B513 Planning Meeting, 17th October 2003

Present:           Tony Cass, Anne Funken, Jukka Lindroos, Tim Whibley

1.             Previous Minutes

  1. 1.1) Anne has prepared the false floor layout.
  2. 1.2) The report on the disk server load characteristics is still in preparation.
  3. 1.4) Anne commented that it will be difficult to install the plasterblock separation along the Salève side wall after the new PDUs are installed and will not be possible at all, for safety reasons, once the normabarres are powered. We should, therefore, tidy up the cables passing into the fibre room urgently.
  4. 3.5) Tony asked for the expansion cracks in the floor to be covered as well as the cable holes.

2.             Substation Status

  1. The civil engineering work continues to make good progress.
  2. Schulthess provided the best offer for the installation of the false floor and an order has been created already.
  3. The overall requirements for the 400V switchgear should be ready by the end of October; the order will be placed in early November.
  4. Denis Raffourt has quote for the fire detection installation in the substation—38KCHF. There is no need to commit any money in advance of the work which is foreseen for mid-2004.

3.             Machine Room Upgrade Status

  1. The normabarres, together with cable trays and underfloor lighting, have been installed. The switchboards will be connected to the normabarres and control system as soon as they arrive (expected to be the end of October).
  2. Painting of the barn and Salève side wall will start in the week of October 20th and will be completed well before the PDUs need to be installed.

4.             Additional Power for the Computer Centre

  1. Following investigations by Gerard Cumer, it seems highly likely that the diesel backup for B513 can be removed by inhibiting the control signal indicating that two generators are running. This option cannot be tested until early January, but has the advantage that B513 can be supplied by the diesels until the load increases at Point 1. We can assume that additional computing equipment can be installed, up to the 1.2MVA limit of the UPS system—for which the 4th module will be equipped to maintain the N+1 redundancy. Anne confirmed that additional equipment can be added as required; there is no hardwired limit of 800kVA or 1.2MVA which needs to be reset.
  2. It has been suggested that IT division could use the water tank below B226 for computer equipment. Anne doubted that any substantial amount of power was available there but will check.

5.             B513 HVAC Planning

  1. Jukka’s studies indicate that ducting with a total cross section of 28m2 is required to provide the necessary airflow under the machine room false floor. Some of this area can be provided by the room pillars which are connected to the cold air plenum. Additional ducts with a cross section of 2m´1m will be required along the Jura side wall. These can be installed from January 2004 at an estimated cost of 300KCHF.
  2. The ducts that provide cold air to the Salève side corridor will be blocked as part of this work which may cause problems for the fibre room. Tony noted that, in any case, we need a proposal for future cooling of the other corridors that are linked to the machine room. The fibre room cooling should be considered as part of this work.
  3. Need to include options for duct placement on the future machine room plan to understand. Consider placing ducts in the corridor to avoid losing rack space in the critical equipment area.
  4. It was agreed that the radiators along the archive room wall should be removed.
  5. Jukka presented graphs showing the evolution of temperature in the machine rooms after a power cut. Temperatures rise rapidly upto 43.5°C in the first 90s before falling back when the pumps restart and circulate chilled water from the 30m3 buffer. Temperatures then reach 32°C in the machine room and 38deg°C in the vault before the UPS power to physics services runs out after 10 minutes. Failure mode scenarios are being prepared for other likely situations (e.g. loss of a transformer or switchboard.)
  6. Initial estimates suggest that providing a connection to the chilled water supply of the PS booster would cost 350KCHF. Such a connection would improve redundancy in the event of loss of (power to) chillers, ease scheduling of maintenance and limit temperature rise in the 10 minutes after power failure. There would, however, be no benefits to the booster from this link and so the total cost would have to be borne by IT.

6.             AOB

  1. Next Meeting: 2pm, Friday 7th November.