Introduction to Data Center Engineering
How data centers work as a system of power, cooling, structure, network and people, and how they are designed and built.
DCE-200 Year 2 3 credits 12 lessons · 6 h 34 min
Offered by HSM University · Data Center Engineering
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Describe what a data center does, the main types of facility, and the scale of their electricity demand, and calculate IT load, heat load and PUE
- Describe servers, storage, networking equipment and racks, and derive a design IT load from rack densities, measured peaks and diversity
- Trace the power chain from the transmission grid to the processor, calculate three-phase currents, battery and fuel needs and chain efficiency, and explain the roles of UPS systems and generators
- Read single-line diagrams, compare 2N, distributed and catcher architectures, estimate fault current, and explain coordination, arc flash, grounding, power quality and monitoring
- Size airflow and coolant flow with \(\dot{Q} = \dot{m} c_p \Delta T\), manage bypass and recirculation, design direct-to-chip liquid cooling with CDUs, and apply the ASHRAE thermal envelope
- Explain bandwidth, latency, leaf-spine networks, TIA-942 spaces, structured cabling and diverse fiber routes
- Calculate availability for series, parallel and N+1 systems, and explain redundancy levels, concurrent maintainability, fault tolerance and the tier classifications
- Explain structural loads, natural hazards, fire protection and physical security for data center buildings
- Evaluate energy, water and carbon performance with PUE, WUE and CUE, and explain emissions scopes, water use and heat reuse
- Outline a data center project from site selection, power and permits to commissioning, and plan testing, staffing, maintenance, capacity management and incident review
Course content
12 lessons · 6 h 34 min total · final exam
- 1 What a data center is and who builds them 36 min · quiz
- 2 Inside the white space: servers, storage and racks 31 min · quiz
- 3 The power chain from grid to chip 35 min · quiz
- 4 Electrical distribution, protection and power quality 31 min · quiz
- 5 Removing heat 35 min · quiz
- 6 Airflow management and liquid cooling 34 min · quiz
- 7 Networks and connectivity 33 min · quiz
- 8 Reliability, redundancy and tiers 33 min · quiz
- 9 The building: structure, fire protection and security 28 min · quiz
- 10 Energy, water and sustainability 35 min · quiz
- 11 From site search to operations: the project life cycle 30 min · quiz
- 12 Running a data center: testing, operations and incidents 33 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
How data centers work as a system of power, cooling, structure, network and people, and how they are designed and built.
Part of the Engineering stream, typically taken in year 2.