Understanding Power and IT Power Solutions

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:06Thanks to power, I'm able to record this video.

0:10And thanks to power, you are able to watch this video.

0:14So we all use power just about every day

0:18to do all kinds of things, including

0:21running our IT infrastructure.

0:23So what do you say we jump in and we talk a little bit more

0:27about power?

0:29So power is generated.

0:31So we could have windmill power, so we

0:35could have it generated by the air and wind,

0:38or we could have hydropower generated

0:42by dams where the water flows through and turns the turbines,

0:49or we could have coal.

0:52Coal is often burned to generate power.

0:56But the idea is power is generated

0:59in some form or fashion.

1:01And then that power is distributed,

1:03that's where we see our power lines,

1:06we see the lines running throughout the counties,

1:09and states, and along the highways, and such.

1:12So it's generated, and then it is distributed,

1:15and then we use that power.

1:17So oftentimes, we'll see something like this,

1:19a good old power meter on the side of a house or a building,

1:23or something that's measuring that power,

1:24and it's measured in watts.

1:28And oftentimes when you see a power bill or something,

1:31you'll see KWH, and that's kilowatt-hour.

1:35So the number of kilowatt or thousands of watts

1:38we've used per hour, and that's because we use a lot of power.

1:42But the base reference of power here is watts, that's very key.

1:48So I want you to understand that we're measuring power in watts.

1:52And so how do we find out how much power that our IT

1:55infrastructure uses?

1:57Well, that's a great question.

1:58So we're going to start that journey with voltage.

2:01Now, voltage is the pressure or difference in potential

2:08between two points.

2:10So you have point A here and point B over here.

2:14And it's the pressure or the difference in potential.

2:17Now, that might sound weird and it probably

2:19does, but think of difference in potential

2:21as a teeter-totter and gravity comes into play here.

2:25But if you had a teeter-totter like this

2:28and you had a ball sitting on this side,

2:31well, obviously it's going to roll downhill.

2:33But if you had a teeter-totter pointed in the other direction,

2:37the ball is going to roll downhill again,

2:39but in the other direction.

2:40That is the difference in potential.

2:42It's when we come to understand the idea of energy

2:46and that here we may have more or less energy on either side

2:51while you have a pressure building there

2:53and there's a difference in potential allowing something

2:56to flow one direction or the other.

3:00So that is what we're talking about here.

3:02Now, voltage does not flow.

3:05Something else flows and we're going to talk about that here

3:07momentarily.

3:08So voltage is the pressure or difference in potential.

3:12Voltage does not move, it does not flow.

3:15Just understand that.

3:16Now, when it comes to voltage, we've got different voltages.

3:19We've got 120 volt, 208 volt, there's 240 volt,

3:24there's lots of different voltages.

3:26Oftentimes, you'll hear 110 volt.

3:29I want you to understand throughout this course

3:31I'm going to be saying 120 volt because it's 120 volt now.

3:36In the past when the electric company

3:39started delivering power it started at a certain power.

3:41And then it moved up to 100 volts,

3:43and then it moved up to 110 volts,

3:44and now it's at 120 volts.

3:46But the idea is 110 or 120 are the same thing.

3:51So if you're used to saying 110 or you've

3:53heard that all the time, just understand

3:55it's the same thing as 120 either used interchangeably.

4:00Now, of course, these voltages and such apply here in the US.

4:03I know overseas voltages are different,

4:06they use different numbers.

4:07So just be aware of that.

4:09So these are our voltages.

4:11And we understand now that voltage

4:13is a pressure or difference in potential, it does not flow.

4:18So we measure voltage.

4:20All right, so that's our voltage, that's our pressure.

4:22Think of pressure in a water line.

4:25So if I've got a water pipe here,

4:27there's water pressure in it, absolutely, that's

4:29what forces are causes that water to flow.

4:32But what is that water?

4:34Well, that's our current, that's what our water is.

4:38And if we had a water pipe, we had water flowing through it,

4:42all that, again, is our current and it's measured in amps.

4:47And that flow of current is actually the flow of electrons.

4:53And those electrons are what provide

4:55us the power for our devices to do what they're supposed

5:00to do for our servers to run, and our storage to run,

5:03or our networks to work like they work.

5:05And then it, again, is current.

5:08So far we've talked about watts.

5:10And watts was a measure of power.

5:14So that's our W for watts.

5:16Then we had our voltage.

5:18And again, that was the pressure or difference in potential.

5:21And we measured that 120 volts or 208 volts.

5:24And now we're talking about current which is amps,

5:28and that's our electron flow providing our power.

5:33All right, so there we go.

5:35We've got our watts, our volts, and our amps.

5:38And I asked earlier, how do we calculate?

5:40How do we find out how many watts

5:42our IT infrastructure is using?

5:45Well, that's what we're going to talk about now.

5:47We're going to take our watts, volts, and amps,

5:50and we're going to do some calculating of our wattage.

5:53And it's actually really simple.

5:55It's watts equals our volts times amps.

6:00It's that simple.

6:01So if I have a server and that server

6:05we got here, let's draw out our little server here,

6:07doo, doo, doo.

6:08There we go, our server.

6:09And there we go.

6:10And it's plugged into the wall, so we have power.

6:14There we go.

6:15Draw a little outlet there.

6:17There we go.

6:18We're plugged in.

6:18And now we want to find out how much power we

6:21are using from this server by calculating.

6:24So what we can do is this is actually a 120-volt outlet,

6:29so that's our volts.

6:30So we've got 120.

6:32And we take a look at our amperage, the amount of current

6:36that this server is using, and it's using 3 amps.

