Desktop Server into a RACK

[2097]

Any recomendations ?

 

All our servers are desktops , all are pretty new .

 

Ideally instead of replacing hardware would like to buy a new rack cabinet with maybe some shelfs for 6 desktop servers ?

 

Whats the best shop to buy these from , and also are the ones with fans & sound proof actually going to keep the servers cool & quiet ?

[nicholab]

Etb-tech.com I use for lot of server stuff. Most shelves take up 1U some do not you can also get sliding ones. Edited October 3, 2011 by nicholab

[Chris_]

Depending on the make/model of your servers you might be able to get rack mounting kits for them. I know that some of the HP and Dell tower servers have rack mounting kits available.

[Dos_Box]

What servers are you using? IIRC, some server manufacturers make make conversion kits to allow tower servers to be mounted onto rails in cabinates saving space.

[dhicks]

Any recomendations?

 

You can buy rackmount cases, in the same way you can buy standard PC cases - Antec do some:

 

Antec - Rackmounts

 

You could just take the insides from your current machines and plonk them in those cases.

 

are the ones with fans & sound proof actually going to keep the servers cool & quiet ?

 

It rather depends on your definition of "cool", "quiet", and where you can place things like outside vents. If you can place an air conditioning heat exchanger outside somewhere and people aren't bothered about how much racket it makes then your inside cooling unit can be crancked up as much as you like. If you have planning / noise restrictions then you are going to be more limited in what you can do - it might be quicker and cheaper to replace whatever's producing so much heat with something more energy effcient.

Edited October 3, 2011 by dhicks

[Dos_Box]

@ Chris_: Lol. Beat me to it!

[Hightower]

Back in the days when we had big bulky RM servers we got DT to make our on shelves. A strip of metal to screw across the front and one across the back on the cabinet, and the servers were deep enough to spread the distance. Didn't cost us a penny, and never budged in 4 years until we replaced the cabinet in the summer.

[cpjitservices]

+1 for DIY lol I had that done in our old school based on an old solid table! Not ideal for everywhere though

[CyberNerd]

heres how we did it:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/64837-cheapskate-server-farm.html

 

This is for a citrix farm, which has builtin redundancy. You could also achieve redundancy/failover With opensource versions of Xen,KVM cloudstack and a NAS

[2097]

heres how we did it:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/64837-cheapskate-server-farm.html

 

This is for a citrix farm, which has builtin redundancy. You could also achieve redundancy/failover With opensource versions of Xen,KVM cloudstack and a NAS

 

thanks all for your help .

 

So basically looking at your pics cybernerd , they are just standard shelfs for a rack case .

 

I could adjust them to any height i wanted i spose 1u-4u .

 

I spose now the question is finding the correct rack case , with the correct depth with a load of these shelfs in !

[CyberNerd]

thanks all for your help .

 

So basically looking at your pics cybernerd , they are just standard shelfs for a rack case .

 

I could adjust them to any height i wanted i spose 1u-4u .

 

I spose now the question is finding the correct rack case , with the correct depth with a load of these shelfs in !

 

yes, thats exactly what we did - there's loads of different 19" shelves available. These are static and not on rollers which is a bit of a disadvantage but not a big one.

[2097]

yes, thats exactly what we did - there's loads of different 19" shelves available. These are static and not on rollers which is a bit of a disadvantage but not a big one.

 

Cant really see the need for rollers on a desktop server , especially if the case has rear doors .

 

I 100% think this will be the right option !

 

Many thanks