Well today is the big move of the network and server equipment into our new infrastructure system.  Not only are we moving servers around, we’re also firing up the new UPS and cooling systems, and wiring the generator into the building power.  It is a dicey day for us, and we kick off at 4:00am.  The team is getting tired – several of the Logicalis and NCTD IT team members were here until 11:00 last night.  The power is scheduled to go offline at 4:00am, and unfortunately we have some mission critical systems that simply have to be live again by 7:00am.  This is a short, and frankly nerve-wracking window.
I am sitting here at the office and it is the quiet before the storm.  3:40am.  T-minus 20 minutes.

4:12am
All systems are powered down, and the power will be cut in a few moments at the main breaker.  They will have just over 2 hours to complete all wiring.

6:37am
Power cut over successful!  The new APC UPS is live – time to bring up the mainframe.  Hard to believe we still say that here.  We have 20 minutes to be live for our Bus Operations team.

6:52am
APC UPS engineer:  “Can you turn that big machine off for a minute?  We need to test the phase on the UPS.”  Oops.  No I cannot.  You will have to shoot me before my hands will push the off button.  First lesson of the day:  test power before you turn on computers.

7:02am
Mainframe operational.  UPS test shows power phasing correctly – crisis averted.

8:13am
The team has a saws-all out and they are cutting away an old cabinet.  Slightly disconcerting.  We have 4 cabinets still up on the old raised floor.  They have to come out, raised floor demolished and removed, new ESD tile laid, and new cabinets installed by 9:00am if we’re to stay on schedule.  Uh.

9:15am
Roel has the ESD tile installed.  APC team moving cabinets in now.  Simply amazing.

11:45am
All server and network equipment has been removed from legacy racks.  The old Mitsubishi UPS is sitting in the hallway feeling sorry for itself.  We’ll be recycling all of the older equipment, and reusing some of the racks at remote locations.

1:31pm
Delivering Pizza to the office for the team.  Some things just never change in the IT business.  Most of the equipment is in the new racks.  Cabling is underway.

5:15pm
All but 10 units put into racks.  The team is making custom cables.  May be done this evening with staging, leaving tomorrow for restart.

8:10pm
Shutting down for the night.  Cable testing starts in the morning.

5:30am
Most people won’t be here until 8:00, but I am enjoying the calm before the storm.

8:00am
Cabling testing and final patching begins.

2:45pm
Starting to bring up servers.

5:48pm
Well there were several bumps in the road, but the environment is successfully up.  Thanks to our vendors Logicalis, Prime, APC, and Roel for helping us transition to the new power and equipment.

8:00am
Well no surprise, we’re having some issues this morning.  But most are manageable, so I feel like we had a successful project.

The LEED saga continues.  I’ve mentioned some of the challenges that we’ve faced, but today presented another interesting one.  I assumed because our purchasing specifications included statements like “systems that comply with the US EPA Energy Star requirements” that we would qualify for the Energy Star points on the LEED rating system.  Today, I learned how naive I am.  In fact, while several vendors have machines that in fact to have an EPA stamp of Energy Star compliance, they are few and far between right now.

Energy Star was a program started initially around residential power use.  As a result, most items that have the Energy Star seal are appliances or electronics in the consumer space.  A check of the EPA website shows fewer than 15 enterprise, server class machines that qualify for the rating.  So while many vendors state that they have Energy Star-compliant equipment, they do not in fact have too many machines that actually went through and successfully completed the process.

Let’s compare some from my data center as examples.  We run an HP shop (this is not an endorsement of their product or a sales pitch, just disclosure that we have them as an architectural standard).  So I have a wide variety of their equipment.  For our Microsoft Exchange upgrade, we installed Energy Star certified HP Proliant DL380 G6 rack-optimized servers.  These are currently the only series of HP machines that have the seal.  For most of my purchasing, however, I prefer HP BL460c G6 or HP BL680c G6 machines that slot into a blade chassis.  What is nice about blades is that they share components like power supplies and fans.  So this reduces the power pull, and reduces the amount of waste in the product.  So from a product life cycle perspective, they are a better choice. 

In spite of our choice to generally rely on the more energy-efficient and therefore more eco-friendly choice of the blade servers, we actually cannot claim the LEED energy star credit because these servers are merely “EnergyStar Compliant” instead of certified.  This is needless-t0-say an unfortunate outcome as we are inching closer to a possible Gold certification and any point that we miss now keeps us from that nearly impossible goal.