Cooling Supply in Computer Processing Room Stabilized: Second Cooling System now running

Since July 16th all Black Forest Grid (BFG) computers are cooled under an external hydro cooling system. Currently only the first generation of these BCCN computer cubicles is running with an air cooling system, and the switch to hydro is planned for the medium term. Fortunately, these efforts have noticeably stabilized the computer room's temperatures.

The water cooling system for the BFG computers was planned to be finished before arrival of the summer heat; unfortunately, the installation company experienced some delays in the process. The second cooling circuit was finished July 6th because the first circuit required special parts which were quite time-consuing to install. The high temperatures in the days surrounding July 2nd resulted in fears of a black-out due to a phyiscal break-down in the computer room. This resulted in the temporary shut-down of the main computers as a preventative measure.

The external cooing systems is a temporary solution wihout redundancy, as a break-down would result in a full-out shut-down of all cluster computers.

The infrastructure necessary for this computer room is currently being built. Unfortunately the University's agency in charge of construction was unable to successfully retro-fit the electricity and cooling infrastructure as was previously planned to be finished before the sommer 2010. Until now, only the concrete strucutre has been finished and the planned end date is in November. The planning of the University's cooling system is scheduled to continue, and with these occurances, the University IT Services hopes to raise the awareness of this long-standing cooling problem.