Methods and systems for managing facility power and cooling

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/938,034, entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MANAGING FACILITY POWER AND COOLING,” filed on May 15, 2007, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

1. Field of Invention

Embodiments of the invention relate generally to entity management, and more specifically to methods and systems for managing facility power and cooling.

2. Discussion of Related Art

Centralized data centers for computer, communications and other electronic equipment have been in use for a number of years, and more recently with the increasing use of the Internet, large scale data centers that provide hosting services for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs) and Internet content providers are becoming more prevalent. Typical centralized data centers contain numerous racks of equipment that require power, cooling and connections to external communications facilities. In modern data centers and network rooms, the increased density of computing equipment used in these facilities has put strains on the cooling and power systems of the facilities. In the past, typical power consumption for each equipment enclosure in a data facility was on the order of 1 kW. With the use of server blades and other high power density equipment in equipment racks, it is not uncommon for an equipment rack to have a power draw of 10 kW or even as high as 25 kW.

Typically, the power consumed by computer equipment is converted to heat and typically, the cooling requirements of a facility are determined based on the power requirements of the facility. Typical data centers utilize air plenums under raised floors to distribute cooling air through a data center. One or more computer room air conditioners (CRACs) or computer room air handlers (CRAHs) are typically distributed along the periphery of the data room, and these units draw return air from the room or a ceiling plenum and distribute cooling air beneath the raised floor. Perforated tiles may be placed in front or beneath racks of equipment to be cooled to allow the cooling air from beneath the floor to cool equipment within the racks.

Several tools are available to assist a data center designer in configuring a layout of a data center to provide necessary power and cooling to equipment to be located in the data center. These tools typically assist a designer in determining total power requirements and accordingly overall cooling requirements for a data center. In addition, these tools may assist a designer in determining optimum equipment layout and proper sizing of power cabling and circuit breakers.

While existing tools provide a designer with detailed layout information regarding power distribution, these tools typically provide far less help in determining cooling needs for a facility. Advanced programs that use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) may be used to model the cooling design of a facility, but the use of such programs is extremely limited due to the complexity of the programs, which results in their use being prohibitively expensive and time consuming. U.S. Patent Application US2003/0158718 A1 to Nakagawa et al describes an automated system for designing a cooling system for a facility. In the system of Nakagawa, the facility is divided into a number of pre-characterized cells (such as a cluster of racks) over which the response of various parameters, such as maximum temperature, are known based on key parameters. The system uses built-in cell to cell interaction rules to predict overall thermal performance and to optimize equipment layout. While this system may offer some improvements in speed over a full CFD analysis, it is limited to the use of pre-characterized cells, and does not provide analysis below the cell level. Also, the cells must be characterized using, for example, a CFD analysis or physical testing.

Programs and systems such as those described above provide idealized results for the cooling performance of a facility and often fail to account for situations which often occur in real life installations, which can dramatically affect the cooling performance of a data center. For example, in a facility using a raised floor, the absence of one or more floor panels, or the misplacement of one or more perforated floor panels can greatly affect the cooling performance of the data center and cause the actual performance to vary greatly from a calculated idealized performance. Further, the degradation in performance of one or more air conditioning units can drastically change airflow and cooling characteristics of a facility.

The inability to properly analyze the cooling performance of a facility typically causes a data center designer to over design the facility from a cooling perspective, which results in the facility to be more expensive and less efficient.

In existing data centers, it is often desirable to replace equipment with upgraded equipment and/or add new equipment to existing enclosures in the facility. Several tools exist which enable a manager of a data center to monitor power usage in a facility. These tools include the InfrastruXure® Manager and/or InfrastruXure® Central product available from American Power Conversion Corporation of West Kingston, R.I.

With the increasing cooling and power requirements of computer equipment, it is desirable for a data center manager to determine if there is adequate power and cooling available in the facility before new or replacement equipment may be added. Typically, a data center manager may know, or can determine, if the total cooling capacity of the data center is sufficient for the total power draw. However, hot spots in a facility may develop, particularly where high power density equipment is used, and it may not be enough to merely analyze cooling capacity at the facility level. To attempt to identify hot spots, a data center manager may resort to manual temperature measurements throughout a facility and try to implement fixes to correct the hot spots. Such fixes may involve a rearrangement or replacement of perforated floor panels, a rearrangement of enclosures, and/or adding additional cooling capacity. In any case, these fixes are typically done on a trial and error basis, and while some hot spots may be eliminated, the fixes may cause other hot spots to arise due to a redirection of the cooling air in the facility. This trial and error approach can lead to unexpected failures of equipment, which is unacceptable in critical data centers. To avoid such failures, data center managers typically over design facilities and fail to use facilities to their full capacity.