6:41I should put our volts up there.

6:42There we go.

6:43So by doing this, we can take and we

6:46can multiply these two together and we come out with 360 watts.

6:56So now we know how many watts this server is using.

7:02And that's how we calculate our wattage.

7:04So what do you say, now that we've got a handle on this,

7:08that we jump into a remote management

7:12card I've got on my lab server and take a look

7:14at some power information?

7:16All right, here we are.

7:17We are on my Dell iDRAC card.

7:21And this is in my lab server once again.

7:25So if we scroll down here, I'm on the power

7:27and thermal section here, and if I scroll down, I can see here,

7:32I have some graphing.

7:33And right now my server is running at 84 watts.

7:39All right, that's pretty cool.

7:40So I can see the wattage right off the bat there.

7:43And I can look it by the last hour here based on wattage.

7:47I can see I'm using about 91 watts.

7:49Or I could even switch it over to amps

7:51and take a look at the amperage usage.

7:53So you can look at it either way.

7:54So it looks like we're running between half and 0.7 amps.

7:59And you can take a look, of course,

8:00over the last day, last week, all this great information.

8:05And then if we scroll down a little further,

8:07it shows how much the server is using, it's 84 watts.

8:11And it actually provides us some BTU information,

8:14so we're talking about our thermal units, how much heat

8:17this is generating because when we send current

8:21through something, it's going to generate heat

8:24based on resistance.

8:26So that is just something to keep in mind.

8:28The more current you push through something, the more

8:30heat it's going to generate.

8:32And of course, that's why we need ventilation,

8:34and we need air conditioning, and we

8:36need airflow to help make sure that our equipment stays

8:40within a safe operating temperature.

8:41So this is one way you can jump in and take a quick look

8:45and see what amount of power that a device is

8:48using, specifically a server.

8:50But in, I know, a networking equipment,

8:52they offer the same information.

8:53You can jump in and take a look at that as well, as well

8:56as storage devices and such.

8:58So here we go.

8:59So the purpose of this skill was pretty simple,

9:01and it was to, if we switch back over here,

9:04was to just introduce us to the idea of watts

9:07as power, and voltage, and amps, and what voltage is.

9:11Again, remember, that is the pressure

9:14and the amps or the current was the flow of electrons.

9:19And these are all part of power and power consumption.

9:22So it's a good idea just to get the basic understanding.

9:24We're going to use this later on in the course

9:26to do some other calculations, but nothing too crazy.

9:29So don't get scared about math, it's just simple math.

9:32And that is the basics of power.

9:33I hope this has been informative for you.

9:35And I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:06So continuing on the topic of power,

0:09what happens when the power is no longer delivering,

0:13well, power and no longer works so we don't have any power?

0:17Well, of course, the lights go out, our equipment goes dark.

0:21So the question is because obviously that's

0:24not a good thing, how do we prevent that?

0:27Well, that's what we're going to talk about right now.

0:30So we're discussing UPSs or uninterruptible power supplies.

0:35And that's what this skill is all about, UPSs.

0:40And we're just doing a basic coverage of what an UPS is

0:43and why we want to use it.

0:44We're going to really deep dive into UPSs later on.

0:48So this right here isn't UPS. And an UPS

0:51is basically a battery bank.

0:55So it is a device that has batteries in it,

0:59our good old batteries there, and they provide us

1:02with our power when the lights go out.

1:06That's the whole idea behind an UPS.

1:08So if we had some servers over here,

1:10what we could do is we could plug

1:12those servers into our UPS, as well as some networking

1:15equipment, we definitely want to plug those in as well,

1:18and our storage, if we have storage.

1:20But this way, when those power lines are delivering the power,

1:24and it comes into the building, and it goes through our meter

1:28and into our circuit panels, well,

1:32when that power stops being delivered

1:35and the lights go out, our UPS kicks on within milliseconds

1:40and it provides power to our devices

1:44so that they never stop working at that point.

1:47So it happens so fast, that switch

1:50of power between the batteries and the power

1:54from the building, that our devices don't even notice it.

1:57So they don't turn off, they stay on.

1:59So that's the role of UPS, to make sure

2:02that when our power goes out in the building

2:04that our devices don't go dark, they continue to run.

2:08And that's the role of an UPS unit.

2:11But why use an UPS?

2:14Well, obviously we just talked about that.

2:16We want to make sure that our equipment continues

2:19to run when the power goes out.

2:25So that's obviously a very good reason to use an UPS.

2:28But are there any other reasons?

2:30Well, yes, absolutely.

2:32UPS also provides something, called power conditioning.

2:36And that's because the power that we're

2:38receiving from the power company is

2:40something, called alternating current, or AC power.

2:43And well, it alternates just like this, it's a sine wave.

2:47So the idea is this power can become

2:50what we call dirty power.

2:53And dirty power is just that it's not a nice, clean sine

2:57wave.

2:58And if we're operating at, let's say 120 volts,

3:01then 120 volts should be at the top of the waves,

3:04and negative 120 volts should be at the bottom of these waves

3:08here.

3:08Well, what happens if I get 124 volts or negative 118 volts?

3:14Well, that's our dirty power.

3:15It's not always going to be 120 volts.

3:19And that's what the UPS can help do,

3:22they can filter or clean that power

3:25coming from the utility providing a nice, clean power

3:29to our devices.

3:30So when we have things like brownouts and power sags

3:35when the power goes to low, or a spike when the power goes

3:38to high, well, our UPSs over here,

3:41they filter that out to help protect our equipment

3:44from that.

3:45So that is another great use for UPS

3:49because it helped to extend the life of our equipment.

