Site Planning for the Sun Blade 8000 Series Systems
This guide provides system specifications and site requirements you must meet when planning to install the Sun BladeTM 8000 Modular System or Sun Blade 8000 P Modular System in your data center.
For safety and compliance information, refer to the Sun Blade 8000 Series Safety and Compliance Manual (819-5652) and the Important Safety Information for Sun Hardware Systems (816-7190).
This site planning guide is organized as follows:
The customer is required to inform Sun Microsystems, Inc. of any and all ordinances and regulations that affect the system installation. The customer is responsible for meeting all local, national, and international government codes and regulations concerning facilities, such as safety, building, and electrical codes.
The modular configuration of the Sun Blade 8000 Modular System consists of the following hardware components:
The modular configuration of the Sun Blade 8000 P Modular System consists of the following hardware components:
Install the Sun Blade 8000 Series systems in accordance with the local safety codes and regulations at the facility site. You must be familiar with and adhere to the safety precautions in the Sun Blade 8000 Series Safety and Compliance Manual
Do not make mechanical or electrical modifications to the equipment. Sun Microsystems, Inc. is not responsible for regulatory compliance of a modified Sun product.
A Sun Blade 8000 Modular System can weigh in excess of 600 pounds (272 kg) when shipped, and 536 lb (243 kg) when fully configured and ready to rackmount. A Sun Blade 8000 P Modular System can weigh in excess of 484 pounds (220 kg) when shipped, and 420 lb (191 kg) when fully configured and ready to rackmount. Any floor that the system will cross, or surface on which the system is placed, must be able to support these loads.
The system is shipped on a pallet. You must maintain the system in a vertical, upright position while it is in its shipping container. Be sure you use enough personnel when moving the system, especially on sloping loading docks and ramps, to gain access to a raised computer room floor. Move the system slowly and deliberately, and ensure that the floor is free of foreign objects, cables, or other obstructions.
The Sun Blade 8000 Modular System uses six power supply modules; the Sun Blade 8000 P Chassis uses four power supply modules. In both chassis, the modules provide 48V at 3000W per supply for a total of 9000W per chassis.
The AC power requirements for the Sun Blade 8000 Series systems are as follows:
The data center must meet the following electrical requirements for installation of a Sun Blade 8000 Series system:
The amount of power that the system consumes is dependent on its configuration, that is, the number of active modular components installed. To determine the power redundancy requirements, you need to know:
Both systems require a minimum of three active power supply modules. You can configure the power supplies as follows:
With the Sun Blade 8000 system, to provide a full N+N (3+3 ) power redundancy at a 9000W consumption level, and to ensure that the system can tolerate a loss of three power supplies, the system should never exceed 9000W of power consumption at any given time. If you need only N+1 redundancy (loss of up to one power supply without suffering any outage), the system should contain four active power supplies. For N+2 redundancy (loss of up to two power supplies without suffering any outage) the system should contain five active power supplies.
You can configure the Sun Blade 8000 Modular System for grid redundancy by using two AC line feeds and the appropriate modular power system. Grid redundancy refers to the performance of the chassis power subsystem in the intended AC configuration. For grid redundancy, the AC configuration is supplied AC power from two independent feeds, which can be called Line A and Line B. By connecting three power supplies to the Line A feed and three power supplies to the Line B feed, the system can tolerate the failure of up to three power supplies or the complete loss of either AC feed.
The Sun Blade 8000 P Modular System supports N+1 power supply redundancy. A minimum of three operating power supplies are required to support a fully configured system without N+1 power supply redundancy.
The connection to the Sun Blade 8000 Series chassis AC inlets requires the following types of power cords, which are dependent on site location. Each AC inlet requires a separate power cord; therefore, six power cords are required for the Sun Blade 8000 Chassis and four power cords are required for the Sun Blade 8000 P Chassis. The power cord must be rated at 16A or 20A, depending on the site location.
