Methods and systems for managing facility power and cooling

• US 20070038414A1
• Filed: 01/27/2006
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric IT Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: American Power Conversion Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Rasmussen, Neil, Daae, Henrik, Berard, Stephen, Dalgas, Mikkel, Schoellhammer, Sandi, Jensen, Henrik, VanGilder, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,881,910 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2119/08 Thermal analysis or thermal optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for determining data center cooling and power requirements and for monitoring performance of cooling and power systems in data centers. At least one aspect 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.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of managing power and cooling capacity of a data center, the method comprising:

receiving data center parameters;

determining an equipment layout in the data center, the equipment layout identifying a location of each of a plurality of devices in the data center;

based on the location, determining available power and available cooling in the data center for each of the plurality of devices;

comparing the available power and available cooling with power requirements and cooling requirements of each of the plurality of devices to obtain a cooling comparison result and a power comparison result for each of the plurality of devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing each of the comparison cooling results and the power cooling results with thresholds.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, based on at least one of the cooling comparison result and the power comparison result, providing at least one recommendation for correcting an out of tolerance condition.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one recommendation includes adding an in-row cooling unit in a row of equipment of the data center.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein adding an in-row cooling unit includes providing a proposed location for the in-row cooling unit.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining at least one of stranded cooling capacity and stranded power capacity in the data center.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing recommendations for reducing at least one of the stranded power capacity and the stranded cooling capacity in the data center.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a floor plan model of the data center, wherein the floor plan model includes a floor plan that indicates a location of each of the plurality of devices in the data center, and

for each of the plurality of devices, displaying on the floor plan an indication of remaining cooling capacity.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

displaying on the floor plan an indication of remaining power capacity for each of the plurality of devices.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting a redundancy level for at least some of the plurality of devices, and wherein the available power and available cooling are determined to meet the redundancy level.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of determining the equipment layout includes arranging the plurality of devices in at least two substantially parallel rows with a hot aisle formed between the two rows, and wherein the method further includes conducting a cooling analysis by analyzing airflows in the hot aisle.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising selecting at least one in-row cooling unit to be placed in the layout in one of the at least two substantially parallel rows.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the plurality of devices is an equipment rack, and wherein the method includes determining a capture index for the at least one in-row cooling unit and the equipment rack.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

on a display screen, simultaneously displaying a first floor plan model of the data center and a second floor plan model of the data center, wherein the first floor plan model includes at least a partial view of the data center and the second floor plan model includes a full view of the data center.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second floor plan model also includes an indication of a portion of the data center that is shown in the first floor plan model.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a three dimensional view of at least a portion of the data center.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising selecting a camera location for use in the data center and displaying a three dimensional view of a viewing area of the camera.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a subset of the plurality of devices and defining a power zone for each device of the subset of the plurality of devices, wherein each power zone includes at least one UPS.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of devices is an equipment rack, and wherein the method further includes selecting components for each of the plurality of devices from a displayed list of components.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining operational power costs and operational cooling costs for a subset of the plurality of devices.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the operational power costs and operational cooling costs are determined in terms of kilowatts.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring an electronic file containing data for the equipment layout from a design system to a management system.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising displaying measured data for the data center on a display of a layout of the data center.

24. A computer-implemented method for designing a layout of a data center, the method comprising:

receiving information from a user regarding parameters of the data center;

determining an equipment layout for the data center, the equipment layout identifying a location of each of a plurality of devices in the data center; and

on a display screen, simultaneously displaying a first floor plan model of the data center and a second floor plan model of the data center, wherein the first floor plan model includes at least a partial view of the data center and the second floor plan model includes a full view of the data center.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the second floor plan model also includes an indication of a portion of the data center that is shown in the first floor plan model.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

determining available power and available cooling in the data center for each of the plurality of devices; and

comparing the available power and available cooling with power requirements and cooling requirements of each of the plurality of devices to obtain a cooling comparison result and a power comparison result for each of the plurality of devices.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising for each of the plurality of devices, displaying on the first floor plan model an indication of remaining cooling capacity.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

displaying on the first floor plan model an indication of remaining power capacity for each of the plurality of devices.

