Node4 Status

Node4 engineers will be applying software upgrades to the Ethernet LAN switches at DC-3 on Friday 19^th March between 00.01 – 01.00. Colocation customers connected to these switches will experience two outages of approximately 5 minutes each.

Further Information as follows:
We have been made aware of known bugs in the Ethernet Switch OS utilised for colocation customers at DC-3 and therefore we plan to upgrade these switches. These switches are used to provide colocation customers with access to internet transit and L2 MPLS VPN services.

Two 48 port Ethernet switches will be upgraded. We estimate that customers connected to these switches will experience two outages of up to 5 minutes each during the upgrade, although services be deemed “at risk” until both upgrades have been completed. The upgrades will take place on Friday 19^th March between 00.01 - 01.00.

Colocation customers directly affected by this work will be notified via email (today 10/03/10).

If you would like to discuss this planned maintenance, please contact your account manager on 0845 123 2222.

Regards,
Node4 Support

Note 5th Feb 2010 - This work has now been postpond and will be rescheduled for a later date.

Node4 engineers will be applying software upgrades to the Ethernet LAN switches at DC-3 on Sunday 7th January between 00.00 – 01.00. Colocation customers connected to these switches will experience an estimated 5 minutes of downtime.

Note - This work was postponed from Sunday 24th

Further Information as follows:
We have been made aware of known bugs in the Ethernet Switch OS utilised for colocation customers at DC-3 and therefore we plan to upgrade these switches. These switches are used to provide colocation customers with access to internet transit and L2 MPLS VPN services.
Two 48 port Ethernet switches will be upgraded. We estimate that customers connected to these switches will experience up to 5 minutes downtime during the upgrade, although services be deemed “at risk” until both upgrades have been completed. The upgrades will take place on Sunday 24th January between 01.00 - 02.00.
Colocation customers directly affected by this work will be notified via email (today 11/01/10).
If you would like to discuss this planned maintenance, please contact your account manager on 0845 123 2222.
Regards,
Node4 Support

Following on from the huge success of our Wakefield data centre (DC3), we are pleased to announce plans for our next data centre site which will be located in Northampton.

We have been looking to expand the business by developing a fourth data centre in a new location; the fastest growing town in the UK, Northampton, seemed like a natural choice. The move to the heart of England will expand our customer reach even further and being just an hour from London make it particularly accessible to businesses in the southern region of the UK.

Plans for the new DC4 in Northampton are currently being finalised and it is planned that the facility will be ready for customers to move in by the end of 2010. The site will follow the same high standards set in our existing Wakefield and Derby data centres. With space for up to 600 racks and features such as UPS, generators and climate control in most cases being N+N it will ensure that the facility offers Tier IV levels of resiliency. The new site will be part of our highly resilient core MPLS network that also includes points of presence in Telehouse, Global Switch and TeleCity.

We have already established ourselves as a quality data centre provider with 2 locations and we want to continue to build on this reputation by increasing our capacity and geographic reach with the opening of a new facility in Northampton. As with our other data centres, DC4 will carry a high specification but at sensible prices meaning that any organisation wanting colocation or managed hosting services can benefit from a quality facility without having to break the budget.

You will be able to keep up to date with the developments on this blog, although as it is still at design stage we don’t expect any update for a while.

The Wakefield Data Centre, DC3 which is just outside Leeds is now open and welcoming new customers in.

The Mayor of Wakefield, Councillor Heather Hudson cut the ribbon alongside Node4’s MD, Andrew Gilbert, at the official opening event in July which was attended by around 100 invited customers and friends of the company, including special guests from the world of British Superbikes, Chris Walker and his team from Rob Mac Racing.

We are pleased that a substantial amount of the 450 rack capacity has already been sold.

DC3 is the next step in the development of Node4’s vision to be recognised as a leading data centre provider in the UK. The location of DC3 just outside the large city of Leeds helps us to expand our ever-growing customer base into the north of the UK.

