy Consumption Measurements in Data Centers

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Data centers are dense and complex environments that house a wide variety of energy consuming equipment. With information technology (IT) and facilities equipment, there are thousands of energy consumption monitoring points. If a data center operator cannot monitor a device, that device cannot be controlled. In addition, for a data center to reach its optimal energy efficiency, all equipment on the IT and facilities sides must be monitored and controlled as an ensemble. IT and facilities organizations in a company typically have different reporting structures, which results in a communication gap. This book is designed to help bridge that gap and provides an overview of how to instrument and monitor key power and cooling subsystems.

The book also includes numerous examples of how to use energy consumption data in calculating power usage effectiveness (PUE), along with a practical method that can be used to quantify the PUE for a data center housed in a mixed-use facility. Finally, some coverage is provided for a data center that deploys a combined cooling, heat, and power system. Calculating the PUE for such a data center presents some challenges; this book helps clarify the key issues.

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10. Green Tips for Data Centers

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The data center industry is focused on reducing energy - a focus driven by increasing energy costs and capital costs to add more data center capacity. Combined with rapid growth in the industry and the increase in power used by IT equipment, it is important that every data center operator understand the options for reducing energy. In the past, it was thought that the critical nature of data center technology did not allow for traditional energy-saving approaches and that data centers' continuous operation offered no "unoccupied" periods when energy could be saved. Today, however, there is recognition that energy can be saved in both the data center facility and the IT equipment.

This book gives data center owners and operators a clear understanding of energy-saving opportunities. It covers the mechanical and electrical systems of the building and also the most promising opportunities in technology. In addition, the book's organization follows a logical approach that can be used for conducting a preliminary energy assessment.

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11. PUE™: A Comprehensive Examination of the Metric

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Power usage effectiveness (PUE™), the industry-preferred metric for measuring infrastructure energy efficiency for data centers, is an end-user tool that helps boost energy efficiency in data center operations. This book provides a high level of understanding of the concepts surrounding PUE, plus in-depth application knowledge and resources to those implementing, reporting, and analyzing data center metrics.

It gives actionable information useful to a broad audience ranging from novice to expert in the IT industry, including C-suite executives, facility planners, facility operators, ITE manufacturers, HVAC&R manufacturers, consulting engineers, energy audit professionals, and end users.

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12. Server Efficiency - Metrics for Computer Servers and Storage

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This book consolidates information on current server and storage subsystem energy benchmarks. Each chapter describes a metric, its target market, and includes examples of data generated from the subject benchmark or tool, along with guidance on interpreting the data. This book provides the information needed to select the best measure of performance and power for a variety of server applications.

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13. IT Equipment Design Impact on Data Center Solutions

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This book equips facility planners, operators, IT equipment (ITE) manufacturers, HVAC&R manufacturers, and  end users with the knowledge they need to select the equipment and design best suited to the modern and evolving data center. It provides guidance for use in different ways by different stakeholders.

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Bonus – Free Supplemental Download: Data Center Storage Equipment – Thermal Guidelines, Issues, and Best Practices.
This white paper defines thermal guidelines best practices for storage equipment for both storage hardware designers and storage equipment users. These guidelines were written by a team of storage subject matter experts from many different companies and the recommendations are industry-wide best practices which are agnostic of the point of view of any one company and are based off of a comprehensive review of environmental specifications and air flow management best practices that was conducted across disk, flash, and tape based storage equipment.

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Bonus – Free Supplemental Download: Hard Disk Drive Performance Degradation Susceptibility to Acoustics
This white paper educates the data center community about the risks to HDD throughput performance from acoustics created by AMDs running at high speeds to adequately cool components within the racks.

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14. Advancing DCIM with IT Equipment Integration

This book depicts how a well-implemented and maintained DCIM system helps safely maximize the efficient use of power, cooling, and space resources through a comprehensive connective framework. This framework proposes necessary data sets, naming conventions, monitoring and integration points, and key metrics required for judging the effectiveness of the overall DCIM system needed to simplify and accelerate deployment while helping to ensure the value of DCIM is realized throughout the operational phase of the facility.

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Related Publication:

CIBSE – Data Centres: An Introduction to Concepts and Design, KS18

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