What to check for power and cooling before equipment is installed
Before servers or dense IT equipment go into the room, write the power circuit, whether a mains failure means an orderly shutdown or a move to alternate power, the inlet limits for temperature and humidity, and the separate paths for power cables and data cables. The site network plan is addresses and segments. Delivery acceptance is the identifier and who accepted the item. This checklist is whether power and cooling are written down before the equipment is set in place.
On this page
- Keep power and cooling apart from the network plan and delivery
- Write the path and the protection for power equipment and cabling
- Say whether the UPS is for shutdown or for alternate power
- Write where the emergency shutoff is, and who may touch it
- Use the site's own limits for temperature and humidity
- Name who is told when a limit is crossed
- Match the nameplate power to the circuit
- Do not bring the equipment in until path, UPS, and limits are written
Keep power and cooling apart from the network plan and delivery
The site network plan records addresses, segments, the remote boundary, and cable labels. Delivery acceptance records that day's identifier, the model, the serial number, the place, and who accepted the item. This checklist records, before the equipment is placed in the room, which circuit feeds it, what the uninterruptible supply does when mains power fails, what the temperature and humidity limits are, and which path the power cables follow and which path the data cables follow. The three documents can point at the same equipment identifier. The address table is not rewritten as a power table, and the acceptance signature is not rewritten as a cooling limit. See How to plan the network for equipment on site and What to check when equipment is delivered.
Whether to rent compute for inference or training is a different decision. See How to evaluate renting compute for AI workloads. This checklist does not answer lease versus buy. It answers whether this room can take the equipment on the power and cooling that have been written down. A workstation under a desk still goes through delivery acceptance, and it does not need this checklist. The checklist is for a room that will hold a concentration of servers or dense equipment, including machines used to run models. Equipment can be bought, leased, or taken forward with development in the same project. That is the block Buy, lease, or plan it with development on the homepage.
Write the path and the protection for power equipment and cabling
Read on 23 October 2026, the catalogue page for NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 gives the publication date as September 2020 and notes that it includes updates as of 10 December 2020. The body used here is that publication, DOI 10.6028/NIST.SP.800-53r5. The catalogue page also carries a planning note dated 27 August 2025 that points to the minor release 5.2.0. The changes listed in that note do not include PE-9, PE-10, PE-11, or PE-14. The control text below is from the Rev. 5 body. PE-9 says to protect power equipment and power cabling for the system from damage and destruction. The discussion says the organization decides what protection the power equipment and cabling need at different locations, inside or outside the facility. The types it names include internal cabling and uninterruptible power supplies in offices or data centers, and generators and power cabling outside buildings.
The checklist therefore records, for each item that will come in, which circuit it uses, where the power cable enters the room, which path it follows to the cabinet, and how that path is kept from being crushed or cut. The data-cable path is a separate line. It is not merged into "the cables are all in the tray". An enhancement of PE-9 mentions redundant power-cabling paths and leaves the physical separation distance for the organization to fill in. The control states no distance that must be used. If the site wants redundancy, both paths and the separation are written on the checklist, with who measured the figure and on which day. A round number is not entered in place of a measurement.
Say whether the UPS is for shutdown or for alternate power
PE-11 says to provide an uninterruptible power supply so that, when the primary source is lost, one or more of the following can happen: an orderly shutdown of the system, or a transition to long-term alternate power. The discussion describes a UPS as an electrical system that supplies emergency power when the main source fails. It differs from an emergency power system or a backup generator: it gives near-instant protection from stored energy in batteries, supercapacitors, or flywheels. The discussion also says the battery duration is relatively short, but enough to start a standby source or to shut the system down properly.
The checklist marks what this room actually has, one or both: after mains power fails, an orderly shutdown comes first, or a move to long-term alternate power comes first. If the long-term supply is a generator or a second mains feed, the checklist names who starts it and whether the start is manual or automatic. The enhancements of PE-11 leave the alternate supply, for an extended loss of the primary source, for the organization to choose, and they say a self-contained supply that does not rely on external generation can be met with generators sized to the organization's own need. The control states no number of minutes and no kilovolt-amperes. Duration and capacity are copied from the page the supplier provided with the equipment, with that page's date. If that page does not give the two figures, the line stays blank and the equipment does not come in.
