server racks

[ozzy]

I'm just wondering how you guys house your servers and core switches etc. I would like a rack to house our 3 servers, backbone switch, ups and all the other guff. I would need rack mounting kits for the servers (dell poweredge 1800's), and a few other bits and bobs for the rack, any ideas, tips or recomendations for the kit you use or think is best. as per our school money is an object!!!!

[ICTNUT]

these are good, I use these guys for a fair bit of stuff so can vouh for em'

Dell - 2410

[dhicks]

as per our school money is an object!!!!

Racks seem to be the kind of thing that work quite well second-hand - they haven't really changed much since the 19th century (the 19" rack standard originated in steam railway signalling equipment, seemingly). You can generally find some bargains on eBay, although they're often listed as Local Collection Only, so you might have to wait a while for one near you to come up. There'll be second hand merchants who can supply them, too.

We don't bother with racks, we had our on-site carpenter build a cupboard with shelves. Works a treat.

--
David Hicks

[Ric_]

If price is a problem, ICT Direct can often help out. Really you need to make sure that you are going to be able to add similar ones in future - different makes of rack don't fit together as well.

If you struggle to buy mounting kits for your servers, rack shelves can also be quite cost effective as an interim solution until you migrate to rack servers over time.

Also remember to keep your heavy UPS at the bottom to stop the thing falling over!

[ozzy]

Thanks guys, I do like the look of the Dell ones, but I am a big Dellboy, anyhoo i'm finished for the day and looking forward to a week off (it's been five weeks since the last holidays!!!!)
cheers again, Ozzy

[gaz350]

be eco friendly! go white! (sounds stupid but requires less lights in your server room)

[hotwired007]

be eco friendly! go white! (sounds stupid but requires less lights in your server room)

Maybe i should get a can of arctic white spray paint............................................. ...............................

It would make my monolith look quite nice... just gotta sort out the noise....

[TronXP]

You can indeed get some bargains on ebay. We were looking for some racks to install our dimmers for the church lighting system into. We got 2x 42U racks for £30. Good job we had a Landy and a huge trailer to big them up in.


When we racked the servers at school we were lucky in that we could replace most of the old servers with racked versions. We did however have 2 IBM X226 servers which were too good to bin the rack mount kist were about £250 each. We managed to get the IBM supplier to throw one in for free since our order was so big.