3:53So that answers our question as to what an UPS is

3:56and why we would want to use an UPS. But guess what?

3:58There is more than one type of UPS unit.

4:01That's right.

4:02And that's what we're going to cover in the next Nugget.

4:04So I will see you there.

4:05I hope this has been informative for you.

4:07And I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:06So now that we all know what an uninterruptible power

0:10supply or UPS is and why we should use one,

0:13well, we should just go out to the nearest big-box store

0:16and buy one, right?

0:17Well, not exactly.

0:19That's because there's lots of different kinds of UPS,

0:22and there are different features with UPS unit.

0:25It's not just a one-size-fits-all

0:27as you'll find out.

0:29So let's jump in, and let's talk about some different types

0:32of UPS systems.

0:34All right, we're going to jump back to power for a minute

0:37because there are actually different types of power.

0:41Now, I'm not talking about voltages.

0:42Remember, voltage was not power.

0:45Voltage like we had 120V, 208V, 240V, and so on and so forth,

0:50those are-- that's the voltage.

0:51But our power was delivered in watts, remember?

0:54Yes.

0:55Absolutely.

0:55Good.

0:56So we're not talking about voltages,

0:57we're talking about our power and watts.

0:59Now, when the electric companies when they generate power,

1:03it's actually generated in something

1:05called three-phase power.

1:08And that's because if you think about our power

1:10as being delivered via current, and that's our amps,

1:14so we'll put that as our flow here, our current.

1:17And when we had a water pipe, that current was flowing

1:22through our pipe, right?

1:23It was being delivered.

1:24There was the little electrons shooting through those power

1:27lines.

1:27Well, when power is generated, it's done so in three phases.

1:33So you actually have three different pipes.

1:36So three feeds.

1:37I'm going to put that over here.

1:39Really it is a feed there.

1:40Here we go.

1:41So you have three different feeds of power.

1:44Oh, OK.

1:45And that's done because it's the most efficient way.

1:47And we're not going to get into all the mathematics

1:50and the phases and the sine waves and the science

1:53behind all of it because we don't need

1:55to for what we are doing here.

1:56We're not deep diving.

1:57We just want you to understand there's something

1:59called three-phase power.

2:00So when it's generated, it is three-phase.

2:02So when you see those big power lines

2:05that we see all over the place, and they have the wires running

2:10through them you'll often see like this,

2:12just understand there are actually

2:14three different phases here, three different feeds of power.

2:18And then those three phases as they're

2:21being distributed, when they come to different buildings,

2:25you might deliver three feeds of power or three-phase power

2:29into this building.

2:30But some buildings might only get one--

2:34if I put one over here closer--

2:36only get one feed of that power, and that's

2:40known as single-phase.

2:41So the takeaway from this slide here

2:45is that we have three-phase power.

2:47And we also have when you're receiving one feed of power,

2:51it's known as single-phase.

2:54So you just get one, a single phase of those three phases.

2:58All right, so that's very important

2:59to understand because when you're building

3:02is delivered this power, and you have to go and figure out

3:06what you're dealing with, understand

3:08that there is three-phase power and there's single-phase power.

3:12Now, let's talk about where these different types of power

3:15are used.

3:16So when it comes to large power consumption like data centers

3:20or industrial complexes, hospitals, hotels,

3:24anybody who's going to use a lot of power,

3:27well, they're going to receive a three-phase power

3:30into the building.

3:32And what that means is if you are being delivered

3:36three-phase power into the data center

3:38or into your buildings, server room, or internal data

3:42center, maybe smaller one, well, you should understand that.

3:45Because that means when you go looking

3:48for an UPS, that you can actually get a three-phase UPS.

3:53And that's because that UPS that you're going to get

3:56can plug directly into the three-phase power.

4:00And that's a little bit different.

4:01So when we look at smaller power consumptions that

4:04get a single-phase like smaller offices and such, well,

4:09then when you go and you look to purchase an UPS,

4:11you're wanting a single-phase UPS. But guess what?

4:17What if you have both options?

4:19Well, you can get something called a split-phase UPS.

4:22So that UPS unit can actually plug into a three-phase

4:27or a single-phase.

4:30All right, OK, you're getting it.

4:32You're sticking with me here.

4:34So then the question is, how do you know what you have?

4:37Do you have three-phase?

4:38Are you going to plug into three-phase?

4:40Or are you using single-phase?

4:41Well, it's at that point you need to do some investigation.

4:44You need to go talk to building maintenance or an electrician

4:48to figure out what you have because you

4:50need to answer that question.

4:51Because when you're going to size out a UPS unit

4:55or purchase an UPS unit, you need

4:57to know if you're going to be dealing with three-phase power

5:01or single-phase power.

5:04So that wraps up the power portion version of this Nugget.

5:07So next we're going to move on and talk about some

5:10of the physical aspects of UPS units.

5:13Now, some of these physical aspects.

5:16So here we have a little server room here.

5:18And we could actually have a standalone UPS unit or UPS

5:23unit.

5:23So let's say for a computer here,

5:26maybe you see this computer right here.

5:28Well, if we wanted to power that workstation alone--

5:32let's get rid of that-- we can actually get a little UPS

5:35unit that sits on the floor.

5:36And the computer will plug into that.

5:40So we have a standalone UPS unit.

5:41And I've also seen some UPS units that are big as a rack.

5:44So maybe over here, you would have a large stack of batteries

5:50in your devices over here.

5:52Servers and such could plug into this UPS unit.

5:56And it's just a big stack of batteries with a head unit

5:58that has some intelligence built into it.

6:01So I've seen them like that that are standalone.

