Patent ID: 7979250

Claim:
A method of laying out a data center comprising: placing a plurality of dummy racks in the data center in a data center layout to establish a physically imitated data center, wherein each dummy rack imitates at least one operational characteristic of at least one respective electronics rack of a plurality of electronics racks to be disposed in the data center, and each dummy rack is different from the at least one respective electronics rack, and comprises: at least one air-moving device providing an airflow through the dummy rack from an air inlet side to an air outlet side thereof, wherein provided airflow through the dummy rack correlates to anticipated airflow through the at least one respective electronics rack; and an adjustable heat source, the adjustable heat source heating air passing through the dummy rack, wherein at least one of airflow intake at the inlet side of the dummy rack or heated airflow exhaust at the air outlet side of the dummy rack is controlled to physically imitate anticipated airflow intake to the at least one respective electronics rack during operation thereof or heated air exhaust from the at least one respective electronics rack during operation thereof; monitoring temperature within the physically imitated data center at multiple locations, and verifying the data center layout if the measured temperatures at the multiple locations are within respective acceptable temperature ranges for the data center when containing the plurality of electronics racks; and establishing the plurality of electronics racks within the data center using the verified data center layout, the establishing comprising for each dummy rack of the plurality of dummy racks, reconfiguring or replacing the dummy rack with the at least one respective electronics rack of the plurality of electronics racks.