Various aspects that need attention
As data center construction develops towards overall availability, the demand for cabinet management in computer rooms is increasing. Users should consider the following factors when purchasing cabinets:
Load-bearing guarantee – As the density of products placed in the cabinet increases, good load-bearing capacity is a basic requirement for a qualified cabinet product. A cabinet that does not meet the specifications cannot effectively protect the equipment in the cabinet and may even affect the entire system.
Temperature control system – The cabinet has a good temperature control system inside to avoid overheating or overcooling of the products in the cabinet and ensure the efficient operation of the equipment. The cabinet can be selected as a full ventilation series, equipped with fans (the fans have a life guarantee), and an independent air conditioning system can be installed in a hot environment, and an independent heating and insulation system can be installed in a cold environment.
Anti-interference capability – A fully functional cabinet should provide various door locks and other functions, such as high anti-interference performance such as dustproof, waterproof or electronic shielding. It should also provide suitable accessories and installation accessories to make wiring more convenient, easy to manage, and save time and effort.
Cable Management – What to do if there is a problem with the cables? In a huge computer room, it is difficult to walk through the numerous cabinets, not to mention quickly finding and repairing faulty lines. From the perspective of the internal cable installation of the cabinet, today’s data center cabinets are more densely configured, contain more IT equipment, and use a large number of redundant accessories (such as redundant power supplies, storage arrays, etc.). The equipment configuration in the cabinet changes frequently, and data lines and cables are added or reduced at any time. Therefore , the cabinet must provide sufficient cable channels to allow cables to enter and exit from the top and bottom of the cabinet. Inside the cabinet, the laying of cables must be convenient and orderly, close to the cable interface of the equipment to shorten the wiring distance, reduce the space occupied by the cables, ensure that the heat dissipation airflow is not blocked by the cables, and ensure that the equipment wiring can be quickly located in the event of a fault.
Power distribution system – As the trend of high-density IT installation in cabinets becomes increasingly evident, the power distribution system has become a key link in whether the cabinet can perform its intended performance. Reasonable power distribution is directly related to the availability of the entire IT system, and this is also an issue that has been ignored by many computer room managers in the past. As IT equipment becomes increasingly miniaturized, the density of equipment installation in the cabinet continues to increase, which poses severe challenges to the power distribution system in the cabinet. At the same time, the increase in input and output ports also places high requirements on the reliability of the power distribution system installation. Taking into account the current dual power supply requirements of most servers, power distribution within the cabinet becomes more and more complicated.
The design of a reasonable cabinet power distribution system should follow the principle of reliability design as the core, specifically for cabinet system design, full coordination and seamless cooperation with the power distribution system, and at the same time consider the convenience of installation, intelligent management, strong adaptability, easy operation and maintenance, etc. The power distribution system of the cabinet should make the power supply closer to the load to reduce the fault points in the power supply path. At the same time, local and remote monitoring of load current and remote control of power distribution should be gradually realized, so that power distribution management can be incorporated into the overall intelligent management system of the computer room.
Price and after-sales service
Price is always a key consideration, but you should not sacrifice other important features for price. Choose the cabinet with the best price-performance ratio. Servers and peripherals are replaced quickly, but good cabinets last a long time. The key to comparing the pros and cons of cabinets is to compare several recognized performance indicators. Pay attention to the word “additional” in the performance indicator, which means that expansion is allowed at any time. Many manufacturers only show you the price of the cabinet, not including the price of the equipment that should be installed in the cabinet, which will quickly increase your expenses, so you have to consider the price of the cabinet plus the full set of equipment.
Reliable quality assurance is very important when choosing a suitable server cabinet and wiring cabinet. Any negligence may lead to huge losses.
The effective services and comprehensive equipment protection solutions provided by the enterprise can bring great convenience to users’ installation and maintenance. When we plan a data center including servers and storage products, we often don’t pay attention to the “details” such as cabinets and power supplies, but in the actual installation and use of the system, these supporting facilities also have a significant impact on the reliability of the system.