6:03But you'll also find some that sit inside of a rack.

6:07So this is our rack here.

6:08And we've got some servers up here or network equipment

6:11filling up the rack.

6:12Well then, down here at the bottom,

6:15we might put an UPS unit into the rack itself.

6:19So just understand there are standalone units

6:21and there are rackmount units.

6:24And they both do the same thing.

6:26It just depends on what you want to do.

6:28Do you want to stand alone or do you want something

6:31in your rack?

6:32And so that's something for you to decide.

6:35Now, something else when we consider the physical aspects

6:38of an UPS unit are outlets.

6:42Because we need these UPS units to feed power to our equipment.

6:47So does our equipment plug into something

6:49that looks like this, this is your standard 120 volt

6:52or does it plug into something like this--

6:54it could be a 208 volt.

6:56So it's very important that we understand

6:58what our equipment-- this means our servers that we're dealing

7:01with, our network equipment, and our storage,

7:03and anything we're going to plug-in,

7:05we need to understand what it needs to plug into.

7:08So when we go and we purchase an UPS unit that

7:11has outlets on it, we need to make sure

7:14that it will support our equipment.

7:16Because if you go buy something that's all 120 volt

7:19and you're running 208V, well, guess what?

7:22You're going to have some issues.

7:24I'm just telling you things aren't going to match up,

7:26and that's a problem.

7:28So be aware of that.

7:29We're referring to the physical aspects here of the UPS units.

7:32This is definitely one that you need to be aware of.

7:35So that's something that we're actually

7:37going to be discussing more as we go on.

7:41So those are some different physical aspects of UPS units.

7:44Hope this has been informative for you,

7:46and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:06In this Nugget, we're going to jump back and talk

0:09about voltage a little bit more.

0:11And that's because we've discussed some different types

0:14of voltages like 120 volts, and 208 volts,

0:18and there are different types.

0:20But is one better than the other when it

0:22comes to our IT infrastructure?

0:24And that is what we're going to talk about right now.

0:28All right.

0:28As a brief revisit to the 110 versus 120-volt,

0:33they're used interchangeably.

0:34Again, just want to remind you in case

0:36you're familiar with hearing people say 110,

0:39it's a 110 outlet, well, generally we're

0:41dealing with 120 volts.

0:43And again, the equipment that plugs into this

0:45it doesn't matter if it's 110 or 120

0:47because it's going to fluctuate in between there because we

0:50talked about the AC power, and how it fluctuates,

0:53and it's not always going to be 100% dead on, or 110,

0:56or 120 volts.

0:57So just reminding you that we're using these interchangeably.

1:00All right, now that we've got that out of the way,

1:03let's move on and talk about the choice, 120-volt or 208-volt.

1:08And I say a choice because when you go,

1:11and oftentimes when you're purchasing equipment, servers,

1:14and storage, and network devices, sometimes you

1:17get a choice between 120-volt and 208-volt.

1:22So what should you choose?

1:25Well, if your UPS infrastructure, your battery

1:29backup, and your power infrastructure

1:31only supports 120-volt, then you're

1:33going to choose 120-volt. If it only supports 208,

1:36well, then you're going to go with 208.

1:38But if you're building from scratch, then you get a choice.

1:42For a long time, we only had 120-volt,

1:45but then a while back we started to see 208-volt come out

1:48in power supply options.

1:50So of course, then we need to make a choice.

1:54So what choice is the right choice?

1:57And that's what this Nugget is all about.

1:59OK, so then the question comes out,

2:02why was 28-volt brought to market?

2:04So let's talk about that, let's talk

2:06about our driving force behind 208.

2:09And really it comes down to high capacity data centers.

2:14And that was a big driving force behind 208 volts,

2:18and that's because with many electronic devices,

2:21such as a densely populated data center comes much heat.

2:27So again, the more current we're pushing

2:30through electronic devices, the more heat is generated.

2:34So we say, more current equals more heat.

2:39And remember, current was what flows

2:42through our electrical lines, those

2:44are the electrons flowing through

2:46and it's measured in amps.

2:49And as that current flows through those wires

2:51and electronic components, the more you're

2:53pushing through there, well, the hotter they get.

2:57So if we could pull less current or less amps,

3:02but still produce the same amount of work,

3:05then that would be good because it would generate less heat,

3:08and that's exactly what 208-volt does for us.

3:13So let's take a look at the math for this.

3:17So what we have here is we've got watts divided by voltage

3:22equals our amperage.

3:24So how this works out, if we look at 120-volt here,

3:28let's do this, and let's say we have 800 watts of power

3:34that we're using, and we're running it

3:37at 120 volts, well, that equals 6.6 amps.

3:45So we have 6.6 amps flowing through our electrical circuit

3:50here.

3:51All right, very good.

3:52But what if we go with 208-volt?

3:55Well, we still have our same 800 watts,

3:57but then this goes to 208-volt and this comes out to 3.8 amps.

4:03So obviously, we see a pretty good reduction

4:07in the amperage or the current that's

4:09being pulled through our electronic circuits,

4:11meaning it's going to generate, that's right,

4:14less heat, which is a good thin.

4:18And that's why there was such a driving force behind 208

4:22because of densely populated data centers,

4:26we need a way to generate less heat

4:28and we can do that by increasing our voltage to 208 volts

4:34because that reduced our amp and our current,

4:36but allowed the power to do the same amount of work,

4:40which was are 800 watts.

4:42So now we see that with 208-volt, we

4:45can reduce the amount of heat that our equipment generates.

4:49Hey, that is a good thing.

