December 13, 2013 at 13:59Data Center Tour
Hello, Habr! My name is Bozena, I am the editor of the company’s blog . I often visit interesting and even forbidden places to tell readers about this. One fine day (in fact, there was slush and dirt, November ended, snow began), my colleague and I were invited to visit one of the data centers where our servers are located.
Despite the fact that the taxi driver got a little confused and drove us in circles on the highway, we arrived at our destination on time. We were met by Sergey Kubasov, Deputy Technical Director of Mail.Ru Group, and employees of the data center.
Caution inside heavy GIF
How to get inside?
The territory turned out to be very large: separate buildings of data centers. The perimeter is under the supervision of the security service (as I later found out, it is its own), there are only four levels of perimeter protection - entrance to the territory, entrance to the data center building, gateway next to the security room, after which - entrance to the hall. And this is far from all that exists for security: at the guard post there is an alarm button of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, IP-video surveillance systems throughout the territory outside and inside buildings. Admission is strictly based on passes that are ordered in advance.
Almost through the blizzard, covering our faces with scarves and mittens, we reached the checkpoint, where we were greeted by security. Presenting passports and signing in the guest book is a standard procedure, after which you get a pass and you can go on the road.
From the interesting part, we needed a third floor, and while we were climbing the stairs, I had already uncovered the camera and tried to capture the graffiti. As we found out later, funny expressions flaunt on almost all walls and on all floors. This includes signs guiding the stray to their destination, parting words to employees, and even funny threats.
We did not stay until 21:47: we thought that the detainees would be burned along with forgotten things.
Once on the right floor, we left our outerwear in an impromptu dressing room and put on shoe covers (and shoe covers there are one of the main things you need for work). The server rooms maintain almost sterile cleanliness, and shoe covers prevent dust and dirt from entering technical rooms.
No entry with your shoe covers
Temperature and humidity
Before I visited this data center, I had some idea of what the server rooms look like, but I never saw them live.
It's clean, like in the operating room.
Inside it was frankly cold. But exactly until the moment when I came closer to the racks. This is because the cooling of equipment in the equipment rooms is organized on the principle of a cold-hot corridor. Cold air is supplied by the cabinet DX-conditioners of the hall under the raised floor(600 mm high), from where, through perforated tiles, it enters the cold corridor to the equipment due to the total pump pressure in the underfloor space. Cold air is taken in by the equipment and thrown into the hot hallway of the hall, where it rises up to the ceiling of the sarcophagus. In our server rooms in this data center, Uniflair TDAR 2522 A is used - it is a model of an air conditioner with a steam humidifier , it has redundant compressors and external fan units. So, if you stand where hot air rises to the ceiling, then you can easily warm up. I did just that.
According to SLA(Service Level Agreement), the humidity level in the server room should be from 40 to 60%, we have it supported by steam humidification modules in the cabinet air conditioners of the room, which I wrote about a little higher.
We asked the guys which of our projects are located on these servers, and found out that almost everything is in this data center. Could look at the Mail.Ru Search cells, they must be said, do not differ from everyone else :)
Security and emergency situations
In all corridors and walkways of the data center, video surveillance systems are located. Each corridor is viewed from two sides, the cameras are located under the ceiling of the hermetic zone. You can get to the cameras only from a stepladder, but this is also almost impossible, because what is happening in the premises is observed from the guard post, and recording is carried out constantly. To my question: “Is it possible to trick the system?” - the guys jokingly answered that you can only get around it with the help of stealth technology . Take the
photo at the exit.
In addition, I was interested in the question of electricity: what happens if a failure suddenly occurs.
Firstly, this situation is not dangerous, because the data center has a second, independent power beam. But if we nevertheless consider the situation when there is no voltage across any power supply from the city, then the diesel generator sets will start , and at the time the generator starts (no more than 20 seconds), uninterruptible power supplies take over the load . The battery life on the fuel available in DGU is 6-8 hours at full load. But, despite this, the data center has contracts with a number of diesel fuel suppliers, which, in accordance with the terms of the contract, must deliver fuel within 2-4 hours. And that should be enough.
Other premises
When we left the brightly lit room of the server room and finally removed the blue shoe covers, we were invited to stop by on a visit to the shift on duty. The data center employee accompanying us led us inside. Our attention was attracted by the huge monitoring screens, which were followed by several people at once. I, honestly, imagined, as if I got to the base of the secret service. If you look closely, then on the screens you can see (in addition to the location of the cells) video conferencing between sites and information on open and taken into service tickets of the ServiceDesk system.