Write where the emergency shutoff is, and who may touch it
PE-10 has three parts: the ability to shut off power to the system, or to individual components, that the organization defines, in an emergency; shutoff switches placed where the organization defines, so authorized people can reach them; and protection of that shutoff so it is not activated without authorization. The discussion says this control applies primarily to facilities that concentrate system resources, including data centers, mainframe rooms, server rooms, and areas with computer-controlled machinery.
The checklist records where the emergency shutoff for this equipment is in the room, who is authorized to use it, and how other people are kept from hitting it by mistake. The place is pointed at the cabinet with the same identifier that will be applied at delivery. A second number is not started. How that identifier is written on delivery day is in What to check when equipment is delivered. The control names no brand of switch, and it does not say how many steps from the cabinet the switch must be. Steps and brand stay on the site's own drawing and on the quote for this job, with a date.
Use the site's own limits for temperature and humidity
PE-14 has two parts: maintain temperature, humidity, pressure, radiation, or another environmental condition the organization defines, at acceptable levels the organization defines, in the facility where the system resides; and monitor those levels at a frequency the organization defines. The discussion says environmental controls apply primarily to facilities that concentrate system resources, such as data centers, mainframe rooms, and server rooms, and that insufficient controls, especially in harsh conditions, can materially affect whether the systems the business needs stay available. The control leaves the acceptable level blank. It does not state a temperature or a humidity that must be used.
This checklist does not copy a degree figure from here. The upper and lower inlet temperature, and the upper and lower humidity, are the figures in the maker's installation instructions for this model, with the date that page was read. If the maker gives no figures, the line stays blank. Figures from another model, or from another room, are not substituted. The monitoring frequency names who looks, when, and at which point in the room. A limit with no frequency is not finished.
Name who is told when a limit is crossed
One enhancement of PE-14 says to use automatic environmental controls to prevent fluctuations that could harm the system, and leaves which controls to the organization. Another says monitoring should alarm or notify when a change could harm people or equipment, and leaves the recipients to the organization. The discussion says the alarm may be audible or a visual message in real time.
The checklist records, when temperature or humidity crosses the limit on the previous line, who is told, which channel already in use carries it, and who goes to the room. The recipient is a name, not "whoever is on duty". If the room has automatic control, the checklist says whether it governs temperature, humidity, or both, and whether it runs together with the notice or the room relies on a person looking. The control names no product, and it does not say how many minutes someone must arrive in. Arrival time stays in the company's own rules, with a date.
Match the nameplate power to the circuit
The supply figure on each item's nameplate, or in the maker's installation instructions, is copied onto that identifier's row, with the page it was read from and the day it was read. The person responsible for the electrical work signs the same row to say whether the load already on the circuit, plus this item, is still inside what the circuit allows. This page does not calculate watts, and it does not compare servers for lower consumption. A machine used to run models, with a higher nameplate than the other equipment in the room, is still one more figure on the row. It does not open a separate rental evaluation.
If the maker's page says voltage stabilization is required, the checklist records whether the automatic voltage control in the PE-9 enhancement is on this circuit. That enhancement leaves the critical components to the organization. The control does not say the control must cover every item. If the maker does not require it, the cell is written "not required on the instructions", and a product name is not filled in instead. Price and a ranking of brands on that page stay on the quote.
Do not bring the equipment in until path, UPS, and limits are written
If the circuit and the power-cable path, the choice of orderly shutdown or long-term alternate power, the temperature and humidity limits and the monitoring frequency, or the person told when a limit is crossed, is blank, the item stays before delivery and the status is written as awaiting power and cooling. "The room already has air conditioning" is not written as a limit that has been set. Nameplate power that has not been matched to the circuit keeps the item out as well. A missing location for the emergency shutoff is on the same unfinished list. It is not left until after go-live.
Minutes, kilovolt-amperes, temperature figures, and an arrival time stay on the maker's page, the supplier's page, and the company's own rules, with a date. The controls above do not assign those figures to this room. Before the equipment is set in place, three things are on the checklist: the power-cable path and the data-cable path are written separately, the UPS choice and the duration point at a dated page, and the limits and the person told when a limit is crossed are named. The equipment is placed against the delivery identifier when those three are on the checklist.