SUBJECT:

Minimum Standards for Computer Server Rooms

Over the past couple of years we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of computer servers that are being used by our faculty and staff. These servers, many of which are Unix clusters critical to research activities, are often located in places that are not suited for those purposes. As a result, departments are often faced with reliability problems, increased costs, and significant downtime due to lack of sufficient electrical power, air conditioning, alarms, etc.

A campuswide workgroup has worked over the past few months on developing minimum standards for UCSD computer server rooms. A list of the workgroup members can be found below. These standards provide information on how to design or retrofit small to medium size computer server rooms. Following these standards will help in assuring that these critical resources are reasonably protected during power failures, fires, floods, and other emergency situations. The standards can be found at:

http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/server-rooms.html Please review the information, assess the current situation of server rooms in your department, and begin to address any deficiencies. For more information, or for questions regarding these standards, please send an email message to: server-room-std-l@ucsd.edu.

Elazar C. Harel Assistant Vice Chancellor - Administrative Computing & Telecommunications

LIST OF WORKGROUP MEMBERS

John Dilliott (Facilities Management)

Michael Downs (Facilities Design & Construction)

Elazar Harel (Administrative Computing & Telecom) - Chair

Greg Hidley (CalIT2)

David Hutches (School of Engineering)

Charlotte Klock (Administrative Computing & Telecom)

Mick Laver (SIO)

Tom Moore (Facilities Management)

Ron Spears (School of Medicine)

Buck Wilmerding (Administrative Computing & Telecom)

Tony Wood (Academic Computing Services)