Thread: Four Power System Problems Common in Collocation Facilities

The main factor that determines uptime for servers in a collocation facility is power. Power outages will bang a network offline and even damage hardware such as motherboards, memory, and hard drives. Despite how basic power is to keeping businesses connected to their networks.

Non-redundant Power Grids

Multiple PDUs related to separate rule grids and multiple UPSs ought to be designed into the colocation facility to offset a power grid failure. Coloration facilities with redundant power grids can attach customer servers to different grids at the same time, so that even if one goes offline, the other will work, keeping the network running without interruption.

Non-redundant UPS

The UPSs supply command during an outage until the maker can come online; if the UPSs do not turn on at once at the time of failure, then the network will go down. Even with high quality UPSs, failures are common, so it is critical for there to be multiple redundant UPS units in an “n+1” configuration – all of the necessary UPSs, plus an extra. Functionally, this means that each UPS runs amply below capacity to handle a unit failure without the other unit’s congestion. If there are two UPSs, then each unit must run below 50%, each must run below 66%; four units, below 75%. The current load is shown on the present on the front of the UPS.

Transfer Switch Failures

most collocation facilities use reflex move switches, which are not as dependable as circuit breakers, to switch power from the electric utility to the generator. These switches are one of the most general places the power system fails. Without disused switches to transfer power at the same point, a move switch failure will mean that a network goes down.

Insufficient Generator Capacity

Generators provide power during an outage. To run without overfilling, the generator must have capacity to run 1.5 times the total building load. Ideally, a collocation facility must have a redundant backup generator in case the primary generator fails, and the capacity should have a process in place for switching power between generators. Having various generators is not the same as having redundant generators.