[Beowulf] Server room design consulting

[Robert G. Brown]

On Wed, 28 Mar 2007, Daniel Majchrzak wrote:

> We have a dedicated cluster room, email server room, and networking room
> that have slowly evolved over the years. Due to budget constraints in
> the past no one has ever done an analysis of our electricity and AC.
> (We've had the facilities people in, but their analysis wasn't any
> better than our own guestimates. ) When increases in either power or
> cooling were necessary it was either done piecemeal or not done at all.
> (We have had some orders to come up with some "zero-dollar" solutions).
> Now all three rooms are about to go through some equipment expansions.
> While we can make some rough estimates, and we could go to the
> university's facilities people, we thought we would try to get some
> funds together to hire some professional services so that it gets done
> right.  Has any one on the list had any experiences they would like to
> share on hiring these kind of consultants.  Referrals?  Can anyone give
> a (very) rough estimate of what we should expect to pay?

My own experience with power and AC people from normal contracting firms
is that they are immensely clueless about computer server room
infrastructure.  I haven't ever hired a consultant, but I do consulting
on this from time to time.  I'd guess that you'll pay perhaps $150 to
$200/hour for consulting, but it might well depend on what kind of
consultant you got and where you got them.  Again, based on my
experience with area computer management contracting houses, they are
not really competent with infrastructure issues.  A really good
electrical contractor MIGHT have somebody.  Liebert or APC might be able
to refer you.  An architect with experience in server room design might
be your best bet.

      rgb

>
> Thanks,
>
> Dan
>
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-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu