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How many of your racks have mis-wired redundant power feeds?

jacob.van-ewyk| February 16, 2011
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So, you've built your data center, put in redundant power feeds, and loaded it with systems and storage? What could possibly go wrong from a power and cooling perspective? I've spoken with customers and some of our internal HP engineers, and they've regularly seen a common problem that prevents redundant power set ups from providing system level protection - a big problem, especially for mission critical systems.

 

One challenge that comes to mind is that you lose one of the redundant power feeds. No problem - that is why you have redundant power, right? But, how many of your racks in the data center are wired incorrectly so that they have 2 power feeds from the same power source. This often means that the rack beside it also has two power feeds, but both of them are from the other power source. Needless to say, that doesn't provide any power protection for the systems.

 

HP's Intelligent Power Distribution Unit, among other things, identifies which servers are hooked up to which PDUs, and which PDUs are hooked up to which power source. It means that you can quickly and easily identify any wiring problems with the redundant power feeds in your data center. Having spoken with one of the developers working on Insight Control mower management software, he was surprised how often they found this problem at our customer's data centers. With the tons of cables in data centers, it isn't a huge surprise.

 

If you want to know more about the HP Intelligent Power Distribution Unit, including why it won a SearchDataCenter.com Silver Product of the Year, I'd recommend heading over to theServer Insights blog post on it. And hopefully, if you use this product, you'll find that all your racks have correctly wired redundant power sources.

 

Jacob Van Ewyk

 

 

 

 

Tags: Insight Control power management| Intelligent Power Distribution Unit| iPDU| PDU| SearchDataCenter.com View All (5)
Labels: data center| Data Center Smart Grid| power and cooling| Wiring
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About the Author
  • Kirk Bresniker is the Vice President/Chief Technologist for HP Business Critical Systems where he has technical responsibility for all things Mission Critical, including HP-UX, NonStop and scalable x86 platforms. He joined HP in 1989 after graduating from Santa Clara University and has been an HP Fellow since 2008.
  • I’m the worldwide marketing manager for HP NonStop. I’ll be blogging and tweeting out news as it relates to NonStop solutions – you can find me here and on twitter at @CarolynatHP
  • Cynthia is part of the HP ExpertOne team. ExpertOne offers professional IT training and certifications from infrastructure refresh to areas that span across the datacenter like Cloud and Converged Infrastructure.
  • I have worked with NonStop systems since 1982. I am a Master Technologist for HP and am part of the IT SWAT organization, the Cloud SWAT and work with HP Labs. I report into the Enterprise Solutions and Architecture organization.
  • Joe Androlowicz is a Technical Communications and Marketing manager in HP’s NonStop Product Division. Joe is a 25 year journeyman in information systems design, instructional technologies and multimedia development. He left Apple Computer for Tandem Computers to help launch G03 and hasn’t looked back yet. He previously managed the program management team for the NonStop Education and Training Center and drove the development and growth of the NonStop Certification programs.
  • As a recent college graduate I am new to the world of converged infrastructure, cloud and big data. I am very excited about the innovation HP can bring to the future of mission critical IT.
  • Hello! I am a social media manager for servers, so my posts will be geared towards HP server-related news & info.
  • HP Editor-Enterprise Group: ISS, BCS, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Converged Cloud, Converged App Systems (CAS), and ExpertOne
  • I’m the Worldwide Product Marketing Manager for HP Serviceguard Solutions for Linux in BCS. I’ll be blogging about the latest news and enhancements as it relates to this product.
  • Greetings! I am on the HP Enterprise Group marketing team focused on Content Marketing for Business Critical Systems. Topics I am interested in include mission-critical computing, scale up x86, and Converged Infrastructure, Converged Systems.
  • As a Managing Consultant for HP’s Enterprise Solution & Architecture group, I collaborate with client business and IT senior management to understand, prioritize and architect advanced use of data and information, drawing insights required to make informed business decisions. My current focus leverages event-driven business intelligence design techniques and technologies to identify patterns, anticipate outcomes and proactively optimize business response creating a differentiated position in the marketplace for the client.
  • Vinay Gupta is an HP Distinguished Technologist and the NonStop Manageability Architect. He joined Tandem in 1994 after graduating from Indian Institute of Technology. He has worked on many NonStop manageability applications over time. He works across various groups within NonStop and HP to ensure consistency and interoperability in manageability interfaces and applications. He is also a member of DMTF workgroups.
  • Wendy Bartlett is a Distinguished Technologist in HP’s NonStop Enterprise Division, and focuses on dependability – security and availability - for the NonStop server line. She joined Tandem in 1978. Her other main area of interest is system architecture evolution. She has an M.S. degree in computer science from Stanford University.
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