Before Alibaba Cloud engineers deploy cloud boxes in your data center, they conduct an on-site engineering survey to verify that your facility meets all physical, environmental, power, and network requirements. This topic describes those requirements.
Environment requirements
Rack
| Specification | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Form factor | Standard 42U rack |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 600 mm x 2,055 mm x 1,200 mm (height includes casters; depth excludes front and rear doors) |
| Front clearance | 1,220 mm |
| Rear clearance | 610 mm |
| Transport corridor clear height | At least 2,200 mm (elevators and corridors must accommodate rack transport to the installation site) |
| Floor anchoring | Bolted to the ground or base at all four corners |
Only Alibaba Cloud-authorized personnel may move or operate devices inside a cloud box.
Temperature and humidity
| Parameter | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Air inlet temperature | 5°C-30°C |
| Temperature change rate | Less than 20°C per hour; less than 5°C per 15 minutes |
| Air volume | 160 CFM per kW (Chinese mainland regions); 145 CFM per kW (regions outside the Chinese mainland) |
| Dew point temperature (DP) | 5.5°C-15°C |
| Relative humidity (RH) | 30%-80% |
If the data center temperature exceeds 40°C for four consecutive hours and Alibaba Cloud cannot reach your designated contact, Alibaba Cloud may temporarily disable your cloud boxes to prevent hardware damage.
Additional requirements
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Weight bearing | The installation foundation must support the maximum weight of the hardware in your order. |
| Altitude | Maximum 1,500 m above sea level |
| Lightning protection | Must comply with GB 50689-2011 Code for Design of Lightning Protection and Earthing Engineering for Telecommunication Bureaus (Stations) |
| Seismic design | Buildings must meet at least seismic design Category C |
| Electrostatic discharge (ESD) | Electrostatic voltage to earth on floors, workbenches, equipment, and operators must be at least 200 V. The ESD floor must comply with SJ/T 10796-2001 General Specification for Raised Access Floors for Electrostatic Protection, with surface resistance and system resistance between 1 x 10^5 Ohm and 1 x 10^9 Ohm. |
| Electromagnetic interference | Radio interference field strength must not exceed 130 dB (uV/m) at 80 MHz-1,000 MHz and 1,400 MHz-2,000 MHz. Power-frequency magnetic field strength must not exceed 30 A/m. |
Network requirements
CloudBox connects to the public cloud through an Express Connect circuit. Only dedicated Express Connect circuits are supported. For more information, see Dedicated Express Connect circuit connection flow.
The deployment requirements for an Express Connect circuit are as follows:
Uplink switch
You must provide one or two CloudBox uplink switches with a physical speed of 10 Gbps. Two switches are recommended.
The uplink switches must support the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Layer 3 subinterfaces, and the dot1q protocol.
The connection between the CloudBox uplink switches and CloudBox must support the eBGP protocol, VLANs, subinterfaces, and the optional Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) feature.
The cloud connection and Express Connect channels require physical ports that support a 10 Gbps speed. Each CloudBox uplink switch must provide at least two physical ports for a single-rack deployment or four physical ports for a multi-rack deployment. These ports connect to CloudBox and require a corresponding number of
/30addresses.NoteThe cloud connection channel provides network connectivity between CloudBox and the Alibaba Cloud public cloud. This channel carries CloudBox management traffic and user service traffic. The Express Connect channel provides network connectivity between CloudBox and your on-premises devices.
Configuration
A single CloudBox rack contains two top-of-rack (TOR) switches. Service traffic from each TOR switch connects to the CloudBox uplink switches. Each service has four interconnection links. The following table describes the configuration requirements.
User-side switch
Switch in CloudBox
Link type
Uplink ports
Optical transceiver modules (single-mode)
Interconnection IP address segments (/30)
BGP AS number
SW-1
HASW-P1-1
Cloud connection channel
1
2
1
AS number required
Express Connect channel
1
2
1
HASW-P1-2
Cloud connection channel
1
2
1
Express Connect channel
1
2
1
SW-2
HASW-P1-1
Cloud connection channel
1
2
1
Express Connect channel
1
2
1
HASW-P1-2
Cloud connection channel
1
2
1
Express Connect channel
1
2
1
Summary
4 ports per user switch × 2
16 single-mode optical transceiver modules (Each CloudBox switch includes two. Provide an additional eight.)
8
/30address segmentsAS number required
Network connection bandwidth
For an optimal service experience, ensure that the CloudBox network connection has a minimum bandwidth of 50 Mbps. This bandwidth is required to create and run resources, such as ECS instances and cloud disks, when CloudBox connects to the Alibaba Cloud public cloud. Bandwidth requirements greater than 50 Mbps depend on the number of racks and whether communication with VPCs in the public cloud is required.
