M247 Ltd Manchester Datacentre Build Blog

Apologies for the lack of updates recently.  However, hopefully, this will mean these next few updates will be even more eagerly anticipated.  There will be a few posts catching you up to the current progress.  I hope to get these all out over the next few days, so watch this space.

We start at Week 6.  At the beginning of the week the concrete is poured for the new upstairs floor.  But how do we get the concrete up there, I hear you say?  Well there’s a really cool piece of equipment which pumps it up and through an upstairs window.  There is progress with the UPS battery room upstairs as the wall to what used to be the toilet is dismantled.  The front wall and doorway for the UPS room go up, and the walls begin to be plastered. The doorframe also goes in for the knocked through doorway downstairs.  One of the downstairs toilets also starts to be dismantled ready to become part of the main router room for DC2.

The first stages of the building of the new floor are now taking place.  The RSJs are in place ready to support the concrete floor.  The buildings are now fully knocked through upstairs as well.

The building work is progressing well.  The staircase has now been removed ready for the new floor to be put in.  The doorway has also been knocked through downstairs to join the two buildings.

Building work has started on phase 1 of our second datacentre build-out.  Phase 1 involves the removal of the staircase and the building of a new floor in one of the buildings which will give extra room for our UPS’s.

This is the first 3 days of progress.

We have started the build-out of our new datacentre here in Manchester.  Over the coming weeks we will be updating on the progress and posting photos and videos of the build-out.  Today’s photos give an idea of how everything looks before the major work is done.  Matt got our first security camera up and we also had the pleasure of removing the For Sale signs.

Our 1u colocation package has recently been updated to include 0.8amps of power as standard, this allows you to run almost any single CPU server!

We are very pleased to announce the beta launch of our Cloud Hosting platform based on Xenserver.

Currently we are running 2 clusters here in our Manchester datacenter however we have plans to launch clusters in Frankfurt, East coast USA and West coast USA.

We have today launched a new website for IceColo – our Manchester Colocation brand

The website also contains lots of information about the major Manchester Network deployment required by our networking division GlobalAXS to support the datacentre.

As part of their case study, our UPS manufacturer sent a photographer to take some pictures of our completed datacentre. See below for the results

With the ‘move’ from London now finished everything is up and running. The datacentre is in the finishing stages with jobs such sorting and furnishing taking place. With the racks flat packed and brought from London we can also begin the process of building our 2nd pod which should be under demand shortly.

Apart from a final ’snag list’ of cosmetic touch-ups, the datacentre is now complete

• The fully resilient network is now operational
• The N+1 close-control cooling is up and running
• Local Authority Building Control have signed off all the works
• Electrical infrastructure is fully complete, certified and online, including generator and N+1 UPS protection and power conditioning
• The numerous fire detection and suppression systems are now active
• Security systems are online, including detailed internal & external IP CCTV, proximity door access and priority-response RedCare alarm system

There are now more than 200 live operational servers online at the facility, with another 300 due to be moved over the coming weeks.

The finishing touches are being completed to the office areas, with a view to our permanent sales, technical support and NOC operations moving here within the next couple of weeks.

See below for some photographs of progress over the past week or so…

The final leg of our fibre network was completed yesterday evening. The 20Gbps network is now live and running with full diversity and protection all the way back to London and out to the Internet.

The air-conditioning install is continuing, but was pushed a day or so behind schedule

No photos today unfortunately – expect more shortly…

Everything is progressing very well. The fist of our office furniture has arrived, including a rather large solid oak reception desk. Installation of the Paxton proximity door security system is nearly complete and the two main fire suppression and detection systems are now up and running.

Installation of the air-conditioning systems has been progressing well this week, and is scheduled to be finished by Wednesday next week. Final fibre pulling and splicing was completed at 5am this morning (due to traffic control restrictions) and we’re hoping to bring this 10G link into live service on Monday

See below for photos of this week’s progress

Friday was a very successful day. The UPS cluster and first generator have been commissioned, fully tested and also undergone several hours of load-bank testing. A number of different ‘real’ mains-failure scenarios were tested and the power backup systems performed flawlessly (without a single ‘tweak’ required!). The entire electrical infrastructure is now fully operational.

The cold-aisle containment is also now complete on the first pod (ie two contained rows) of racks.

There is more fibre pulling scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, with final splicing & testing on Wednesday. The final 10G network link will then be operational towards the end of the week. Thursday will see the main downflow air conditioning equipment installed and commissioned.

We’re very much on target for full completion by the end of the week

Photos from Friday below…

The main board is up and running, the generator is cabled and due to be commisioned tomorrow.

The plaster upstairs is drying nicely and should be painted early next next week.

The DC build is progressing well with the main panel now 90% installed (to be completed tomorrow), UPS cabling done, the first pod of racks has been installed and work has started on the containment for the cables to the generator (to be completed tomorrow).

Tomorrow United Utilities will arrive to upgrade part of our power supply, the UPS battery build starts and the generator cabling starts!

We hope to have initial power to the rack by Monday and Air conditioning around 1 week later.

The office has started to be plastered!

We will start the job of installing around 200 cables into patch panels late Friday/Monday.

More progress has been made on the little details, including the lines of racks shaping up nicely and last of the plaster boarding is going up upstairs.

The most important change today is this one though.  The main board is in place!

Not much chatter tonight, just some pictures

The first dark-fibre network link is now operational. This link is actually the 27km 10Gig backup route, linking the datacentre to one of our two  main Manchester Points-of-Precense (POPs) located at one of the Telecity facilities on the Science Park. The primary network link will be a shorter 9km dark-fibre route and is anticipated to be online within the next week or so (weather permitting!).

We had hoped to also bring this second network route online this weekend, but the final duct construction ‘en route’ had been delayed due to the recent adverse weather conditions. These duct and box builds are are now progressing well (see photos below) and are due to be completed within the next 48 hours. The final 2km of fibre pulling is scheduled for later this week – again, weather permitting!