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How Would You Design Your Dream Office?
An anonymous reader writes "My company is building a new office. As the local IT Guy, I've been asked to design my new office from the ground up. If you were given the opportunity to design your dream office, what features would you include? What things would you try to avoid? I get to determine absolutely everything. The catch? I have to share my office space with all the network equipment. Just 4 standard racks, and all your basic telephone and network wiring. Can anyone help me get started? I have no idea where to even begin."
The best pair of noise canceling headphones you can find. 4 racks of equipment in your office? I'd go bonkers in about a day.
Seriously, we have no idea what kind of room we have to work with, how many people you need space for, etc.
A mini-fridge, a computer, and the phone. In fact, screw the computer and phone.
If you have to share a room with the network and phone equipment, the first thing is probably a top notch AC, followed closely by noise-canceling headphones and a new job.
Chair, Desk, Computer. Now you're started.
If you're sharing space with network and server equipment, you need to make sure that there is some sort of sound barrier between the equipment area and your working area. Otherwise you will go nuts.
Also make sure there's lots of A/C ducting near the equipment, it generates a lot of heat.
This is a sig. It is like every other sig in the world, except that it is mine, and it is different.
I'd make my dream office with blackjack... and hookers! In fact, forget the office...
No, seriously, shoot for a room you close up.
Don't forget an independent HVAC too. And seriously consider sound deadening tiles. All those fans add up.
Other then that, a small desk for your laptop, and a bench for test machines.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
How much expansion do you see in the future for your network equipment?
I know I hate it when my office has to be torn down because the budgeting people never foresaw the growth we'd see. So they wouldn't put in the circuitry for the future. And when the future arrived, the walls had to come down for the power and networking to be installed all over again.
My mom says I'm cool.
Batcave Home Theater.
That's not an office. That's a "stick the IT guy in the closet so we don't have to spend money on him" room.
I would make my door lock a random game of killer sudoko, thus ensuring that management never troubled me - but was too embarrassed about looking mentally deficient to complain.
Beep beep.
an extra internal wall, stuffed full of sound insulation between you and the racks.
oh yes, and while you are designing your perfect office don't forget the supermodel PA and view over the river.
...and a nice compliment of strippers.
And enough extra AC capacity to keep the keg cool.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Well at least you're an open and forthright troll.
Ubuntu: If at first you don't succeed, blindly slap a sudo in front of it
a huge closet. I'd put all the gear in the closet, with it's own thermostat, ventilation, and alarm system. Then I'd pick out my chair and writing platform, etc for my part of the office space.
What's wrong with this picture?
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
Works for me.
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
It sounds like the last thing you would want is to be in this room since it's got 4 racks of computer equipment. Make it a proper little data centre with raised floors, air con, and a seperate power feed, and put your own desk somewhere else in the building where you can talk to people and not be deafened by all the fans spinning.
Well, its a step forward at least. Doesn't even need to be flagged.
@home
love is just extroverted narcissism
Before that new job comes through, better buy some warm clothes...
Whenever I go into the server room (no, they gave me a desk outside of the cupboard), I always wonder whether it's the cold or the noise that's making me work quicker than usual.
Ah well, a good start to the new year, poor bastard.
Thats ridiculous. Find a new job.
Raised floors are neat, you can run wiring, you can run the AC ducting under the floor, up through the server rack and out the top! Besides that you have a escape route ;). AnonyMouse
1) Separate your work area from the racks with a wall.
2) Soundproof & insulate that wall or your office will be noisy & 65 degrees F year round.
3) Make sure there's extra room in the server side of it, or your office will get taken over.
4) Your desk should face the door. Otherwise, people will always walk up behind you.
5) Get a filing cabinet, some drawers and some shelves to keep your stuff in. Whenever you get paperwork, file it if it would be troublesome to get another copy or you'll refer to it often, recycle it otherwise.
I dont care about the "office" space - i.e. where the plebs sit is of no consequence except they'll need 4 rj45 ports and 4 power ports - who really cares about the rest?
The next thing i would ask for is 2 computer rooms (raised floor, AC, etc), whack a self-contained room next to it with enough space for the admin folks with windows into the server rooms.
Add onto that either a might big plasma or a projection screen that projects onto a wall (preferably not visible outside the room "for security reasons") and a decent sound system for audio alerts from your system monitoring application and your done!.
Then when its build and no ones the wiser you whack a digital tv tuner into your "server monitoring" box and your sweet!. Oh did i mention you should also have a very decent 3d video card for the games, err monitoring box? After all you'll need a very high resolution (HD at least) for all that server monitoring info, and only the top vid cards support that.
In all seriousness though, all i'd ever want is an independent display for monitoring purposes, well sound-shielded computer location with decent power/AC, a place for building test systems, VoIP comms and everything else will just fit together.
I think you've been conned into living a closet...
Four racks, that's a server room. Refuse it. Servers need a radically different environment from humans. You don't want to be there. In a civilized country it's even illegal to work in such an environment without wearing at least hearing protection.
In your real office, make sure you've got a bench seperate from the desk your working at. Use the bench for repairing and installing computers, so the mess won't enter your desk.
This is your sig. There are thousands more, but this one is yours.
I'm going to assume thats 3 racks of hardware and 1 rack for wiring, switches and possibly a PBX? The previous heat comment can range from mild to severe depending on whats in 3 racks of equipment. If you have 30 rack mount machines pumping out heat you're going to have a small sauna to work in daily. "Simple" heat issues can become large complications when you find out where you need to route the heat, plenum considerations, incoming air and other fun things. The noise generated by even 4 servers with SCSI drives will drive you nutty after a few months (you'll hear SCSI whine in your sleep).
In short, draw diagrams, plan for thousands of watts of power consumption, plan your airflow and give more info next time.
Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
You will want to reduce heat generation as much as possible, if you can change to SSD drives that will help you, it will also reduce the cooling requirements thus getting the noise level down. Try to make sure you get good airflow past the equipment so you need less noisy fans. You proably want some sound barrier as well.
I do IT for a public school system, and we do a lot of moving workstations and other equipment in and out and to seven other buildings around town. Our office is in an older building which may be closed soon, so we have been thinking of these questions. Of course what we focus on is the shortcomings of our current space...
One essential is either to be near an elevator or on the ground floor. We also should be near a loading dock.
Ideally we would have several kinds of space near each other and on ther same floor, but separate. We need an office space where we can meet with people we serve and where we can work at our workstations with some isolation from the separate space where noisy servers and cooling equipment reside. We need a workspace where we can do mechanical work and clean workstations -- we'll be using an air compressor and vacuum cleaner to clean the dust out of machines, so we need soundproofing from the office space and we need some kind exhaust system that can collect the dust. We need storage space nearby, both for new parts and for old equipment to be scavenged.
Natural light is nice, and in our climate (New England) natural ventilation is an option more pleasant than artificial air conditioning in much or the year.
Steve McConnell has a chapter on effective productivity environments in Rapid Development. Complete with references to the studies that demonstrated the effectiveness of this layout. My copy is lent out at the moment, but it goes into such detail as the size of the office, presence of a door, amount of desk space, available whiteboard space, etc.
I'd strongly suggest reading that chapter for ideas. Then modify it according to your taste. (Some people like having lots of light, some people want little, etc.) And if anyone argues with your dream, you will have citations to back it up.
Have sound tiles installed or use sound blankets http://www.thomasnet.com/products/curtains-sound-barrier-21260203-1.html
Have the rack of equipment in its own area for climate control and physical security reasons. The machine room should be separated from the office. Also, figure at least 3 feet or 1 meter around the racks to walk around. Far too many people put the racks right up against the wall until "oops, I have to run a wire in back."
Plan for expansion.
Climate control. Redundant systems.
Media storage. Lista cabinets. http://www.listaintl.com/
Large enough desk/bench area to take apart systems. See Lista above for decent benches.
As many electrical outlets as you can make them install. Make sure the electrical service is big enough to take the load and can be upgraded for expansion.
Get good locks for the machine room.
A refrigerator, pull out couch, and beer cooler.
--
BMO
And where are you going to put the ramp to wheel equipment up the extra 2 feet? Unless this is the basement and you can excavate and pour another slab, raised floors either need a lot of room to get into and out of, or they need their own floor (as in, "this entire first floor of this building is for the raised floor"). You won't have much luck convincing an architect to cut a 10x20' hole in a post-tensioned slab.
Just put the rack cabinets where you want them (3.5' of clearance in front, 2' to at least one side and the rear) and the plywood/OSB wall-o-punchdown-blocks where you want them, and install ladder racking between them so that all of the cables are organized and out of the way. Also, delivering each power circuit through conduit to receptacle boxes at the top of each rack cabinet is a really clean way of doing it - it prevents anyone from tripping over any power cords.
I suspect that a large percentage of raised-floor proponents haven't spent much time underneath one.
Step 1: Design the rackspace with +50% expansion planned (given that this is only planned for switchgear and PBX equipment, this should be ample - the datacentre should be in the next room. If it isn't, find out why not). Then seal it from the rest of the room. A cold-corridor 3x2 rack system would do the trick nicely with its own raised-floor, roof ducted AC and a dedicated HVAC. Between that and your office space, studded drywall with floor-to-ceiling sound lagging. Don't forget you need 18 inches all round the rack for service access.
/you/ need for office space. For box building, you need a comfortable 1m of bench per unit. For desk space, a minimum of 1.3m.
Step 2: figure out what
Go from there, let us know what you make of it.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
I would add a coach and a shower, so you could ski or run to work, and take that critical 20-minute nap at 2:30. If you are the kind of employee that can't manage yourself with a coach nearby, then you probably aren't getting much work done in my office anyway. I'd also make the meeting room near the front on the ground floor, with a large window facing the street. It's better to be open aware of your surroundings than to be couped up in a cuby maze. cuby mazes suck.
-P
Build a dream server room for your racks and wiring install. As for the office keep it simple, decorating accordingly with Dilber posters and other clever techie things, and definatly keep it out of the the dream server room. Well unless you like to be cold and don't want to hear anything being said to you by your boss.
Insert funny smart-ass comment here.
