Resolving SLA Cooling Dispute
Summary
In April 2018, a Colocation provider (The Colo) was concerned about running out of cooling reserves because a Tenant (The Tenant) had replaced regular tiles with multiple high-flow tiles. The Cold asked Purkay Labs’ to perform an independent airflow analysis through the On-Site Assessment Service©. The subsequent results showed that the Tenant was significantly overcooling the facility.
Highlights
Client
Colocation Provider
Tier 4 Facility in Santa Clara, CA
Facility
Room: 12,000 ft², raised floor
Cabinets: 100 mixed load
Load: 4500 kW Capacity
Cooling: N+1
Electricity Cost: 13 ¢/kWh
Project Goals:
Colo concerned about running out of reserve cooling capacity because Tenant using multiple high-flow tiles
Tools Used
Results
Used AUDIT-BUDDY™ system & Balometer to measure inlet temps and CFM
Found that room was largely overcooled
Colo able to show Tenant data and have the high flow tiles removed.
ROI:
Freed up 9500 CFM in reserve cooling capacity
Introduction
In April 2018, a Colocation provider (The Colo) was concerned about running out of reserve cooling because a Tenant (The Tenant) had put in multiple high-flow tiles. The Colo used Purkay Labs’ On-Site Assessment Service© to determine if the high-flow tiles were necessary. Purkay Labs use their AUDIT-BUDDY system and TSI Balometer to measure the inlet temperatures and CFM measurements across the facility and found that the Tenant was significantly overcooling the facility.
The Project
Purkay Labs used the AUDIT-BUDDY system and TSI Balometer to measure inlet temperatures and CFM at every rack throughout the facility. This data was streamed directly into a custom Interactive Data Hall Program so that the Colo could immediately see the data in the context of the Data Hall Layout.
For the first aisle that has 1 high flow tile, the built-in charts & graphs showed:
· Average inlet temperatures ranged from 62.3-74.3°F
· There were no hot spots (readings above ASHRAE recommended range of 80.6°F)
· There were 11 readings below the ASHRAE recommended range of 64.4°F
This data showed that the one high flow tile (delivering 1150 CFM) caused the majority of the 6” recorded temperatures to fall below ASHRAE recommended temperature range. The Thermal Contour Map clear shows the impact of the high flow tile on the aisle environment.
Conclusion
The On-Site Assessment Service allowed the Colo to access independent information on environmental performance. Without Purkay Labs, the Colo would not have been able to get rack level data that did not interfere with the Client’s infrastructure. The design of the AUDIT-BUDDY system allowed Purkay Labs to collect information without touching a single server. The Tenant was able to use the data to see their environment and identify areas where perforated tiles were needed or not. The SLA debate was amicably resolved when the Colo presented the Tenant with the data from the Assessment Service. The Colo was able to free up much needed CFM to insure the redundancy objectives were met.