The Wakefield data centre also allows us to provide a reliable and resilient disaster recovery solution not only to new customers, but also to existing customers at our Derby site to take advantage of the two locations.

DC3 is one of the first in the country to combine 2 of the latest energy saving technologies throughout the site: cold aisle containment and free cooling chillers. By using these methods, we hope to make DC3 one of the most energy efficient data centres in Europe.

Cold aisle containment is still a new but relatively simple idea to get the best efficiency from air conditioning units, ensuring that air at the most optimum temperature flows through the servers. Ultima Compact Freecool air conditioning units from Airedale International have been chosen to ensure that sound and vibrations are kept to a minimum, which in turn maximises the energy efficiency of the units without compromising the capacity.

You can find more details on the facility at http://www.node4.co.uk/products/dc3

If you would like to arrange a tour of the facility please contact the sales team on 0845 123 2222.

We would like to advise you of the upcoming 21CN (21st Century Network) upgrade works which will be affecting customers BT IP Stream DSL connections over the coming weeks and months.

The work is required to allow DSL customers to benefit from developments in next generation technologies including higher bandwidth speeds.

Whilst we will aim to make the change-over as smooth as possible, there will be some disruption to the Broadband service on the day of the upgrade. This will typically mean that end users may be unable to connect to their Broadband service for between 15 to 30 minutes. Unfortunately we are unable to specify any specific timings of when exactly this will be happening on the day itself.

From the time the customers broadband automatically reconnects to the service, the new 21CN line will be rigorously tested to ensure it will deliver services of the highest quality both now and in the future. During this period customers may experience drops in connection or a slower line speed for the first 4 to 10 days. Once the stabilisation period has been completed the Broadband service will continue to work as normal.

Regards,

Node4 Support

The next 2-3 weeks will see the final commissioning work at our new state of the art datacentre in Wakefield. The exterior of the building and the compound are now complete.

We will complete the battery and UPS installation this week and commission the airconditioning shortly after that. We will be kitting out our new NOC and reception area next week.

The building will be cleaned by a team of specialist data centre cleaners to recognised ISO clean-room standards and the initial batch of comms equipment will be installed and configured ready for the first customers to move in

Here are some pictures of the cold aisle pods we have installed in the rooms. We have 2 rooms completed, but we have only installed the pods in one room for now, the other will follow shortly.

It’s been a little while since we posted any updates on the Wakefield Project, but things are progressing well.

The site now has a mains electricity supply and construction of all the internal rooms have been completed. The raised access floor is fitted throughout the first 2 rooms and the service corridors

The images above show some of the switchgear in our plantroom (this controls the power into the building including the UPSs, generators and mains feed). The Purple Gear is for our A feed and the Orange Gear is for the B feed.

Also shown are the raised access floor being laid in one of the smaller data halls and a completed floor.

There is also a picture of our security pod situated in reception. All visitors to the DC will have to go through the security pod to gain access to the data halls. This device prevents tailgating and allows us to track all customer and staff movements in and out of the data centre.

Ongoing tasks in the build now include:

Failover testing of mains / generator power
Connection of power into the data halls
Installation of CCTV and other security measures
Installation of FM200 system and VESDA
Installation of Comms Fibre

Our first set of racks are being installed on Monday in our Cold Aisle Pods. Click here for more information on Cold Aisle Containment

We thought we would give you a quick update on the progress of DC3.

The site is on track to open at the end of April and things are now moving on very quickly. 2 out of the 4 generators were delivered last week along with the fuel tanks. Now they are all in position the contractors are working on the cabling ready for the arrival of the mains distribution pannels which are due to be installed W/C 23rd March. As you can see below the panels are currently being built and will be going through acceptance testing next week.

The brick built substation is also nearly complete ready for the installation of the dual HV switches next week.

Continuing the Green theme from the last post, I’d like to explain a bit about how our new air conditioning system gives us the best possible combination of performance, resilience, economy and flexibility.

