Certified Data Centre Specialist (CDCS)

3 Days

18 CPD hours

The primary audience for this course is an IT, facilities or data centre operations professional working in and around the data centre and having the responsibility to achieve and improve high-availability and manageability of the data centre.

After completion of the course the participant will be able to:? Understand the design life cycle of data centres and the stages involved? Discuss the data centre requirements in great level of detail with vendors, suppliers and contractors to ensure that these requirements are met? Validate design plans, quotes and offers proposed by vendors/contractors? Understand redundancy levels for both the data centre design/setup and maintenance? Understand the various building considerations such as bullet proofing, mitigation of seismic activity, fire ratings and thermal stability? Understand how to install a raised floor that meets requirements, avoiding misalignment, level differences and leakage? Understand how to read a Single Line Electrical Diagram to identify and avoid the most common design issues? Choose the correct UPS and parallel configuration, learn and avoid classic parallel installation mistakes? Understand how to calculate battery banks, validate offered configurations to ensure they meet requirements? Understand what distance to keep to avoid EMF issues for human safety and equipment disturbances? Understand the fundamental cooling setup, CFM, Delta-T and other important factors? Understand contamination factors and limitations? Understand full details of fire suppression options, how to calculate gas content and verify installations? Understand how to measure data centre energy efficiency and how to improve it

The course will bring participants to the level of a suitable sparring partner with suppliers. They will be able to verify offers provided by vendors for correctness, effectiveness and efficiency.

Data Centre Design/Life Cycle Overview

• Overview of the phases of a data centre life cycle
  Planning, re-alignment and continuous improvement

Standards and Rating Level Definitions

• Rating level history
  Difference between Uptime and TIA-942
  Rating level definitions
  Redundancy options (N+1), 2N, 2(N+1)
  Concurrent Maintainability/Compartmentalisation
  Example configurations
  Substation and feed requirements
  Maintenance options
  Operational processes guidelines/standards
  Skill development

Building Considerations

• Building location considerations
  Floor and hanging loads requirements
  Fire rating for walls and glass
  Blast protection
  Bullet proofing
  Forced entry protection

Advanced Raised Floor & Suspended Ceiling

• Raised floor installation guidelines
  Techniques to install a proper and leveled raised access floor
  Common mistakes
  Choosing the right tiles and their locations
  Seismic-mitigating floor constructions
  Choosing the correct suspended ceiling

Advanced Power

• Power infrastructure layout;
  Formulas which you should know for the data centre
  Single Line Electrical diagrams; how to read to ensure key components are present for protection
  Over current protection devices (MCB/MCCB/VCB/ACB/Fuses) definitions and what to use where
  Earth Leakage devices (RCB/RCD/ELCB/GFCI/ALCI/RCBO), definitions and what to use where
  Sizing of protective components
  Lightning strikes and surge protection devices (TVSS/SPD), how they operate, where to use and how to install
  Power cabling and cable run considerations
  PDU/DB setup and minimum requirements
  
  Generators;
  Generator types: Standy/Prime/Continuous
  Component make up and functions
  Fuel storage and calculation
  Paralleling of gen-sets
  Generator room/area requirements
  
  UPS Systems;
  Required specifications for UPS systems
  How to read data sheets and select the correct UPS
  Requirements for parallel configurations and avoid pitfalls such as single point of failures
  How parallel installation should be done, classic mistakes made by installers and how to avoid these
  
  Harmonic Filters;
  Active/Passive filters and their application
  
  Battery Banks;
  Battery bank terminology
  Designing battery banks, how to calculate, and double check the battery bank to be installed
  Battery charging pitfalls and ensuring the right charger is being installed and used
  Using parallel battery banks; how to properly install them, limitations and risks when using batteries in parallel
  How to test batteries correctly and make decisions on cell/block or string replacement
  Battery casing choices; ABS, V0, V1, V2
  Alternative energy storage; flywheel, re-usable cell, compressed air UPS, etc.

Advanced Electro Magnetic Fields

• Sources of EMF
  Difference between single, three phase and bus-bar EMF
  Options available to measure EMF and how to interpret the results from single-axes and composite measurements
  Guidance on safe distance for equipment and humans
  Calculation of EMF attenuation factor for shielding material permeability and saturation factors

Advanced Cooling

• Important definitions; dry-bulb, wet-bulb, dew-point, RH, sensible and latent heat
  Psychometric chart and ASHRAE recommendations
  Environmental class definitions and thermal specifications
  Temperature/humidity measurements guideline
  Heat dissipation methods
  Altitude impact on temperature intake to ICT equipment
  Floor plan setup for effective cooling
  Differences in tile surface and supporting structure and the air-flow performance impact
  Rack door construction and the flow performance impact
  Equipment Delta-T and its impact
  Optimising air flow
  Thermal units conversions
  Calculations for air volume displacement (CFM/CMH)
  Cooling capacity calculations
  Air-conditioning selection
  De- / humidifying options
  Air conditioning efficiency
  SHR impact on cost saving
  Efficiency indicator
  New cooling principle and techniques (Submerged, VSD/VRF/ECF/water- and air side economisers)
  Redundancy guidelines for air-conditioners avoiding classic misconceptions and mistakes for meeting ANSI/TIA-942 compliant designs
  Installation requirements
  Connections to fire panel and EPO
  Commissioning of air conditioners
  Set points and calibration
  CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)

Advanced Fire Protection

• The fire triangle and elements to stop a fire
  Detection systems in detail (VESDA, VIEW, smoke sensors)
  Considerations for installation of sensors
  Proper testing of smoke sensors
  Water based systems i.e. deluge, wet-pipe, dry-pipe, pre-action and why most of them don't work and how to detect this
  Details on Inert and Halocarbon systems and how to select the correct system for your data centre
  How to calculate the gas content ensuring the appropriate level is installed to suppress the fire including safety considerations
  Other requirements for gas systems such as release times, hold times, pipe install requirements and other important factors
  Requirements for the fire detection panel
  Installation verification, methods, what to check and how
  New advanced fire suppression technologies

Design and Install Scalable Networking Cabling System

• ANSI/TIA942 cabling structure topology
  ToR, EoR Design
  Intelligent patching systems
  Installation best practice such as routing, bending radius, separation from power, containment fill ratio, fiber link loss calculator, bonding and grounding requirement
  Standard for telecommunications labeling and administration

Environmental Specifications and Contamination Control

• Acoustic noise effects, regulations, specifications and limits
  Data centre contaminations and classifications
  Measurements, standards and limits
  Preventive measures and avoidance

Data Centre Efficiency

• Business drivers to go Green
  High-availability or Green?
  Green guidelines and standards
  How to measure it and what are acceptable numbers compared to the general industry
  PUE classes defined by Green Grid and issues with PUE
  Techniques for saving energy in all parts of the data centre i.e. application/system level, cooling, power distribution

Mock Exam

EXAM: Certified Data Centre Specialist