Sun Modular Datacenter: It's a Datacenter ... in a Box

8 racks of computer hardware packed into a shipping container, all calculating and storing data. There is obviously heat being generated. The system in the container uses a combination of components to help keep the equipment cool. I don't get to talk about everything (patent pending, innovation, competitive advantage, yadda yadda yadda). But, people on the tour do get to see a few cool (I am SO sorry I just said that) components I thought I would talk about.

Let's start within the box. Chilled water flows throughout the spaces between the racks in the container. Fans help to blow the cool air across the components (this is, of course, way over simplified).

On both sides of the container, there are locations for hoses to be affixed, one for chilled water coming in, one for warm water going out, as shown in the following picture on one of our test units.

Here is an image of the same input / output on the tour container, for those of you that have not visited yet.

Outside the box, you need a supply of cold water. One extremely efficient way to run the cycle of water (warm to cold to warm, etc...) is through the use of a "chiller". Chillers come in a variety of sizes, the chiller in the picture is a 30 ton chiller with 305 gallon water tank. The chiller on the semi is a 15 ton chiller, no water tank so the pump is always running.

The chiller on the semi is actually underneath the tarp, so there isn't a good picture of the unit.

Russ Rinfret on the project dealt with a few questions from me about chillers. The contained unit is very efficient with the water, you check the water level ever few months. Once connected the entire system is, literally, closed.

Now, we are on the Northern part of our journey (and as I mentioned a few posts ago, we are going even farther North). Folks in Chicago, Detroit, Lansing, Milwaukee, Rochester, Minneapolis...they know what cold is. They are asking how you keep the water from freezing. We are working on a variety of thoughts, the most obvious one is propylene glycol (you know...antifreeze) :-) Get that little funnel out and mix up your 50/50 solution and voila...water doesn't freeze.

Its more complex than this, but it is certainly one solution (again with the puns) that we are looking at. Different environmental conditions and different customers will require different needs. Some environments may build vestibules around the containers to moderate the impact of the extreme weather.

So that, my friends, is a chiller and why we need one.

Add to del.icio.us | Digg this

Technorati Tags: Project Blackbox, Datacenter, Technology, Blackbox