Switches and phone equipment can be very quiet, assuming no servers are going into this room most of the earlier advice is moot...however, one has to ask where your company's servers ARE going to go? Things to keep in mind if this is a newly constructed building: condensate lines need to run to the room for the AC system, room needs LOTS of power (add a few 220 circuits for good measure), and it might be a good idea to plan where you would eventually have generators installed in the building and run lines from there so you'll have them later. Make sure there's a way to get water out of the room FAST (sloping floors to a large drain). You could go crazy with a halon fire system. Good anchor points in the ceiling allow for installation of a single-hanging-point hammock, which I've always found to be welcome in an IT dungeon.
First Step, set a realistic budget.
Second Step, trim 10% off the budget.
Third Step, start making a list of items you need in an office.
Fourth Step, take your list, and strip out all the things you "want" but aren't really needs.
Fifth step, add all your wants to the second list and add on.
Then start by taking your budget and prioritizing your needs, and wants, finding less expensive but suitable options for items you need/want but are too pricey. The gold plated air cushioned chair is a combination of need (a chair) and want (gold plating / air cushioning).
Add or delete according to budget, and priority.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
If 4 racks of equipment you're talking about consist of active equipment (active as in "which has fans and/or hard drives", such as switches, routers and servers) then there is only one way to go: resign and find a better job. I don't know whether you know how much noise a full server rack makes, but if you don't, trust me: you do not want to work in a room with server racks. Ever.
If they're just some patch panels you're ok. Try making your office a place where you *feel* good rather than something where you *work* well. Good quality lamps, nice desk and a good chair spring to mind.
and if that fails, a kegerator.
or have i got that backwards?
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Sitting on your desk, labeled very clearly "Main power shutoff". then when you have visitors over, just keep edging over the button and watch people shit a brick as you accidentally press it.
For linux tips: http://www.linuxtipsblog.com
Step 1. Relocate my office to the shores of Arenal Lake in Costa Rica.
Step 2. Throw out all the computers.
Step 3. Don't worry about profits.
Yes, I know there's supposed to be a "?????" in there somewhere. Meh. Being a beach bum is it's own reward.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Get a cube with Tall sound absorbing walls, now double that wall thickness, ceiling partitions should be the same. Also include a door on the cube, the noise will be an issue.
:)
Get a modular wire system for the cube walls, you might even ask for a modular fiber patch panel system, there is a nice 6 port one on the market. You can run extra cat 5 for the speaker cables.
Run overhead wire rack system.
Cooling is the only thing under the raised floor.
You might want to carpet the cube area with a static resistant flooring that can help insulate the room from sound, static elec, and help keep it warmer then the 65ish your computers will need.
If you can install your own venting then you should be better off in the desk area.
The sad part is you will need to make sure the fire system has a stay/standby/hold button near your desk and your desk should be near to the main server door, as in 5 seconds max. These buttons generally only put the fire system on hold as long as you hold them in, once released you have a set amount of time to get out.
Badge security on the main door to get into the server room, so not just anyone can walk in, physical security of the servers is important. Also this gives peace of mind if you can get the noise down to a passable level.
I personally would love to have a desk system made out of legos, this way I could build any extra things later I'd think were useful. Dont forget an extra 100k legos so you get it in the budget for the new building. Perhaps just the surfaces in lego, that might work.
Make sure you get low heat lighting that isn't going to strain your eyes, server room lighting sucks for reading white paper print or certain computer screens.
Sounds like you can design your office anyway you want, as long as you can pick the items out of an Office Furniture catalog that the secretary has. Oh, and don't bother looking past page 200, but you can pick whatever you want.
If they are serious...
- Sound proofing around the racks to protect your hearing.
- An Arena Multi-screen Display from www.digitaltigers.com.
- Large flatscreen TV or two to mounted on the walls to display network monitoring screens
"See, everything is green...."
- Vault door (So you can hide)
- Swipe card and keypad entry (Make sure only your card works)
- Video camera in hallway outside door (To see who's disturbing you)
- Phone mounted in hallway next to the vault door (On second thought, scratch that)
- Fridge full of RedBull
- Safe (To lock up the vodka^H^H^H^H^H valuables...)
Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)
I've been in this position a couple of times - this is my advice.
1) A combination lock on the main door.
2) Sound Proof Cabinet for Server Equipment (this is critical)
3) Extra Strength AC (for the Heat)
4) Raised floor beneath the rack area (for static electrical discharge)
5) Seperate Light Switch (I like working in dim lighting)
6) Large (32" or so) LCD panel for the wall - use it for monitoring status of the cabinets
7) a minimum of 500 sq feet (to make up for the server cabinets - and provide room for technicans to work.
8) Surround Sound Stereo System for Audible alerts.
9) Strong grounded UPS for all of the above
10) A color scheme distinct from the rest of the office (hint - dark blues/black/navy are good)
11) Fire proof door to the office (security rated) to prevent theft
12) A seperate room for parts storage and warehousing
Don't share the office space with the network equipment. Required environmental conditions are different for equipment from those for humans. Basically, it appears you have been told by your managers that you won't have an office/cubicle. You have been asked to use server room/data center/it-lab/whatever while them and the others get to have their own personal office space. If you don't have a choice, you should get yourself winter outfits and nice big noise-canceling headphones. Well.. a mountaineering outfit or Santa's outfit should also work well.
Honestly, if you're going to be sharing an office with all the equipment, I'd first make sure that the machine room is nice and insulated to keep all that A/C in, then have a partition built between you and the equipment with a couple of big double paned windows so you can still see all the blinky blinky, going on.... and a good strong fire rated door between you and the machine room.
If you have enough room, I would have two doors that lead to the exterior, one that leads directly into your office area, and one that leads into the machine room, both good solid doors with good heavy locks. That way, you won't have people traipsing through your office to get to the machine room, and vice versa.
Install your own HVAC for you office partition.... unless you enjoy 60 degree weather. It will also be an advantage if your fire suppression system is ever activated!!
-M@
Look at yourself! Here you are..IT GUY...MR Know it all! Can't even figure out how to design a dream office and yet your type goes on and complains how they would change the world if given a chance. Way to go Einstein! Good Luck!
Rent yourself few old good james bond 007 movies like Dr No. The evil guy always have nice design in their lair/office and dont forget to ask for a bond girl as secretary
1. Your desktop PC looks like a valid place for fingerprint authentication (or other high security methods).
2. You want cable locks on the desktop gear, and if you use a laptop, a way to lock it in a drawer or to a cable system. Ideally, in your position, you don't want to take a laptop with admin info back and forth ever, and certainly not every day, but if you have to do it at all, you want a way to secure it all set up in advance, locks, encryption, programs that call home if it's stolen, and so on.
I've seen pretty good security policies backfire, when the CTO decides that, since it should never be necessary to put passwords or other sensitives on a laptop and take them out of the building, the company doesn't need to plan for that contingency, so when something comes up that forces it, they have no backup security plan at all.
3. If you are remotely administering any user machines, your monitor resolution needs to be at least as good as the very biggest you administer. If the CEO has a 34" diagonal flat screen, so should you, or better!
3a. You probably need a dual monitor setup for other reasons, but don't think two 19" CRTs will substitute for whatever you need in point 3, unless everyone in the company is still on one 19" CRT or less.
4. You need to encrypt - good software for that can be free these days, but your hardware should all work with your encryption and be up to speed for it. You need to time the system encrypting a large file, and be prepared to throw more memory at it if the time looks at all like a problem. Remember what looks tolerable to do occasionally may become onerous if you have to do it every day.
5. Re-read #4, but substitute the word back-up as appropriate. You need to be able to back-up fast enough that you are not tempted to skip backing up just because you'll be the last one out of the building if you do.
Who is John Cabal?
Add room for more then one IT guy as that may happen one day and you would not want to be in the same room as 2+ guys + a work bench + the severs + network equipment and so on.
A big breasted co-worker across the hall from me in a glass-walled office, a HUGE window near a set of nice pine trees, and any computer(s) that I wanted/needed, any time. No one bothered me, and almost all communication was over email, unless some fool called a meeting, leaving verbal conversations to nothing other than about lunch or bugs.
Also, I had the freedom to decorate my office any way that I chose to, play music, or do just about anything else I wanted to do, as long as Exchange Server shipped on time.......
Microsoft, mid 90s and for a few years after, was like geek nirvana. Then of course, women RUINED it.
Its a JOKE, bitches. A joke.
I'd vote for power, phone and network outlets at desk height.
Exactly you can't work in the same room as servers and network equipment an IT Department in an office needs ideally three areas.
1. Server room. So cold that you need to add two layers of clothing when you go in. It should have tiled and raised floors and separate AC power circuit.
2. Secure storage area, your server room is not a dumping ground for unused hardware, boxes of wires, software and whatever else that has a plug.
3. Work area, in addition to a desk with triple screen linked to a kvm for your desktop and laptop you need a work surface on which you can do hardware repair and configuration.
An infinite supply of hot pockets.
The racks aren't sharing your office, you are sharing their closet. Ask yourself this: in an economic down turn, would they fire you or the computer?
Unless they are silent rack, shut the door and get a cube.
I don't care what people think, every study has shown that background noise reduces productivity.
Now, on with office design:
Minimal. Get a nice looking chair, and ample desk. If you actually NEED it, a book shelf. Anything you can easily look up digitally doesn't need a physical book.
The less stuff you have to put stuff, the less stuff you'll having lying around.
Nobody every got a raise/promotion for being a slob. I don't care if you know where everything is, being neat is more productive, and more importantly it looks more professional.
If yuo have a degree, and the company management culture embraces is, hang it on your wall.
Look, at some point your going to want to rake in 150K plus and send your kids to private school. At that point, I gaurantee you the money will be more important then what you do.
In hind sight, I wish someone had taught me those lessons when I first got into the industry.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It's not a catch...it's a trap !
____
nico
Nico-Live
Don't get fooled... they want to put you in a server room. It will be your nightmare, not your dream room.
You are an idiot if you accept to sit with your servers, switches, etc.
Having you design it is a trap. Simply provide the requirements and make them design it to the requirements.
