flexible thinking skills, 5000+ parts and 80 hours of work
Designing a data center is a complex engineering task that requires flexible thinking and creativity. Every detail must be carefully planned. In this regard, building a data center is definitely like working with a construction set, developing spatial thinking, logic, and problem-solving skills.
Another similarity is that both data centers and designers can be scaled by adding new components as needed. Data center designers use a modular approach to develop efficient and reliable solutions.
To go even further, we decided to experiment with a DIY data center made from a construction kit.
The essence of the experiment: exactly like the real thing
To start assembling a large object, you need a plan – a 3D model. We decided not to draw the building from scratch, but to use a real data center as a basis.
To the uninitiated, it may seem that all data centers look the same: a machine room, an engineering block, an administrative building, etc. In fact, the location of the buildings depends on the communication nodes, power sources and other infrastructure on the site.
Today, MWS cloud infrastructure includes 15 availability zones deployed in geographically distributed own and partner data centers. And each data center is unique.
Ultimately, our Avantage data center, one of the largest in Russia, was used as the basis for the model. Using photographs of the actual building, an engineer-designer constructed a 3D model, which was then used as instructions for physical assembly.
The task turned out to be far from simple. The 3D modeling of the building alone took 50 hours. However, building a real data center takes incomparably more time. It takes two to four years to build a mega-data center like Avantage.
We set a goal to do everything without errors, as when working in a real data center, so we carefully measured each step. It took two days to agree on details with the store. Finding and delivering the cubes took another two weeks.
Preparing for assembly and building a data center from cubes
Building a data center is much more complex than a regular building. MWS adheres to high standards of reliability and availability when developing a network of data centers, which may exceed those generally accepted in the market. Such projects require the participation of specialized specialists. We followed the same path and invited an expert — Evgeniya ChirushkinaMWS system administrator. Evgeniy is a man with a “black belt” in assembling mechanized constructors.
To build a data center, it is necessary to clearly formulate the technical requirements for the future data center.
Here's what the process looks like using the constructor as an example.
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We receive a set of cubes for assembly from the supplier and check the completeness.
Usually, construction kits include an assembly diagram, but in our case, we had to “read” the diagram of the developed 3D model from the computer.
We assemble the model in accordance with the 3D model.
We identify modeling deficiencies, optimize the assembly scheme, and bring the layout to its final form.
During the optimization of the assembly scheme, each building was disassembled and reassembled to determine the optimal placement of cubes and their number.
As a result, the model consists of 10 rectangular buildings of different sizes. Some buildings can be either fastened together or left unfastened.
We are making a draft for assembly.
In reality, you can't assemble a data center, test the systems, and then disassemble and reassemble it. Everything is done the first time – reliably and for a long time. After all, thousands of companies depend on one data center in the future.
Unlike the construction set, in the real Avantage data center all critical units and components are protected from various disasters. Fourteen diesel generators, nine chillers and hundreds of kilometers of cables will ensure stable operation of services in any conditions.
The reliability of the data center is supported not only by our assessment. “Avantage” has passed the full cycle of international Tier III certification. The standard implies the possibility of carrying out any technical maintenance, repair or replacement of components without stopping the data center.
The principle of “as above, so below” well reflects the invisible connection between the designer and the real data center, which itself seems to consist of blocks – “cubes”. In our data center, it is also easy to scale resources, increasing the number of server racks as customer requests grow.
New capacities open up additional opportunities for companies to create a geo-distributed and disaster-resistant IT infrastructure that increases the security and reliability of business processes.
Although we aimed to use only cubes in the project, the laws of the genre “realistic simulator” required us to violate the original idea. To install a real server in the data center, we used the well-known single-board computer Raspberry Pi.
In a real data center, it takes months to design, deliver, and set up the IT infrastructure. Installing the equipment is only half the battle. You need to deploy a hypervisor on the servers and run a multitude of business-critical applications.
In the constructor we placed only one server, but in real life the number of resources is practically unlimited.
