Chatsworth Products’ (CPI) eConnect® Power Distribution Units (PDUs) play an important role in supporting data center availability.
eConnet PDUs have certain features that make power management at the rack level intuitive, effective and reliable, all of which are crucial in Tier III operations and beyond.
According to Victor Bañuelos, Technical Manager for Latin America and an Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Designer, Tier applications, particularly in Tier III and IV, data center designers must ensure that all mechanical and electrical systems are concurrently maintainable or fault-tolerant. This means that an alternate power feed should be present in case of main circuit failure or maintenance events.
At the rack level, IT equipment must be connected to two different and independent power sources for redundancy. Although Uptime Institute Tier system does not address equipment and technology specification, the following features of CPI eConnect PDUs will help users avoid failures, achieve overall data center reliability and properly prepare for maintenance operations without disturbing the system’s uptime:
- Monitored and Switched models that increase the level of control when managing energy and planning capacity, reducing the risk of overloads, unbalanced circuits, unwanted or unauthorized connections
- Accurate metering energy and temperature/humidity parameters that provide an extra layer of reliability and system insight, allowing users to take actions remotely via a web browser
- Up to 20 units that can share a single Ethernet connection, while providing a second (backup) network connection
- If a linked unit goes off line, the other linked units remain communicating, ensuring continuous and seamless power distribution
- Low-load alarms that can indicate power line issues or voltage disruption on servers
- Outlet grouping feature allows users to get insight into total current use for several pieces of equipment, as well as cycle power for redundantly powered devices via a web interface
Raissa Carey, eContent Specialist