1. Window with a view of the outside world (not a wall or something stupid).. This is great as it lets you momentarily focus on things other than the issue at hand..
2. Door with a lock.. What can I say.. nap at lunchtime..
3. Room for at least your Desk + 2 guest chairs
4. The ambient noise in the room must not exceed the sound of the desktop computer under the desk.. helps you maintain your sanity.. see #1..
If you are going to house four racks then the area designated for them should house more room than you currently need. If you grow 20% per year for 5 years you will probably be up near 9-10 racks. Have its own cooling controls. Have its own backup power. Have a seperate door with a lock (that janitors can NOT open)..
I have all the above as a sysadmin.. well #4 isnt perfect because even though I am 40' from the datacenter the AC units can still be heard through the walls..
Programming will no longer be sedentary work. We will walk around in sunlight and fresh air while programming, and get plenty of exercise doing it.
Or, you could get a big, cushy recliner, and a swivel rack that holds a huge LCD monitor, and a keyboard and mouse tray.
-- Subvert the dominant paradigm. Repeat as desired. http://ownlifeful.com/
Yeah, he's sitting in a closet, basically, but there is that element of privacy which you don't get in a cube. And his cheap-a$$ employer probably turns down the heat in winter, after-hours and on weekends, when IT guy will no doubt find himself deployed, so he can keep warm from the heat generated by the servers and won't have to freeze his a$$ off. In summer, perhaps he can wear tank tops, the better to show off his tattoos. He didn't say what kind of business he works for. Maybe he likes interacting with his co-workers, maybe not. The more he hides out, the more they will have to come looking for him and be all polite and apologetic for asking him to fix or do anything, and the more grateful and astounded they will be at his wizardry. With a cellphone, he may be able to spend quite a lot of time out in the parking lot smoking cigarettes and/or getting a breath of fresh air.
Happy Boxing Day to All!
First of all, consider the safety aspects. If you're going to be the only human being in there, either by design or because any other team members will be absent for any length of time, what will you do if there's a fire in one of the racks, or an electrical accident?
Just installing fire-supression is more cure than prevention and it doesn't stop you getting injured if the fire is between you and the exit.
If you're surrounded by electrical equipment, I would hope you company would enforce a ban on liquids (coffee etc.) in the room. If they don't do this from the outset, they will as soon asn health and safety get sight of theplan - or someone spills a drink over the equipment. How will you deal with that?
Finally, expect that over time, more and more equipment will get moved into the room and it will encroach on your "office" space. Where will you personally draw the line? When it becomes a general store room? When the cleaner starts leaving their buckets on your desk?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
You could then wire various sensors to the room for temp, sound levels, humidity, fire, water, etc. This also is a chance to enhance security for the room can further be isolated with locks that only a select few have keys to, or perhaps and entire security system can be installed with sophisticated locks.
Access all of this via a control room next to it that is human user friendly. Make no mistake, what could be termed as "creature comforts" are efficient for the company. Food storage and production devices saves time that the human operator wastes seeking sustenance. Many such devices will augment and enhance the performance of the human operator, i.e. a quality coffee machine serves to boost the human operators awareness and energy levels.
Human operators are subject to emotional levels that can sometimes dip low and effect performance. Hence moral enhancement should be factored into the human operator's environment. Such devices as a quality stereo have proven to augment human operator moral to higher levels.
Do not ignore the synergy between the optimal environments for both man and machine when you seek to couple them for optimal performance. To ignore such factors would indeed be illogical.
Take the Red Pill.
That way you don't get stuck in the basement.
Have gnu, will travel.
Ideally, you'd have a ton of cash, plenty of time and space, and clear constraints from your management about growth and uptime. Of course, if any business operated like that, they'd be bankrupt already, so you'll probably get a small stipend for construction and move-in, no idea how many people you'll have to support, and a tiny little chunk in the middle of the building for your new digs.
Once you get what info you can, I'd suggest creating a list of priorities addressing the following issues:
Once you have the server portion of your office set up, I'd look for ways to make yourself comfortable. This is where it gets way more personal, but consider how many people will be on your staff, how much equipment you'll need, a workbench, network monitoring display (and sound system for switching over to movie mode), and always remember to FACE THE DOOR with your monitor in front of you... it's good feng shui, and your boss won't see when you're playing poker online.
Good luck, and have fun!
Cheers!
There is a reason why IT- and Communication-Equipment is usually stored inside secure and locked rooms. There are usually very valuable information and data at risk.
Your management is either crazy, insanely stupid or stingy or a combination of these. Even if they deny you the workplace a human beeing shall deserve (have you thought about switching jobs?), they should not deny the security aspects.
Decide how much Room you will need for your racks and double or triple it for future expansion so you don't get blamed for not expecting expansion, thats the server room now design your office with a nice door with a nice lock and glass window looking into the room so you can see when your servers erupt in flames and see anyone working in there(cuts down on the porn choking your connection. This also makes it somewhat sound proof also a nice back drop for anyone that walks into the office so they can look and remember "these are the guys that read my email, I better be nice."
first they have to invent flying/hovering trailers
Table-ized A.I.
DON'T LET THEM STICK YOU WITH THE MACHINES.
The machines are noisy, they are hot, and they need way too cool A/C. The machines need to go into a machine room.
Don't be a chump, you're just ruining it for the rest of us.
Just throw in the stupid racks and telephone wiring in anyway you want then tell your bosses you're telecommuting. Home isn't the best office, but at least you don't have to commute.
Start from the ground up with basic building infrastructure such as power, cooling, and wiring. There is nothing worse than setting up a new office and then scrambling to deal with circuits tripping and overheating servers. Its hard to be more specific without knowing what kind of gear you using. If it's like any other office move/opening that I have done a lot of your design will be based upon the current setup. Are you reusing equipment? What are the pain points in your current network and IT infrastructure? Is heating and/or power an issue that has you coming in on nights and weekends or keeping you awake at night? Where are the performance bottlenecks in your current environment? If your business relies on traditional back-office applications or large file transfers it might be time to upgrade your switches and consider 10GbE uplinks. If you are moving to web apps you might want to think about getting a bandwidth upgrade while you have the chance. If you have been thinking about virtualization consider doing it now instead of after you move. If you are running out of storage or have a disk bottleneck this might be the time to install a SAN. These are the kind of questions I ask myself when doing an office move.
Here are a few really general things that I have learned from setting up SMB IT infrastructures.
Consider collocation if you are near a major city or internet backbone. It's worth it.
Power is something you need to do the math on yourself and don't assume that electricians are going to know how much power you will need for a "server room". Assuming 4 fully loaded racks of midrange DELL/HP rack mount servers with redundant power supplies I would want at minimum 2 (120V 20A) dedicated circuits per rack. Most reputable server vendors list power consumption numbers and always make sure to leave yourself enough headroom for growth beyond what the executive types are telling you about. Don't forget about battery backup power, and get the ones with ethernet management ports and configure them. If you are like me and Electrical Engineering is not a core competency do your homework.
Push for dedicated air conditioning system, and use the building system as a backup. All that hot air has to exhaust somewhere so keep that in mind when you are choosing your server room. Don't assume that the HVAC guys really understand how much heat 4 racks of servers will be putting off, do your homework. Make sure to get an environment sensor with a camera, something like the NetBotz product from APC.
If you don't have good physical security, now is the time.
Make sure that you have good network wiring and wire management in and outside the server room. Say no to spaghetti networks and residential networking switches crammed into nooks in the walls. I'm a big fan of putting in conduit where I can to future proof the network.
Without knowing more about your environment and the company that you work for that's about all I can say. Make sure that you have a good foundation and if it's option consider collocation, even big IT shops are doing it.
Partition a server room with heavily insulated walls and extra A/C.
Make it a separate room. The insulation will help with the heat and the noise.
For 4 racks of servers, plus all the structured wiring for you office.... make it 4 meters by 8 meters. This assumes that you have a separate battery room. You'll need at least one electrical circuit per rack, probably two. And figure it for 8+ racks right now, so maybe 15-20 circuits.
Then, in your office... put a single RJ-45 jack right next to the door. That should be all you need.
Then determine a wall between you and the equipment.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Seriously, if you've been given the opportunity to spec a room for equipment, do it right. The last thing you want is some heat-generating, water-vapor-producing meat bag rolling around on an office chair, piling up combustible paper, and opening the door fifty times a day. Get yourself a real office and a separate server/equipment room, so you can properly control the climate and secure each according to the needs of the occupants.
Better, make sure there is no line of sight from the door to your desk. That way no-one can see if you're sitting behind it without coming into the room.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Besides being noisy, it's going to be really warm in there. I'd take whatever airflow you think you're going to need and double it. You can always close off vents if it gets too chilly, but you can't do much if the flow is at maximum and it's still too hot.
Noise is going to be a significant problem. There's a (one, single) bad fan in the wiring closet closest to me, and I can just barely hear it with the door closed. With the door open, it's a banshee. Imagine living in the same room. Cube partitions aren't going to help.
Were it me, I'd turn down the offer and request a regular cube, somewhere away from the equipment.
Ron
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Make sure to figure out what the fire prevention solution is. Overhead sprinklers are a bad idea in a server room. Also if you can avoid having any generic plumbing over your server room try to make sure that happens. These specs also give you an excuse to keep the space in the future, if they want to move the server room for some reason.
"Sometimes it's hard to tell the dancer from the dance." --Corwin Of Amber in CoC
I'd want a heads up display of network activity somewhere. Maybe a big widescreen LCD, 50"?
Actually...I'd say I needed two and then use one for movies, those noise cancelling headphones? they also work great as movie headphones =)
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
I concur- big, bright lights and shiny surfaces. I hope it's not his OWN retina that he's mapping.
We at slashdot are scientists, specialists and kernel hackers. Your FUD will be found out.
Oh, I've always wanted to design my own office.
Okay, first item: windows. Let's make them open. On second thought, let's do away with the walls so we don't need them. Now we're going to need a hammock, which means some trees. Palm trees. Which like white sand to grow in, of course. If you're going to have white sand you're going to HAVE to have an ocean. Plop a kayak in it for coffee breaks.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html
The dream office.
