Data Center Thermal Management

What this topic covers

Airflow, liquid cooling, heat rejection and facility energy around IT equipment.

Core thermal ideas

Servers convert nearly all consumed electrical power into heat that must leave the facility.

Air cooling remains common, while high-density computing increasingly uses liquid at or near the rack.

Facility thermal design includes the IT equipment, distribution system, cooling plant and outdoor heat sink.

System tradeoffs

The complete thermal path includes heat source, interface, plate or sink, coolant, exchanger and final heat rejection.

What to monitor

High-density electronics increasingly push cooling closer to the heat source.

Lifecycle perspective

Good design avoids moving a bottleneck from the chip or process into the facility cooling plant.