datacenter

[RMGBELGIUM]

Hi guys,

For a job interview I've been asked to give an overview what devices I can find in a datacenter, and how far my knowledge goes regarding those devices.I must admit, I'm a sysadmin in a rather small company , our "datacenter" isnt bigger then a classroom,so I haven't got a clue what to expect in a datacenter of a major company like a bank , multinational ,....I hope that maybe you guys can give me some examples of realtime situations
What I've come up with so far( located in our "datacenter") :
passport, switches,hubs, routers, firewalls,SAN storage ,backup devices (tape units),unix servers,mainframes,windows servers.
Any additions would be welcome

Thx in advance,


kind regards,

RMGBelgium

 

[BocaBurger]

Data?
UPS?
AC
Fire extinquishers?



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[edfair]

With something like a bank more than a UPS, how about a power conditioning system and backup generator? And major environmental controls, probably raised flooring, maybe cable racks, possibly modem banks. No telling what kind of phone system. Patch panels. Possibly mass storage controllers.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[svanels]

Datacenter??? other word for Server Room?

Back-up generator, would be outside.

Some robot arm taking hard disks off the shelve to store in a computer, when some funny light flashes.

Some inert gas injection system that kills the fire (including people) leaving the equipment intact.

Steven

 

[SamBones]

We have a VERY large data center. I'll toss out some things in ours. I'm sure I'll miss some things.

Facility Stuff
--------------
- Raised floor (it's all on raised floor tiles)
- Uninteruptable Power Supplies (UPSs). Huge ones along the walls.
- Power distribution units (PDUs). Huge ones along the walls and smaller ones distributing power to each rack.
- Racks, rack bracing
- Fire detection & suppression (halon in our case)
- Moisture detection (under raised floor)
- Battery backup (we have a huge battery room to smooth over the switch to the generators)
- Generators
- Air conditioning
- Monitoring panels (for fire/water/temp monitoring)
- Emergency lighting
- etc

Communications
--------------
- Switches (intelligent (CSS) and non)
- SSL accelerators (SCA)
- Firewalls
- Patch panels
- Network in/out (T1, T3, ATM, etc)
- etc

Data Processing Equipment
-------------------------
- Servers (big 'uns and little 'uns)
- Consoles (net access to server consoles)
- Storage arrays (simple array, SAN, NAS)
- Tape storage/backup devices
- Optical storage

Outside the raised floor
------------------------
- Operations center (consoles, monitoring, etc)
- Office space for staff (I still consider this part of a data center)
- Printers (usually not on the raised floor)
- Security (guard, cameras, badge readers)

The main purpose of a data center (IMO) is to ensure maximum up-time and availability of the most mission critical systems. To this end, the management and distribution of power is the most important aspect. Behind that, the environmental controls (air conditioning).

Hope this helps.

 

[chiph]

Everything that SamBones said, plus:

- Cages to keep customer's equipment separate.
- Access control systems (biometrics, combo locks)
- Intrusion Detection Systems

Take a look at this page, and click on the "Facilities Tour" button on the right. They bought Exodus, whom a previous employer used to colocate with. I got to see some cool hardware there -- one customer had two Sun Enterprise 10000 servers in their cage, plus racks and racks of drives. $18 million worth of hardware in a 15x30 foot cage.

http://www.savvis.net/corp/Products+Services/Security/

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
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[RMGBELGIUM]

A very big thank u to all you guys ! This really helped me further !


kind regards,

R.

 

[kHz]

Why would anyone ask what is in a data center in an interview? It is kind of pointless and a waste of time that could be spent on more relevant topics.

 

[RMGBELGIUM]

@khz : I have to give an overview of all that can be found in a datacenter concerning hardware, and my knowledge regarding that hardware and send it to one of the engineers so he can evaluate the amount of training I will need.So I wanna be as complete as possible, as I am having this interview with a hardware vendor, and I really really really wanna get that job


rgds,


R.

 

[kHz]

Good Luck!

 

[Sheco]

What about the KVM switches?