Our Wakefield site makes use of a technology called free cooling. Well it’s not quite free (these things cost hundreds of thousands of pounds) but it is a highly efficient way of taking advantage of one of the main features of the UK climate. It’s cold most of the time!

Whenever the outside temperature is less than the temperature of the water coming back from the data centre, we don’t actively cool the water in our chillers. We let the atmosphere do the work for us. So for most day of the year (and pretty much every night) our chillers are doing very little work, but if it does get hot, they kick in to keep the air cool.

For resilience, each room has pairs of air conditioning units that are fed from different chillers. There is enough capacity to keep the rooms cool even if we lost ½ of the air con infrastructure. We also run the fans from the UPS system to keep the air moving at all times, even during a power failure.

In addition to all this, we are cutting the fan speeds needed to pressurise the raised floor void by using baffles under the floor space to direct cold air where it is needed. We can vary the fan speeds and the input temperatures to precisely control the conditions within the cold aisles. We are making use of Thermal Imaging technology to map our data centre airflow and temperature distribution to ensure the best possible environment for your equipment.

All in all we are doing everything we can to reduce our energy costs and carbon emissions. This is something we can pass on to our customers and, when carbon taxes start to take hold it could add up to some quite significant savings.

By Chris Pagel, Technical Services Manager

Being a Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert can actually be a burden. why? Well there’s a perception that CCIE’s know everything about everything and can answer any question thrown at them. Well I’ve been a CCIE for almost ten years now and I still don’t know everything and I never will. That’s why the CCIE logo isn’t on my business card and why I prefer not to be introduced as “our CCIE” when meeting customers.

When I passed my CCIE I was very proud, and I still am, it was and still is one of the most sought after and most respected qualifications in IT.

10 years ago CCNA and CCNP did not exist, you went straight for CCIE and that was it. There was a pre-qualification test, as there is now, and a two day lab. The lab was one of, if not the, most stressful things I’ve ever done. The months of effort I had put in to revising, and the late nights configuring routers in every conceivable configuration in my spare bedroom would have counted for nothing if I had failed. Luckily I passed, one of three out of the twelve who did the exam over those two long days. Today there’s a structured path to get to CCIE and a one day lab exam, I’m not sure if that makes it any easier.

To me being a CCIE is not about passing an exam it’s about being a good engineer, being dynamic and adaptable, having a logical approach to an issue or problem and having the ability to work under pressure and to see it through. I know people who can do this and they don’t have a CCIE (or any other qualification for that matter) but that are equally as good as any CCIE I know. It’s not always about having the qualification.

I was glad when Cisco took the decision to split CCIE in to six tracks a few years back. Due to the breadth of technology area’s Cisco products now cover it made sense. I had hoped that this would make the CCIE re-certification tests (every two years) a little easier as it would be more specific to the subject of routing and switching, however I was wrong. There’s still a vast range of topics to cover so it’s no easier.

A CCIE qualification is a good thing to have it certainly opens doors and gave me opportunities that wouldn’t have been available to me otherwise. So if you’re looking to do CCIE my advice would be to go for it – follow the CCNA, CCNP path first but be realistic it’s going to take over your life and will take a lot of commitment and you need to immerse yourself in Cisco for months. The best advice I can give is to speak other CCIE’s and get them to help and mentor you. You also need the backing of your employer, that’s very important as you will need lab equipment and study time. It’s worth the effort for the rewards – well it was for me anyway.

I was a little disappointed to find out that Cisco don’t do anything to mark 10 years of CCIE certification, but I suppose there’s a lot of us now. Still a t-shirt wouldn’t have gone a miss!

You can find more information about CCIE at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_Career_Certifications
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/ccie/index.html

Captain Cisco

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Planned Maintenance Friday 19th March Affecting DC-3 (Wakefield) Colocation Customers

Postponed Planned Maintenance Sunday 7th February Affecting DC-3 (Wakefield) Colocation Customers

Plans for new Northampton data centre announced.

Leeds Data Centre now open!

21CN Network Upgrades Affecting BT IP Stream DSL Customers

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