System Standards

The University Data Center (UDC) has established minimum standards for equipment that can be accommodated in its facility.  System standards are necessary to help customers purchase equipment that meets their business needs, takes full advantage of the facility, accounts for the facility maintenance schedule, and conforms to the constraints of the facility.  Considerations that are taken into account include:

• The university has defined certain reliability and uptime requirements, which have defined a certain maintenance schedule for network and facility equipment.  Systems that comply with all the requirements and recommendations will be able to stay online during most maintenance windows.

• The raised floor space is prepopulated with server cabinets and network and power distribution equipment, imposing physical constraints on the equipment that can be accommodated.

• The distance of the data center to the rest of campus limits easy access by system administrators.  Systems that comply with the recommendations can be managed remotely.

Requirement: UDC server cabinets can accommodate systems that conform to the following specifications:

• Rack Support: 19" rack-mountable equipment
• Rails: Order rails without cable management
• Dual Power Supply: 208/220 volt power supplies specifically for redundant power connectivity
• Power Cords: Order C13 (limited capacity for C19)
• Meet Minimum Security Standards for Systems

Strongly recommended:

• Dual Network Interface Cards (NICs): Specifically for redundant network connectivity using the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
• High Speed Network Connections: 10GBASE-T is the preferred technology for 10Gbps throughput.  There is limited availability for fiber connections (10GBASE-SR).  UDC no longer supports DAC/Twinax for 10Gbps connections to the network access switches.
• Remote Management (Out-of-Band Management): Ethernet-capable remote server management port, for example, Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) or Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)

Systems that are rack mountable and meet Minimum Security Standards for Systems but do not have dual NICs, dual power supplies, or remote management capabilities can be installed with a corresponding effect on redundancy when there is maintenance, and on remote management capabilities.  These configurations will be discussed on a case-by-case basis and documented.  It may also be possible to modify existing systems to add NICs, power supplies, and remote management ports.

All ancillary equipment should be proximate to service equipment and ideally will be located within the same rack. Examples of ancillary equipment include:

• Firewalls
• Load balancers
• Tape backup systems (internal or external)
• External storage/fibre channel connections
• IP-based KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switches
• IP-based serial console servers
• Network switches

Ancillary equipment will be discussed on a case-by-case basis and documented.