Cabinet suggestion

[Whattteva]

I'm looking into migrating my server to a rack-mount configuration.
Maybe I'm not searching the right terms, but I couldn't find anything about cabinet suggestions.
I'm thinking something that accommodates maybe up to 4U or 6U.

Any suggestions on good ones or bad ones I should stay away from, or if it even doesn't matter at all?

 

[jgreco]

You mean a server rack?

You probably don't need one. Racks provide a safe home for a bunch of gear, and a framework in which to route and tie down cables. Basically for a single server you can just put it in some convenient location, whether rack mounted or not. You want it to be a location that's going to stay cool, isn't likely to have anyone tripping over it, etc.

If you did want to do something like a quarter rack, Tripp Lite sells the SR12UB which is a 12U up-to-about-31" dealio, but it'll set you back around $400. For storage the usual problem is depth. Fifteen years ago servers weren't as deep as they are now. You would want to make sure the rack is deep enough to hold the server, and usually that does not mean ``my server is 31" and the rack specs say it can handle 32" ''

There's going to be a lot of confusing alternatives but basically you probably don't want anything short and you want something with tons of ventilation, or else you just invented an EZ-Bake Drive Fryer.

Be warned.

 

[Whattteva]

Ah, thanks a lot! That's exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.
I did not know that depth of these chassis can vary.
Reason why I wanted a rack is because I plan to have another PFSense 1U in addition to the 2U FreeNAS with some empty space for future expansion.

For this reason, I was looking somewhere in the 4-6U size. 12U is probably a bit too big for what I'm trying to do. Nevertheless, thanks for the suggestion!

 

[jgreco]

Eugh.

http://www.middleatlantic.com/produ...-racks/dtrk-series-desktop-rack/dtrk-718.aspx

Maybe?

Check around Middle Atlantic and maybe these folks:

http://www.rackmountnet.com/rackmount-cabinetserver-rack-c-47.html

 

[Whattteva]

First link looks about right and pretty reasonable price also. Do you have any experience with customer service from either of these vendors (in case of defects etc.)?

 

[cyberjock]

I bought my 24U rack for $400 on craigslist! The retail price for my very visually appealing rack is over $2000. So don't rule out simple things like craigslist. Two friends have gone to craigslist because it just made sense when they started looking at prices.

 

[Whattteva]

Wow, that's a steal! I'll keep that in mind.

 

[leenux_tux]

Whattteva,

Not sure if this is going to help as I'm based in the UK, however, I recently bought some gear to replace my two Servers (FreeNAS and ESXi).
I purchased a 15U rack (and new cases) from a company called "X-CASE" (http://www.xcase.co.uk/rack-cabinet...6-15u-and-450-or-600mm-deep-55-00-x-case.html), the 600mm deep one. Research seems to suggest this is a reasonable price, for the UK anyway. It arrives already made up, is very well packed and is a well built, sturdy piece of kit. Had it delivered two weeks ago but due to work commitments have only managed to unpack it and put it in the home office, but not install my switch and two new servers.

 

[Middling]

I built a LackRack. The black Lack tables are £5 a piece and the legs are 9u long.

Currently i have one upside-down Lack with heavy duty casters attached (about £8 from Amazon). Another Lack table is right-side up and the two tables are joined together with jointing plates (about £1.50 for 10), but there's no reason not to omit the second set of legs and have a shorter unit.

The legs won't take a lot of strain since they're mostly hollow core, but the tops and bottoms of the legs are filled (chipboard) so you could attach a lightweight pfsense server at the top and rest your FreeNAS server on the base.

The Lacks are 550mm square so you want to make sure your servers are shallow depth.

I've got another 2 Lack tables coming in order to add a shelf in the middle for another server and place one over my printer (to prevent my cat from sleeping in it).

 

[Whattteva]

LackRack, that's really interesting and ultra cheap also, though you are restricted to shorter lengths. The X-CASE also seems really reasonably priced even after factoring for exchange rates, though I'd have to see if they ship out of country.

Thanks a lot guys, this thread is turning out to be really informative!

 

[mjws00]

Nice one middling! One of the most elegant hacks I've seen.

 

[Middling]

My other 2 Lack tables were delivered today (6 days late) and i've just finished the final TripleStackLackRack build.

It seems to be sturdy enough so far but i might add the 4 spare legs as additional support for the lower 2 levels.

Cost of the materials was £32.50 (although with Ikea's delivery the total ended up £50.50).

Pic of the rack (accompanied by cat wondering what happened to her bed).

 

[Whattteva]

Cost of the materials was £32.50 (although with Ikea's delivery the total ended up £50.50).

You could get these from Ikea? That'd be nice cause I have a branch nearby.

 

[cyberjock]

Those are pretty cool. Great idea. The fact they are made of compressed cardboard does scare me. It just so happens I have a coffee table version in my basement. It's in my basement because it seems very flimsy. Not the kind of thing I'd trust with my hardware. However, if there was a solid wood (or at least a reinforced version) it would be AMAZING.

 

[Middling]

You could get these from Ikea? That'd be nice cause I have a branch nearby.

Sure. The only reason i had them delivered was that it would cost me more to travel to an Ikea branch. If you want rails in your rack Ikea do a towel rail called the Bygel that is an exact fit for their Lack tables. The rails are around £1.50 a piece, but they only sell them instore.

Those are pretty cool. Great idea. The fact they are made of compressed cardboard does scare me. It just so happens I have a coffee table version in my basement. It's in my basement because it seems very flimsy. Not the kind of thing I'd trust with my hardware. However, if there was a solid wood (or at least a reinforced version) it would be AMAZING.

I worried about the strength myself but it seems fine so far. This guy's got a rack built out of the Ikea coffee table you've got and it seems to be holding a lot of weight.

I did consider just using the table as a template and building one out of solid wood legs and thick plywood shelves. The materials cost is near enough the LackRack (about £45 for the wood), but i'm not really confident enough in my handyman skills. If the LackRack proves inadequate i'll probably go this way.

 

[cyberjock]

When I bought mine it said it was rated for 50 lbs of load. That's not much in the big scheme of things.

 

[mjt5282]

I would suggest buying a rack mounted power strip (such as: View: http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006B834/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s04?ie=UTF8&psc=1
) and a rack mounted gig-ethernet switch (I use http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/powerconnect-2800/fs) for the top of the cabinet.

 

[jgreco]

Oh managed gig switches are cheap, pick up a nice Dell 5324 for $50 off eBay...

 

[mjt5282]

Those old Dell's seem like a great deal. I am also thinking of finishing a new rack, putting it in my garage and buying a HP 1810-24G v2 Procurve to put on top. The Supermicro 3U chassis I bought is too deep for the prosumer rack I had been using for years & years. The Procurves are actually the entry level model from HP and currently cheaper than the new Dell's (which btw I've owned for years & years and have performed very very stably).

 

[jgreco]

I wouldn't recommend new Dell switches. New, they price similarly to other managed gear. However they do not retain their value as much as Cisco/HP/etc so are often a better deal on eBay.