Aspects of the present invention relate generally to management of data center entities and their associated resources. Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for determining data center cooling and power requirements and for monitoring performance of cooling and power systems in data centers. At least one embodiment provides a system and method that enables a data center operator to determine available power and cooling at specific areas and enclosures in a data center to assist in locating new equipment in the data center.

One aspect is directed to a method that includes determining cooling capacity of a number of equipment enclosures in a data center, determining cooling requirements of each of the number of equipment enclosures, and providing an indication of remaining cooling capacity for each of the number of equipment enclosures.

The method may further include developing a floor plan model of the data center, wherein the floor plan model includes a floor plan that indicates location of each of the number of equipment enclosures in the data center, and for each of the number of equipment enclosures, displaying on the floor plan, the indication of remaining cooling capacity. The indication of remaining cooling capacity may include an indication of additional power that can be drawn by each of the number of equipment enclosures based on the remaining cooling capacity. Determining cooling capacity may include calculating a predicted cooling capacity based on the floor plan model. Determining cooling capacity may include measuring airflow at a first plurality of locations in the facility to obtain a measured cooling capacity. Determining cooling capacity may include measuring air temperature at a second plurality of locations in the facility. At least one of the first plurality of locations and the second plurality of locations includes at least one air vent of a raised floor. The method may further include comparing predicted cooling capacity with measured cooling capacity to obtain a comparison result and providing an indication when the comparison result is greater than a threshold. The method may further include adjusting the predicted cooling capacity based on measured airflow. The method may further include determining placement of new equipment in an equipment enclosure in the data center by comparing power ratings of the new equipment with cooling capacity of the equipment enclosure. The method may further include, for each of the number of equipment enclosures, determining electrical power capacity and remaining electrical power availability, and displaying on the floor plan remaining electrical power availability. In the method, determining remaining electrical power availability may include measuring at least one parameter of electrical power provided to at least one of the number of equipment enclosures. In the method, determining cooling capacity of an equipment enclosure may include estimating available cooling air at the equipment enclosure using a weighted summation of available airflows from a plurality of airflow sources, the weights used in the weighted summation may decrease with distance from the equipment enclosure to each of the airflow sources, and the weights may be based on mechanical characteristics of the plurality of airflow sources. The method may further include determining available airflow of at least one of the plurality of airflow devices using at least one of specifications of the at least one of the plurality of airflow devices and measured data for the at least one of the plurality of airflow devices in the data center. The method may further include determining available airflow of at least a second one of the plurality of airflow devices based on the measured data for the at least one of the plurality of airflow devices. In the method, determining cooling capacity may include using superposition to combine airflows. In the method, determining airflow into and out of each of a plurality of sides of each control volume may include computing airflows using equations based on at least one of conservation of mass and conservation of momentum. Further, determining airflow into and out of each of a plurality of sides of each control volume may include determining airflows using empirical rules derived from CFD, physical measurement, or any other means.

Another aspect of the invention is directed to a system for managing a data center. The system includes at least one input to receive data related to equipment and equipment enclosures and to receive data related to cooling characteristics of the data center, a controller operatively coupled to the input and configured to determine cooling capacity of each equipment enclosure, and at least one output operatively coupled to the controller that provides an indication of remaining cooling capacity for each of the equipment enclosures.

The system may further include an output device coupled to the at least one output, wherein the system is configured to display a floor plan of at least a portion of the data center indicating location of at least one of the equipment enclosures in the data center and indicating the remaining cooling capacity for the at least one of the equipment enclosures. The output device may be configured to include an indication of additional power that can be drawn by the at least one of the equipment enclosures. The system may further include at least one airflow monitor operatively coupled to the controller to provide data related to at least one airflow in the data center. The system may further include at least one air monitor operatively coupled to the controller to provide data related to air temperature at a location in the data center. The controller may be configured to compare a predicted cooling capacity with a measured cooling capacity to obtain a comparison result and to provide an indication when the comparison result is greater than a threshold. The system may further include at least one power monitor operatively coupled to the controller, and at least one airflow controller operatively coupled to the controller and responsive to signals from the controller to alter cooling airflow in the data center. The system may further include at least one power controller operatively coupled to the controller and responsive to signals from the controller to alter at least one characteristic of power in the data center.

Another aspect of the invention is directed to a system for managing a data center. The system includes at least one input to receive data related to equipment and equipment enclosures and to receive data related to cooling characteristics of the data center, and means, coupled to the at least one input, for determining remaining cooling capacity for each of the number of equipment enclosures and providing an indication of remaining cooling capacity.