1. ocean view, on a hillside overlooking the ocean, large picture window.
2. wood paneling, carpet, no other offices in sight, private, silent.
3. no computer equipment visible other than a couple of lcd monitors, keyboard and mouse.
4. extensive organic food deli within short walking distance
5. no cars within 300 ft of building, except for my own private parking space of course
6. large extensive world class research library next door with unlimited resources
7. no boss, no projects, fat paychecks
You ask about dream office, and then you describe nothing but things that I would burn before allowing into my dream office.
Rephrase the question as: "I'm Milton from Office Space. How best can my closet/commode be arranged so that I will wait the longest amount of time before going postal on my co-workers?"
I had a Keyzone Kell cabinet for my servers and network gear in my office. http://www.keyzone.com/tech/kell_cabinets.htm They are located in England but they are excellent. You need to make sure you have UPS power to the cabinet and have external 24/7/365 air conditioning to that rack also. The main thing is my office was just above the the data center so that is how they routed UPS power and AC (chilled water system lines) to the rack area. It was very quiet enough that most people never knew that big cabinet was a server and network rack. You should use a remote KVM switch to manage the servers without opening the cabinet except to insert CD and the like.
To keep your productivity up, make sure there's only one chair (yours) and make sure it's comfy.
In my dreams, there are no offices.
Things to avoid: Wireless. Humans have not evolved to deal with radiation at these frequencies. Just say no. You don't need it. Sure, I'll modded down or labeled as a flake. I don't care. Neither should you. Go wired and stay that way. Stephen Use a mobile phone a lot? Suffering from short term memory loss? Wonder why?
Don't forget to check out OSHA rules (assuming you're in the US - if not, s/OSHA/your local occupational health authority/) regarding noise levels. Depending on how much crap you have, it may make cross the limit for an unprotected workplace environment - which will either lead to you getting an office in another room (good outcome), or you getting your ass fired (bad outcome).
Cue The Sun...
It's mundane, but you can never have too many electrical outlets. Install lots of them, at different levels so you always have one accessible.
You want two or three partitions in this room. Refer to the server area as the "server room" and your desk area as your "office." If there's a large enough entry/path area, call that either the "entryway" or the "foyer" ... this establishes the room as a suite and helps distinguish between your space and the IT department's space (even if the dept. is currently just you). Put a nameplate or whatever on the outside of the door (or next to it) that says "IT Suite" or thereabouts (you can even put the subdivisions under it, with your name and "Server Room" getting separate entries).
Give yourself a corner desk, either an L-shape or a U-shape. You want to face the door, so this means one side of the desk follows the wall and another side sticks out into the room so that you have to walk around three sides of it to sit at your chair (this partitions the foyer and the office). Put a big shelving unit in the foyer so that people can come in and grab things without disturbing you (or falling out of your peripheral vision).
The "server room" portion should be well partitioned (hopefully with a floor-to-ceiling wall), specifically for insulation against noise and climate control (make sure those rack fans are pointed away from your desk!). It should also have an operating table, specifically always clear so that if something breaks you have space to work on it. The best way to ensure it is always clear is to have it as an island (against no wall); all walls should have shelves or racks so that the table never gets pushed against a wall. The server room portion should either have a raised floor or a ceiling with easy-access drop-down power conduits and network lines (this solves the issues of an island table, and makes for a much easier environment to maintain). The trash can should be near the door (or outside it) so that the janitor doesn't mess anything up, and the room should lock with a different key than the one to your office (the janitor shouldn't have access to it). You move the trash outside the server room when you go home (if it's full) and move it back into the server room as needed.
Put at least one waist-high shelf right by the door to the server room for cups and food, and leave an empty cup there to help remind people (including yourself) to keep food out of the server "room."
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
An office without a dvorak keyboard is not an office worthy of your work.
Consider getting your racks from Kell Systems. (www.kellsystems.com)
They are not cheap, but they reduce the sound dramatically.
I don't work for them, I'm just a happy customer...
Except for your sanity? No thanks.
As previously noted: Pick the quietest air circulation available and make sure that your office space is isolated from the fan noise. If you don't have air conditioning being brought in for the racks make sure there is at least an exhaust fan to dump the waste heat. (Don't laugh, I've seen network racks installed without additional air conditioning.) Make sure there is room to work around the racks. Lockable storage. Desk and workstation for office and administrative stuff. Workbench with storage for tools for server surgery. Your desk should not have to double as a workbench.
If you really have to share a room with all that equipment you should get something like this.
That noise is going to pose a serious risk to your hearing in short order. Check various regulations & OSHA guidelines.
Get 'em to give you windows that face outside so you can get natural light. Note that I mean windows as in the thing you look through, not the software everyone here loves to hate :)
I've worked in offices both with and without windows and there is no comparison to being able to see real light during the day.
Neil
...is another man's IT Kingdom.
Firstly, with that huge amount of rack equipment, you'll need to either separate yourself from it with a wall, or you'll freeze from the constant A/C that is required and go nuts from the noise as previously stated.
For the more mundane details:
- Cable Management. Try to build the room with cable management in mind. Where do the cables go? I wouldn't mention this if you hadn't mentioned the racks. It sounds like you're building a server room that you're going to put your primary machine in. That's great and all, but that's also still "The Server Room" and not "An Office" with carpet and quiet.
- Power sources. Off the ground, preferably over your head.
- Different colored cabling. The more precise you can get this, the easier it is to find/test/figure out problems. "The web servers are on the green cabling and the file server on red" is one of the most appreciated phrases ever when things go wrong.
- Room to grow. You've grown this much so far. In five years you're going to have more machines in there. Can you handle it and still have "your side"?
- Has your management taken into account the noise factor?
- Monitor arm. Now you can install one of these! I heard these were sweet and I think it'd be really cool (dream, right?)
- Fire protection system. Being in the vicinity of those servers will probably put you very close to their fire protection. Have you thought about what systems you want to keep them safe?
- What about Water protection, if that's a consideration?
- RJ11 and RJ45 jacks. Put jacks everywhere, even if they're not being used. You can never have too many jacks or wires run.
- Filing cabinets, shelving, etc. Just wanted to mention that.
- Build a floor plan in a flowcharting program. Map out EVERYTHING. Where you want everything to go and everything to face. (Face the door as someone said earlier). There are plenty of neato Web 2.0 flowcharting programs, or just download a demo copy of Visio or something (if you have a mac, use OmniGraffle -- and for that matter, use it every day for all sorts of things, that program rules!)
- Media storage cabinet. You may want to look into something like this if you're keeping track of server backups, etc.
That's all I can think of at the moment.
And hookers!
No matter what you come up with they're going to tell you it's way over budget, and you'll end up at a desk in a corner of the server room.
(go even further.)
OSHA has something to say about the matter.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Since I haven't seen Joel on Software's "Bionic Office" article yet, I'll post it here. The big takeaway: minimize noise and maximize convenience.
How about a ground level or 2nd floor office with a window? Maybe hang a plant.
Seriously! People might get to know you. Treat you like a human. Even invite you to parties. Or a staff meeting. Say thanks now and then as they walk by. Ask if something's feasible or possible before ordering you to implement major changes on 10 hours' notice.
For some reason I'm reminded of this article from The Onion:
Stoner Architect Drafts All-Foyer Mansion
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38734
KVM (scale for 2+ growth) in server room with long cables through sound proof wall to IT/Admin office space with 32in or better multi-WU/QSXGA/HDMI monitor, try Humanscale Freedom chair with headrest, adjustable desk/work surfaces, armature mount the monitor, get a good tool box ... so much ... so many ... so ....
... so much ... so many ... so ....
...) ... so much ... so many ... so ....
Anyway, make sure the server room has (4*Rackspace to move/work around) the required power, AC, easy access (re)configuration, anti-static mats/carpet, take your racks a few inches off the floor for cable runs, keep your racks a foot or more from the ceiling (convection can be a life-saver) put heat-generators on top-spaces of racks
Make sure that your IT/Admin and server spaces are well separated (sound/temp), and keep storage in a room down the hall, if you ain't using it or working on it, then put the shit in storage or file it, get it out of the way. Also, anything with a serial-number keep record of where it is and the status (good to go, needs work, ready to junk
!HAVEFUN! Make your work as easy as possible, Make your space as creature comfortable as possible, and neat always impresses management when there are problems, because they know you are to well-kept to be the cause of any IT problem (It must be the last M$SP (software patch) update.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
...is all I need. No matter how it looks as long it has windows to the outside on all 4 sides. Yes, I mean it.
You're in a classic situation of "We're reorganizing so that executives, accounting and marketing are getting brand new offices/raises/perks/etc. How can we screw the IT guy while making him *think* we're giving him a good office too?"
I know... Don't give him an office at all. Instead, collocate him with the equipment and trick him into thinking it's his *new*, *cool* "techie" office.
Dude, you're screwed. get another job or some comfy ear plugs.
I will never live for sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
...get a hot secretary
Seriously. If you have no idea where to begin, perhaps you shouldn't be doing it.
The most problematic thing I come across is that when you run from your racks to your patch panels, the switches are usually located FAR away from the actual patches. This makes an entanglement of wires that is IMPOSSIBLE to fix.
If you are smart, your patch cabinet should have patches above, and below your set of switches. You should make room for some redundancy -- if a switch goes out, you need room to swap in and out easily. You should *NOT* make it so that your patch cables go OUT OF THE SAME PATCH CABINET. If you do your interconnects properly (fiber from switch to switch), you need only a single fiber cable to run from each cage to a fiber cage.
Heed my warnings, because once you try to fix what is reasonably unfixable, you will wonder what I was talking about.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
1) Hot secretary sitting outside
2) Giant, twin mahogany doors
3) Giant windows overlooking the Boston Harbor or some other body of water
4) Balcony overlooking said body of water
5) At least 30 stories from the ground
6) Big desk
7) Comfortable leather chair
8) Hot secretary
9) Not-so-mini mini bar
10) Mini golf game
11) Phone with speaker-phone and an accessible mute button
12) HiFi stereo
13) Nice big-screen television
14) Only computer-related equipment is a laptop (no printer, this is why I have a hot secretary)
15) Hot secretary
Mod parent up: no job is worth the permanent hearing damage a rack of servers will cause
We looked at some new office space, and it was a relatively large space, with windows all the way around, with a relatively wide sill, somewhere around a foot. I suggested that we extend it another two feet, and have it lined with strippers.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
1 eMail is designated protocol for all routine communication
2 everyone will use a cell phone. no desk phones and no voice mail. everyone expected to take their calls.
