M247 Ltd Manchester Datacentre Build Blog

UPS’s are now being cabled up

Partitioining is progressing well with the passage taking shape

Box build for South-bound route has started.

More testing for the power distribution.

The contrete has arrived for the Gen set pad and is being layed now.

Cable tray Version 3 is now being installed

The partitions upstair’s are going up fast.

Fire supression install has started.

Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures. We were not meant to be at the DC today but through circumstances ended up there any way and had the opportunity to take pics. Because of this they are taken with the phone cam and therefore not good quality.

The Window film decision was made for blackout vinyl and opaque white on upper rear of the building. This allows us to get a good combination of security, sun light and good looks. We also had the delivery of the 4.5 km Optic Fibre which will be pulled through over the next few days. The Paxman final decision was also reached so that our key areas are controlled electronically by card. The UPS system and batteries arrived also whilst we were there.

At the bottom of this page is a link to a webcam which has a live feed of the happenings in the Sever room at the DC.

The watchful eye

Progress today looks good. We picked up a change which needed to be made with the layout of the overhead racks which hopefully does not cause to much of a delay. Partitioning for the upstairs offices has begun with the big task of getting all the material upstairs. Jon also made further progress with testing the Cisco Routers.

Work continues at a fast pace with the PDU breaker panels almost done (4/5 done). A 185mm armoured power cable has been hung between the input feed and the main panel (not yet installed), air con installation in the UPS room has started.

Tomorrow the concrete for the generator pad should arrive and the office build out should start.

Work is progressing well. Installation of our heavy-duty raised flooring is now complete and attention is focussed on completing the electrical installation and our overhead data cable containment. The civils work for two of our diverse fibre ducts is nearing completion, in anticipation for fibre pulling towards the end of next week

Please stop hurting me, I know it’s late.  I’m sorry.  Please stop the pain.

Lets see… they dug a hole across the road, put in a cable, and filled it in again.
Jon unpacked and started assembling the expensive router.
Matt started terminating the office cables.
David and Matt unpacked the servers and made a biiiiig pile of packaging.

Downstairs, they put most of the floor in (and by the look of it, they’ve almost completed it now) and they also started wiring the breakers.

Off camera, they dug a very long trench in the soil to run the cable round.

*throws the pictures at the mob and goes to find somewhere to hide*

Today the heavy duty floors started to go in and should be completed by end of the week. We also had some measuring up for inserting burglar guards as well as some more cabling was completed.

Picture wise not much has changed. More sockets have been wired up. The UPS room walls have been painted which is way more interesting then watching plaster dry. We finished laying the network cables upstairs for the offices, board room and break room. We also had the delivery of the Cisco Routers.

Well technically it’s mostly the progress from the 17th, but I’ve been spying on the workmen so I can give sneak previews of what will be seen in the next lot of pictures.

Upstairs we have started putting in the office network, running the longest of the runs of cable, ready for termination once the walls are up.
The cabling should be finished and hidden again in a few days.

We have a happy, humming server recording an image of the progress every 5 seconds, which provides us with some excellent material to do some fun things with later.
We have also been busy, the past few days, testing out some of the new equipment that will be going on the data floor.
You may also be able to make out, on that last picture, the lights of the new power bar on the floor.  The power bar, that is.  On the floor.  Not lights removed from the power bar, cause that would be bad.

Downstairs, the plastered walls are drying out nicely… much more interesting than watching paint dry.
The supports for the suspended data trays have been going up.
More wires have been run for the power sockets.
The busy workers have even started fitting the cover for the power runs.

My spying shows that they’re just about done for today.
The first data tray has been put up … ironically, just in front of the camera.
More of the power runs have been covered.
And I think I caught a glimpse of sockets being wired.

And now it’s time for some pictures of Saturday’s work.
For pictures of today’s, you’ll have to tune in tomorrow.
Same place, but probably different time.  If you’re really eager, why not subscribe to the RSS feed, so you’ll know when the next wonderful pictures go up?

Another day of lovely progress…

Our first shipment of servers arrived in a big truck.  Thank heavens for the lift.
The second ducting has started going in on the other side of the road and runs half the length, hopefully that section will be done in another day’s work.
The plasterers have been busy, and the new walls around the UPS room have been plastered on both sides and are looking good.
The power sockets have started being run, and I’m glad I don’t have to make sense of that collection of wires.

Off camera, cable trays running power above the suspended ceiling have been going in (loudly) and cabling has started for the office.

Hopefully come the end of Monday we can bring you pictures of the office framework going up.  Fingers crossed.

And now, the pictures.

Much progress is afoot.

The first ducting trench now reaches the length of the road.
The prep work for building the offices upstairs has now begun.
The camera is back in place downstair *cough* and we will hopefully be able to bring you some cool pictures from that in the next few days.
The holes for the cooling in pipes are drilled, the rest of the sockets are in, and the first three electrical boxes are up on the wall.
The UPS room wall is up… and the phone line is in!  Internet to follow soon.

Electrical containment installation is nearly complete,  ready for cabling installation to commence over the next couple of days

Installation of our diverse fibre ducting has commenced. This expected to be complete by the end of January 2009

Today we started to put things together upstairs. Masking the layout of the partitions made it easier to visualize and make a few adjustments. We also placed a web cam downstairs to keep an eye on everything. By next week hopefully you will be able to view the webcam from this Blog!! Putting together some furniture and getting the heating working was also accomplished.

On visit to datacentre we see that progress is good. The floors have been lifted and are ready for the strengthened floor to go in, which are higher for better air flow. The walls downstairs are going in for the UPS room and the Fire Escape lobby. Trunking is being layed in the server room.

We are constructing a highly secure and energy-efficient facility with all the protection you’d expect from a premium datacentre, including:

• N+1 UPS Protection
• N+1 Downflow Cooling
• Dedicated 11Kv substation on-site
• Full generator backup, with several days’ on-site fuel storage
• 24-hour monitored and recorded CCTV security
• 20Gbps resilient network ring linking the site to key datacentres in Manchester and London

We have chosen a premium, newly built, detached office building on a secure site with ample parking to use for our facility.

Work has started on stripping out the existing office-grade raised floor in order to install the heavy duty datacentre floor, with 400mm void to allow sufficient air flow for cooling