[TriLUG] OT: Designing a computer lab layout

[Ken Mink]

As everyone has pointed, be very aware of power. Very. One data center I
had had enough power to keep the machines running, but not enough to
start them all at once. One of the hurricanes knocked power out long
enough for the UPS's to drain. When power was restored, everything tried
to come up at once. There wasn't enough juice, it tripped the circuit
and they all came down again. The circuit reset, everything started to
come up, there wasn't enough, reset. You get the idea. It was a very
small unmanned datacenter and there was a hurricane.

With the size of the room, wireless would be a big advantage. Less wire
clutter and tripping hazards. If specific machines that will be in the
room is static, you could go with 802.11a or g and get the speed boost.
If outside people will be bringing machines in, go with 802.11b. Someone
else mentioned that you may want wired LAN if you're moving large files
around. Heed that advice. If you go with 802.11b and users are twiddling
their thumbs waiting for file transfers, you'll be pulling UTP soon
enough.

I worked one place where we had full spectrum fluorescents bulbs. It was
so much nicer than the standard fluorescent bulbs. They're a little more
expensive than standard bulbs, but still cheaper than incandescent's
power bills in the long run. 

My $.02
Ken

On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 16:59, Joe Meador wrote:
> Hey guys & gals,
> 
> The group I work for is about to create a new computer lab in a room 24 x
> 20 feet.  We'll have 6 PC's with some running Windows and some Linux, 3 SGI
> workstations, and a Linux cluster in a rack enclosure.  We'll probably
> have at least 1 networked printer and possibly a scanner, and will need
> workspace for people with laptops.  The  room currently is not networked
> but we are going to get 20 Ethernet jacks installed.  Are there any
> precautions, suggestions, etc for setting a lab up.  The room *should*
> already have sufficient ventalation.  I am unsure on how I should
> physically have the room situated, what size/type desks we should get,
> etc.  Also what kind of lighting we should look at (I know that the people
> in it will probably want fairly soft lighting because they will be using
> graphics "stereo" for molecule visualization, etc).
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions,
> 
> Joe Meador
> joe at alien.biochem.wfubmc.edu
> 
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