Hetzner’s new data centre – what you want to know

MyBroadband recently published an article titled Inside Hetzner’s new data centre, taking a look inside the new facility in Samrand, Gauteng.

The article received many questions from interested readers, including how climate control is handled, how well it is connected, and how its power supply works.

Climate Control (cooling)

Hetzner’s Data Centre Park has N+2 redundancy on all its air conditioning units.

When ambient temperature allows for it, it makes use of free cooling – achieved with its proprietary air conditioning system.

This significantly reduces the power consumption and carbon footprint of the data centre.

“We anticipate that over an annual cycle, a minimum of 65% of our cooling requirements will come from free cooling,” Hetzner said.

During the South African winter, autumn, and spring seasons the data centre runs on free cooling for up to 24 hours a day.

This figure is lower during the summer months, averaging 8 to 10 hours per day, with peaks in excess of 15 hours of free cooling per day.

During these periods energy-efficient fans move cool air via carefully designed air-flow channels to where it is needed.

Energy efficiency

A number of data centre design elements and ongoing optimisations contribute towards the overall energy efficiency of Hetzner’s Data Centre Park. These include:

Building shape and materials.
Equipment type, positioning, and ongoing calibration.
Intelligent, directed airflow and cold air containment.

These systems combine to efficiently distribute cold air within the server hosting area, limiting wastage.

Hetzner's new data centre in Midrand — Hetzner’s new data centre in Midrand

Connectivity

In addition to customers being able to purchase bandwidth from Hetzner, the company offers a carrier-neutral model for colocation customers.

“This provides complete freedom of choice as to who they use for upstream service providers and point-to-point connection,” Hetzner said.

EOH Carrier Services and Internet Solutions currently have a presence in Hetzner’s facility, while Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) and Telkom are in the process of installing fibre.

“Customers are welcome to initiate the installation of additional provider services,” Hetzner said.

Hetzner uses EOH Carrier Services and Internet Solutions as its primary bandwidth providers.

“Using two network providers significantly increases the data centre’s network resilience,” Hetzner said.

Connectivity is provided through diverse, redundant fibre routes connecting the facility to a 10Gbps fibre ring.

Power Supply

Fully redundant, physically separated A+B feeds provide power to the Hetzner data centre. A single utility power feed can be disconnected without interruption to service.

“Our Dedicated Server customers using a single power supply option also significantly benefit from this redundancy through our sophisticated static transfer switch design,” Hetzner said.

Should the Data Centre Park experience load shedding or an Eskom power outage, Hetzner’s UPS systems and a standby generator on each feed provide a continual power supply to the data centre.

The data centre is able to run indefinitely without Eskom power as the facility has the capacity to hold 53,000 litres of fuel with a diesel refueling strategy in place to ensure its fuel tanks are replenished long before they are exhausted.

Since the data centre was first turned on 16 months ago, load shedding and Eskom power failures have tested the resilience of the backup power design.

“Thus far, our generators have provided approximately 50 hours of power,” Hetzner said.

Security

The Data Centre Park has a 24/7 security presence, including a patrol team. The facility is monitored by CCTV cameras both externally and internally.

Biometric access is installed on all access points, with a man-trap facility at the main entrance to prevent tailgating. A high-voltage electric fence and alarm triggers provide perimeter security.

“Colocation customers enjoy unattended access with our biometric access system which allows them to visit their servers in the demarcated colocation area,” Hetzner said.

Juniper backbone technology

Hetzner said that its longstanding partnership with Juniper allows it to offer a high-performance network infrastructure.

“With the implementation of Juniper’s Virtual Chassis technology, we’re able to increase the redundancy and resilience of our network, allowing for high levels of automation in the provisioning process,” it said.

Separate work and relax area

Hetzner’s Data Centre Park has a separate work area and small meeting room for onsite customers.

There is also a work room that provides the basic tools needed for colocation customers who wish to work on their servers.

Data centre visits

Hetzner said that data centre visits can be organised for people who are interested in their colocation service (email requests can be sent to [email protected]).