Excursion to the data center "Flower 2"

Among all the events of last year, we remembered most of all the discovery of a new - the largest in the Selectel network - data center in St. Petersburg. This discovery was a significant milestone not only in the history of the company, but also of the city. The opening ceremony of the data center on December 17, 2015, was attended by St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko.


Opening a new data center.

The data center “Flower 2” is located in the business district of the city, not far from the Moscow Metro station. Nearby is the head office of Selectel and one of our first data centers, “Flower 1” .
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"Flower 2" - one of the most modern in Russia. In terms of reliability and fault tolerance, it meets the requirements of the Tier III standard according to the Uptime Institute classification and the TIA-942 standard. The data center has a PCI DSS certificate. On the area of ​​12 thousand m2, the uninterrupted operation of 1000 server racks will be ensured.

Why did we need a new data center?

To tell this story from the very beginning, we will have to go back three years ago - in 2013. It was then that it became clear that Selectel would soon need new capacities. This was facilitated by the development plans of their own hosting projects and the emerging trend in infrastructure outsourcing on the market.

Good location for the data center did not have long to search. A suitable building is located directly in front of the company's office. At the address Flower, 21 from the 70s to the 90s was located the plant of photosensitive materials "Positive". When production was stopped, the premises of the plant began to be leased to small firms.

Selectel bought an industrial building for its restructuring under the data center. By the end of 2013, the general architectural concept of “Flower 2” was ready and its main characteristics were laid. The project involved the preservation of the general forms of the building, but a complete rework of the interior.

The complex "Flower 2" includes two buildings: the main, four-story and adjacent one-story. Its area is 12 thousand m2. The project was based on the idea of ​​creating independent from each other data centers on each floor of the main building. One floor - one 2.5 MW data center. The adjoining building was decided to be used for placement of diesel generator sets, transformer substations and switchgears.

In early 2014, work began on the restructuring of the building. A year later, in November 2014, the first stage of the data center was put into trial operation, and by December 2015, work was completed in the entire “Flower 2” building. Contrary to economic instability, we were able to withstand all the planned framework and construction time.

The device is a new DC

"Flower 2" will be the first in the North-West data center fully certified by the Uptime Institute according to the Tier III standard. Now we are completing the first stage of certification - Design.

Compliance with the requirements of Tier III, in particular, means that all the engineering systems of the data center are repeatedly reserved: each active power supply and cooling channel has several backup channels. The level of availability of services for Tier III data center should be 99.982%. The higher this level, the lower the allowable downtime (downtime) of the data center. For Tier III, the allowable downtime is only 95 minutes per year.

"Flower 2" is connected to the data center "Flower 1". The latter is an important urban traffic exchange point and is connected by optical lines with other communication centers and peering centers. Due to this, the new data center has the ability to connect to almost all telecom operators in St. Petersburg, which number more than a hundred. In addition, to expand the peering relationships, we connected the “Flower 2” fiber-optic routes with all the most important traffic exchange points in the city: Borovaya 57, Bolshaya Morskaya 18 and the data center Raduga-2.

There is also a communications center on Tsvetochnaya-2, which is already ready for the placement of operators. In the near future, this will allow our new data center to become a major traffic exchange point.

Safety and security

For black bulletproof glass - armed guards.

The PCI DSS standard requires increased attention to security. The armed guard carefully controls access to the data center. The entrance is carried out strictly by passes. Each Selectel employee has an identification card with a photo - it is also a pass, which must be attached to the reader at the entrance. Skips of a special sample are also customers and contractors. It is impossible to miss someone else on your map: if one of our employees gives an outsider access to the data center, the latter will enter, but will not be able to exit. Unlock the door on the same card will not work. Such a system is called Anti PassBack. Due to its use, the probability of ad hoc penetration into the data center premises is practically zero.

Access to server rooms is generally strictly limited: only system engineers can get there. All other employees in the server "Flower 2" are only once - on excursions in honor of the end of the probationary period.

Dispatch

Two engineers are simultaneously watching what is happening at the DC.

