Day 1 – From 10,000 Feet

Data Summary

Let’s begin by taking a very high level view.  The table above calculates the minimum, maximum, and average temperature for the entire data set and display it in a simple table.

Takeaways

• Maximum temperature exceeds the ASHRAE recommended upper thermal limit of 80.6°F and the minimum temperature exceeds the lower limit of 64.4°F.  It is evident that there are hot spots…and cold spots
• Average temperatures for rack tops and bottoms are within ASHRAE recommended ranges
• Top temperatures are hotter than bottom temperatures, as expected, for min value and average value, but not for max value.  How come?

Issues

• It doesn’t make sense that the top and bottom temperatures would be the same for the maximum value.  Are they coming from the same location?
• You can’t determine which specific racks are outside of thermal threshold so there is no way of locating the hot spots. Although this information is at a glance simple, useful and high level, a data center operator needs more granular visibility into the statistics for each rack

Are there any other important takeaways you can identify in the data?  Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

Posts in Series
Yesterday – About the Data
Today – From 10,000 Feet
Tomorrow – Rack by Rack