3 Solaris
4 paperless: no scheduled prints; all reports go to online print server such as LRS
5 scanner, but no fax machine
Joel of Joel on Software has written a few article on this subject. You might want to check out what he did.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Don't forget the key to those extra boxes of wires: throw out stuff that you know doesn't go anywhere! I went through our inventory (consisting of boxes of tangled cables, old hardware, etc). I brought an intern with -- untagled them, tied them, and slapped a sticky address label with the current date on them. Any cord I didn't know what it went to, or a funky piece of hardware I'd never seen used, got thrown in a box. Anything that sat beyond 6 months was moved to more permanent storage; anything that wasn't used within 18 months got recycled.
Hardware and extra cables, etc that never get used cost more than you think in both time, storage, etc costs.
Make sure any "dream office" has plenty of smaller, lockable storage. I prefer the smaller filing cabinets that have the top-opening doors. If you can get real cabinets, go for it. Make sure they have adjustable shelves or you'll be cursing that you can't fit the old server box in because the shelf was installed 1/3" too low.
When you move, make sure you organize EVERYTHING. Do not put ANYTHING away until it's properly labeled, cataloged, tied up, dusted, and sorted. If you move with a pile of shit, you'll never catch up (unless you have an endless supply of interns).
A door would be nice for a start. If that isn't possible, I'd settle for a screen door on my cubicle ala Kramer.
same situation. the space was large enough to split into two rooms. the door to the server room was in the back of my office. i had them install A/C units in both rooms, telling them if it got too hot in the server room I could open the door and run the second unit. that got me private A/C, and in that building it came in handy.
desk was not in line of sight to the door, so people had to walk in to see if I was there. ran a usb camera to the door so I could see them coming. had the only office with a lockable door, using the same justification as the second A/C. If I had to leave the server room open I would have to lock my door when I left.
I work in IT at an Australian university where non-management staff sit in an open area full of desks. There are no barriers between desks. This means constant background noise, no privacy and very little personal space. It is near impossible to do any type of work requiring deep concentration, or even reading manuals and documentation. Yet those managers with offices are rarely even in their offices. Most likely attending business lunches or on golf days. Basically the general staff are treated like dirt. I guess some middle manager gets a big bonus for squeezing such large numbers of staff into a small area, reducing the overall space requirements and rental costs for the organisation.
I would kill for the kind of partitioned cubicles they had in the movie 'Office Space'. I'd even be happy to move into Storage B with Milton.
My first thoughts would revolve around Noise, Heat, Electricity, Connectivity and Physical Security.
Electricity: Minimally, a 110 V 20A twist lock receptical for each server rack. Realistically, that might mean 6000 watts of heat that you need to take away.
Cooling: You need more cooling than the number of watts that can be dissipated through the electrical system leading into the room. There are standard conversions for watts of heat to BTU. Then add the ASHRAE standards of heat for the number of people that will be in the area. If you can't get this much cooling, stop right there.
Sound: Racks of servers sound like jet airplanes taking off. All the time. You do NOT want to be near them at the place you call your office without some serious sound control. They are loud and annoying and you will not want to be near them for any length of time. If you haven't been around server racks, then you'll have to take everyone's word for it. If you have, you already know.
Connectivity: You'll want overhead wiring trays to route power, fiber, coax and Cat cables from the walls to the racks overhead. I like dedicating a rack to connectivity distribution so I can close the door on the mess it always becomes. A 4x8 sheet of plywood on one wall will serve to mount punchdown blocks.
Physical Security. Get a solid wood core or metal door on the server room and put a lock on it. Seal it for sound. That door stays locked all the time. Part of the physical security is also fire control, so you'll need some way to control fire and report it to a central station. Also, the door should be under access control if possible.
Each of these topics leads to much more complexity and you'll need to explore each of these quite a bit before you start purchasing.
And, after all that is laid out, you can use some of the left over space to create a nice office that is not in the same room as the servers. There were lots of good points made above and I hope you have enough square feet to pull this off correctly. If you don't, make a nice server room and beg an office somewhere else in the building.
Other things to consider. Data Backups (offsite too), UPS Power, Emergency Power, Spare Parts, Disaster Recovery, Redundant Connectivity, Lighting, Out of Band control, Contingency Fund, Storage, Work Bench, etc....
We should start referring to processes which run in the background by their correct technical name... paenguins.
Unfortunately, I'm stuck with all three. I've only been there a few months, and I was hired into a computer room move that included moving the network admin's office into the server room. It really does suck...at the time I moved into that office, we were moving out of an office building (no one is sure why...possibly for cost savings) and into the front of one of the plants and we didn't have any extra space.
Personally, I don't mind the cold of the AC. It's nice to have a 65 degree office all year round, especially when it is 110 w/ the heat index in summer. The noise from servers and the phone system, and the perpetual mess, constantly bother me. I can't have conversations, meet with vendors, or use speakerphone when I'm in my office, and whenever we get new hardware, I'm surrounded by boxes and machines until I can get everything deployed.
Make sure you can get a separate office away from your server/network room, otherwise you will be miserable.
My Sysadmin Blog
"Can anyone help me get started? I have no idea where to even begin.""
Guess you want the nerd answer? Make a map of your office in Quake. The real answer can be one of two choices. One of those CAD programs ment for doing buildings, and the other is Google's Sketchup.
- Noise control. You'll be on the phone, possibly conference calls with vendors to solve problems. Make sure the acoustics in the room are reasonable. A sound barrier wall and possibly some acoustic paneling would be a good start.
- Get a workbench or make sure you have plenty of power outlets wired at your desk. I'd suggest 8 to 12 points. Network guys always seem to have power bars and too much stuff plugged in. Also, try to get these and the network ports wired above the desk line rather than below. Crawling under the desk to plug in everything gets old.
- Natural lighting, either via a ducted in light tube from the roof or approximated with daylight fluorescent bulbs.
Good Luck.I empathize with previous posts indicating that you are designing a computer room that happens to have the IT guy's desk in it, as opposed to an office per se.
:-).
If you've only got 4 racks of machines to house, depending on the power density a self-contained solution such as the Liebert MCR (mini computer room) may be of interest (APC also has similar products). These are racks with built-in aircon, UPS, & cable management. While they are certainly not cheap, they may be easier to fit into the budget than dealing with electricians & HVAC contractors to set up your computer room with a custom solution providing equivalent facilities. They are also a better investment as you can take them with you the next time you move, add more as necessary anywhere you want, etc.
Also they are nice racks made to show off das blinkenlightz and should be placed so that they are in view of anyone addressing you while seated at your desk if possible (your desk facing the door of the office with your back to the servers seen through a window etc). This may seem frivolous, but impressive cleanly installed racks of servers staring back at the minions as they address you behind your monitors (leave the lights off in the server room unless you're using them) will certainly add weight to your position in conversations. They will soon learn to fear the BOFH
Did you forget to mention Hot Secretary?
If your ceiling's not open to cabling (i.e. you have a standard office drop ceiling), then forget overhead lighting. It will eventually make you crazy. Instead, go for lighting that sits atop your workstation frame and points upwards. The light will bounce off the ceiling tiles and diffuse to a much more even and less harsh illumination level. Here's something to look at for ideas:
http://www.ergoindemand.com/energy-saving-lamp-office.htm
The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. -- Daniel Webster
I have to share my office space with all the network equipment. Just 4 standard racks
And let me guess, by "4 standard racks" you mean four of the two-post relay racks, not 2'x3' four-post cabinets. You're a noob. You wouldn't consider such a setup if you weren't a greenhorn and you certainly wouldn't describe it as your "dream office." If the noise doesn't drive you nuts, the temperature issues will.
I'll make a couple recommendations. You're a noob, so you wont take them but maybe someone else reading them will.
1. No humans in the equipment room. Aside from the discomfort, it leads to accidents with soda and tripping over wires.
2. Use 4-post cabinets unless you know exactly what you want the 2-post rack for, and get ones that a three-feet deep with square holes. You can successfully rack just about anything in one of those. Not so with a relay rack or a cabinet with threaded or round holes.
3. 3 feet front and back. Especially back.
4. Don't put non-rack equipment on the racks. You think you're going to set all your old tower servers on shelves in the rack? Well, you can do that but you'll find its inconvenient and wasteful. Get yourself a single cabinet and get a food service shelf a la https://www.precisiontools.com/shop/product_118.html . 2 feet deep by 4 feet wide by 6 feet tall is just about right. Lots of tie points for a clean cabling job, it'll efficiently fit all your tower servers and it won't collect dust.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
mount the dual 52" monitors for your workstation display...
So the data center needs a UPS. Many servers come with two power supplies, so if you are worried about losing your one UPS, then you get two - one feeds the "A" side, the other, the "B" side power supplies. If you go high-end, you can even get remote power control for each plug. Or maybe you need a KVM over IP. Whichever, you'll be better off if you can remotely access the boxes (and power them down if need be), and not have to go inside the data center if you don't have to. Remote access from your desk also means remote access via VPN. Now there's no reason not to send you to training, right? Have laptop, will travel.
Inside the data center, make sure that ceiling mounted lighting is offset from the racks - you want the light to shine inside the cabinets from over your shoulder, not directly down on top of the cabinet, keeping the back of the machines in shadow. If you go with a 12" raised floor, you might consider running power along the floor, and data cables overhead in ladders. It sucks to be unraveling a data cable, and accidentally dislodge a power plug.
For jack fields - having them in a rack standing in the middle (not against a wall) seems to be the best way to go. The telecom guys wire up the whole rack from behind, and that feeds the building. Then the front is what you patch into the switches. If you want to use a USB web-cam for video surveillance, plan where it will be mounted, and where the PC that runs it will be - you'd like the camera to have a straight look at the door into the data center.
