

Ask HN: I work in a data centre and we have to make it greener. Ideas? - sw007


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sw007
I should have been more specific. I work for a large corporate but am low down
the food chain. We run a massive data centre that houses in the region of
10,000 servers. I can't go into specifics around the data centre as I'm not
sure if I'm allowed! But I am specifically after good, simple green tips.

For example my company used to have screensavers on all their machines (and
desktops) - I suggested we remove these and that the monitors turn straight to
standby after a period of un use instead. This resulted in huge savings. This
got me thinking that there must be more simple, effective green ideas for IT
companies - especially in the data centre space.

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caw
With 10,000 servers I think one of the things you could do is refresh old
hardware.

New hardware is vastly more efficient than older hardware. If there's some
place where you can accelerate the refresh, you could find yourself condensing
servers. Otherwise, you can factor in future growth with the same number as
servers you have now, which is definitely a savings.

Consider virtualizing smaller pieces of hardware if you haven't already.

Ensure your room has proper airflow. Sometimes air gets stagnant in the
corners of the hot or cold rows, resulting in less efficient cooling. Small
fans can get the air moving again. You may also need to put fans under your
raised floor, or to exhaust waste heat.

Taking the back doors off the racks will drop the server temps (particularly
in blade racks). That in turn suggests you could run less A/C and bump the
temp up to where they were at.

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bvlaar
In a manufacturing facility I worked at last summer we had a company paint the
roof white. It was previously black and attracted much more heat. We noticed a
material change in the temperature in the building after painting it white and
could reduce our air conditing usage. A simple payback analysis will allow
your firm to calculate how long it will take to recoup the initial cost of
painting the roof white with savings in reduced electricity consumption.

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RutZap
In this aspect, wouldn't blocking the windows with some kind of white paper or
blinds make things cooler, by eliminating the greenhouse effect?

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thalur
You would have to weight that against possibly increased use of artificial
lighting, but it might work.

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hobin
Well, from a purely consequentialist standpoint, it would very likely be much
more cost-efficient to donate the money you could use to make the data centre
green to charities.

Then again, I'm plenty cynical to realize that going green is most often a PR-
move, in which case donating to charities doesn't quite cut it. Nevertheless,
if nature _is_ the priority, a good charity (there are some bad, or at least
inefficient ones, too) is best.

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facorreia
By "greener" they mean "we want to lower our utilities bill."

~~~
sw007
Exactly. By greener I mean save money, which I really need to do to safeguard
my job in the current turbulent financial market.

~~~
quesera
That's not what "greener" means. That's just "reducing opex", which is a much
simpler question.

Is there any capex budget for reducing opex? If so, any time frame limitation
for recognized savings?

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rossb34
#1: Reduce the load of the IT Equipment through server refresh, server
virtualization, and storage virtualization. Do a server audit and remove
servers that are no longer in use. It is common for large data centers to have
servers that are not being used still in the racks, these servers are still
eating up power and rejecting heat. Reducing the IT Equipment load has a
cascading effect and reduces the energy consumption of the cooling plant
(chillers and CRACs) as well as electrical equipment (PDUs and UPSs) losses.

#2: Once the IT Equipment load is reduced, look at optimizing airflow. Install
variable speed drives on the CRAC supply fans to match the load. Consider
installing a hot aisle or cold aisle containment system. This prevents the hot
server exit air mixing with the cool conditioned air. Containment solutions
will also enable you to be more aggressive with raising the temperature
setpoint to reduce the load on the cooling equipment (i.e. your chiller or DX
CRAC Units)

#3: Upgrade the cooling plant to more efficient equipment. The key efficiency
metric is kW/ton. The lower the kW/ton, the more efficient the equipment is.

#4: Contact your local utility and ask them for ideas. I work a company that
contracts with Utilities to provide assessment and energy efficiency incentive
programs. Most data center projects I have worked on, the incentive is $50k+.
Yes, some utilities will pay you to be more energy efficient

Also, check out the DC Profiling tool from the Department of Energy.

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Spooky23
Here's a few ideas.

Buy the ASHRAE books on Datacenter/Datacom HVAC design, implementation and
operations.

Most IT equipment runs optimally with air entering the front face up to around
78 degrees F -- and can run with some decreased reliability up to 85. I've
been in datacenters where I need to grab a hoodie to work for any length of
time -- that's a waste. Once you read and understand these books and do some
data gathering, you should be able to either turn up the thermostat in your
datacenter to 75-80 degrees F. (it's probably too cold) Also, If humans are
comfortable working in hot aisles, it's way too cold -- the airflow is screwed
up and you're cooling down air that doesn't need to be cold.

For a modest expenditure, you may be able to install blank panels in your
racks, ducting or other equipment to make your cooling more effective.

