Server Enclosures

Clinical Waste

Ok, I want to get the office in order and move everything into a rack server.

Anyone have any experience in purchasing server enclosures?

ie What should I be looking for in buying an enclosure?
Are there things to look for? Must haves, etc...

Any companies to recommend or stay well clear of?

I have no idea when it comes to enclosure systems and just need a kickstart.

Thanks.

CW

Sponge Bob

what storage space do you need or power ?

these are generically known as a ' 19" rack mount chassis ' , you can build a pc in them like any other case , some are atx form factor.

some use a special form factor board , abit and asus do them

hth

Clinical Waste

Not too worried about the pc/ server themselves. Think we are getting a few Dell powerEdges with redundant psu's in 19" rackmount cases alright.

Its more the actual big tower thing I want to know about.
Are they all standard, do I need adapter kits to make stuff fit in, do they need cooling,
glass or metal, open or closed,.....all that sort of thing.

Thanks

dahamsta

Can't answer all your questions, but...

Clinical Waste wrote:

Are they all standard, do I need adapter kits to make stuff fit in

I'm not sure if there's an official standard, but servers are all the same size and have boltholes in the same place. However, yes, it's possible you may need adaptors. Dell cabs, for example, come with Dell mounts by default, which let you just slot a machine in and out. I'm pretty sure that if you're going to be mounting Dell machines in a non-Dell cab, you're going to need one of those adaptor kits included in the ordering process. And vic versa. Best to ask when buying the rigs though.

do they need cooling

By rights cabs should sit on raised floors in an air-conditioned room, but that's not always possible. Rack density and life cycles are your factors here: If a rack stored in a regular room is packed with servers, machines are likely to fail and almost certain to have shorter lifecycles. With less machines the risk is lower because the air will circulate better, but you'll still have lower lifecycles.

I think there's some PDFs about enclosures on the Dell website, but whether they're all marketing guff or actually helpful I don't know. Worth a look anyway. Try the Business > Servers section, I think that's where I saw it.

adam

Sponge Bob

some dells are deeper than standard requiring 1000mm deep rack and some shallower than 800 but all are 19 inch (600mm wide)

specs on dell website , off with ya .

dahamsta

Sponge Bob wrote:

some dells are deeper than standard requiring 1000mm deep rack and some shallower than 800 but all are 19 inch (600mm wide)

Oops, SB's right of course, I'd forgotten about that.

Wandering Dazed

If you've Dell equipment then its probably easier to use a dell rack and get the rapid rails for the servers. If you use a different rack then you will need versa rails to rack the dell servers.

The main problem is working out cooling/electricity requirements. There is a utility called rack advisor available to download from Dell's support site where you can spec up the rack and it will advise you as to heat output/power requirements.

The doors on the racks are removeable and afaik if needed there are fan packs which can be installed into the racks to increase cooling.

Kali

Clinical Waste wrote:

Ok, I want to get the office in order and move everything into a rack server.

Anyone have any experience in purchasing server enclosures?

ie What should I be looking for in buying an enclosure?
Are there things to look for? Must haves, etc...

Have you a dedicated room to house the cabinet? Modern rackmount servers create a lot of noise (as most have several small high-speed fans), and a lot of heat, so if you do have a dedicated room, make sure it has aircon (and at least two dedicated electricity circuits.. one for aircon and one for equipment).

Also I'd just try and pick up a standard 19" rack, problems will occur if you purchase a Dell rack only to realize that your brand spanking new Proliant G4's won't mount properly.

7aken

there is a standard size given as 'u' most racks adhere to this standard as do most servers. i've yet to come across an incompatability for a rack mount setup. cooling is a major priority, you need to make sure you have adequate ventilation. also, the racks should be raised preferably on grounded struts. this helps dissipate static buildup within the rack, although most racks come with fans and ground strips, in my experience they are usually inadequate

Clinical Waste

Kali wrote:

Have you a dedicated room to house the cabinet? Modern rackmount servers create a lot of noise (as most have several small high-speed fans), and a lot of heat, so if you do have a dedicated room, make sure it has aircon (and at least two dedicated electricity circuits.. one for aircon and one for equipment).

Also I'd just try and pick up a standard 19" rack, problems will occur if you purchase a Dell rack only to realize that your brand spanking new Proliant G4's won't mount properly.

This is all excellent advice. Thanks.

Have a basement room. Very cool room. Concrete floor. There is ventilation but overall a little damp smelling. Thought a humidifier might do the trick though. There is seperate mains power there as well.

Any thoughts on this being a good or bad idea?

btw
Think a standard rack is also the right advice. (Found an enclosure made by Rittal called Quickrack distributed here in Ireland) 42u for around 980e +VAT

Black Sky

For Rack Cabintes you could also try Imrack brand.
Haven't bought any in a long while, but I do occasionally still buy the following shelf supports.

http://www.apw.com/ensol/publications/0932-uk-ce-IMRAK.pdf
In this guide go to Page 21 - Imrack 1400 accessories and look down the page at chassis supports. These are right angled metal bars like a "L" and screw to side of cabinets in different depts. I have yet to see a std 19" rck mount server (mostly Dells') not sit on a pair of them. If you want to put in say a desktop PC in there, then buy the "chassis trays" listed just above them. They screw down into the bottom of the "L" to give you a complete shelf.
I think my supplier gets them from the crowd at http://www.keddington.ie/

A bunch of Dell rack servers together will be noisy and run hot, so you'll need some sort of cooling. Presumably also your networking etc, will run back down here so cables around the place.

Hope this helps...

BigEejit

Something else to watch is cabling ... make sure that when you are fitting the kit in the rack you do it so that you can pull any one (or more) of the parts ... hehe we have a customer over here that had a fubar 32port fibre switch in their rack for two years because their fibre cabling was a disaster and we couldnt get it out without disconnecting some ... they didnt want the downtime so it stayed.

Dell have very nice adjustable rails (fit any standard 19" rack) that have a conduit in the back to hold cables so you can pull out the server fully on its rails without pulling any cables ... tasty

if you only have a few hosts you'll be ok with minimal cooling ... but if more than 6 or 8 and you you'll need some cooling ... you wont be having too much a problem with dampness down there (but still run a dehumidifier) ... Big switches can throw out a good bit of heat as well if you have em ....