If you are connecting the system directly to an external power source or to a modular power system, use these types of power cords:
If you are using a Sun modular power system (MPS) in the cabinet, refer to the documentation supplied with the cabinet for the MPS power requirements. If you are not using an MPS, you must supply a branch circuit with a connector that meets the requirements of your system.
You can use the Sun Blade 8000 Series Power Calculators to help you determine the power requirements of either the Sun Blade 8000 or Sun Blade 8000 P Modular System. The intent of the Power Calculator is to provide guidance for estimating the electrical and heat loads per populated chassis for racking and facilities planning purposes. The power results given by the Power Calculator represent the worst-case, maximum sustained total server module and chassis power consumption for room temperatures below 25 oC. The results represent CPU under maximum possible stress and 100% utilization.
Every watt of power used by the system is dissipated into the air as heat. The thermal power dissipation of the chassis in a 9000W N+N (Sun Blade 8000 Modular System) or N+1 (Sun Blade 8000 P Modular System) configuration is 30,735 BTU/hr. This requires that the data center heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system must accommodate the maximum heat release of a fully configured system, as well as any other systems in the data center.
The amount of heat output per Sun Blade 8000 Series system varies, depending on the system configuration. The systems are equipped with fans that route cool air throughout the chassis from front to rear. The maximum airflow through the chassis is 1500 cfm.
As long as the necessary air conditioning is provided in the data center to dissipate the heat load, and sufficient space and properly vented door openings are provided at the front and back of rackmounted systems (see TABLE 1), the system fans will enable the system to work within the temperature specifications for systems in operation as noted in TABLE 7. Thermal characteristics of the Sun Blade 8000 Series systems are provided in TABLE 9.
Avoid temperature and humidity extremes. The operating and nonoperating temperature specifications listed in TABLE 7 reflect the systems’ hardware limits, in order to meet all functional requirements. Note that the operating temperatures apply to the air entering the system and not necessarily to the temperature of the air in the aisles.
The optimum operating ambient temperature and humidity ranges are the recommended operating environment. Operating the system within the ambient temperature range is optimal for system reliability. At 22 oC (71.6 oF) it is easy to maintain safe relative humidity ranges and to provide a buffer in the event of an environmental support system failure.
Ambient relative humidity levels between 45% and 50% are the most suitable for system operations to:
Conditions should not be allowed to fluctuate by more than 5.5 oC (10 oF) or 10% relative humidity during a 60-minute period.
The Sun Blade 8000 Series systems use forced air to draw in ambient air for cooling from the front of the chassis, while heated air exits the rear of the chassis. The design of the systems provides two primary regions of airflow: The lower airstream cools the Server Modules, and the upper airstream cools the power supplies, Chassis Monitoring Modules, and Network Express Modules. In the Sun Blade 8000 Chassis, the upper airstream also cools the PCI Express ExpressModules.
The rear fan cage includes nine rear fan modules, each module having two fans, for a total of 18 fans. The fans draw cool air through the front of the Server Modules and exhaust heated air through the back of the chassis. This results in approximately 1500 cfm (cubic feet per minute) of total airflow through the chassis.
The upper airstream provides forced air by using a combination of internal fans within each power supply, and in the Sun Blade 8000 Chassis by also using the three front fan modules.
Follow these airflow guidelines:
To enable installation and servicing of the Sun Blade 8000 Series system, including access to system cables, follow these space restrictions.
Arrange racks in a hot aisle/cold aisle layout. This layout enables cool air to flow through the aisles to the system’s front air intake and enables heated air to flow from the system’s back exhaust. This layout eliminates the direct transfer of hot exhaust air from one system into the intake air of another system.
|Note - The Sun Blade 8000 Series Chassis is designed for 4-post rackmounting only. Two-post rackmounting is not supported.|
The Sun Blade 8000 Series Chassis are designed for rackmounting. The chassis can be mounted into 35.4 to 39.4 inches (900 to 1000 mm) deep, 19-inch EIA-310D cabinets. The chassis can accommodate corresponding front-to-back, rail-to-rail spacing between 26.77 inches (680 mm) to 34.25 inches (870 mm).