And get your bosses to sign off on electronic locks to with keycards to open the doors - especially for the warehouse. Oh wait, did I forget to mention that you should plan on a warehouse?
OK really - it's just a work room, that's not the foyer, and not your office, and not the data center - but it does have shelves and a work table - and a locked door. Even if it is just where you stuff the boxes the shipper brings in late on a Friday afternoon....
As for an office for myself, all I really want is four (or more) screens and one keyboard. At the moment, I have three screens, and a KVM that switches one of the screens between four CPUs. It keeps me busy, but I dislike have to switch the KVM so often. One beefy PC with two dual port video cards, and VMWare would probably be enough. Although three dual port video cards (and six monitors) would be perfect. ;-)
"The most sensible request of government we make is not, "Do something!" But "Quit it!"
My dream office starts at the breaker box. If they'll give you failover power generation, that's the ticket. Since it sounds like you're working for a smaller company, instead try to sell them on in-line voltage filtering and surge supression, with plenty of amperage. Imagine every outlet in your office having perfect current. You'll need outlets to offer that current. I suggest two strips of outlets, one at floor level and one at waist height, all around the room.
You'll need your own climate control panel for your office, and you'll need air purification for your equipment. I suggest a dedicated duct and vent running right from the climate plant, just for your space. A space under the door will allow air to move out of your room and help maintain a positive pressure environment. Ask for an easily-replaced filter cartridge system for your duct, and make certain you get a good supply of filters to do a monthly change as part of regular maintenance.
Give yourself room to string plenty of cables unobtrusively by either installing a sunken sub-floor with a static-proof grid flooring that can be easily removed, or have channels cut in the concrete slab with tiles that can be easily pulled. Either works well.
If you're not into pulling cables through walls, pre-cable as much as possible. Along with gigabit-capable copper consider having fiber pulled to each wall (room configurations change, plan for it) in each room, even if it will stay dark for the time being. The world is indeed moving towards wireless, but a wired backbone will continue to be the most secure, fastest option for the time being. If you don't mind pulling cables, consider having nice spacious conduit installed in the ceilings and walls. It'll make your future life much easier. Hell, ask for the conduit anyways. It'll make future calls to the electricians go quicker too.
Ask for secure storage space. A nice walk-in sized storage room with a decent shelving/binning system and a securely locked fireproof steel door will be a decent place to safeguard your spare server parts, your backup safe, and the high dollar IT pieces and parts you don't want every employee to be able to take home (hey, how about firewalls between your office and the rest of the building? This is a dream office, right?)
Speaking of fire, you might want to let these folks know that water and sensitive electronics are not a good mix. A nice electronics-friendly dry fire extinguishing system would be a good idea for your space.
Windows? Windows are optional. An interior window of shatter-proof glass might improve the view, and let in some outside light. An exterior window might be considered a security risk, but if you're on a higher floor, why not have a view of the great outdoors?
These are a few suggestions based on my experiences. Your mileage may vary.
Joe G.
Get off my virtual lawn, you damned virtual kids!
The two things I would like most are:
1. A workplace where I stand as well as sit. After nearly 30 years behind a desk in front of computers, my eyes and back are both suffering, and I am overweight. My eyes, that is just age, but my back and overweight would benefit tremendously from being able to change position often - standing up while working uses a lot more energy, and if you could put a treadmill under your feet, that would be even better. Not 'cool' perhaps, but good for you; that's what I want.
2. No air conditioning. I have never been in an airconditioned room that didn't make me unconformtable. They tend to blast you with cold air when they go off, and when they stop you feel too hot - this change between hot and cold makes you physically ill. I would actually prefer simply to feel too hot in the summer; it is more predictable, so you can dress for it or you can come in at night if it is that bad.
1) Warm Blanket - $50
2) Soft Bed - $500
3) iPod - $299
4) hand made duel booting linux/windows(for games) computer - $1500
5) Not having to wake up to an alarm clock every morning or having to work- Priceless
There are somethings money cant buy for everything else there are parents and a basement. And for #5 there is the lottery and or dreams.
The big ones: Separate space for the racks (so you don't go deaf, don't freeze, don't get driven nuts by the blinking lights and don't suffocate when the fire suppression kicks in), room to grow, storage space have all been covered.
The simpler ones that can still make all the difference however:
As much monitor real estate as possible. IT guys are usually expected to multitask to an insane degree: fix someone's network access, get someone's email back on line, figure out why a server keeps crashing, etc. Trying to do that on one 1280x1024 monitor is masochistic. 1920x1200 24 inch monitors start below $400 now. A pair of 2560x1600 30 inch monitors sounds expensive at $2k until you figure what a miniscule part of a full IT closet that'll really be.
Whiteboards. Cover as much space as you can with them. Jokingly: When people ask you to explain why you spent so much money, you can do lots of impressive looking diagrams. Seriously: Because they're still a great way of communicating ideas.
An iPod touch. Add really simple web interfaces for many of your common tasks (albeit not the security critical ones) and you can now restart servers, reset passwords, all of the day to day drivel, from anywhere within range of the office WiFi. That reduces the number of times you have to ask to use someone's keyboard while you're helping them out (reducing the uncomfortable moments where they've got things they don't want you to see on the desktop or you have to touch their sticky keyboard). It also makes meetings more productive as, rude as it is, you can keep an eye on help requests and fix a lot of things without having to wait/step out. Why the touch rather than iPhone? Simple. It stops working once you're out of range of the network. Thus work stops following you lunch and home.
Backup. Yes, I know everyone'll laugh at me for daring to point this one out. The thing is, most small companies (and being a lone IT guy makes it sounds like that might well be your case) tend to have skimped in the past. One of the areas they'll have skimped on is likely backing things up. No, a RAID array in the newest server doesn't count. Having some means of being able to get back to somewhere close to where you were before the tornado/tsunami/earthquake/senior driver/fire knocked out the whole room is essential. That means having a means to write things to a media that can be stored off site.
A decent phone with a decent headset. If you're getting tech support calls all the time, you want to be able to use a computer to fix their issues while talking - trying to balance a phone on your shoulder isn't condusive to that.
Your own printer. Tech guys seem to generate more dead trees than almost anyone else. Having to walk halfway across the office, only to find someone from marketing is printing an entire book, is a great productivity killer. A cheap laser printer will barely make a dent in a budget and will save you a ton of time.
And finally, in complete contradiction to many of the other posters: A big glass window, a desk near the door, and lots of visibility. There's a reason IT guys are hated: we are antisocial bastards who act like every interaction with every other member of the organization is a trial that's beneath us. If you'd like respect, earn it. If you want people to think you live in your fortress of solitude and judge them, do that. If you'd like them to see you as a hardworker with nothing to hide, show them that instead.
If you have network racks, use a glass wall for the "server room".
That way you can always space out for a couple of hours looking at the gazillion of pretty blinking lights..)
-- # man women
Plants. Seriously. They make the office look nice and if you select them carefully they might even help keep the air inside a little better.
Milton? Is that you?
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Of course it would be better not to be in the same room with all those noisy fans, but I'm assuming they are insisting on that, so you can monitor everything? Well maybe you can at least install some sliding glass doors so you can see everything without having to hear everything. And leave space behind the racks to walk behind them, obviously. So basically take away 5 or 6 feet of depth from the office, put some doors across there, the racks go behind them, and everything else is yours. Failing that, maybe you can get racks that are "sealed" to some extent with smoked plexi doors. (I have one like that at home.)
As for the rest... nice chair, nice desk, couple of 30" monitors, a projector (or several) to keep a bunch of status screens on the wall, track lighting so you can spot-light areas you need while keeping the rest dark... make it into a "war room". Install a sound system and use that network monitoring app that translates server events into sounds... I forget what it's called but there is a tropical forest theme, where each little sound (bird calls of various kinds, drips, splashes etc.) means something, and you can tell by the overall "vibe" when everything is normal or when something is a little "off".
If you don't know where to begin you need to be fired for incompetence.
1) Hot secretary sitting in side
There, I corrected it for you.
Jebus! Slashdotters, no wonder you're all singles!
Sliding glass door. Seriously. Good ones will block almost all of the sound, and management will still see it as one room, not two. As little as you really need to, you can still keep an eye on the equipment. I've seen this done once to great effect.
This also will keep you from freezing to death because of the AC.
(And do make sure it has good AC. Those servers will thank you.)
I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
Free ECT for bigots!
I'd hide all the annoyingly noisy equipment in some sucker's office down the hall.
Hmm, someone might have beat you to that already...
___ alwaysBETA.com - Hey, you've got nothing better to do.
Actually part of the problem is that servers need to be centralized. Think of the benefits for his design if he doesn't have to contend with the physicality of servers.
Your comments
1) You want a serve room to hold 4 racks.
2) You want to place your 'office' alongside the server room
Assumptions
3) a Rack occupies a space 1m wide x 1m deep x 2m tall (some racks are 800mm x 800mm - it depends on the rack).
4) a rack needs a floor void below it and should have a gap between itself and the ceiling tiles of 0.5m)
Comments
a) You need to allow for expansion so commit for 1 extra rack in your plan.
this take the floor space to a minimum of 1m x 5m.
b) You should allow a 1 m walkway on all four sides!
firstly you want to get into all the front/back of a cabinet plus both ends.
so this takes the minimum to a 3m x 7m space.
if a fire breaks out half way along your exit route on one side you want an escape route the other way round.
c) You need space at one end for
- air conditioning unit
- floor standing UPS and Batteries (don't forget the battery package is going to be potentially large).
- a master power switch and a breaker switch.
each of the 30A twist-lock sockets needs a separate breaker.
depending on your power requirements you should allow for at two twist-lock ( IEC_60309 or similar) sockets per cab.
I would suggest a bay no less than 4m wide by 2m deep at one end of the room.
d) floor height & entryway
- access
most office space has a quite low raised flooring void. This is sufficient for normal power/data wiring.
however for comms rooms its a good idea to DOUBLE this void height.
