Pre-Hardware Installation Checklist

   

Pre-Hardware Installation Checklist

The pre-hardware installation checklist should include specific tasks to fully prepare the data center area to accept the data center hardware.

  • Verify that the room is secure. Any breach between the data center area and outside areas creates a possible security risk. Make sure all windows are replaced with a barrier or blocked. Also, replace or block any chutes, unnecessary ventilator shafts, mail drops , or slots.

  • Verify that the room is sealed. This involves not only human security, but the assurance that the vapor barrier is sealed to specifications. In the subfloor void, check perimeter gaps around pipes and conduit, cracks in the deck or walls, expansion joints, open ducts, and walls that connect the subfloor void to the ceiling void or to other floors. Above the raised floor space, check holes or cracks in the perimeter walls, and gaps around pipes, ducts, doors, and light fixtures. Above the drop ceiling, check for gaps around pipes, ducts, and conduit. Also, check for breaches around structural beams, inner walls, access doors and ceiling openings to connected attic areas, and roof vents.

  • Clean the room. A complete cleaning of the area should be done to remove all major construction equipment, materials, and debris. Low-grade industrial vacuums can be used to remove heavy deposits, wallboard dust, sawdust, and dirt.

  • Test power. Load test the generators, UPS, chillers, and other power infrastructure components . Test any devices or connections necessary to ensure that the data center is ready to start online computer operations.

  • Label everything. Make sure all outlets and associated current breakers are labeled.

  • Inspect environmental support equipment. Check for proper installation and functioning of all environmental support equipment, such as HVAC. Put the air conditioners and humidifiers through their cycles by adjusting their set points to test cooling, heating, humidifying, and dehumidifying. Make all necessary adjustments.

  • Filter the room. During and after construction cleaning, the air conditioners should be run continuously to filter the room air. These units need not be set for cooling, but just running to remove particulate matter from the room. Ideally, 60 percent efficiency filters should be used. Remember to replace these filters before hardware is installed in the area. They will be full of particulate matter that can be redispersed by the subfloor pressure forcing air in a reverse pattern through a unit should one of the air conditioners be turned off.

  • Decontaminate the room. At this stage, all residual particulate matter must be removed from the area. All room surfaces must be carefully cleaned. Do not use low-grade vacuum equipment as used in the pre-cleaning stage, because these lack the filtration necessary to keep particulate matter from cycling back into the area. Use vacuums equipped with High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance (HEPA) filtration.

  • Stabilize the environment. Before installing hardware, the temperature levels, relative humidity levels, subfloor and room pressurization, and airborne particulate levels should be monitored and adjusted. These settings will have to be changed once the hardware with its heat load and designed airflow is in place, but setting the environmental controls of the room in advance will give a stable and more easily adjustable environment to work with.

  • Verify all network drops in PODs and network patch cables. All network cabling should be verified prior to move-in to ensure that it meets its appropriate specifications, and that all ports are correctly labeled. For patch panel cabling, this verification should be done by the network cabling contractor as defined in the contract. Additionally, patch cables that will connect devices to the PODs and to each other should be verified and labeled. When bringing new configurations online, any number of weird little problems can arise, and verification takes the network and its cabling out of the potential problem path . Also, it is a way to verify that you have adequate quantities of patch cables in the appropriate lengths needed to bring the systems online.

  • Enable infrastructure servers and outside connectivity. The data center provides physical services like power and cooling. Machines will also require logical services such as Domain Name Service, NIS, LDAP, backups , etc. These services will be used by all configurations in the data center. These servers should be considered part of the data center infrastructure. Since configurations in the data center will need these services, these servers and their associated services should be in place before bringing production machines online. The same is true for outside connectivity. Since most or all configurations will need to pass data outside the data center, this connectivity should be established prior to bringing production machines online. As with verifying network cabling, this verification will ensure that the logical services are available when bringing new configurations online.

   


Enterprise Data Center Design and Methodology
Enterprise Data Center Design and Methodology
ISBN: 0130473936
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 142
Authors: Rob Snevely

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