Data room Engineer

Datacenter Room Engineer

Daily Operations: Site data center/computer room operators must keep up with the requests, tasks, deliverables and projects through various forms of communication. These requests must be documented, and no work is to be completed without a proper SNOW ticket, task or request. Site personnel will assist with daily & weekly data tape activities. Includes: onsite tape deliveries, shipments, recalling tapes, inserting & removing tapes for associated tape libraries/robots. Complete data restore activities. Update computer room devices/equipment in ServiceNow and DC Ops maintained spreadsheets. Cabinet elevation drawings. Cable connection database. Structured cabling port capacity.

Racking Equipment: Responsible for the equipment cabinet assignments within the computer rooms based on requirements (power, space and connectivity). Racking equipment requests are provided mainly though ServiceNow change tasks or through request tickets. Racking can also be part of testing equipment, pilot installations or specific projects. Safety must be taken into account when racking equipment. All racking should be completed by two people (minimum). Racking should use the Server Lift, foot crack table lift or other available mechanical device for medium to heavy lifts. Rails and shelves should be in place first before sliding in the server, switch or other device. All servers or associated appliances must have cable management arms installed at the rear.

Unracking Equipment: Responsible for the unracking of equipment located within the cabinets and/or racks. Unrack equipment requests are provided mainly though ServiceNow disposal change tasks or through request tickets. Unracking tasks can also be part of a data center or computer room closure project. Safety must be taken into account when unracking equipment. All unracking should be completed by two people (minimum). Unracking should use the ServerLift, foot crack table lift or other available mechanical device for medium to heavy lifts. Rails, shelves and cable management arms must be removed as part of the unracking activities. Work with associated disposal groups to assist in the final disposal task when the equipment leaves the site on a truck/van (documentation). Work with groups when hard drives, data tapes or other mediums require these items to be destroyed or grinding into pieces (documentation).

Patch Cabling: New Installations. The majority of the patch cable run specifics will be provided though ServiceNow change tasks or through cabling request tickets. These tickets must provide the details required to deliver/run the patch cables (copper/fiber) to the specific servers/devices and network/SAN switches or another device. Additional connections. All additional connections required for existing devices/equipment will be provided though ServiceNow cabling request tickets. These tickets must provide the details required to deliver/run the patch cables (copper/fiber) from specific server/device ports to network/SAN switch ports or other device ports. Patch cable cleanup / removals (power cord removal). The majority of the patch cable cleanups and removals will come through ServiceNow disposal tickets. These tickets provide the details required to unplug and remove the patch cables (copper/fiber) at the server/device ports as well as the network/SAN switch ports or other device ports. The patch cables which were removed will be evaluated and placed back into inventory if the proper copper patch cable category (CAT6A) or fiber patch cable category (SM OS1/2 or MM OM4) o The remaining patch cables will be thrown away. Power cords must also be removed as part of the cleanup and/or disposal activities. The power cords which were removed will be evaluated and placed back into inventory if they are the standard – P-LOCK 2 color power cords. The remaining power cords will be thrown away.

Capacity Planning: Structured Cabling. Continuous vigilance into the usage and availability of copper & fiber patch ports. Network switch ports. Continuous vigilance into the usage and availability of copper & fiber switch ports. Storage Area Network (SAN) switch ports. Continuous vigilance into the usage and availability of fiber switch ports. Cabinet Power usage. Continuous vigilance on the power usage (AMPs) per PDU and per cabinet (both PDUs). A single PDU should be able to maintain the power for all the equipment in a cabinet.

Troubleshooting Site DC Ops personnel must have complete knowledge of: The cabling distribution within the computer room (point-to-point or structured cabling) The cabling distribution to/from the computer room The switching equipment – network & SAN switches The physical connections on every piece of equipment (servers, storage, network, tape library/robot, etc) Complete basic equipment initial configurations (ILO, IDRAC, console, etc) Network switch port configurations (port speed, duplex, VLAN, trunking, Etherchannel, tagging, etc) Used on BT network switch port configuration requests Site must have onsite cable testing tools Cleanliness All areas within the computer room must be kept clean and free of clutter. All spaces (offices, storage rooms) outside the computer room must be kept clean, without clutter and organized. The computer room must have a once a year (minimum) scheduled professional cleaning. The computer room must be clear of paper, cardboard, plastic, garbage, debris or other loose items. Loose items cannot sit on top of any piece of equipment or in any cabinet. All these items must be stored in a storage cabinet (preferably locked) inside the computer room or adjacent room(s). Bottled drinks including water, soda or other drinks are not allowed in the computer rooms Safety Working areas must be identified and outlined with safety cones. Unsafe areas must be sectioned off with CAUTION tape. Open toed shoes are not allowed inside computer room areas (includes visitors). Safety glasses must be worn when removing raised floor tiles Items & Materials Inventory An inventory of all the items and materials used in computer room must be kept up to date. Includes: patch cables (copper & fiber), locking power cords (2 colors) and other items and material required to support the computer room's daily activities (see APPENDIX for ordering template) Each site must maintain cable testing tools on hand Spare Parts Inventory Site must maintain an up-to-date inventory on spare parts on hard. Includes: servers, hard drives, RAM, server cards, etc Onsite Inventory - COD Servers & In-Inventory Servers Support the site's COD (Capacity on Demand) inventory. These COD servers will be racked in the cabinets, powered ON, cabled, switch/SAN ports configured, with or without an OS installed. Support and maintain a certain amount of In-Inventory servers. These servers are powered OFF and racked in a cabinet or stacked/stored in the computer room or storage area. The number of servers along with the server Make & Model are specified by IT Hosting. These servers will be used for replacements, new installations and parts. Besides servers, appliances or other devices/equipment may be placed into inventory Asset Reconciliation The computer room physical inventory must align 100% against the CI records in Service Now, and vise versa. Two comparisons must be completed. First – physical inventory against the CI records. Second – CI records against the physical inventory. All the discrepancies with the physical inventory records or CI records must be identified, investigated and reconciled, remediated and corrected. Ultimately, the physical inventory must match the Service Now CI records across all fields On-Call schedule Each site must have a hierarchal or rotating on-call list/schedule to cover after hours or weekend incidents when they surface Access Only individuals with permanent badge access are permitted in the computer rooms without a request or without an escort. All vendors/visitors must be escorted into the computer rooms (no exceptions). Temporary access can be granted through the datacenteraccess.Client.com website (new version to be operational soon) Projects / Future Work DC Ops will work alongside various groups and people assisting them in planning out future work and/or activities Knowledge Network connectivity throughout the computer rooms SAN connectivity throughout the computer rooms Structured cabling distribution Patch cable labeling procedures Proper patch cable routing, bundling, neatness Troubleshooting all connectivity issues Use of patch cable testers (LAN, copper & fiber) IP addressing Network switch port configurations Server ILO, IDRAC port configuration ServiceNow CMDB modules Power distribution at the cabinet level Computer room support systems (CRAC, UPS, Generator, Fire Suppression, etc) Capacity planning on all connectivity/power aspects where availability is critical Particle counter readings