Tips for cracking data center cabling problems

The test of flexibility, safety, green and reliability is in front of you. This issue is an in-depth analysis of four infrastructure solutions, which are the tricks you will use to crack data center cabling problems.

By examining a number of wiring enterprises for the data center to provide network infrastructure solutions, it is easy to see that in the purchase and implementation of cabling system, information managers should focus on four aspects: the design is both high-density, high reliability, high-performance and flexible characteristics, the system can be installed quickly, Whether to take into account the future application needs and technology development and use is convenient and durable.

Data center is developing into the core of enterprise information construction, the integration of equipment, service and application makes the enterprise network truly mature and efficient. In recent years, the International Data center market has developed rapidly, and major changes in data storage applications and equipment and storage area networks have changed the infrastructure requirements of data centers and computer rooms.

Face the challenge

Enterprise and carrier host and its peripheral support devices have been gradually replaced by high-performance servers. From the internal point of view, the data center to solve the coexistence of a variety of applications, the specific environment to consider some specific architectural factors, coupled with host-based services to the distribution based server transformation, these have brought new challenges to the design and implementation of the data center. Network systems and internet-based applications also require higher bandwidth, faster speeds, and more secure mechanisms to exploit all potential.

The data center is placed in the core data processing equipment, is the enterprise brain, the establishment of the data center is in order to complete, the centralism, the initiative and the effective management and the optimization IT infrastructure, realizes the information system the high manageability, the high availability, the high reliability and the high scalability, the safeguard business smooth operation and the service timely delivery.

These changes come from all data center devices and make physical infrastructure particularly important, as the entire network is built on structured wiring facilities.

Data Center types and topologies

In a broad sense, a data center is a set of areas or networks that provide storage space for interconnected data processing, storage, and communication devices for one or more enterprises. The purpose of the data center is to store a variety of data devices in an environment that meets power supply, HVAC (HVAC), communication, redundancy, and security requirements. These devices include stand-alone, rack or cabinet-mounted active devices, and network infrastructure solutions that connect them.

According to the services provided, data centers can be divided into two categories

One, is the enterprise data center, mainly provides the service for the enterprise or the school global operation needs. Enterprise data centers provide communication and data services to enterprises, which are the core of enterprise data network, Internet and telephone access. Network servers, intranet, network memory (NAS), and other devices are typically placed in enterprise data centers.

Second, is the host-managed data center, for multiple customer service, by the service provider to provide users with data or Internet services (such as Web or virtual private network hosting). Because such data centers use interlinked devices and network infrastructures, host-managed data centers need to provide users with relatively independent partitioning and security policies.

Standards and guidelines for infrastructure

The data center's Global infrastructure standards and guidelines are based on the preferred High-performance network infrastructure recommendations. Data center topologies and infrastructure recommendations are included in the United States tia/eia-942 (data Center communication Infrastructure Standards) and the internationally drafted IS24764 (Information technology-data center generic cabling).

Typically, the data center infrastructure consists of the interconnection of independent servers, hosts, tape and disk storage to the collection switch, and the connection between the switch to the backbone switch and the external service provider network. The network infrastructure model in the main computer room includes the total wiring area (MDA), the horizontal wiring area (HAD), the regional wiring area (ZDA) and the equipment wiring area (EDA) and its internal connections, each wiring area as two main wiring partitions, Data Center horizontal cabling and the separation point between the data center backbone.

A complete network infrastructure solution includes cable, cross-linked or interconnected wiring rack systems, information ports and jumpers. These components are considered to be a complete set of systems, and all parts are designed to achieve maximum compatibility and optimal performance.

Data center wiring is generally layered star topology. In some cases, ultra-high-speed signals enter the backbone and are distributed within a smaller or shorter horizontal wiring. In other cases, such as in a high-speed computing environment with grid or utility computing, the focus is on branching traffic, not on backbone networks.

Data center infrastructure solutions need to combine copper and fiber optics to meet today's needs in the most economical way and to support future high-bandwidth applications. Fast-growing applications and technologies are rapidly increasing the speed and capacity of data center network traffic. Ensure that the user's infrastructure meets the requirements of future high-bandwidth applications and higher transmission speeds.

The architecture for Data Center network infrastructure solutions requires high density, high reliability, high performance, flexible design guidelines, installation speed, balancing future needs and facilitating the use of these four aspects.

Lay a good foundation for deepening the design

An excellent cabling planning design must be based on detailed and accurate user requirements information. Due to the lack of comprehensive professional knowledge of the data center, many end users are confronted with the design requirements of the data center structured wiring system. In fact, in addition to the size and quantity of data processing/storage devices, there are a number of factors to consider when designing a data center. For example, a data center designed for a single customer (enterprise data Center) service or for multiple service providers or remote users (host leased or managed data center). If, as a host-managed datacenter, devices from different enterprises or vendors are shared or placed in the same space? Do you need to physically separate these devices for security reasons?

Through a series of design considerations and detailed requirements analysis table of the auxiliary decision, can help users gradually build a data center structured wiring Network perceptual knowledge, so as to lay a good foundation for further design.

12 Design points for data center wiring

1. standards-based Open Systems;

2. Comprehensive consideration of the high performance and high bandwidth requirements, reserving adequate extended spare space;

3. Support 10GBASE-T or higher speed technology;

4. Support for new storage devices;

5. Supports the aggregation point that fully considers the demand for expansion;

6. High quality, availability and scalability;

7. Redundancy;

8. High capacity and high-density;

9. Flexibility and scalability to move, increase and change easily;

10. The data center belongs to the compulsory ventilated area, the wiring proposal uses CMP/OFNP fire grade cable;

11. Cross-connected space management;

12. The use of cross-connect mode, only through the jumper to complete the Mac, shorten the management maintenance time.

With the increasing number of high-density blade servers and storage devices in the data center, the data center also faces a series of severe challenges such as network performance, heat dissipation, space and energy consumption. According to research published by Gartner, half of the data centers established before 2002 need to be upgraded or phased out 2008 years ago because of a lack of flexible, high-performance integrated cabling planning.

To build a new generation of data centers that meet the high standards of present and future requirements, the following requirements should be met:

1. A space that accommodates all equipment for local data computing, data storage and secure networking;

2. Provision of adequate electricity for the operation of all equipment;

3. Under the equipment parameters, for the operation of the equipment to provide a temperature controlled environment;

4. Provide secure and reliable network connectivity for all data center internal and external devices.

Only clear the user needs, and from the advanced, reliability, practical principles, to meet the current user's application needs, fully taking into account the future trend of technology development and possible needs, in order to build users with long-term benefits, efficient and safe data centers.