29. A system for use with a data center, the system comprising:

an input to receive instructions from a user;

an output to provide output data to a display device; and

a controller coupled to the input and to the output and configured to;

determine an equipment layout of a data center, the equipment layout identifying a location of each of a plurality of devices in the data center;

based on the location, determine available power and available cooling in the data center for each of the plurality of devices; and

compare the available power and available cooling with power requirements and cooling requirements of each of the plurality of devices to obtain a cooling comparison result and a power comparison result for each of the plurality of devices.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to compare each of the comparison cooling results and the power cooling results with thresholds.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to, based on at least one of the cooling comparison result and the power comparison result, provide at least one recommendation for correcting an out of tolerance condition.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the at least one recommendation includes adding an in-row cooling unit in a row of equipment of the data center.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the at least one recommendation includes a proposed location for the in-row cooling unit.

34. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to determine at least one of stranded cooling capacity and stranded power capacity in the data center.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the controller is configured to provide recommendations for reducing at least one of the stranded power capacity and the stranded cooling capacity in the data center.

36. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is further configured to:

provide data to the output for displaying a floor plan model of the data center, wherein the floor plan model includes a floor plan that indicates a location of each of the plurality of devices in the data center, and

provide data to the output for displaying on the floor plan an indication of remaining cooling capacity.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the controller is further configured to provide data to the output for displaying on the floor plan an indication of remaining power capacity for each of the plurality of devices.

38. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to determine the available power and available cooling based on a user-selected redundancy level.

39. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to arrange the plurality of devices in at least two substantially parallel rows with a hot aisle formed between the two rows, and wherein the controller is further configured to conduct a cooling analysis by analyzing airflows in the hot aisle.

40. The controller of claim 39, wherein the controller is configured to select at least one in-row cooling unit to be placed in the layout in one of the at least two substantially parallel rows.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein at least one of the plurality of devices is an equipment rack, and wherein the controller is configured to determine a capture index for the at least one in-row cooling unit and the equipment rack.

42. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to:

provide data to the output to simultaneously display a first floor plan model of the data center and a second floor plan model of the data center, wherein the first floor plan model includes at least a partial view of the data center and the second floor plan model includes a full view of the data center.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the second floor plan model also includes an indication of a portion of the data center that is shown in the first floor plan model.

44. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to provide data to the output to display a three dimensional view of at least a portion of the data center.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the controller is configured to provide data to the output to display a three dimensional view of a viewing area of a camera to be located in the data center.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the controller is configured to select a subset of the plurality of devices and define a power zone for each device of the subset of the plurality of devices, wherein each power zone includes at least one UPS.

47. The system of claim 29, further comprising a database module containing data for components to be loaded into the plurality of devices, and wherein the controller is configured to provide data to the output for displaying a list of the components.

48. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured determine operational power costs and operational cooling costs for a subset of the plurality of devices.

49. The system of claim 48, wherein the operational power costs and operational cooling costs are determined in terms of kilowatts.

50. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to provide an output electronic file containing data for the equipment layout.

51. The system of claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to, based on at least one of the cooling comparison result and the power comparison result, provide at least one recommendation for placement of rack mount equipment.

52. A computer-implemented method for designing a layout of a data center, the method comprising:

receiving information from a user regarding parameters of the data center;

determining an equipment layout for the data center, the equipment layout identifying a location of each of a plurality of devices in the data center, including identifying a row location for each of a plurality of equipment racks with a first subset of the plurality of equipment racks being included in a first row; and

on a display screen, displaying a rack view of the data center showing a front view of each of the plurality of equipment racks of the first subset in the first row.

53. The computer-implemented method of claim 52, wherein displaying a rack view includes displaying a front view of a second subset of the plurality of equipment racks of a second row along with the front view of the first subset of the plurality of equipment racks.

54. The computer-implemented method of claim 52, wherein the first row includes additional equipment, and wherein the additional equipment is not included in the rack view.

55. The computer-implemented method of claim 52, further comprising simultaneously displaying on the display screen the rack view and a full room view of the equipment layout for the data center.

56. The computer-implemented method of claim 55, further comprising:

in response to selection of a selected equipment rack in the full room view by a user, displaying the selected equipment rack in the rack view.

57. The computer-implemented method of claim 56, wherein displaying the selected equipment rack in the rack view includes displaying a front view of the selected equipment rack.