Immersion in oil: a new approach to immersion cooling
According to the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), 20 billion devices are connected to the Internet. By 2020, this figure will increase to 30 billion. Together, they will generate 44 trillion gigabytes that need to be stored somewhere. For this, humanity is building data centers, the number of which, according to IDC estimates , is 8 million worldwide.
Large data centers consume an average of 100 billion kWh per year, but at the same time 30% of servers idle. If you make these data centers 20% more efficient, you can save 20 billion kWh or 2 billion dollars.
Therefore, many organizations come up with and implement different cooling technologies. At the OpenStack summit, held in Sydney in early November, two companies immediately supported the concept of data centers, where equipment is cooled by immersion in mineral oil. About this further.
')
/ photo by Robert CC
One of the companies is Horizon Computing. She introduced the solution RuggedPOD, which is part of a modular data center. The module is a 70x70x70 cm aluminum case, inside which can be placed four microATX motherboards or eight mini-ITX.
The box itself is filled with mineral oil that does not conduct electricity, in which equipment “floats”. The radiator design of the product maintains the desired temperature of the servers due to convection.
According to the developers, RuggedPOD can work outside in extreme conditions without air conditioning and humidity control for a long time. The device is connected using two cables: one is electric and the other is networked. The cost of production is low, and the simplicity of the design allows you to quickly put the system on stream.
The second company is Italian provider of cloud solutions Enter Cloud Suite (ECS), and it is in beta testing of these “containers”. According to ECS, for the work of RuggedPOD and their analogues it is enough only to control system Kubernetes.
At the summit, ECS representatives spoke about how they see the near future: the data center server modules are cooled passively, and there is no heating, ventilation or air conditioning in the building. Not even windows, because the circulation of air flow is not needed. But it works, and it works efficiently.
Immersion cooling with oil, as the name implies, means that the servers are fully immersed in an oily environment. This method is already used for cooling electrical transformers and industrial capacitors.
In the IT industry, this technology has attracted the race for more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly data centers. One example of heat transfer fluids is ElectroSafe , which is a non-toxic transparent blend of mineral oils.
The main advantage of immersion cooling is the higher thermal conductivity of the oil compared to air. Increased thermal conductivity helps the system more efficiently absorb heat and remove its excess. Such systems maintain a low CPU temperature, even if the temperature of the oil is higher than the air temperature.
If the processor is running at full power at an air temperature of 32 ° C, its average temperature will be 85 ° C. If the same processor is immersed in oil with a temperature of 34 ° C, the average CPU temperature will fall below 65 ° C. At the same time, maintaining the temperature in the oil bath at 34 ° C requires significantly less energy than maintaining the air temperature within 32 ° C.
It also allows you to bring the density of components in a single rack to 65 kW. According to the classification of the AFCOM association, already 8 kW per rack is considered a high figure.
In addition, heat transfer fluids have a higher heat capacity than air. For example, the heat capacity of the ElectroSafe oil composition is 1200 times more than the heat capacity of air. This will help in the event of an accident: the equipment will heat up to critical temperatures longer. Due to this, you can win extra time to eliminate the emergency.
Another advantage is durability. According to Alex McManis, an engineer at Green Revolution Cooling, tests show that the oil can not be changed for 15 years. This happens because the temperature of the oil is below the level at which it degrades. An additional advantage of oil cooling is protection against corrosion. Intel has not recorded any deterioration in the performance of the components in its tests.
Experts believe that the transition to alternative methods of cooling - a matter of time. As electricity prices rise, and the lack of water from an abstract problem turns into reality, data centers will have to become energy efficient and environmentally friendly in order to remain competitive in the market.
PS A few more posts from our corporate blog:
Large data centers consume an average of 100 billion kWh per year, but at the same time 30% of servers idle. If you make these data centers 20% more efficient, you can save 20 billion kWh or 2 billion dollars.
Therefore, many organizations come up with and implement different cooling technologies. At the OpenStack summit, held in Sydney in early November, two companies immediately supported the concept of data centers, where equipment is cooled by immersion in mineral oil. About this further.
')
/ photo by Robert CC
One of the companies is Horizon Computing. She introduced the solution RuggedPOD, which is part of a modular data center. The module is a 70x70x70 cm aluminum case, inside which can be placed four microATX motherboards or eight mini-ITX.
The box itself is filled with mineral oil that does not conduct electricity, in which equipment “floats”. The radiator design of the product maintains the desired temperature of the servers due to convection.
According to the developers, RuggedPOD can work outside in extreme conditions without air conditioning and humidity control for a long time. The device is connected using two cables: one is electric and the other is networked. The cost of production is low, and the simplicity of the design allows you to quickly put the system on stream.
The second company is Italian provider of cloud solutions Enter Cloud Suite (ECS), and it is in beta testing of these “containers”. According to ECS, for the work of RuggedPOD and their analogues it is enough only to control system Kubernetes.
At the summit, ECS representatives spoke about how they see the near future: the data center server modules are cooled passively, and there is no heating, ventilation or air conditioning in the building. Not even windows, because the circulation of air flow is not needed. But it works, and it works efficiently.
Why is it profitable
Immersion cooling with oil, as the name implies, means that the servers are fully immersed in an oily environment. This method is already used for cooling electrical transformers and industrial capacitors.
In the IT industry, this technology has attracted the race for more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly data centers. One example of heat transfer fluids is ElectroSafe , which is a non-toxic transparent blend of mineral oils.
The main advantage of immersion cooling is the higher thermal conductivity of the oil compared to air. Increased thermal conductivity helps the system more efficiently absorb heat and remove its excess. Such systems maintain a low CPU temperature, even if the temperature of the oil is higher than the air temperature.
If the processor is running at full power at an air temperature of 32 ° C, its average temperature will be 85 ° C. If the same processor is immersed in oil with a temperature of 34 ° C, the average CPU temperature will fall below 65 ° C. At the same time, maintaining the temperature in the oil bath at 34 ° C requires significantly less energy than maintaining the air temperature within 32 ° C.
It also allows you to bring the density of components in a single rack to 65 kW. According to the classification of the AFCOM association, already 8 kW per rack is considered a high figure.
In addition, heat transfer fluids have a higher heat capacity than air. For example, the heat capacity of the ElectroSafe oil composition is 1200 times more than the heat capacity of air. This will help in the event of an accident: the equipment will heat up to critical temperatures longer. Due to this, you can win extra time to eliminate the emergency.
Another advantage is durability. According to Alex McManis, an engineer at Green Revolution Cooling, tests show that the oil can not be changed for 15 years. This happens because the temperature of the oil is below the level at which it degrades. An additional advantage of oil cooling is protection against corrosion. Intel has not recorded any deterioration in the performance of the components in its tests.
Experts believe that the transition to alternative methods of cooling - a matter of time. As electricity prices rise, and the lack of water from an abstract problem turns into reality, data centers will have to become energy efficient and environmentally friendly in order to remain competitive in the market.
PS A few more posts from our corporate blog:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/341922/
All Articles