March 2010
Think you know all there is to know about data centers? Snake Tray challenges you to match wits with this month's Data Centers Jeopardy contest.
Each month, Cabling Installation & Maintenance will draw one lucky Data Center expert at random from all the correct answers received, who will win a prize courtesy of Snake Tray. This month's prize is a $200 gas card.
View the complete rules of Cabling Jeopardy.
1. Standard IT equipment racks exhaust hot air out the back and draw cooling air in the front. Openings that form holes through the rack should be blocked in some manner to prevent hot air from being pulled forward and recirculated back into the IT equipment.
2. Which of the following statements about the advantages of a virtualization project are true:
1. Server consolidation: The most often talked about benefit of virtualization. If applications running on separate computers do not utilize the computing resources of their computers, they can be consolidated onto a smaller number of servers using virtualization technology
2. Smaller footprint: Virtualizing servers decreases the number of physical boxes that a company must use. This means a smaller datacenter, with the resulting decreases in cooling and electrical costs.
3. Hardware costs: Because virtualization allows for greater utilization of existing resources, fewer physical servers are required, saving money both on upfront hardware costs and and on maintenance costs.
4. Flexibility and agility: Virtualization allows for the quick creation of different operating system environments, it is easy to run legacy applications alongside new versions, migrate applications to new environments, and restore systems in post-disaster scenarios.
3. Which of the following statements is false?
1. Always separate power cables from low voltage cables
2. The disparity between the power value on the equipment nameplate and the actual power consumed will be large; so don't use the nameplate to estimate your requirements.
3. Allow enough space for cabling and access to the side and back of server racks and other equipment
4. Color-coding cables greatly simplifies management, and properly labeling individual cables will save countless hours pulling up floor tiles trying to trace a bad cable.
4. Which of the following statements are true? In locating a data center in a building:
1. Your location should be centrally located, since that will minimize cabling costs and lengths throughout the building.
2. You should try to stay away from basement and ground floor levels, where you run the risk of flooding in the basement and roof leaks on the top floors.
3. You should locate the data center internally as server rooms that border outside walls can make temperature and humidity control difficult, especially if they have windows.
4. You should recommend placing a data center near a lobby, cafeteria or other publicly accessible area.
Once you've answered all of the questions above, please fill out the form below and click "Submit" to enter the Data Centers Jeopardy contest.
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