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Add cooling capacity field to racks #9180

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opened 2025-12-29 20:46:38 +01:00 by adam · 4 comments
adam commented 2025-12-29 20:46:38 +01:00
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Originally created by @shield-9 on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024).

NetBox version

v3.7.1

Feature type

Change to existing functionality

Proposed functionality

  • Add "cooling capacity" (unit: watts) field to Racks
  • Add "cooling utilization" bar graph to Rack details screen
    • Can be calculated as {Allocated draw of devices in the rack} / {Cooling capacity of the rack}

Depending on the cooling method and design, it may be possible to calculate the cooling capacity of each rack in some way for some environments, but I think it is difficult to generalize and should be achieved by plugin.

Use case

All electronic devices consume power and also generate heat. In recent years, high-power devices such as GPU servers have been increasing in the market, and when installing such devices into racks, it is often necessary to consider not only the power consumption but also the amount of heat generated.

A rack's power and cooling capacity is constrained by different factors, such as:

  • Power supply capacity: bus duct and UPS capacity, PDU specifications, etc.
  • Cooling capacity: layout and specifications of air conditioners, CDUs, RDHx, chillers, other racks (nearby heat sources), etc.

So, to better understand rack utilization, it is good to have cooling utilization as an indicator, in addition to power utilization.

Database changes

No response

External dependencies

No response

Originally created by @shield-9 on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024). ### NetBox version v3.7.1 ### Feature type Change to existing functionality ### Proposed functionality * Add "cooling capacity" (unit: watts) field to Racks * Add "cooling utilization" bar graph to Rack details screen * Can be calculated as `{Allocated draw of devices in the rack} / {Cooling capacity of the rack}` Depending on the cooling method and design, it may be possible to calculate the cooling capacity of each rack in some way for some environments, but I think it is difficult to generalize and should be achieved by plugin. ### Use case All electronic devices consume power and also generate heat. In recent years, high-power devices such as GPU servers have been increasing in the market, and when installing such devices into racks, it is often necessary to consider not only the power consumption but also the amount of heat generated. A rack's power and cooling capacity is constrained by different factors, such as: * Power supply capacity: bus duct and UPS capacity, PDU specifications, etc. * Cooling capacity: layout and specifications of air conditioners, CDUs, RDHx, chillers, other racks (nearby heat sources), etc. So, to better understand rack utilization, it is good to have cooling utilization as an indicator, in addition to power utilization. ### Database changes _No response_ ### External dependencies _No response_
adam added the type: featurenetboxstatus: backlogcomplexity: low labels 2025-12-29 20:46:38 +01:00
adam commented 2025-12-29 20:46:38 +01:00
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@alehaa commented on GitHub (Mar 4, 2024):

In my opinion, it would make sense to add this to locations as well, since smaller locations might not be cooling per rack, but per room / row / etc.

@alehaa commented on GitHub (Mar 4, 2024): In my opinion, it would make sense to add this to locations as well, since smaller locations might not be cooling per rack, but per room / row / etc.
adam commented 2025-12-29 20:46:39 +01:00
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@ghost commented on GitHub (Sep 13, 2024):

How would you model a cooling utilization without also having to model air conditioners?
If you have all these devices that are generating heat from electricity, you also need to have something on the other side that is spitting out cold air to be able to mathematically determine a percentage of capacity available/used.

It would be cool for NetBox to automatically calculate BTU's based on the maximum and/or allocated draw (in watts) of power ports.
Then you might need an additional model for HVAC so you can also model how much cooling capacity is available.
The thing is, rack's don't have a cooling capacity. The rack itself doesn't do any cooling. It's just a rack.
You would probably associate cooling capacity instead to the 'location' object. If you put a bunch of racks that all spit out ### BTU's of heat into a 'location' that has ### tons of cooling capacity you can then determine if your HVAC is overloaded in any particular location.

@ghost commented on GitHub (Sep 13, 2024): How would you model a cooling utilization without also having to model air conditioners? If you have all these devices that are generating heat from electricity, you also need to have something on the other side that is spitting out cold air to be able to mathematically determine a percentage of capacity available/used. It would be cool for NetBox to automatically calculate BTU's based on the maximum and/or allocated draw (in watts) of power ports. Then you might need an additional model for HVAC so you can also model how much cooling capacity is available. The thing is, rack's don't have a cooling capacity. The rack itself doesn't do any cooling. It's just a rack. You would probably associate cooling capacity instead to the 'location' object. If you put a bunch of racks that all spit out ### BTU's of heat into a 'location' that has ### tons of cooling capacity you can then determine if your HVAC is overloaded in any particular location.
adam commented 2025-12-29 20:46:39 +01:00
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@alehaa commented on GitHub (Sep 13, 2024):

The thing is, rack's don't have a cooling capacity.

I think there are racks available with integrated cooling, fire supression, etc.

Perhaps this could be easily handled by adding cooling capacity to devices. Then one could add a btu property that is either positive and calculated from power consumption, or negative as defined in cooling capacity. The sum of the btu fields in a rack / location should be negative (i.e. more cooling capacity than heat produced).

@alehaa commented on GitHub (Sep 13, 2024): > The thing is, rack's don't have a cooling capacity. I think there are racks available with integrated cooling, fire supression, etc. Perhaps this could be easily handled by adding cooling capacity to devices. Then one could add a `btu` property that is either positive and calculated from power consumption, or negative as defined in cooling capacity. The sum of the `btu` fields in a rack / location should be negative (i.e. more cooling capacity than heat produced).
adam commented 2025-12-29 20:46:39 +01:00
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@ghost commented on GitHub (Sep 14, 2024):

I think there are racks available with integrated cooling, fire supression, etc.

true, these come to mind: https://www.apc.com/us/en/product-range/61780-uniflair-direct-expansion-inrow-cooling/#products
I agree that it makes more sense to add cooling capacity to 'devices' rather than 'racks'. Then you can model both the above rack coolers, as well as an actual HVAC device.
Those in-row rack coolers don't have room to rack servers and such, so the 'rack' model wouldn't really fit them. They should really just be a 'device'.

@ghost commented on GitHub (Sep 14, 2024): > I think there are racks available with integrated cooling, fire supression, etc. true, these come to mind: https://www.apc.com/us/en/product-range/61780-uniflair-direct-expansion-inrow-cooling/#products I agree that it makes more sense to add cooling capacity to 'devices' rather than 'racks'. Then you can model both the above rack coolers, as well as an actual HVAC device. Those in-row rack coolers don't have room to rack servers and such, so the 'rack' model wouldn't really fit them. They should really just be a 'device'.
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