Getting out was just as difficult as getting inside. The guards peered suspiciously at our faces, but did not find the slightest danger, so with a light soul and a full memory card in the camera, we headed to the office.
More stuff here.
Despite the fact that the taxi driver got a little confused and drove us in circles on the highway, we arrived at our destination on time. We were met by Sergey Kubasov, Deputy Technical Director of Mail.Ru Group, and employees of the data center.
Caution inside heavy GIF
How to get inside?
The territory turned out to be very large: separate buildings of data centers. The perimeter is under the supervision of the security service (as I later found out, it is its own), there are only four levels of perimeter protection - entrance to the territory, entrance to the data center building, gateway next to the security room, after which - entrance to the hall. And this is far from all that exists for security: at the guard post there is an alarm button of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, IP-video surveillance systems throughout the territory outside and inside buildings. Admission is strictly based on passes that are ordered in advance.
Almost through the blizzard, covering our faces with scarves and mittens, we reached the checkpoint, where we were greeted by security. Presenting passports and signing in the guest book is a standard procedure, after which you get a pass and you can go on the road.
From the interesting part, we needed a third floor, and while we were climbing the stairs, I had already uncovered the camera and tried to capture the graffiti. As we found out later, funny expressions flaunt on almost all walls and on all floors. This includes signs guiding the stray to their destination, parting words to employees, and even funny threats.
We did not stay until 21:47: we thought that the detainees would be burned along with forgotten things.
Once on the right floor, we left our outerwear in an impromptu dressing room and put on shoe covers (and shoe covers there are one of the main things you need for work). The server rooms maintain almost sterile cleanliness, and shoe covers prevent dust and dirt from entering technical rooms.
No entry with your shoe covers
Temperature and humidity
Before I visited this data center, I had some idea of what the server rooms look like, but I never saw them live.
It's clean, like in the operating room.
Inside it was frankly cold. But exactly until the moment when I came closer to the racks. This is because the cooling of equipment in the equipment rooms is organized on the principle of a cold-hot corridor. Cold air is supplied by the cabinet DX-conditioners of the hall under the raised floor(600 mm high), from where, through perforated tiles, it enters the cold corridor to the equipment due to the total pump pressure in the underfloor space. Cold air is taken in by the equipment and thrown into the hot hallway of the hall, where it rises up to the ceiling of the sarcophagus. In our server rooms in this data center, Uniflair TDAR 2522 A is used - it is a model of an air conditioner with a steam humidifier , it has redundant compressors and external fan units. So, if you stand where hot air rises to the ceiling, then you can easily warm up. I did just that.
According to SLA(Service Level Agreement), the humidity level in the server room should be from 40 to 60%, we have it supported by steam humidification modules in the cabinet air conditioners of the room, which I wrote about a little higher.
We asked the guys which of our projects are located on these servers, and found out that almost everything is in this data center. Could look at the Mail.Ru Search cells, they must be said, do not differ from everyone else :)
Security and emergency situations
In all corridors and walkways of the data center, video surveillance systems are located. Each corridor is viewed from two sides, the cameras are located under the ceiling of the hermetic zone. You can get to the cameras only from a stepladder, but this is also almost impossible, because what is happening in the premises is observed from the guard post, and recording is carried out constantly. To my question: “Is it possible to trick the system?” - the guys jokingly answered that you can only get around it with the help of stealth technology . Take the
photo at the exit.
In addition, I was interested in the question of electricity: what happens if a failure suddenly occurs.
Firstly, this situation is not dangerous, because the data center has a second, independent power beam. But if we nevertheless consider the situation when there is no voltage across any power supply from the city, then the diesel generator sets will start , and at the time the generator starts (no more than 20 seconds), uninterruptible power supplies take over the load . The battery life on the fuel available in DGU is 6-8 hours at full load. But, despite this, the data center has contracts with a number of diesel fuel suppliers, which, in accordance with the terms of the contract, must deliver fuel within 2-4 hours. And that should be enough.
Other premises
When we left the brightly lit room of the server room and finally removed the blue shoe covers, we were invited to stop by on a visit to the shift on duty. The data center employee accompanying us led us inside. Our attention was attracted by the huge monitoring screens, which were followed by several people at once. I, honestly, imagined, as if I got to the base of the secret service. If you look closely, then on the screens you can see (in addition to the location of the cells) video conferencing between sites and information on open and taken into service tickets of the ServiceDesk system.
Getting out was just as difficult as getting inside. The guards peered suspiciously at our faces, but did not find the slightest danger, so with a light soul and a full memory card in the camera, we headed to the office.
More stuff here.
