Server room size

[Duke]

David - Thanks, that's really appreciated! Hopefully management will take on board the space recommendations and let us keep most of the room...

 

Cheers,

Chris

[TNE]

David - Thanks, that's really appreciated! Hopefully management will take on board the space recommendations and let us keep most of the room...

 

Cheers,

Chris

 

No problems, having looked at the diagrams you may want to consider baying them together rather than having a gap as it makes patching between the two that much easier plus it works out a bit cheaper with 1 less set of side panels.

 

Also if possible I would leave a gap on all four sides as it can make life easier sometimes.

[pete]

HAving said that, at one of my schools the server is laid on it's side ontop of the comms cabinet ( which is about 6ft off the ground, in a classroom !!)

 

1) Are you in the same school as Gatt?

2) Whoever did that wants shooting.

[SpuffMonkey]

I'd say you need 1.5m at the front of a rack - so you can pull out a server on its rails and safely disengage it, without doing yourself a mischief. Whatever you do - don't install them like the monkeys that did our server room - 8 cabs in a 4x2 configuration - back to back with a sheet of plywood bolted at the back of one set to act as a mount for a lot of kit that should've been fixed to the wall - it infuriates me everytime I have to try and do any cabling. Grrr

[torledo]

I figured there might be some common ground in the conversations.

 

I've just done a search on the Ars forums and people seem to be recommending 3ft-4ft in front of the rack and 2ft-3ft behind. With a 1000mm cabinet that means I'm going to need around 3m of space front to back for access and cooling, at least in an ideal world. I think what's being proposed is having the rear of the cabinets fairly close to a wall and aircon mounted directly above them at the top of the same wall. I'm just concerned this will limit airflow to the front of the cabinets and create hot-spots at the rear where the cool air doesn't reach. I'll do a few renders of the new server room and post them up later, might give people some ideas.

 

EDIT:

 

http://www.hardenhuish.wilts.sch.uk/avatar/sr02.jpg http://www.hardenhuish.wilts.sch.uk/avatar/sr03.jpg

 

This is the proposed new room (blue and red areas are hot and cold air). The dimensions of the main area are approximately 3.5m x 3.5m which gives me a bit of room to work with. I'm going to need two 42U racks in there so it's not a huge amount of kit as they won't both be full. The aircon should be a custom design so hopefully we can put it where we want. I'm leaning towards having the racks facing the 'front' wall with the door, they were just rotated that way in the diagram to show someone something.

 

Thanks!

Chris

 

another poster was talking about channeling a comfort cooling system to the front of the rack and you've talked about limiting airflow, but i do get the impression that the type of cooling system your going with shouldn't be talked of in those terms because you can't direct flow with a great deal of precision imo. Sure, having an A/C unit at the rear of the servers sounds a bit daft, i'd position the A/C to the front or side of the servers.

 

As for positioning, it's all about common sense. Your racks will be up to 1000mm deep, allow for additional space for any rear extension units.....and the adequate access on three sides is sensible advice, although 1 metre on the sides of a rack can be a luxury you can't accomodate. Really important to get atleast a metre infront of the racks.

[Duke]

Cheers for the replies everyone, it's really appreciated. I've always argued that we need as much space as possible but other people here keep insisting we can get away with less. As this is going to be quite a big move I really want to get it right and ensure we don't limit ourselves for future expansion. All of what you've said sounds really good so hopefully I'll be able to get the room we need...

[wesleyw]

The Kell systems are around £3000 for the acoustic racks not including air con

 

 

Wes

[TNE]

The Kell systems are around £3000 for the acoustic racks not including air con

 

 

Wes

 

We can offer an alternative make which are independantly tested up to 28.5DBa noise attenuation as well as offering over 7Kw heat dissipation.

 

At the moment we are offering to deliver and assemble in the required position within your building any orders received for these which are 24u in height or greater for no additional charge (except certain areas).

 

Theres a link in my signature if any one wants to have a look and Im happy to provide quotes if of interest.