Tower Servers in a cab?

[Koldov]

Very long story (cut about as short as I can).

 

A few years ago, I moved our servers from a dedicated room (large cupboard really, but with a locking door and air-con, power, network, etc.) into the main electricity supply/plant room.

 

Lots of reasons such as better network connectivity, freeing up a storage space, one less air-con running 24/7/365, so it just made sense as the original 'room' was networked into a 10/100 switch (thanks BSF) and now at least they sit on a Gig at the core (don't judge - it's a small Primary School).

 

This room also houses the main core switch, WLC, patch panels, etc. (in a large cab) and has air-con, locking door etc. There's no boilers or anything, just the main distribution boards, however a few times now when electrical contractors have been in they've been told to mind the servers and don't tread on them to use them as steps (as unfortunately they are in front of one of the distribution board panels). The last couple of times it's been an issue as the electricians said they shouldn't be there as the access needed meant they had to stand there (and possibly needed reporting it as an H+S issue) so I've had to switch the severs off and manually move them out of the room...

 

Okay so that's the background.... my solution is to move them into the large Core Cab...

 

Technically there's enough room, but would mean bunching up the Core, associated switches and patch panels, losing a few cable management slots and sitting the tower servers in the bottom of the cab, meaning any possible future access to them would be more complicated (although how often do you open up a server?). Also the increased heat/reduced airflow (to the switches and the servers) might be an issue...

 

Anything I should be aware of? Any other 'sensible' suggestions/solutions?

[TechMonkey]

Check there aren't rack kits for them. Alot of servers have kits that can turn them sideways, add bunny ears and in they go. Totally depends on the make and model.

 

Alternatively, is there room for a second cab somewhere close by?

[Domino]

If you can get rack shelves you can always lie the tower boxes sideways on them - something we've done in the past when rack kits aren't available

[Koldov]

There's 2:

 

DELL T420

 

DELL T610

 

They're old and they are both monsters to be fair, a brief search suggests not rack mountable - I'd be happy with a shelf (on rails would be ideal but at around possibly up to 60Kg I might be pushing it) I don't need access to them very often if at all.

 

There's very little room in there, the core cab takes up about a quarter of it already on one wall, plus one wall has a door and one wall has the distribution boards!

[Norphy]

The T610 can be rack converted:

 

https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_poweredge/poweredge-t610_reference%20guide_en-us.pdf

 

Whether you can still get the kit, however, is a different question!

[Koldov]

The T610 can be rack converted

 

Thanks, great find!

 

Seems like a lot of hassle compared to just stuffing it on a shelf... I wonder if there's any benefits other than space saving (of course rack mounting on rails would be the ultimate goal, but I can't see me ever needing that)?

 

Taking some quick measurements I'd need roughly 20"+/- to lie each one on a separate shelf, but only about 17"+/- to stand them up on the floor of the cab.

[Rob_D]

My quick google search suggests they are both rack mountable if you can get the conversion kits for a reasonable price (the T420 kit was going for £400 odd in the top search result).

 

The railed shelves I've seen only support up to 15-20kg. for the 60oddKG for both servers you'd probably need one of the chunkier shelves that take up 1u all on their own. Or there are "universal server racks" https://network-cabs.co.uk/product/ad-tek-products-2u-19-inch-universal-server-rack-rails-adjustable-depth-450mm-to-600mm-fitting-358.

 

I wonder if you could put the servers in the back of the cab somehow. Would you have enough space to put the patch panels and the servers (or the panels and switches) back to back? I've seen a few cob installs where the patch panels are put in back to save space.

[Fazza]

Where we've had servers without rack mount kits we've used shelves from StarTech:

 

https://www.dcdi.co.uk/adjustable-depth-19-rack-shelf-with-passthrough?of_tid=MFRWG5B5HE3SMZTFMVSESZB5GITHA4TPMREWIPJSHE3TQ&gclid=CjwKCAiA44OtBhAOEiwAj4gpOVUoGy0jBGo59ThSqGM29zG1jPuOEPdzTPg8R1RhCsUx0Co7Ds0ulBoCYEkQAvD_BwE&model=D402017

 

Disclaimer: We didnt get them from this company it's just the first link from Google!

 

We paid around the £50 mark for one of them from our regular IT suppliers.

[TechMonkey]

Looks like it is available - https://bulkdevices.co.uk/987ry-dell-tower-to-rack-conversion-kit-for-poweredge-t320-t420

[Fazza]

Looks like it is available - https://bulkdevices.co.uk/987ry-dell-tower-to-rack-conversion-kit-for-poweredge-t320-t420

 

£407 for just the rack mount kit?! 😲 Bargain!

[jmak]

I'm assuming you've checked depth? I wanted to put a T410 in a cabinet that was mostly empty apart from a router and a few switches, but the door wouldn't close

[Koldov]

Hahaha! Yeah depth is ok, it's a big old beast but funny you mention that....

 

I thought I'd get a proper look so started taking off the doors and sides to get the bottom few switches and patch panels moved up... then I noticed a huge bunch (60+) of Cat6 cables that the installers pulled through under the rear of the frame at the bottom of the cab... which is of course how it should be done, but they haven't put them up through along the side, they've put them in the middle (I suppose it was easier as the bunch is pretty thick) and it means I can't push them back or to the side out of the way and that means a full depth tray/shelf can't go on the bottom...

 

New plan is to put the 2 UPS (which are currently sitting on top) in the rack and the 2 towers on the top... what could go wrong...?

[MatthewL]

If you are going to use a rack kit for a tower server just make sure you mount is the right way and not let the CPU hang down if you get me, I used to see it all the time with desktops and it bugs me.

[PotNoodleTech]

Try and get the rack mount kits from second hand suppliers - they're gonna sting you for new ones if you can even get them on those servers.

 

I'd prefer to have the server room in a room of it's own rather than have them shoved in the corner next to pipes/ boilers which could spew water everywhere!