Network requirements
Cloud boxes connect to the Alibaba Cloud public cloud over dedicated Express Connect circuits. For setup instructions, see Connect to Alibaba Cloud through a dedicated Express Connect circuit.
Upstream switches
Each cloud box requires one or two upstream switches with 10 Gbit/s physical interfaces. Use two upstream switches per cloud box for redundancy.
Upstream switches must support:
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Layer 3 subinterfaces, and IEEE 802.1Q
External BGP (EBGP), virtual local area networks (VLANs), and subinterfaces for connections to cloud boxes
Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) — optional
Each upstream switch must provide at least two physical interfaces for a single rack, or four physical interfaces for multiple racks.
The cloud connection channel carries management and migration traffic between cloud boxes and the Alibaba Cloud public cloud. The Express Connect circuit carries traffic between cloud boxes and your on-premises devices.
Switch configuration
Each cloud box rack contains two top-of-rack (ToR) switches (HASW-P1-1 and HASW-P1-2). Each ToR switch routes business traffic to your upstream switches, with four connection links per data processing workload.
The following table describes the required configuration when two user-side upstream switches (SW-1 and SW-2) are used.
| User-side switch | Switch in the cloud box | Connection type | Upstream ports | Single-mode optical transceiver modules | /30 CIDR blocks | BGP autonomous system number (ASN) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SW-1 | HASW-P1-1 | Cloud connection channel | 1 | 2 | 1 | Required |
| SW-1 | HASW-P1-1 | Express Connect circuit | 1 | 2 | 1 | — |
| SW-1 | HASW-P1-2 | Cloud connection channel | 1 | 2 | 1 | — |
| SW-1 | HASW-P1-2 | Express Connect circuit | 1 | 2 | 1 | — |
| SW-2 | HASW-P1-1 | Cloud connection channel | 1 | 2 | 1 | — |
| SW-2 | HASW-P1-1 | Express Connect circuit | 1 | 2 | 1 | — |
| SW-2 | HASW-P1-2 | Cloud connection channel | 1 | 2 | 1 | — |
| SW-2 | HASW-P1-2 | Express Connect circuit | 1 | 2 | 1 | — |
| Total | — | — | 4 ports per user-side switch x 2 | 8 modules per ToR switch x 2 | 8 | Required |
Network bandwidth
Allocate a minimum bandwidth of 50 Mbit/s to ensure that Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances and cloud disks can be created when cloud boxes connect to the Alibaba Cloud public cloud. If your deployment includes a large number of racks or requires communication with virtual private clouds (VPCs) in the Alibaba Cloud public cloud, provision more than 50 Mbit/s.
Power supply requirements
Each rack supports 10 kW and 20 kW power configurations. The appropriate configuration depends on the total power consumption of the compute stock keeping units (SKUs) in your order. For example, if your compute SKUs draw at most 10 kW, use the 10 kW configuration. You can obtain information about the maximum power consumption of different types of compute SKUs in your order.
| Power configuration | Input voltage and frequency | Current | Primary and secondary power distribution units (PDU) ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 kW | Single-phase 220 V, 50 Hz or 60 Hz | 63 A | 1+1 |
| 20 kW | Single-phase 220 V, 50 Hz or 60 Hz | 63 A | 2+2 |
Delivery requirements
After you place an order online, Alibaba Cloud engineers contact you to schedule an on-site engineering survey and delivery date. After the cloud boxes are delivered, you must verify and confirm the completion of the order at the earliest opportunity. The billing cycle starts after you confirm order completion.
On-site engineering survey
Alibaba Cloud engineers perform the survey at your facility. Appoint your network engineers and electrical engineers to participate and cooperate with the Alibaba Cloud team. Alibaba Cloud provides a physical report with the survey results. Renovate your data center based on the report recommendations as needed before delivery.
On-site delivery
Alibaba Cloud delivery team:
Transports racks to the installation site you specify
Establishes network connections for the cloud boxes based on the upstream data links you provide
Your electrical engineers:
Install the racks and complete all electrical connections
Ensure that all installations and alterations are performed by authorized electricians in compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and best practices
Your network engineers:
Cooperate with Alibaba Cloud engineers to connect on-site networks and resolve connectivity issues
Alibaba Cloud is not responsible for risks arising from electrical connections, installations, cabling, or alterations performed by your team. Do not make any hardware alterations to the cloud boxes.
Acceptance
Deployment is complete when you can successfully create ECS instances and cloud disks in the cloud boxes.
To confirm completion:
Log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console using your account.
Go to the details pages of the cloud boxes and verify that the computing resources and storage capacities match your order.
Test whether you can create ECS instances and cloud disks in the cloud boxes. If yes, the cloud boxes are successfully deployed.
Confirm order completion in the console to start the billing cycle.