User:Work2hobby/Data Vault

Data Vault

A Data Vault or DV is a tightly configured mini-data center that is highly scale able. A DV's most distinguishing feature is that the network cabinets make up the walls of the vault for air handling/cooling purposes. These DV's sit within a larger room. Voids in the wall and above cabinets are blocked with adjustable 1/4th inch honeycomb aluminum walls. Cooling air is only permitted to pass through active equipment cooling ports. Unused rack unit slots are blocked with cabinet equipment provided parts. Cool air is forced through the DV with positive air pressure, and exit the vault through a lower pressure zone; either duct work or a plenum air space above.

A Data Vault Located in a Larger Space

The interior of the DV is accessed via a door at either end of the vault. These doors access the interconnects/power, and what is generally the rear side of the installed equipment. Cabinets are not installed thru these doors, they simply are slid into place from the outside. The cooling airflow design of the network gear dictates what is "front" and "back". Most equipment flows air front to back (cold to hot .i.e., exhaust). Though some equipment can be side discharge.

Interconnects between cabinets can be under floor, for a very clean look, or above cabinet for ready access. Above cabinet installs should be at a comfortable working height as these pathways will be used thousands of times, noting the critical nature of the equipment and to mitigate mishaps...

Power can be installed via traditional conduit or bus ways above or below floor. These systems, where code permits, should be placed out of the way and not mix with the Data/Fiber interconnects ;though power is critical to any data center, once implemented it rarely accessed. Above cabinet bus ways can introduce risk to an install, as code will dictate breaker locations; that might later be inadvertently tripped if poorly placed. For example, in front of cable tray used to provide interconnects that are regularly accessed. On the other hand, it is obvious which breakers serve which cabinet during maintenance. Each cabinet in a data vault will likely have two disconnects, multiplied by the number of cabinet, there can be a large number of breakers present.

As a general rule in construction, especially in highly specialized spaces such as data centers, the more un-accessed a utility is in a given space, the more tucked out of the way it should be. This is never an inexpensive approach, but very prudent in a data center space where there is always the potential need for physical expansion of equipment space.

A DV's can start out as basic four corner cabinets, two doors, and temporary walls and above cabinet walls to the ceiling built with steal strut to seal air gaps. As more capacity is required, additional cabinets are moved in place, temporary walls removed. The cabinets will likely have an intended purposes, maybe the corner cabinets are for distribution of network resources to campus, interior cabinets for tape storage, servers, net management, clients and so on. Ideally, the campus backbone fiber would extend directly into the data vault. ... article content follows.

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