Cooling and Airflow
Operating, inspecting and troubleshooting data center cooling, followed through a technician's cooling term at Stonebridge Data's campus in Ashburn, Virginia: heat and its units, humidity and dew point, the ASHRAE thermal guidelines, CRAC and CRAH units, chillers, cooling towers and free cooling, raised floors and containment, rear-door and in-row cooling, direct-to-chip cooling and CDUs, immersion and heat reuse, cooling monitoring and alarms, and a night of incidents in a liquid-cooled AI hall.
DCT-230 12 lessons · 4 h ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Data Center Operations
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Explain why all IT power becomes heat and convert heat loads between kilowatts, BTU/h and tons
- Read dry-bulb temperature, relative humidity, dew point and wet-bulb temperature and explain what each says about the hall
- Apply the ASHRAE thermal guidelines at the equipment inlet and investigate inlet temperature complaints
- Identify the parts of CRAC and CRAH units, read their controls, carry out monthly checks and check redundancy before maintenance
- Describe how chillers, dry coolers, cooling towers and economizers reject heat and recognize plant problems from the halls
- Manage raised-floor air delivery: tile placement, leaks, obstructions and floor pressure
- Keep hot- and cold-aisle containment tight and measure recirculation and bypass from temperatures
- Inspect rear-door heat exchangers and in-row units and respond to leak alarms
- Explain direct-to-chip cooling, the two coolant loops and the CDU, and trend CDU approach temperatures
- Compare immersion cooling with other methods and describe how data center heat can be reused
- Interpret cooling sensors and alarms, check whether readings are real and respond at the right level
- Diagnose cooling problems in a liquid-cooled hall by comparing units and loops, and write a clear incident record
Course content
12 lessons · 4 h total · final exam
- 1 Heat in the data center 23 min · quiz
- 2 Air, temperature, humidity and dew point 19 min · quiz
- 3 ASHRAE thermal guidelines and inlet temperature 21 min · quiz
- 4 CRAC and CRAH units 21 min · quiz
- 5 Chillers, cooling towers and economizers 19 min · quiz
- 6 Raised floors, perforated tiles and air delivery 19 min · quiz
- 7 Hot and cold aisle containment and airflow management 20 min · quiz
- 8 Liquid cooling: rear-door heat exchangers and in-row units 19 min · quiz
- 9 Direct-to-chip cooling and coolant distribution units 19 min · quiz
- 10 Immersion cooling and heat reuse 21 min · quiz
- 11 Monitoring temperature, humidity, pressure and leaks 19 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: tracking down a hot spot and a CDU alarm in Hall D 20 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Operating, inspecting and troubleshooting data center cooling, followed through a technician's cooling term at Stonebridge Data's campus in Ashburn, Virginia: heat and its units, humidity and dew point, the ASHRAE thermal guidelines, CRAC and CRAH units, chillers, cooling towers and free cooling, raised floors and containment, rear-door and in-row cooling, direct-to-chip cooling and CDUs, immersion and heat reuse, cooling monitoring and alarms, and a night of incidents in a liquid-cooled AI hall.