Sun Microsystems offers EIA 310D-compliant cabinets for mounting the Sun Blade 8000 Series systems. The Sun Rack 1000 cabinet famiy supports both the Sun Blade 8000 and Sun Blade 8000 P Modular Systems.
When determining the maximum number of Sun Blade systems that you can install into a rack, there are two factors to consider: space and power. Space simply refers to number of usable rack units provided by the rack and the number of rack units required by the equipment to be racked. You must remember to count not only the rack units being used by the Sun Blade systems going into the rack, but also the rack units taken up by the power distribution system(s) being used in the rack.
Determining the power requirements is more complex to calculate, especially if you plan to power the racked equipment by the power distribution system provided by the rack. You must consider both the number of power cords and amperage per power cord required by the racked equipment and the number of outlets and amperage per outlet/outlet circuit provided by the rack power distribution system(s).
In general, the 42 rack unit Sun Rack 1000-42 with either the Modular Power System (MPS) 60A 3-phase (US, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, and Japan) or the MPS 32A 3-phase (EMEA and APAC - except Taiwan and Japan) provides the most flexibility for racking various systems and is the recommended rack to use. The number of chassis supported in the Sun Rack 1000-42 in the table below is based on both the available space and the internal power provided to the racked equipment using the various power distribution options.
Ideally, the data center and loading dock should be located in close proximity to one another. The access allowances for the path from the loading dock to the data center must include:
The system chassis and factory-installed components ship in a single container on a pallet. The system must be kept in a vertical, upright position at all times while in its shipping container. Ensure that the equipment and personnel unloading the chassis shipping container can accommodate the shipping dimensions and weight of the container. See TABLE 4 for shipping container and weight specifications.
If there is a significant temperature or humidity difference between the system and the data center environment, keep the system in its shipping container in a location that has a temperature and humidity environment similar to the data center. Wait at least 24 hours before removing the system from its shipping container to prevent thermal shock and condensation.
Provide a room that is separate from the data center in which to open equipment cartons and to repack hardware when you install and remove parts. Avoid unpacking the cartons in the data center. Dirt and dust from the packing materials can contaminate the data center.
Observe the following guidelines and precautions when installing the Sun Blade 8000 Series systems.
To minimize personal injury in the event of a seismic occurrence, you must securely fasten the cabinet in which the system is rackmounted to a rigid structure extending from the floor to the ceiling, or from the walls, of the room in which the cabinet is located.
Install a standalone system or a rackmounted system on a level surface. At the base of the cabinet is an anti-tilt bar. This bar must be extended before you install the
Sun Blade 8000 Series system to prevent the cabinet from moving. For stability, only one Sun Blade 8000 Series system should be extended from the cabinet at one time. Always install equipment in the cabinet from the bottom up to help stabilize the cabinet.
Do not block or cover the openings of the Sun Blade 8000 Series system. Never place a Sun product near a radiator or heat register. Failure to follow these guidelines can cause overheating and affect the reliability of your Sun product. Air cools the Sun Blade 8000 Series system from front to back. The front and rear cabinet door clearances must provide sufficient space for cooling. See Airflow Requirements for specific clearance specifications.
Because of the inherent nature of the system’s modular design, care must be taken to ensure that operators are not exposed to the hazardous conditions as defined in TABLE 3.
The standard Sun Blade 8000 Modular System is shipped with the following components installed:
The standard Sun Blade 8000 P Modular System is shipped with the following components installed:
Also shipped with the Sun Blade 8000 Series systems are:
The chassis shipping crate physical specifications are as follows.
The unpacked chassis and component dimensions and weights are listed in TABLE 5 and TABLE 6.
Declared noise emissions are in accordance with ISO 9295/9296 standards.
The Sun Blade 8000 Series systems comply with the following Sun Microsystems and regulatory agency standards.
TABLE 13 organizes the site planning tasks into a checklist that you can use during the site planning process.