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NORTHAMPTON 2(NNDC-2)

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Milton Keynes

MKDC-0 Data Centre Tour

Build Blog

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January 4th 2013

Scary sight!

Scary sight at the data centre in Milton Keynes

Whilst photographing the outside of some of the unexplored underground ducts we didn’t notice at the time the following scary sight. OMG!

December 22nd 2012

Racks start arriving

Rack construction starts

17 of the first 24 racks have arrived. The remaining racks and also the cold aisle containment and the new design of front doors will arrive soon.

We designed our first racks and cold aisle containment pods for our Bletchley data centre over five years ago (we were quite early to adopt this approach) however we have identified some improvements for the pod and also the racks themselves which are being incorporated into the new racks.

NB: Our racks are customised and developed to our exact specification by the manufacturers we use

December 21st 2012

Network update

The Meet Me rooms are more or less complete now.

Both of the Cisco core switches for each network are installed with the supervisor now also added.

Work is progressing on the distribution level to the main data halls for both the high level and low level networks.

Both networks exit the MeetMe rooms and enter the data halls via fire rated and air sealed specialist cable pathways.

High Level network - High level cable tray is being installed at the moment in the main Data Hall.

Low level network - Ducts to securely transfer the network cables from the core switches in the Meet Me rooms (which is already in the secure data area) is being routed within sealed metal trunking for additional security and fire protection.


High level network cable trays in Data Hall 1 (From Meet Me Room 2). One of the fire rated cable pathways can be seen on the left side	Low level network metal ducts between Meet Me Room 1 and Data Hall

December 20th 2012

Airedale Aircon Commissioned

Airedale free cooling pipe work running under the building via one of the access tunnels

The Airedale units for Data Hall 1 (DH-1) have now also been commissioned so both sets of air con (Stulz and Airedale) are ready for use.

The Stulz air con back up DX units are routed high level to one part of the building and the Airedale units routed low level to a totally different part of the building.

NB: As this is Tier IV specification the air con cost just for this hall (DH-1) will be around £250k

December 7th 2012

Stulz air handling units.

The Stulz units are being commissioned today at the new Milton Keynes Data Centre.

Currently they are testing them to full capacity via a heat load in the room.


It may be cold outside but it is nice and warm in here today (until the units are fired up at least). 88.7F	Taken a few minutes before but showing the temperature in Centigrade (31.2C).

December 6th 2012

General update

There are lots of minor things happening at the moment but also some of the larger aspects of the project too.

Air con
The Stulz DX units and pipe work is installed and currently being commissioned. The Airedale units and pipe work is more or less finished too with just an expansion tank needed for the commissioning to begin.

Power
The power cabling from both the plant rooms to the local power distribution room has been completed and both UPS rooms are ready for the UPS systems (due to arrive within the next 14 days). Once the UPS systems are in place the only thing remaining for the power aspect is the rack level power.

Racks and Rack level power
The high level rack bus bars and tap off points are already here so we are just awaiting the first rack pod to arrive (due in next 14 days) so the bus bars can be installed on top of the racks.

Meet Me/ Comms Rooms
Almost complete. Core switches are installed with just a few things to complete them.

Fibre
The fibre connections have now all been ordered and work has begun to extend a couple of the site ducts to give us FOUR different diverse routes into the site from each direction. We also have some exciting news about a major fibre provider who is providing a diverse connection from the site onto their network and will also offer circuits and also on site multi homed transit direct to our customers if they wish an alternative to our own managed transit options. The contracts have already been signed but we will jointly announce this in the next couple of weeks.

November 16th 2012

General update

Lots of activity at the moment. For example

-The Main data Hall 1 aircon installation is advancing well for both the A and B sets (Stulz and Airedale).

-Linking both the A and B plant rooms to the first suite level dedicated power distribution room (PDR-1) is also advancing well.

-The generators Deep Sea auto changeover panels have been tested this week and are now working and tested for various different power failure scenarios. For example;

'HV power feed A' failure (mains power remains for Plant room B but primary generator 1 starts and supplies power to plant room A).

'HV power feed B' failure (mains power remains for Plant room A but primary generator 1 starts and supplies power to plant room B).

'HV power feed A and B' failure (Primary generator 1 starts and supplies power to both plant room A and also plant room B).

All of above but then generator 1 fails to start so secondary Generator 2 starts instead.

Then, as above but generator 1 starts but then fails after initially starting so generator 2 then starts instead. Then, generator 1 starts but then fails so generator 2 starts but then it fails so the two systems try generator 1 again etc etc.

Obviously the chance of both HV supplies failing and also the primary Generator also failing to start is very remote but this testing ensures that the two changeover control panels can cope with any eventuality (including losing communication with each other in which case both generators will start and both plant rooms then independently select the first feeds to reach them). Phew!

NB: All tests were completed successfully on the first live time of test of each of the above scenarios (thanks to Ken who programmed the solution).


In the right corner we have Airedale free cooling units and in the left corner we have Stulz DX units. Round 1...	Plant Room A (PR-A) almost complete.	Dual Deep Sea generator auto changeover control panels.

November 8th 2012

Aircon - System 1 external chiller install

Data Hall 1 has two sets of aircon (N+N) one set of Airedale free cooling chillers and one set of Stulz DX units (ie backup).

This is the installation of the first Airedale external unit.

This also reveals the plan for the original diesel tank bund (pedestal to raise and support the external free cooling chiller units).

The Stulz external units will be located in a totally different building location to maintain as much diversity as possible.


First Airedale chiller being lifted into position.	Chiller lowered and fixed onto new girders across the original diesel tank bund.

October 23rd 2012

Security gate No1 is installed.

The first of the two man trap security gates has now been installed with just some minor aspects to complete it.

Although it is not yet integrated with the access control systems it is working via remote controls for now.

The second gate will be added later and also a video phone and the access control stands, speed ramps and traffic lights.

October 19th 2012

General update - Phase 1 power structure upgrades

Upgrade work is almost complete in the external (Orange feed) plant room.

For example two new boards have been added to this room to enable this plant room to be powered by either of the Generators. Each generator also has its own independent Deep Sea control panel (rather than just one panel controlling both generators) and these are also now in place and awaiting commissioning.

The bypass panel for the Inside (Blue feed) UPS has also arrived and positioned in the Blue feed UPS room.

We have also included a picture of the one of the data centre corridors with the new PIR controlled LED lighting completed. The first main data hall (DH1) also has PIR controlled LED lighting which is now installed and complete.


External (Orange feed) plant room - Work in progress	Inside (Blue feed) UPS bypass panel.	Data centre corridor lighting completed.

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