A data center cabinet is designed to store a business’s IT, communication, and security equipment such as servers, routers, switches, patch panels, firewalls, and UPSs.
Cabinets are critical for neatly organizing and storing all the equipment that is used in a data center. The type, size, and location of cabinets being installed will depend on the business’ unique needs. Data center cabinets typically produce lots of heat and noise, so managers need to strategically place them in a secure and temperature-controlled area while keeping future deployments in mind.
Components of Data Center Cabinets
The components of a data center cabinet typically include:
- Frame. The main structural component of the cabinet, providing support and rigidity. It usually consists of vertical uprights (posts) and horizontal rails.
- Doors. Front and rear doors that provide access to the interior of the cabinet. These doors may be solid, perforated, or have transparent panels for airflow and visibility.
- Side panels. Panels on the sides of the cabinet that enclose the interior space. Side panels may be removable for easy access during installation and maintenance.
- Mounting rails. Horizontal bars or rails inside the cabinet where IT equipment is mounted. These rails typically have holes or slots for securing equipment with screws or mounting brackets.
- Casters or leveling feet. Wheels or adjustable feet at the base of the cabinet to facilitate movement and ensure stability when installed.
- Locks and security features. Mechanisms for securing the cabinet to prevent unauthorized access to IT equipment. This may include key locks, combination locks, or electronic access controls.
- Ventilation and cooling features. Perforations or vents in the doors, side panels, and top or bottom of the cabinet to allow airflow and dissipate heat generated by the enclosed equipment. Some cabinets may also include built-in fans or provisions for installing cooling systems.
- Cable management. Channels, brackets, or hooks inside the cabinet for organizing and routing cables neatly. Cable management features help prevent cable clutter, optimize airflow, and facilitate maintenance.
- Grounding and bonding. Components for grounding and bonding IT equipment to prevent electrical hazards and ensure proper functioning of sensitive electronics. This may include grounding straps, bonding bars, and grounding lugs.
- Accessory mounting options. Provision for attaching additional accessories such as shelves, cable organizers, rack PDUs, and environmental sensors.
- Labels and identification. Spaces or holders for labeling or identifying the cabinet and its contents, facilitating inventory management and troubleshooting.
- Adjustable mounting depth. Some cabinets offer adjustable mounting depths to accommodate various sizes of IT equipment and allow for future expansion or reconfiguration.
Size of Data Center Cabinets
Many different sizes and shapes of cabinets exist but are most commonly defined in width and depth in millimeters, and height defined in rack units. A rack unit, usually referred to as “U” or “RU” is the smallest measurement of data center space. The Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) wrote the EIA-310-D document which standardized different features of 19” rack cabinets and defines the Rack Unit (U) as the usable vertical space for a piece of rack mounted equipment.
The height measurement of a server rack is represented by “U”. One “U” is 1.75 inches and is one slide of a rack or cabinet. The industry standard for width and depth is 19 inches wide x 36 inches deep but can vary in size based on manufacturer. Most cabinet manufacturers would specify the equipment as “19 rack-mountable” for instance. A cabinet rack that measures 20U-24U is considered a traditional half cabinet or half rack while a 42U is a standard full cabinet.
Benefits of Data Center Cabinets
Cabinets are very useful for data center managers for multiple reasons:
- Air management. Cabinets enable air management strategies like cold aisle containment, hot aisle containment, and cabinet-level containment.
- Physical security. Since cabinets are a closed frame, they offer a higher physical security level with different locking systems available to protect against unauthorized entry.
- Cooling efficiency. Many cabinets have built-in cooling equipment such as air conditioning or fans to ensure that equipment is functioning within the proper temperature range.
- Space optimization. Data center equipment can take up lots of physical real estate. Managers can free up space capacity by choosing the right size cabinet for their needs and available space.
Simplify Data Center Cabinet Management with DCIM Software
While some data center professionals manage their cabinets and contents with Excel and Visio, this outdated approach is manual, time-consuming, difficult to maintain, and is prone to error. Rack elevation diagrams must be updated with every change, and when they eventually become inaccurate, capacity planning, troubleshooting, and deploying equipment becomes more difficult resulting in reduced efficiency, productivity, and uptime.
However, there is a new way forward with Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software.
Modern DCIM software makes it easy to manage cabinets and assets with:
- Automatically rendered rack diagrams. Say goodbye to managing multiple spreadsheets and diagrams. Rack diagrams are automatically updated based on the asset and location information in your system.
- 3D cabinet visualizations. See a digital twin of your cabinets in 3D and overlay live measured readings from power and environmental sensors.
- Vast model library of 44,000+ model templates. Plan and provision with speed with a model templates library that includes the images, dimensions, weight, power requirements, and port information for every device you deploy.
- Searchable, sortable, and filterable asset lists. Get detailed information on your cabinets and assets including unlimited custom fields to get the data you need.
- Real-time rack capacity. Correlate common cabinet capacity constraints like space, power, and cooling to see where you have available capacity.
- Color-coded assets by attribute. Visualize your cabinets and assets in color by any attribute you track like their owner.
- X-ray views. Virtually remove the sheet metal from racks so you can see inside your cabinets at angles you never could get physically.
- Automation via integration. Out-of-the-box CMDB connectors enable you to automatically populate data to dramatically reduce manual effort and increase data accuracy.
Want to see how Sunbird’s DCIM software makes it easy to manage the cabinets in your data center? Get your free test drive now!