Allow space for the LARGEST item to go through your doors. That may mean a FULL HEIGHT doorway,
the door may be a double or single+flap wide.
allow a RAMP not a step from your normal floorspace into the comms room.
- raised flooring suspension
allow for extra 'pillars' in the comms room to cope with the weight, especially for the UPS and COOLING.
- data cabling routes
allow for two routes IN/OUT of the room and establish a primary and secondary route. make that the fibre
loops go in one route and out the other. Allow for slack length on all cables.
- comms room security.
establish a WHO NEEDS to access this room list.
Security, Health & Safety / Fire Wardens, Compliance, IT
mandate an exclusion for everyone but IT when unaccompanied. Get the backing of the Directors & HR to control it.
use a security system to exclude unauthorised access and restrict dissemination of the ID codes.
e) Montitoring
consider an environmental monitor (APC have a range of 'wallbots / rackbot' equipment).
add a monitor to your COOLING and UPS to alert you of major failures.
f) Fire suppression
options are
GAS - expensive and takes up extra space. requires a sealed environment and separate maintenance.
WATER - from the normal sprinkler systems. wrecks your equipement.
if you're going the water route then ensure your sprinkler heads have CAGES of heavy mesh put around
each head and secured to the ceiling tiles. Then when you hit one with a ladder you don't have a wet-room.
g) Lighting.
make sure the lighting guys put the lights over the walk-routes and not over the cabinets.
yes I've seen this done.
h) Power requirements
feed a manufacturer with your equipment list and get them to run up the quote.
make sure you give them an autonomy time that is realistic.
does your new site have a backup power (deisel generator ?) that cuts
--- This meme is memory intensive
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html
1. If your employer really plans to stick you in the server room, then the best office for you is one supplied by a new employer.
2. Alternatively, divide your space into two rooms, one for the equipment and one for you. Put your office behind the server room. When people are looking for you they'll open the door, find only a noisy server room, then look elsewhere.
Grab a book on Feng Shui. This is not a joke. While I don't actually mean Feng Shui exactly, what I mean is get a grasp of the concept of 'organically' arranging your workplace. For the lack of a better term and concept, Feng Shui is a good place to look to get an idea of what good interior architecture is all about.
/. makes me sick)
I'll continue the list with some random stuff that comes to mind, some of which others here have mentioned allready:
1.) Wallcolors, Plaster-Textureing. There are countless possibilities here - check them out. Be sure to check out the options for organic interior building materials aswell. Consider coloring or plastering different sections of the walls with different styles.
2.) I like Zen-Style. Blends well with a high-tech enviroment too. A sleek simple real-wood desk and side-table may be all it needs to pimp your enviroment just enough. Don't save in the wrong place, plan your setup and you might find that two neat pieces blend well with that glass-enclosure rack-shelf and leave you room to breathe and think.
3.) Make the rack nice to look at and quiet. Read: Multi-Layer glass all around. Tell your boss it needs a custom enclosure if you must. Consider giving the glass-enclosure-rack a prominent position in the room where you can reach the backdoor super easy without having to move it. A well-positioned fixed installation can be a neat interior feature. (check feng-shui on this if you're out of ideas - try out the looks in a 3D programm if the need be
4.) Plan your decoration. Crappy, tacky generic office-type decoration sucks. You'll know that once you've hand-picked one or two posters of pictures for your office and leave it at that. Plan the position of them and plan your lighting accordingly. Do all your pinwall type stuff on your computer. You're a geek, take advantage of that. You can completely void reality of all ugly work-related stuff and still get work done. (Just thinking of the shitty cube decorations posted at regular intervals here on
5.) Visit a few offices of the creative guys and girls. Better-running web agencies have a fable for stylish and hip work enviroments. They have the ideas aswell. Ripp off whereever you can and don't be ashamed of it. After all, they use OSS on their webservers, don't they? Sumo beanbags, Stokke Balans (arm)chairs, hand-rafted realwood shelves on oversized industrial-style rollers (built one myself - super-easy to move around), selected wallsections with crazy-ass grafity besides intentionally blank walls. You get the picture. There are countless websites with picture of cool offices around the globe. Do some research.
6.) You a Developer? Software Team Lead? Blackboard! And I mean an old-school (literally!) real-wood big ass black (literally!) board. If you can't find one, plan it's size and position, bolt a board to the wall and paint it with black-board paint. This little german software shop did it right - surf around their site a little and check out their pictures --> http://freiheit.com/ . I'd actually like to work there just judging by the fotos.
7.) Ikke-Bana. (Ancient Japanese Art of Flower Arrangement) Check it out. Again: This is no joke.
8.) Parquet. *Real* parquet. And nothing else. Industrial parquet actually can easyly be cheaper than industrial wall-to-wall carpeting. Bug your Boss about it if it's not company policy. Maybe encourage your boss to join in on a little office-pimping spree. With the right tone of voice and mood you can get your entire departement to consider office interiors a little more.
9.) High Desk/Standing Desk. Somebody mentioned this allready. Really neat idea. We sit *all* day and that is *bad*. Space to run a few circles and a place to stand and work at is a very neat thing if you have the space to spare. Spec your PC casing to fit a standing desk if the need be - or add a second screen to your setup. You can get desks that have motors in them to lift them to standing height. N
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
... one I never need to be in.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
When we moved into our new office we didn't have time to wire our homegrown alarm system; not long after moving one night there was a large rock thrown through the window of the vp's office, luckily all they took was his flatscreen tv, the irony being we had gotten the cable run for that.
Get up!
I'm not sure how many of you seen Grandma's Boy, but, the office of the head game designer in the movie was awesome. I can see any IT guy/gal not wanting to go home with an office like that. I would also tell them the importance of you getting a nice, shiny new Cray XT5 :)
BrickerEnterprises.Com - Innovation at work
i'm afraid i can't. i've got lunch with the bobs.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Unless it's bottom of the barrel junk, it will probably have fans. If there are four racks of it, that's what, 168 units of potential space? If it's large stuff like Cisco 6500 chassis, it will have big fans on the chassis and power supply. If it's smaller stuff like 1U Cisco switches or routers, it will probably have those little tiny high RPM fans that make a ton of noise on the back of each one. Firewalls, load balancers, and the like probably also fall under "networking gear" and more and more, those are some form of modified Intel platform. So, probably more fans there too. Something was mentioned somewhere about telecom gear and hey, if it's the PBX's central hardware, there's more fans.
1) Centrally located. The network room (often called the wiring closet) should be in the middle of the building/floor. Not only does this make it equidistant from the extents of the building attempting to avoid the 100m limit of ethernet requiring repeaters, but it's also the safest part of the building as far as storms, vehicles hitting the building, other exterior accidents or criminal activity are concerned. Your server room should be just across the wall if not in the same room.
2) Secure. It should be obvious that the door should remain locked and only a select few should have access.
3) ESD safe. Electrostatic discharge is bad for computers and wiring equipment. A bare concrete floor or one sealed and treated is the best surface. A vinyl/linoleum/tile floor is the next best. Carpet of any kind is right out. There is ESD friendly carpet, but I think it's quite expensive and usually reserved for workbenches.
4) Electrically isolated. Not only should you have ample electrical circuits and outlets to handle the full load at 50% capacity to allow for growth, but it should be on circuits not shared by any other devices and if possible, should be on an inline UPS with 30-60 minutes of run time capacity. Nothing quite like the janitor plugging in a vaccuum and bringing your core switch down.
Good luck with this. It's difficult to understand your circumstances fully, but having to share your office with any network/server equipment is not a good thing.
OSHA says it's ok to spend 8 hours in a 90db environment. I'm not sure about you, but I would demand a bit more from my office...
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
The Free Software Foundation system administrators are members of an auto union (maybe UAW? I couldn't find it quickly.)
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
Command Detonated Claymores ...
Also, it is nice to have something like LED Xmas trees in the your main office to act as remote sensors to system status.There was a cute story on someone doing something like this a year or three ago. Use calming green for good status, and white (not red) for needs problem status. You don't use red because it advertises itself - some idiot will call you on a red light.
There was an old article in Byte magazine that described a setup where memory addresses where mapped to an O-Scope for trouble shooting purposes. (Now you could use LEDs). Even if you didn't know what to expect, you eventually learned what normal patterns were in routine operation. A similar hack could be used for other datasets, such as IP addresses, etc.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I just did the same thing for a couple of manufacturing buildings, including the business offices for both, and if you're going to be stuck in the same room I would suggest covering one wall completly with plywood and use it to mount your phone system, data / phone circuits, phone blocks, etc. Also, have all of your cabling attached to that wall using D brackets. Make sure you "map" it out on paper before you start mounting things. And for God's sake, make sure everything is ran clean and tidy. Don't forget to tag all of your cables.
Great post! Mod parent up!
We have four boxes with which to defend our freedom: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.
My recommendation: give yourself more than you need. You might be able to get away with two network ports per desk now, but a year down the road, it will be a bottleneck. Spend the money on extra network ports, extra FULL 20A circuits with extra outlets for equipment (pulling CAT5 and 20A circuits after the walls are dry is costly), extra AC and redundant cooling (aren't we always grumbling about the lack of AC), make the space bigger than you need for better air flow and storage for the number of boxes you will suddenly be inundated with. Give yourself a space to design and build in: a lab table with space for an old server or two and a whiteboard for thinking out loud. We invested in CopyCams so people here could write on whiteboards and then record it for viewing electronically later.
Have good network layout plans. I guarantee that before you're done, you will have at least 25% more network drops than originally planned; the CEO wants a port in the board room for a printer, you'll want a place to put WiFi APs through out the office, we need a phone or a printer here. Be prepared for that expense.
Be prepared for growth.
4) Your desk should face the door. Otherwise, people will always walk up behind you.
You might wanna make sure the poster/wall decoration directly behind you isn't reflective. An employee of mine was mindful enough to arrange his monitors and desk to face the door, but whenever I walked into his office all I had to do was look above his head and see what was on his screen. I made sure to move MY framed poster after observing his folly."The irony when tending a flock of sheep is the dogs you put in place to protect them are genetically mutated wolves"
Many of these have been stated already, but here's my list:
Server Room area:
Anti-static "false" flooring (whatever it is called, that allows the floor to "breathe" and circulate air.