4:51Now, if you're a small company and you've

4:53got three servers in a server room or server closet,

4:58and a couple of switches, well, that's

5:00not going to do a whole lot for you.

5:02I'm just going to be honest.

5:03However, when you're talking about racks of equipment,

5:07so maybe you have a server room and you've

5:10got four or five racks of equipment in here,

5:14yeah, that's going to make a difference because,

5:16remember, we have to provide airflow

5:21to these and air conditioning to our servers

5:26to make sure that they stay in a safe operating temperature.

5:30So this would be very effective in that type of environment.

5:34So OK, I see that 208-volt. Well, it

5:37does help us to reduce the heat.

5:40OK, that's good.

5:41But are there any other benefits?

5:43And the answer to that is yes.

5:47We also gain usually between 2% and 3% efficiency

5:54of our electricity by using 208-volt over 120-volt.

5:58Now, that's not a lot.

6:00If we're talking, let's say, we get 2%, that's not a whole lot.

6:03But I'll take any efficiencies I can get, I'm telling you now,

6:07and especially when it comes to paying power bills

6:09because if we've got a lot of electricity

6:11that we're using because we have a lot of IT infrastructure,

6:14well, every little bit helps, let me tell you.

6:17Now, we've got that answered.

6:18Yes, there are other benefits, that's a big smiley face yes.

6:21Is there anything else that I should know

6:24about 208-volt versus 120-volt?

6:27Well, yes.

6:28208-volt uses different receptacles or outlets.

6:33And some will look something like this,

6:38and then they've got a little hole there in the middle,

6:40and it's round, and there are other types as well.

6:43That's just one example.

6:45And obviously, our 120-volt looks something

6:48like this, that's our standard wall

6:52plug that we see in the US.

6:54And this obviously is different.

6:56And I can't plug this into that.

6:59So if I had a cable from a 208-volt device

7:02and I wanted to plug it in to an outlet,

7:05obviously, it's only going to fit one of these.

7:07So that means that we need to make sure

7:09whatever we're plugging our 208-volt device into that we

7:13have a receptacle for it, absolutely.

7:17So it means everything from our wall outlets, to power strips,

7:20to UPS, battery backups, we've got

7:23to make sure that we have the correct type of outlet.

7:26So it's very important when we're picking out equipment

7:29that we know this.

7:31So will you pick 120-volt or 208-volt?

7:35And again, that just depends on your setup.

7:38If you're not really worried about heat then, hey,

7:41you can do a 120-volt. But with 208-volt you'd

7:44get a little bit of efficiency gain.

7:47And there's not going to be a big price

7:49difference between the two if any,

7:51so it's just something to keep in mind.

7:54So there is our 120-volt versus 208-volt.

7:57I hope this has been informative for you.

7:59And I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:06So what if you go out and you take a look at an UPS unit,

0:10and you're sizing them up, getting an idea of what you're

0:13going to purchase, and you realize that this UPS unit only

0:16has like 10 or 12 outlets in it?

0:19Well, I've got 60 things, 60 devices that I need

0:22to plug into this UPS unit.

0:24Obviously, the numbers don't match up, do they?

0:27Absolutely not.

0:28So what are we going to do about this?

0:30Well, I'll tell you exactly what we're going to do.

0:32We are going to look at a power distribution unit or PDU.

0:37So let's jump in and take a look at these PDUs.

0:40So the big question is what is a PDU already?

0:44Well, here we go.

0:45We talked about this just a minute ago, we said,

0:48what if I got too many pieces of equipment to plug into an UPS?

0:52Because you're UPS generally might have only 10 or 12

0:55or even less outlets in it.

0:57So if you've got some outlets in your UPS,

1:00but you've got racks full of equipment,

1:04well, something's got to give, right?

1:06Absolutely.

1:07So comes the PDU.

1:10Now a PDU is basically a big power strip

1:15in its simplest form.

1:17OK, PDU get much more complicated than that.

1:21But you can think of them as a big old power strip.

1:24So I could take a PDU, and I could put it right here

1:28inside my rack, right there on the side.

1:31And then all my servers that have

1:33got in here, network equipment, I can plug directly into that.

1:38So I got power now.

1:39And then my PDU will come over and plug into my UPS unit.

1:45Therefore, all my servers are getting their power

1:47from the UPS unit and being protected by the UPS.

1:51That's the role of the PDU.

1:53Now, I do want to say, generally the way we do this,

1:57we'll put two PDUs in each rack.

1:59There we go.

2:00Put one on one side, one on the other.

2:02And a server generally has two power supplies.

2:06We like to buy servers with two power supplies

2:08so that we have redundancy.

2:10Now, the server only pulls power and runs off of one at a time.

2:14You're not doubling the power consumption of your device.

2:17It's not the way it works.

2:18However, that means we can plug one power supply,

2:22we'll say this one right here into PDUA,

2:25and then we can take the other power supply here and plug it

2:30into PDUB.

2:33Now, PDUB is also going to come over here and plug into our UPS

2:37unit.

2:37This way, we have redundancy.

2:39Yes, we have two power supplies in a server,

2:43so that's redundant power supplies.

2:44But if I plug both of those power supplies

2:47into the same PDU, what if that PDU goes out?

2:51Oh, well, then my power supply redundancy

2:55isn't really redundant, is it?

2:57Not really at that point.

2:59So that's why it's a good idea--

3:01I'm actually going to erase that here--

3:02to use two PDUs so that we get additional redundancy.

3:08So that's the PDUs.

3:10That's what they are.

3:11Now that you know that, what do you say we go and take

3:14a look at some PDUs.

3:16So let's jump over here to a vendor website.

3:19Here we go.

