Site Planning for the Sun Blade 8000 Series Systems
7
Airflow Requirements
The Sun Blade 8000 Series systems use forced air to draw in ambient air for cooling
from the front of the chassis, while heated air exits the rear of the chassis. The design
of the systems provides two primary regions of airflow: The lower airstream cools
the Server Modules, and the upper airstream cools the power supplies, Chassis
Monitoring Modules, and Network Express Modules. In the Sun Blade 8000 Chassis,
the upper airstream also cools the PCI Express ExpressModules.
The rear fan cage includes nine rear fan modules, each module having two fans, for
a total of 18 fans. The fans draw cool air through the front of the Server Modules and
exhaust heated air through the back of the chassis. This results in approximately
1500 cfm (cubic feet per minute) of total airflow through the chassis.
The upper airstream provides forced air by using a combination of internal fans
within each power supply, and in the Sun Blade 8000 Chassis by also using the three
front fan modules.
Follow these airflow guidelines:
■
Do not block the ventilation areas of the chassis.
■
Ensure that all cabling at the rear of the chassis does not block any exhaust air.
■
Ensure that front and rear cabinet doors are at least 60% perforated to ensure
minimal restriction of airflow. Removal of either or both doors will improve the
cooling capability of the system.
■
Front and rear clearance between the cabinet doors and the system should allow a
minimum of 0.2 inch (5 mm) at the front of the system and 3.1 inches (78.7 mm) at
the rear of the system for proper airflow.
Clearance for Service and Aisle Requirements
To enable installation and servicing of the Sun Blade 8000 Series system, including
access to system cables, follow these space restrictions.
Arrange racks in a hot aisle/cold aisle layout. This layout enables cool air to flow
through the aisles to the system’s front air intake and enables heated air to flow from
the system’s back exhaust. This layout eliminates the direct transfer of hot exhaust
air from one system into the intake air of another system.
TABLE 1
Service and Aisle Clearance Requirements
Location
Service Access Requirement
System extended from rack
3 feet (0.9 m); on both sides of the system to
facilitate installation
Front cold aisle
5 feet (1.5 m); required for rackmounting
Back hot aisle
3 feet (0.9 m); required for cable access