Behind the guard post is the control room. On monitors in real time what is happening in the server rooms is reflected. It also receives current information on the work of the main engineering systems of the data center.

Server rooms

On each floor of the data center there are several server rooms of different sizes. Large server holds up to 140 racks. For redundancy, fiber optics are brought to racks along several routes: under the raised floor and along the ceiling.

At "Flower 2" we provide for rent and isolated spaces for accommodating client equipment. Only the client’s engineers have access to the area where the equipment is located. The space is completely autonomous and has its own surveillance system. Customers who place equipment or rent space may additionally rent space for employees in the office area.

Delivering equipment even to the upper floors of "Flower 2" is not a problem. The data center has four elevators - one passenger and three freight. The maximum load capacity of the elevator is 2500 kg, this capacity allows you to transport already assembled equipment in a vertical position.

By the way, to get to any server data center, you need to wear a "shift". Dirt from outdoor shoes can cause premature failure of servers and cooling air conditioners. But customer engineers do not necessarily carry with them a second - clean - a pair of shoes. At the entrance to the server rooms, machines are installed for automatically putting on boot covers, commonly referred to as simply “boot covers.”


We save power for great things, so we have got an automatic bahill.


The connection of the fiber to the racks is provided under the raised floor and on the ceiling.

Each floor has meeting rooms.

Offices that are rented by customers who have placed equipment in the DC.

Engineering infrastructure

Engineering systems "Flower 2" ensure the smooth operation of the data center 24 hours 7 days a week, 365 days a year. To do this, we reserved all the elements, each of them has a double that takes on the load in case of failure of the main one.

Air conditioning and ventilation

The air temperature in the server rooms is supported by precision air conditioners. The air conditioning system is built on the scheme N + 1. To the required number of elements one more is added, to which the load is periodically transferred. In general, the air-conditioning system at “Flower 2” corresponds to solutions that have proven their effectiveness in other Selectel data centers. However, the new data center uses the principle of indirect free cooling. The potential of the outside air temperature is used for cooling. Due to this, the effect of the applied technology reaches its maximum. Free cooling reduces the load on chillers and other equipment, which allows to achieve high energy efficiency.

Power supply

The power supply scheme of the data center provides for connection of the technological platform to its own two-section distribution substation with a voltage of 10 kV. This substation, in turn, is connected by two independent high-voltage lines to the urban power supply system. Each floor of “Flower 2” provides with electricity an individual step-down transformer substation with a voltage of 10 / 0.4 kV and a power of 2 * 2500 kVA.

The system of guaranteed power supply () starts automatically when the current supply from the city network is stopped. Rechargeable battery capacities are provided for powering the key equipment. The power of each is 6 * 400 kW, the blocks are reserved according to the 2N scheme.

These are the "batteries" designed for continuous operation of the data center for several hours.

If the elimination of the accident is delayed and the capacity of the UPS is insufficient, diesel generator sets (DGS) are turned on. In addition, the power supply system is generally reserved under the 2N scheme. When the voltage disappears from one or two power inputs on the main switchgear, the command to start the diesel generator sets is automatically given.



Diesel generators go on a working course for two minutes.

The units are designed to work as the main source of power supply for the data center and have a N + 1 redundancy scheme. They are able to ensure the full operation of the data center, even in the case of a long-term accident on a regional scale. On the territory there is a supply of fuel to support the work of the DGU for 48 hours. In case of long-term power outages, we have an agreement with the fuel company, which provides for special conditions for the guaranteed supply of fuel.

Firefighting

Fire alarm systems are installed in the premises and technological systems of the data center, which is connected to the central dispatch console. All sensors are addressable, so it is possible to localize incidents within a couple of minutes.

On each floor there are autonomous central gas extinguishing stations using refrigerant gas. They provide protection for all server and technology rooms. For the fire system used equipment of the domestic company "Bolid".

From a small server refrigerant displaces oxygen in two minutes. The equipment will not suffer, and people will have time to evacuate.


In conclusion, we would like to thank the seriouscat colleague for the tour and the story about the data center device.

If it seems to you that we have missed something or have not told in sufficient detail - feel free to ask questions in the comments.