Essential Data Center Manager Interview Preparation Guide

Download PDF

A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and data contained within a data center, making it a focal point and critical asset for everyday operations.

Data center infrastructure services include network hardware, servers, storage and security products. Each product includes hardware components and software to run the hardware. Find out the extent of each candidate's infrastructure knowledge. An understanding of end-to-end technology provides a good foundation for data center oversight.

There are many DCIM tools and suites of solutions on the market, and as with any acquisition, you need to look at each critically and choose the one that best meets your specific needs.

Application management tools are used to monitor technology services in the data center, along with facility services like humidity levels, cooling and power. Determine how well each candidate's experience corresponds to the tools currently used.

Taking a process-based approach to operations management keeps data center services predictable and reliable. Find out what approach each candidate has used. One common answer to expect is Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

A cross connection is most often a layer 1 or physical layer connection between two networks. Data center providers typically segment cross connections by type of cabling used to make the connection - copper, coaxial or fiber. Cross connections are usually completed by the data center provider for a non-recurring (NRC) and a monthly recurring (MRC) charge.

Find out how many years the candidate has been working with data center services and what positions he's held. A director should have worked his way up, typically starting with an IT engineer role and progressing into management. Progressive experience provides keen insight into data center operations.

Metrics show business leaders how well things are performing and where attention is needed. Data center metrics provide performance values to gauge technology performance, such as the speed of the network. Find out how candidates select, collect and monitor metrics associated with data center performance.

Data center architecture is the physical and logical layout of the resources and equipment within a data center facility.

It serves as a blueprint for designing and deploying a data center facility. It is a layered process which provides architectural guidelines in data center development.

This is a very common question that is asked in almost every interview. I love this question because it gives you the opportunity to sell yourself. Discuss what makes you standout from the crowd and show them how you can help advance their company. Remember to be specific. This is where all the company research you have done comes into play. You should have an idea as to why the company is hiring or looking to hire someone for that position. What problem do they have that they are looking for people to help them solve? And once you can establish this, you are to show them how you can solve this problem for them.

Questions such as this one are asked with the aim of getting you to discuss some of your qualities, perhaps hidden that you wouldn’t have mentioned if you weren’t asked.

“Well, my colleagues will tell you they can count on me. They will tell you that I am a team player and someone they enjoy working with.”

DCIM (data center infrastructure management) is a combination of software, hardware and sensors that allows you to monitor, optimize and intelligently plan power and cooling capacity in your data center. DCIM tools have become essential as the availability and operating costs of the data center have become increasingly intertwined with the facility.

Data centers vary in facility and staff size, as well as in layers of redundancy that allow business to keep running even if one system fails. Interviewers typically want to hire someone familiar with operations similar in size and scope to that which the hiring company operates. A director of a data center with a small scope of operations might not be well equipped to take on the role of director for a large-scale operation.

The aim of this question is to ascertain the kind of leader you are. If you ever get to hold a management position in their firm, how would you handle issues of workload delegation or teach your subordinates?

I am of the opinion that a team should have specific individuals who are experts or most qualified to handle certain tasks, so as a leader, I would distribute the workload as evenly as possible to ensure that the best hands for different tasks are put where they are most effective. This will be done by ensuring that every member of the team has the skill and resource needed to complete his/her tasks.

Here are a few we see more often than we’d like:

☛ A rack of servers loses power when an IT administrator unintentionally overloads an already maxed-out power strip.
☛ A large data center virtualizes and consolidates its most critical applications on a cluster of servers. Using the failover mechanism of the virtualization platform, they feel protected from hardware failure. Unfortunately, in their panning, they don’t recognize that each of the servers is dependent on the same UPS, which means that if the UPS fails, no UPS-protected servers are available to migrate the affected loads to.
☛ An operator is trying to determine whether power capacity that was just exceeded on a rack is only an anomaly or a developing trend. She goes on “gut feel” and leaves it alone. The next time power capacity in that rack is exceeded, a breaker trips and all the servers downstream of that breaker that are running mission critical applications are suddenly shut down.
☛ In a large. mission critical data center, the provisioning and installation of servers is so complex that only highly paid contract engineers are able to perform the task.

It is crucial that you discuss your objectives and how you intend to achieve them.