3:20We are here on a vendors website that sells

3:23a lot of IT power solutions.

3:26And here we have a basic PDU, so that's

3:28going to be more like a basic power strip.

3:31And then they've got a metered PDU.

3:35Now, a metered PDU means that there's

3:37a meter on it that measures how much current or amperage that

3:42is being consumed by the devices plugged into it.

3:44So you don't have to guess at that point.

3:45It tells you right away.

3:47And why would you want to do that?

3:49Well, because oftentimes we like to plug some things

3:52into one and some into another to try to balance out

3:54our power between the rack.

3:57And then we have managed PDUs down here.

3:59Now, these actually have network plugs in them.

4:02So can plug them into your network,

4:03give them an IP address, and you can go and manage them

4:05through a web interface.

4:06Set up alerts and all kinds of things.

4:09So you can see what's going on and set up email alerts

4:12if there's a problem.

4:13So it's really good to have.

4:16So let's go ahead and let's actually let's just click

4:18on the managed PDU.

4:20Let's go in here.

4:20I want to take a look.

4:22So here I'm going to zoom in.

4:24There we go.

4:25Let's see if we can get this up here so you can see.

4:27See there's network ports here, so you

4:29can plug it into your network.

4:30Here down at the bottom, you see that 4.14 right there?

4:33Well, that's the metered part of the PDU.

4:35You can see it's pulling 4.14 amps of power there.

4:39And you see it looks like a power strip up here, right?

4:41Absolutely.

4:42It's outlets so that we can plug different things in,

4:44and that's kind of what they look like.

4:46All right.

4:47Pretty simple and straightforward.

4:49So what do you say we actually go and let's

4:52see-- let's look at some models here.

4:54Let's click on Models.

4:55And let's go down here and just pick one of these.

4:58Let's see.

4:59Right there I'll click on Specifications

5:01because I want to look at some very important information that

5:04comes to these.

5:05Now, of course, you need to know part numbers and such, right?

5:08Absolutely.

5:09Give you some measurements there.

5:11That's not what-- I'm looking for the specs down here.

5:14OK, here we go.

5:15This is important.

5:16All right.

5:17So outlet control, yes.

5:18But what is outlet control?

5:20Well, if it's a managed PDU that you can log into,

5:23it's on your network, you can actually remotely

5:26turn on and off outlet.

5:28So if you have a server that is stuck in a bootup,

5:31you can actually go in and turn the power of and back

5:34on to that single outlet.

5:35And guess what, remotely balance the power.

5:38So that's pretty cool.

5:39Chord length-- you got to make sure your chord

5:41is long enough to plug in to whatever

5:42it's going to plug into.

5:43Probably an UPS unit.

5:45Phase, a single-phase.

5:47Remember, we talked about three-phase and single-phase?

5:49This is single-phase input voltage.

5:52We talked about 120 volt versus 208

5:54volt, and this here is our 120 volt. And let's see.

5:59Wattage gives you a maximum wattage.

6:03Mounting direction, this is important, vertical.

6:05The picture I drew-- let me switch back real quick.

6:08Let's go here.

6:09These are vertically mounted PDUs,

6:14but you can also get horizontally mounted PDUs

6:17like this with outlets on them.

6:20You can do either one just depends on what your needs are.

6:23Now, of course, I can have more outlets on a vertical one

6:27because it's much longer than a horizontally mounted PDU.

6:32Absolutely.

6:34OK, what else?

6:35Amperage rating, it's rated at 24 amps.

6:37So that's the most power it can allow to pass through.

6:40It's 24 amps.

6:41It's good to know.

6:42Input connection, this is the type of outlet

6:47that this PDU will plug into.

6:50It needs an L5-30P.

6:53What is that?

6:54Well, let's pull this up.

6:56Let's ask Google L5-30P.

7:02There we go.

7:03And let's go to an image-- actually,

7:05this is it right there.

7:06So if I can go to an image here, we

7:08can maybe zoom in and take a look at one of these--

7:10OK, yeah, L5-30P this is what its cable end will have on it,

7:17and this is what it will plug into.

7:19So you need to make sure whatever you're

7:21plugging into has an L5-30R.

7:25R is for receiver or receptacle, and P is for plug.

7:29So you have a male and a female here

7:32ends of the power connection.

7:34So that's good to know.

7:36You definitely need to know that because you've

7:37got to figure out-- you got to have something to plug it into.

7:40All right, super.

7:41Number of outlets, here we go.

7:43This is super important.

7:44This has 24 outlets on it, and they are 5-20R.

7:48So if I copy that and I go back up to my Google--

7:51and let's shrink that back down-- and let's

7:53Google that, there we go, we can see what kind of outlets.

7:57Oh, look, it's your standard 120 volt outlets.

8:01So your 120 volt equipment is going

8:03to plug into that, super-duper, which we saw this 120 volt up

8:07here, that should have given it away.

8:08But we have 24 plugs.

8:10That's really good.

8:12And if we go down here, number of outlets again, 24

8:16we know that.

8:17And also ethernet interface, yes, because it's managed.

8:20Also has a serial interface, which is an RS-232 connection.

8:24It's just another way to plug-in and manage it.

8:27All right, so those are some of the very important things

8:29to think about with PDUs.

8:30Whether it's going to be vertically mounted

8:32or horizontally mounted, what type of input voltages,

8:35what about if your single-phase, three-phase?

8:39Also the number of outlets that are in it, and what type

8:42of outlets, and what type of receptacle

8:44it's going to have to plug into.

8:45Got to know these things, otherwise,

8:47you'll order this equipment, and it won't match up,

8:49and you won't be able to plug things into each other.

