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Computer Centre Upgrade for LHC Computing

Project Highlights

August 2003
  • 15km of old cables have been removed from the false floor on the cleared half of the machine room. ST upgrade work starts.
  • Start of the civil engineering work for the new substation.
July 2003
  • All computing equipment from the right hand side of the machine room has been migrated to the vault.
June 2003
  • Tony Cass gives presentation (ppt, pdf) at post-C5. The division accepts the proposal for the future machine room layout.
November 2002
  • The vault is handed over for the installation and migration of IT equipment.
October 2002
  • Tony Cass gives presentation (ppt, pdf) at post-C5. The division accepts proposals to limit UPS lifetime for critical equipment to 5 minutes and to create a bunker to house the new substation under the main B513 carpark.
  • An external review of the upgrade is organised with the final report being  delivered in December.
September 2002
  • Vault conversion in final stages. False floor installed and PDUs and air conditioning units in place. Final finishing (cleaning, painting) underway before acceptance tests.
June 2002
  • Vault floor is painted and installation of equipment below the false floor starts.
April 2002
  • Major civil engineering work in the vault is complete. Installation work starts at ceiling level (e.g. lights).
February 2002
  • 19th: Demolition work starts in the vault
  • 14th: Preliminary approval from the Site Committee for the  bunker under the main car park to house equipment for the new substation.
December 2001
  • All active equipment has been removed from the vault. Partitions and false flooring are removed and the dismantling of obsolete electrical and air conditioning equipment starts.
November 2001
  • Plans for a bunker to house the new substation take shape. Initial size and cost estimates seem reasonable, but there will be an impact on the main car park.
August 2001
  • Work to empty the vault of tape robots, archived tapes and other equipment starts in earnest. See the picture record of the IT equipment move and the general cleanup.
29th June 2001
  • Tony Cass gives presentation (ppt, pdf) at post-C5. The division accepts the proposals to convert the vault to a machine room area and to ensure a strict separation between machine room and non-machine room activities.
May-June 2001
  • It becomes evident that it will be difficult to house a substation (required for B513 to be in the 18kV ring), associated high and low voltage switchgear and UPS system(s) within the existing B513. Various alternatives are considered for providing extra space, including constructing a new building, radically revamping parts of the basement and placing transformers on the roof. The most attractive option appears to be through the addition of a "bunker" under the main car park on the Tortella's side of the building.
March 2001
  • Jukka Lindroos concludes that duct-free room air conditioning units are an adequate solution for the vault---thus increasing the clearance available for equipment. Moreover, the estimated cost (350KCHF) is less than that for the "classical" solution.
February 2001
22nd January 2001
  • Tony Cass & Anne Funken visit Intel colocation centre in Reading as part of a general visit. Intel also use duct free air-conditioning units.
18th/19th December 2000
  • A review of B513 construction and options is carried out by Bellwater, a Computer Centre construction and consultancy company. Their report favours building a mezzanine over either the barn or part of the existing computer room. Although there is some cost advantage, their main reason for favouring this option is the limited clearance in the basement.
15th December 2000
20th October 2000
  • Tony Cass & Dave Underhill visit the Reuters Computer Centre in Geneva. Visit notes also available in Word format. The pictures are in powerpoint format. One interesting point is the rotary UPS system---a cross between a UPS and a diesel generator.
29th September 2000
  • Tony Cass, Anne Funken & Dave Underhill visit Crédit Suisse Computer Centre in Zurich. Visit notes also available in Word format.
July 2000
  • Funding allocated for removal of redundant pipework in the vault (for sprinkler system and Cray cooling) and to clearout the MG room.
9th June 2000
  • Anne Funken & Tony Cass visit CERN stores and conclude that expanding vertically in the machine room is not advantageous. (Visit notes available in html and word format.) 
19th May 2000
  • Tony Cass gives presentation (ppt, pdf) at post-C5. It is pointed out that the need for extra space means using the vault or the barn---and that work to recuperate this space should start in 2001. TC favours using the vault as this offers greater long term flexibility. 
29th March 2000
  • Tony Cass, Anne Funken & Dave Underhill visit Swisscom Computer Centre in Berne. Visit notes also available in Word format. The pictures are in powerpoint format.
January-April 2000
  • Further general discussions between IT and ST. Key points are
    a) extra chilled water will be required to support 2MW cooling load, 
    b) 2MW cooling load can be accommodated in machine room and barn with adjustments to cooling parameters, and
    c) 500kW cooling load can be supported in vault with equipment located in old MG room.
  • Initial plans are developed to recuperate the space around the MG room.
  • Electrical distribution issues are investigated briefly; it is clear that some work will be needed especially as the main transformers will reach the end of their rated lifetime just after LHC startup.
  • UPS battery replacement is strongly indicated.
November 1999
  • Discussions between IT and ST initiated by Les Robertson. Anne Funken appointed as ST project leader.


 
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