For instance: I would like to be the best in my department or I’d love to be the person my colleagues can rely on. I also feel I would be skilled and experienced enough to handle whatever responsibilities might come my way.

User interfaces — different packages offer different views, so choose those that would be most useful to you. Among those typically available:

☛ Floor layout: provides an accurate representation of your data center in a floor plan and/or elevation diagram
☛ Recommended actions: Provides decriptions of problems and recommended actions
☛ Virtual store room: Keeps track of new devices from arrival on site through installation
☛ Rack front view: Provides accurate graphical representation of equipment and its location in the rack
☛ Equipment browser: Locates equipment based on vendor name, model and/or type, and can often export equipment data to Excel format
☛ User rights management: Allows assignment of individual user rights and controls across rooms, locations, reports, alarms, and work orders
☛ Mobile devices: Communicates critical data to specified PDAS

"Critical" power or "IT load" often refers to the data center load that is consumed or is dedicated to IT equipment such as servers, storage equipment and communications switches and routers. Power for lighting or cooling the data center is excluded from "critical" power. It's important for an end user to understand their critical load as the data center - whether managed internally or outsourced - will be sized based on the current or expected amount of critical power.

Some features/functions to consider:

Open source — vendor-neutrality is key, as very few data centers are standardized on a single vendor from top to bottom. Open source DCIM software can integrate data from, for example, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, power distribution units (PDUs), and cooling units from three (or more) different vendors.

In addition, with open protocols, it is quite easy to add additional software tools and expect them to communicate and work together effectively.

☛ Functionality — depending on your needs, you’ll want to explore various functions:
☛ Planning functions, such as asset management and cause/effect analysis
☛ Operational functions, such as helping to complete more tasks in less time, reducing human error, and identifying root causes of problems
☛ Analysis functions, such as identifying operational strengths and weaknesses and optimizing energy usage

It is important to understand the extent of an applicant’s leadership experience to explore similarities to the current opening's scope of responsibilities. Find out if the candidate has experience overseeing the facility and leading managers across all information technology service areas, or if the experience is limited to specific portions.

Your answers should focus on how well you can review relevant facts, consider various options and select the most appropriate option. Discuss how you factor in variables such as constraints and resources.

☛ Are we effectively measuring power utilization in our data center(s) today?
☛ What's our overall efficiency rating (PUE, DCIE, and CADE), and how does that compare to the industry norm?
☛ Are we able to accurately determine which equipment is being utilized the least and/or is the least efficient?
☛ Can we determine energy consumption by application, transaction, or department, and does it make sense to allocate those costs accordingly?
☛ How much is this year's technology refresh cycle expected to improve overall data center efficiency and capacity?
☛ What gains did we realize (or do we expect to realize) from consolidation and virtualization of server and storage resources?
☛ Can we optimize those gains with "what-if" analyses of all available options or through other measures?
☛ Where are we most likely to experience a serious limitation, and are we at risk of having a data center exceed its available capacity?
☛ How can we minimize energy consumption (and costs) in our data center(s)?
☛ What will be the return on investment for improving overall efficiency in our data center(s)?

Eay physical infrastructure management tools were limited in scope and required considerable human intervention. While they would warn that a particular parameter had been exceeded, the operator would have to determine what equipment was affected by the error. First-gen tools could not make correlations between a physical infrastructure device and a server, nor were they capable of initiating actions to prevent downtime, such as speeding up fans to dissipate a hot spot.

Never management tools are designed to identify and resolve issues with minimum human intervention. By correlating power, cooling and space resources to individual servers (physical and virtual), DCIM tools today can proactively inform IT management systems of potential physical infrastructure problems and how they might impact specific IT loads. Newer planning software tools illustrate, through a graphical user interface, the current physical state of the data center and simulate the effect of future physical equipment adds, moves, and failures.

This could be a very simple question if you are prepared for it. You just have to talk about the strengths that you know would be of value to the company.

• Make the most of this question. This question gives you the control to guide the interview to where you want it so take advantage.
• Emphasize the strengths you have that are crucial to the position
• Find out from the job description and from company research, the kind of strengths the company invests in.

Leadership comes with responsibility so an effective way to approach this question would be “ everyone that works with me is an extension of my effectiveness as a manager and as such, I will have a heart-to-heart with the employee in question however, if nothing changes and it starts to affect the company bottom line, well, that’s my responsibility as well”