8:51And we don't want to run into that,

8:52and that's what this Nugget is about.

8:54This whole skill is about teaching you

8:56these different pieces so that when you go and you

8:58start ordering things, you know exactly what you're

9:00getting into.

9:01And that is PDUs or power distribution units.

9:05I hope this has been informative for you,

9:07and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:06All right, we're going to talk about a scenario that you

0:09might end up in and a solution for that scenario.

0:13And we're going to use something called a stepdown transformer.

0:17Might sound fancy, but it's actually pretty simple.

0:20So let's jump in and talk about the stepdown transformers.

0:24All right, we're going to be going back to our 120V and 208V

0:28And this is a situation you might run into.

0:32Let's say, for example, you go ahead

0:35and decide that you want to focus on using 208V.

0:38So you go ahead and you spec everything out,

0:41you've got servers, you've got a rack here.

0:43Let's put a rack there.

0:44You've got some servers in here, and we'll put S for server.

0:48There we go.

0:49Got a server over here and one more.

0:52There we go.

0:53And then you might have some storage right

0:56there and networking equipment.

0:58All right we've drawn enough.

1:00I get carried away.

1:02And everything is running on 208V.

1:05We've got our PDUs over here.

1:07So we can plug everything in.

1:09There we go.

1:10And we've got one over here, do it quickly.

1:12And so now these all plug-in, boom, to our UPS unit, UPS,

1:18and everything is to 208V.

1:21Excellent and we're humming along.

1:23And we get some equipment in that we need to plug in

1:26and use, guess what?

1:28It's running 120V.

1:32Well, we know that the outlet for 120V, that plug

1:36is not going to plug into a 208V outlet.

1:39We just know that's not going to work, they don't match up.

1:41So what are we going to do because we still

1:43need it to run through our UPS unit,

1:45but our UPS is configured for 208V, as is our PDUs, 208V.

1:50Where are we going to plug these things in?

1:52We can't just plug them into the wall

1:54and hope that they don't get shocked

1:56or they don't get bad power or something.

1:59That's not a good option.

2:01So what are we going to do?

2:02Well, we are going to use something called a stepdown

2:06transformer Hey, all right.

2:09So what this does, it's a device and you put it in your rack

2:13in here.

2:14There we go.

2:15And we'll just put a little steps going down and XFMR.

2:19There we go.

2:22That's a stepdown transformer there.

2:24All right.

2:25Now, this will plug in to our 208V outlet in our UPS unit.

2:31Super-duper.

2:33UPS. And then it will have 120V outlets on it.

2:37So we've got our little outlets over here that are 120V,

2:40guess what?

2:41That means we can take our 120V device

2:43that we have to put into this setup,

2:45and we plug it right in there.

2:47And that solves our problem.

2:49So what this stepdown transformer does

2:52is it does a conversion.

2:54It uses hardware to convert to 120V for us.

2:59And then it provides us a way to plug that in and feed

3:01those devices safely.

3:03Hey, that's pretty awesome.

3:05So what do you say, we jump out and take a look

3:07at one of these things, and see what they look like.

3:10All right, let's jump over here.

3:11There we go.

3:12We are on a manufacture's website.

3:13This is their stepdown transformer rack/tower

3:17configuration.

3:18Can run in a rack or standalone is basically what that means.

3:22It's got your input chord here and our output.

3:25Now, this output is your standard 120V output.

3:29So this is what it looks like from the front.

3:31Let's get a look from the back.

3:32There we go.

3:33And we're going to zoom this in, so hopefully you can see it.

3:36There we go.

3:37The cable is going to go out and plug in to your 208V UPS unit.

3:42And then here we see standard 120V outlets.

3:45That's what this does for us.

3:47It allows us to run those 120V devices in a 208V environment.

3:52So you can do that.

3:54You just need something called a stepdown transformer,

3:56unless you purchase a second UPS that's 120V just for your 120V

4:01devices, which hey, if you got a lot of them,

4:03many people do that.

4:05There's nothing wrong with that.

4:06But just be aware that you do have options, OK.

4:10And that's what stepdown transformers are all about.

4:14I hope this has been informative for you,

4:15and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:06All right, it's time to jump back into our UPS discussion.

0:11And we're going to talk about batteries

0:13because not all batteries are created equally.

0:16So what do you say we talk about batteries?

0:20All right, so we know that UPS units are battery backups.

0:23So inside of our UPS, we have, yep, batteries.

0:27And you might have one battery or two batteries,

0:30or you may end up with 40 batteries.

0:31I don't know.

0:32It depends on how far you want to go with it

0:34and what your budget will support.

0:36But the question then is, since we

0:39know that there's more than one type of battery,

0:42specifically lead acid batteries,

0:44or traditional batteries, versus the newer lithium batteries,

0:49which should we use?

0:52Good question.

0:53So what do you say we start off with lead acid batteries?

0:56And here we have our thumbs up.

0:57That is our pros and then thumbs down, of course, cons.

1:02So we've got pros and cons that we're going to be comparing.

1:06Pro number one, they're not overly expensive.

1:10They're the cheapest of the batteries we can use.

1:13OK, that is definitely number one on the list of pros.

1:17But guess what, that's all we have for our pro column.

1:23What about our cons?

1:24Well, lead acid batteries are pretty darn heavy, much heavier

1:31than our lithium batteries.

1:32OK, but who cares?

1:34It's a battery.

1:35Yeah, wait till you go try to move one of them things.

1:37I'm telling you, some of the UPS units I've installed easily

1:41weigh 120 pounds, some of them 160 pounds

1:44because of all the batteries in them.