You said that you have 10,000 servers. Time to get aggressive about
virtualization. Did your company skip a refresh cycle or two because of the
poor economy? If "yes", congratulations, you have some Intel Pentium 4 space
heaters churning away in your datacenter. Good news is that you should be
replace them on a 5:1 basis (very conservative) with virtual host servers, and
show a net savings.

Install motion-activated LED lighting. Talk to your power utility or
government agency charged with energy efficiency and see if grants are
available. Lighting accounts for much more power consumption in datacenters
than you may think!

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benzofuran
Paint it green?

On a serious note: Heat the building with server heat, cool it using
grey/waste water instead of air conditioning, add insulation and let outside
air in at night, put plants all around, keep the lights off unless you're
working in an area, etc. There's too many possible methods without knowing the
setup and layout of your facility.

Hell, just start carpooling and that'll be greener already. Maybe see if the
company will throw in for gas or tolls for any vehicle that shows up with 3 or
more employees in it.

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syedkarim
Verne Global has a new data center in Iceland that is run completely off of
geothermal-based electricity. Maybe offload some of your computing up there?

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peterhi
There are three things to look at:

1) consume less resources - when passive ways are there to cool your server
room that would allow you to cut back on the cooling system

2) seek greener alternative sources - could you supplement your current source
of electricity with solar power, even if it is just to reduce your usage of
power from less green resources

3) what waste (heat probably) could be used to, for example, heat up the water
that is used in the building. Perhaps use it to run a greenhouse for yourself
or a charity / community project (good PR that)

But first you must be in a position to measure the effectiveness of any
solution. Get records of your power usage, preferably by task - how much is
used to run the servers, how much to run the cooling etc. Including the cost!
Make it more than a PR exercise, you could save some money too (in the long
run)

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RutZap
Maybe by "whipping" programmers and forcing them to optimise the software they
write .. so that you won't need so much computing power and so much storage.
Less servers less electricity consumed, less CO2 etc.

On another note, consider investing in some newer and more efficient
equipment; keep cables tidy, well organized so that they do not block the air-
flow (wrong: <http://www.dcig.com/wrong4.jpg> and right:
<http://www.dcig.com/right1.jpg>); keep things clean (dust is bad for
cooling).

If you really want to go green and have a budget.. switch the energy provider
for one that supplies energy from renewable sources (it may be more
expensive... but it's green).

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bobdvb
Take a look at the temperature, many people have their data centre cooler than
needed. Intel advised a few years ago that their processors can run warmer
than people expect. Also take a look at your lighting, can you automatically
switch them off?

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quesera
You really need to specify your current buildout, budget, ROI requirements,
and timeline. There are multitudes of possibilities, but good choices depend
on your reasons and limitations.

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brudgers
The place to start is with a professional design team experienced in similar
projects. Yes, you can cook something up yourself or turn to the internet for
advice. You can do the same thing for legal matters as well.

Based on your description the requirements are specific to the facility and
its operations, and that's the sort of challenge that benefits from
comprehensive a design approach rather than scatter shot measures without
integration.

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jimster01
Need more specifics, however;Google is testing a new system whereby servers
are segregated from humans and run at much hotter temperatures.

[http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/03/23/too-h...](http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/03/23/too-
hot-for-humans-but-google-servers-keep-humming/)

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mdoyle
Work with your energy supplier to run your site from generators during
scheduled or peak times, thereby taking the load off the national grid and
reducing costs. A number of factors to be considered of course, such as the
cost of fuelling your generators, and the increased risk. Savings could be in
10's or 100's of thousands.

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fxj
Keyword is PUE (power usage effectiveness)

e.g. water cooling or use heat from data centre as heating for buildings.

[http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/05/18/green-grid-
pub...](http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/05/18/green-grid-publishes-
final-pue-guidance/)

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macowar
Pigments can sometimes be stubborn things. But I find that folks tend agree
that darker greens are 'greener' than lighter greens. So for best results I'd
use a dark green with a glossy finish. It should produce the greener hue that
you are looking for.

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mdoyle
Raise your operating temperature by a degree or two and reduce cost of air
conditioning. There's a wealth of things you can do. Would be interested in
novel ideas aswell so hopefully lots of responses to this post!

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jbranchaud
Ask a LEED
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_in_Energy_and_Enviro...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_in_Energy_and_Environmental_Design))
person.

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DRevDMV
These folks have some interesting HVAC automation solutions to reduce energy
costs.

<http://www.vigilent.com/>

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georgespencer
> We have to make it greener.

Is this to comply with an edict from your boss, or to comply with some a piece
of legislation or a law?

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sw007
It's not legislation or law - more just me wanting to impress and come up with
some good ideas.

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whyleyc
Pot plants ?

