My company is moving to a new location.
I'm responsible for planning the layout of our new R&D lab.
The equipment will be set up in 19" racks (10), shelf units (9 x 160/65 cm footprint), and
desks (4 x 165/75 cm footprint).
My question is what are considered to be good layouts.
I have two ideas:
1. 3 long lanes - center lane made of racks, side lanes with the shelf units and desks,
2 internal access lanes 110 cm wide, and 2 external access lanes 75 cm wide
(see picture 1)
2. 5 or 6 lanes of equipment (shelves/racks/desks) 90 degrees to the long walls,
spaced 110 cm from each, with a center access lane. (see Picture 2)
I think the picture will explain better what I mean. The room sizes and amount of units
is not final, so the two are not identical, but I'd like to know about a better layout.
How will the space be cooled? As a mechanical engineer, I look at the layouts and am disturbed by the lack of a clear hot aisle/cold aisle arrangement. Making massive (and likely incorrect guesses about your loading and equipment) I would lean towards layout 1, but swap the rack aisle over to the wall. Then have the rack heat exhaust against the side wall with ceiling returns above that 'hot aisle.' The other two aisles would be back-to-back (heat exhaust wise) for a second hot aisle betwixt them.
Again, the 'right' answer is to ask more questions like the fellow above. Free advice is worth what you pay for it
dbbd,
I have a client looking for similar specs in their R&D lab. However we lack the number of required racks that you are expecting. Beyond the question above, I am curious how well return air is removed from the space. Is it an open plenum above the ceiling or is there a return duct system above?
Another question I would ask is how much cabling will be going in to this lab? If everything is going to be interconnected to eachother, will you be factoring in a patch panel? If not, the rack layout should be placed in such a manor that you will not have excessive cabling overhead or under a raised floor. I know how messy cabling can get in an R&D lab.
The last question I have is regarding door location. I am assuming the door in your lab is towards the right of the screen where space is left from the wall. Where on this wall does the door fit and does the door swing inside or outside?
A concern I have for you, if this is a raised floor environment in an older datacenter is that the room you are using may not have been built with the thought that there will be servers in that room. Therefore, there may not be adequate cooling under the floor close enough to this room, or possibly even a air dam under the floor to prevent wasted air from getting in to this room.
With answers to all of the above questions from the other members as well as myself, I think we can all get a clearer understanding on what you are trying to do and advise properly.
Another thought just occured to me on how you can get this a little cleaner. Have you considered doing away with the shelves and tables full of equipment and relocating them in to a 19 inch or 23 inch cabinet with the usage of rackmounted shelving? I understand that the cost is greater for a rack vs. a baker's rack, however, in the long term it will tidy up your floor plan, significantly as well as allow for proper hot aisle/cool aisle seperation. With the current proposed shelving units and tables, you will probably see that the hot air is going to circulate back around towards the front of the shelving units, without the proper pressurization of your cooling system, and you will be in a heated situation.
Hot/Cold aisle arrangements cannot be emphasized enough. You're looking at a 20-40°F delta on newer 1u server's air output. If that air is then vented towards the face of more systems, you're looking at some very unhappy servers and drives.
Also figure on having at least 4 feet in front of racks and 3 feet behind (OSHA rules require this I think). The 4 feet in front is needed to allow for maneuvering of equipment and installation of long gear which is usually ~36" long and a bit more room to prevent bashing the facing equipment with the front of the server you're installing. If the server is a 10-20u chassis, you'll probably want a lift to do it up high and you need room to maneuver that too. 4 feet in front is about optimum and it allows you 2 floor tiles for vented tiles.
Keith's point of racks with shelves is good advice. I greatly prefer racks with shelves to some kind of bench arrangement because you can control airflow better. Blanking panels in the front of the racks where servers are not are important. I added some to a few racks recently, and saw a 5° temperature drop in that one area at the top of the racks.
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CNN Internet Technologies
Data Center Manager
Datacenter layout advise