1:46Yeah, you can take the batteries out.

1:48But that is a real pain in the rear.

1:49And it takes time.

1:51So usually, you just grab a second person,

1:52and we get that thing muscled into the rack.

1:55They are heavy.

1:57And not just that, if you've got stacks of batteries--

2:01so let's say you had something like this,

2:02and you had a bunch of batteries,

2:04what does that battery sit on?

2:05Well, they're sitting on your floor.

2:07If you have a raised floor environment,

2:10it may be rated for a specific poundage or, hopefully, tonnage

2:14when we're talking about batteries, because they

2:17can get pretty darn heavy.

2:19So it's something you need to think about.

2:21Also, maintenance-- lead acid batteries

2:26require regular maintenance.

2:28So that's something you need to account for.

2:31And replacement-- these batteries,

2:35lead acid will last usually three to five years.

2:39And I say three to five.

2:41You're like, wow, that's a big difference between three

2:43years and five years.

2:44Yes.

2:44And that's because if you have an UPS unit

2:48and you've got a lot of power problems

2:50and you experience outages all the time, like maybe

2:54twice a month or something--

2:56I don't know-- you experience a lot of outages.

2:58The outages cause those batteries to drain.

3:02And then they have to recharge.

3:04So that is actually using the batteries,

3:07and it wears them out.

3:09So if you've got a lot of power issues,

3:11well, then your batteries might only last two years, really.

3:13But if you very, very seldom have an outage,

3:16they're probably going to last you for five years.

3:18So that's why I say three to five years.

3:20But they've got to be replaced.

3:21And the other thing is slow recharge time.

3:25Slow to recharge.

3:29Yes, because when you have an outage

3:31and it drains those batteries down,

3:33it does take a long time for them to recharge.

3:36I mean, I've seen it take eight-plus hours to fully

3:39recharge some batteries.

3:40So they are slow to recharge.

3:42And you might think, well, that's OK.

3:45Well, what if you have an outage and the power's restored,

3:49so now you're humming along, right?

3:51But your batteries are not fully charged.

3:53So you got your batteries over here.

3:55You're an hour into when the power was restored.

3:58And you're only at 20% or 15% of your battery power.

4:04And you experience another outage.

4:05Well, you see you have very little time

4:08to run on batteries at that point.

4:10So the quicker they recharge, the more quickly you're

4:13ready to respond to another power outage,

4:16especially when it comes to big storms and things

4:19when there are actual power problems.

4:21And your power may be fluctuating on and off

4:23as a power company works to restore power.

4:26That's pretty key.

4:27So those are some cons to definitely consider.

4:31OK, well, that's our lead acid.

4:32Well, what about our lithium batteries?

4:35Again, we have our pros over here and our cons over here.

4:38Well, pros-- lighter in weight.

4:42Yes they are.

4:44They're lighter in weight compared to your lead acid.

4:47OK, that's a good thing.

4:49They also have a longer life span.

4:52And actually, it's like 10 years.

4:55And that's because lead acid batteries, when you drain them

4:58all the way empty, that's a bad thing.

5:00You shouldn't do that.

5:02They're not meant to be completely drained.

5:05And it shrinks or shortens their lifespan,

5:07whereas lithium batteries are designed

5:10to be completely drained.

5:12They don't care.

5:13It doesn't matter.

5:14And that's why they have a nice longer lifespan.

5:17They're also, believe it or not, more efficient,

5:21which is always good.

5:22When we can gain efficiencies, boom, that's awesome.

5:26And lastly, fast recharge, because you can completely

5:31recharge a lithium battery in two hours.

5:35So that is really fast.

5:37It's four to five times faster, in general speaking,

5:41than lead acid batteries.

5:43So that is awesome.

5:44What's the con?

5:46You guessed it, money.

5:48That's right, they do cost more than lead acids.

5:50And they used to cost maybe double the price,

5:53but not anymore.

5:55This is going to go away.

5:58I'm telling you folks, the lithium batteries

6:01are coming down in prices every day.

6:05So by the time you're out looking for them,

6:08they may be absolutely the same price

6:11or just a few dollars more.

6:12They're not going to be a whole lot more.

6:14If you were to pay 10% more for a lithium battery,

6:18think of this right here--

6:20lighter in weight, longer lifespan.

6:22This is the key to it right here--

6:24longer lifespan, because if you take a lithium battery

6:27and you buy a lithium battery, and it's

6:30going to last you 10 years.

6:32Super.

6:33If I buy a lead acid, let's say it does last for five years.

6:36Then I have to replace it with another one

6:38in order to reach that same 10 years.

6:41That means I've bought two of these in the same time

6:44period I bought one of these.

6:46So then lithium becomes cheaper in the long run.

6:50So that makes a lot of sense.

6:52And that's why I say this, nah, not really.

6:57All right, there we go.

6:58So we can see here that lithium and lead acid

7:03batteries are different.

7:04And what's the better choice for you?

7:05Honestly, I would go lithium all the way.

7:08But if when you go shopping for this,

7:11you have a very limited budget, well, then you

7:14might have to use lead acid batteries for now.

7:16And that's just something to consider,

7:18because every environment is different.

7:21But if you have the monetary budget for this,

7:25then go lithium.

7:27I'm telling you, it's the way to go at this point in time

7:31because batteries are always being made new.

7:34Like, there's a new one now.

7:35I heard of something about a salt battery

7:37that's being created to use.

7:39So hey, that might be the next big thing.

7:41Who knows?

7:42But today, I'd go with lithium.

7:44I hope this has been informative for you,

7:45and I'd like to thank you for viewing.