How to ground server rack?
How to ground server rack?
Data Centres can have up to 30 times the electrical density of a standard office building and with high safety and power demands. For safety reasons, low-voltage systems—such as electrical services, telecommunications equipment—are required to be bonded to ground per national and local electrical codes and industry standards.
A server rack grounding system is essential to ensure data centre uptime. But before going into the detail of how grounding works well for your rack, let’s first see the key difference between Grounding and Bonding.
Bonding is generally done as a protective measure from electrical shocks by joining the last of metallic pieces to form a conducting path. Grounding, however, is any intentional or unintentional connection between an electrical circuit and the earth. Grounding ensures all metal parts of an electrical circuit are connected to the earth. It doesn’t impact the regular working of the electrical system. Bonding alone does not manage to protect anything, but if one of the cabinet boxes is grounded, electrical energy stock up will not be possible and the server rack will be safe from any potential threat.
Why are bonding and grounding important?
In a successfully installed grounding and bonding system, leakage currents to have deviated from the data centre equipment. It will bond metallic components to the system in a way that conductive materials at the same electrical potential to decrease the current flow. If the current were to reach the equipment, it could cause great damage. To avoid any adverse effect on the performance of electronic equipment grounding& bonding techniques must be properly applied since IT equipment are highly prone to get damaged due to leakage current.
A few commonly followed guidelines for bonding and grounding a server cabinet are as follows:
- The root of the signal ground tree can be connected to the cabinet ground and protective earth.
- The network grounding must be ensured in a way that the system balances all electrical potentials for a low resistance avenue to the ground.
- Installers should ensure that the grounding straps are terminated at each end with a Listed ring or closed-loop terminal which can be secured at one end to the door and at the other end to Cabinet Enclosure chassis that are secured and making good contact with the metal.
- Grounding – Panels are to be provided with termination for field wiring ground lug.
- The product is to be grounded to the main earthing conductor via a Listed-grounding lug. All other dead-metal parts are considered bonded due to the nature of the assembly
Whether it is a commercial building, a data centre, or an industrial building, all the elements used in a protection system are not 100% safe & secure without proper grounding and bonding. When metallic conductors in an IT infrastructure are bonded, everything is at the same potential. Bonding is especially done to connect all conductors to the same earth. A couple of devices that need to be bonded and grounded include antenna towers, cable trays, cabinets and server racks, computer room signal reference grids, and telephone room equipment