Wire trays hanging from the ceiling to manage cables.
Twice as much dedicated power as you'll ever need.
Dedicated AC unit for the server room.
Four-post server racks (no need for panels if the room is secured)
Preferrably a glass wall between the server equipment and yourself.
color-coded Cat5
Room to grow (an extra rack or two)
Room to walk around with a new server
A small table
Office:
Desk
Computer
Phone
Comfortable Chair
Comfortable Keyboard/Mouse
Plenty of Filing Cabinets and shelves
Workbench with plenty of network cables, power, non-digital KVM, etc. (I can't stand digital KVM's that don't get detected at startup unless the focus is on the computer during boot.)
Good speakers
A nice soundproof door that cannot be permanently unlocked. (to prevent you from accidentally leaving the server room vulnerable.
At least one wall to hang posters, comics, calendars, etc.
A dry-erase board if you are into that sort of thing.
Legroom
And of course a storage closet. You WILL get way too much stuff when other people decide they don't want it, and they don't want to wait for the recycler to come pick it up.
The comfort items seem silly to a boss at times, but they make a world of difference when it comes to how much stress you can handle.
My office is one out of the three cubicles in my room, and a portion of the slanted, non-air-conditioned closet with water-based fire prevention is my "server room" that houses a single rack. The rest of the servers are on a desk in the storage closet, under my desk, or next to the Web Team's desk. ALWAYS plan-ahead, don't just "Get it done", or you'll wind up with fully soaked servers and people turning off servers that they think are just normal computers.
"Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed." -C.S. Lewis
http://www.bsc.es/plantillaA.php?cat_id=200
:D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MareNostrumReal.jpg
good luck.
Really you can't work with the fan noise. At my last job I had 2 racks of servers and it eventually got to me. Everything about the office I had was just horrible to deal with after years of work. That was one of the main reasons I left. There was suppose to be expansion to another floor, but when 2 years went by and that wasn't happening I got the clue that it could be many more years before I really had some serious expansion room. Not having this expansion room however did not slow down the buying of servers though. Ugh. I really enjoyed the people and the actual job, but my work area just made me have to get away from the place.
When you say "from the ground up", do you mean literally? If so, you should start with a building that's not only fireproof but disaster-resistant, is energy efficient, low-maintenance and yet attractive, and costs little more than a standard structure while being faster to build. You want something like the building shown here: http://www.monolithic.com/gallery/commercial/office/index.html
Different design (with floorplan and site layout) here: http://www.monolithic.com/gallery/commercial/stardome/index.html
Plenty more commercial structures here: http://www.monolithic.com/gallery/commercial/index.html
I'm in no way affiliated with Monolithic, I've just seen their work and know they can give you what you need. Oh, and they're better at building structures than they are at building websites. Really.
Quotes from A Man for All Seasons
dont ask
Storm
I hope your new job doesn't involve making decisions... ;-)
Georg
Do not live in the server room.
I am partially deaf in one ear, I think due to sitting for 6 years next to the raid array for the department. Three of those years a disk had a squealing bearing. The company claimed that this wasn't sign that the disk would crash, so my boss wouldn't replace it.
Do not live in the server room.
In another job, the server room was kept at 55 degrees, with an air exchange every 60 seconds. We had hooks at the server room entry for people to keep a jacket or sweatshirt when they had to come in to work on the systems. We racks of dell 1U poweredge servers with their 4 tiny fans that sounded like jet turbines spinning up. I started wearing ear protectors in there, partly to protect my ears, partly so I could ignore people who tried to talk to me, mostly to keep my ears from getting cold.
Do not live in the server room.
In my present job, despite the air conditioning going all the time, and a fan pulling air out of the room through a hole in the wall, I've not been able to get the server room below 80F.
Do not live in the server room.
Racks: Building lifespans are typically 15-25 years before major renovations on the interior. Plan for 10 racks. Size the air conditioning for three times the initial power demand. (HVAC engineers chronically underestimate the amount of cooling AND you want enough capacity for expansion BUT 10 years from now, you'll probably be using less power per box.) You won't need them now, but you will later. If your bosses only have three-site (they lack foresite) then insist on an equipment storage area adjacent to the server room to expand into later.
Elevated floors. If you can possibly arrange it, ask for 16" elevations on the floors. During the construction, insist on the subfloor being polished smooth. One job required that I use the floor space as a crawlway to install cableing. I got really tired of rough concrete, dust, spiders, cockroaches, and bangomg my head on the cross pieces. It was only 12"
Network plumbing. Assume that the number of cables coming to the room with go up by at least a factor of 8 over the lifespan. The whole building needs to be done with mind to adaptable networking.
Run a dozen cables from the server room to your office. I don't know what you will use them for. But one job we ran 4 from the main wiring closet to the Sourcerer's Dungeon, and a year later we wanted more. (Let's see:
One connected to the firewall which lived in the closet, 1 went to the cluster of managed switches, 1 was the 'copy port' on the switch cluster so we could track down problems, 1 was the interface on the firewall that copied all firewall traffic for the IDS. Oh yeah. Then 4th floor became part of our jurisdiction too, so we needed another cluster of switches...)
Service Bench. Either in the server room, or close to it you want a place where you can pull a computer, put it at a convenient height to work on. It's a real pain to work with bits of computer on the floor, or worse, having to stand on a step ladder. Having your office in the repair room isn't bad. People will see all the cruft and clutter, and assume you are busy as hell.
Wheeled racks: You can get some increase in density by having your racks on dollies, so they can live close together, but be moved around to work on. This is what you will be doing if you only plan for 4 racks, and three years from now have 6.
Your office:
Ask for one of the fancy 6 monitor surround displays. You will probably only get 4. Meanwhile, if you don't already, get at least two on your desk.
It's very likely that you will want one or more boxes for ancillary purposes. E.g. experimenting with new OS's and such.
Remember too, that all systems change. Six months from now comes an OS upgrade. You want enough spare machines to test this out before attacking the production servers. This may mean another rack.
Give the phone people their own space. A phone person is not your employee generally. You don't want them in the server room without a keeper. (Not if security is a concern, anyway).
Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.
what features would you include
A bar
What things would you try to avoid
The boss
I get to determine absolutely everything
Have them build it onto your home.
I have to share my office space with all the network equipment.
Make them install fiber in your home.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
What about the backup power supply to servers? In a former setup of mine, this involved a power supply and inverter of circa 5 foot x 5 foot x 6 foot, footprint, full of lead acid cells. There was a fireproof safe for backup tapes of 4 x 4 x 3 foot also.
You can get some good layout ideas from Steelcase Planning Ideas.
If it were myself, I would begin with a rectangular room large enough to contain both an office and a datacenter. Then, I would use a wall to partition the two. In this partition, add a window so that you (and others) will be able to view the datacenter while in the office. Of course, the partition will cut down on the noise factor so that you can use your office for phone calls, concentration, etc. In the office area, I would set up an L-shaped desk that is flush with the wall. One side of my desk would contain a dual monitor setup and a nice desktop, and the other side would be reserved for hardware repair needs, diagrams, and such.
-- Brett
"We have no idea where our servers are, and the IT guy's office doesn't appear anywhere on the floor plans..."
My next space will be a 60x84 quonset style metal building - aircraft hanger type. A bit past planning right now, I have the excavation, a mostly sand rock ledge bulldozed into a south facing hillside, and plan to install the foundation this spring/summer. Actually it will be my home as well, I intend to build a 48x84 loft to live in, while the entire lower area will be a mostly unpartitioned combination office-study-shop-garage.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
I would avoid being in an office, and avoid dreaming about a dream office.
Doh!
No one mentioned this from what I read, but the most important thing about a datacenter is keeping everything clean.
Design a clean and efficient physical layout and schema.
Follow that schema, even when throwing up "temporary" appliances.
Use cable management panels, NOT zip-ties and clamps.
"I have an odd craving to whisper about those few frightful hours in that ill-rumored and evilly shadowed seaport of dea
I was lucky enough to rescue two barstool height office chairs from the trash and had the seats redone. I then raised my entire home office to "standing height" and my energy level has increased wonderfully. I really recommend it. I'd suggest a U shaped desk at bar height, with one leg of the U open to both sides with bar height stools on the visitors' side (not office chairs, stools). You kinda create a bartender feel that way, and a bartender's space is sacred ;-). The other two sides of the U are great against corner walls. A great location for the monitor on the bottom part of the desk at eye height on an articulated arm so that you can face and extend the monitor towards your visitors.
At the open top of the U leave a lot of space to move about in and out of the U zone, and place either a sitting height desk, or better yet, a round cafe table with chairs. The desk/table should be no wider than the open space of the U or it will feel like the fourth wall of a box. This gives you two energy levels in the room and also provides a handicapped access/wheelchair height level. A chaise lounge on the far side of the table near the corner provides a comfy nook for naps and reading and additional seating for meetings. If you have enough room a reading chair is nice too.
I cannot tell you how tons of horizontal sorting trays help a naturally unorganized person like me stay organized. I have 16 ;-)
Is this a new build out or existing space?
First of all, you start with a General Products #3 Hull...
No sooner do I get over one, then you put a better one right next to me. Bastards.
Also remember with your power supply make sure each work section rack has two lines from different breakers ( Thats why the equipment should have two power inlets ) that way when a breaker trips the other side takes up the load. Get your electrician a list of all the power usages and future and get 200% on each breaker,
As far a HVAC make sure you don't use more than 60% of the load ( ie for a 6ton demand you need a 10 ton unit ) and also make sure you have redundancy and another supply when it will be of line for maintenance.
Last but not least ensure the architect and builder know you have to have power / HVAC at 60 degrees and 30% humidity 365/7/24. Imagine your HVAC goes down and you have to open the door to the primary offices who are blasting heat in winter
Allow for altitude for every 1000 ft above sea level you need to add 10% to your calculations
Make sure your humidifier is on a separate line from your air intake and recirculation. ( We had one Sun client at 7000 ft who used Suns 60/30 rule and all the inlets on the roof froze up into blocks of ice and the whole data center died )
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ideapete