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Project: Rackmount Overkill

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Yup yup, the rack is great and in really good condition. He originally quoted me $275-300 before seeing the rack. On Friday, they went and picked up this one plus 3 other Dell racks. Even though the rack is worth quite a bit more ($900), he stuck with his "$275-300" quote. I'm impressed with the company, they were extremely easy (and nice!) to work with.

I do need a few things before I can use it though. I need to find out if I'm moving out of my apartment when the contract is up (just a few weeks out). I really don't want to get everything setup and have to tear it down so quickly. Not to mention moving it up the steps, ugg. Also, the side panels are actually locked on. Removing these will allow me to clean it off (it is a little dusty) and make it substantially lighter. I also need to find power cables that will work with my UPS/wall outlets. It makes it extremely easy to distribute the power load onto multiple circuits with all the strips it is running.
 
Getting more specifics as I have time to look them up. It is a HP 10000 G2 Series Rack. Retailed for around $2,500. Still trying to locate keys, someone wanted $70 shipped (hah!). I'll drill out and replace the locks for less than that.
 
I'm going to be moving very shortly. Found a town home (thin houses in groups) for what I'm paying now apartment wise. We will be moving next week. Instead of being run by a "company" (even though it technically is), it is a family run business.

This means that I now have space for the rack! I also noticed during our walk-around that the break box has space for two extra breakers. I talked with them, requesting permission to add a breaker. I explained what I was using it for (1500watt UPS with servers behind it) and he said "Sure!" without hesitation. The hardest part about this situation is getting the rack down the steps. I got some fun times coming.

After looking through this new place, I've got a ton of ideas. The basement takes up the entire bottom third floor is around 16x36ft. The middle floor is the dining room, kitchen and living room. The top floor is two bedrooms and the bathroom. The layout allows me to place the servers below the living room, away from the washer, dryer and water heater. It would also allow me to throw a HTPC in the server rack and run the cables up to the TV. I could have a really nice (fast/loud) HTPC while having it completely isolated from where you would use it. I've also toyed with the idea of a sound system to play music throughout the house (or certain zones). I'm not sure what to look for amplifier wise, but I'm sure it exists. I could tie that into the HTPC fairly easy and use that for the source of music/sound.
 
Today is the big day. I'll be picking up a moving truck on the way home to move the big stuff, rack included.

We canceled the old internet/cable and created a new account for the new place (under the wrong name, etc). The old place was supposed to have a connection through next Monday, but they canceled it last night before we got home. Good thing we setup the new place to get internet as I type this. That could have been a pain.

I still need to run power over there, so I'm not sure what I can run for servers.
 
Got the rack in last night. It is sitting in the dining room until we get enough people to get it downstairs. I also need to strip a ton of parts off of it.

hp_rack_townhome_ready.JPG
 
Very Nice Rack indeed, there thideras,
Yeah moving can be a right pain in the rear at times, looks like will be for the better for you with more room ect, for your rack and stuff placed in basement ect!
 
Nice Thid.

I just got back from populating two racks with 76u worth of machines and an additional 8u of power, switches etc for work.

If you need any input let me know, I will help with what I can.

Are you going to network the whole house? Im looking tomorrow at another couple houses and hopefully one will pan out. If all goes as intended, I am going to have to decide if I want to fiber the whole house or just cat 6 it.
 
The problem is, I don't have a key for the side panels. I can't get that middle one off without drilling out the locks and it is needed to hold the top and bottom sections in. That added a bit of width to the rack and will make it harder to get downstairs. The rack strip itself comes out, which is surprising. That should lower the weight by ~40 pounds easily. The top also removes easily.

Nice Thid.

I just got back from populating two racks with 76u worth of machines and an additional 8u of power, switches etc for work.

If you need any input let me know, I will help with what I can.

Are you going to network the whole house? Im looking tomorrow at another couple houses and hopefully one will pan out. If all goes as intended, I am going to have to decide if I want to fiber the whole house or just cat 6 it.
Good to know, I'll let you know if I have any questions.

I'm probably not going to add many/any network cables for the rest of the house. All the computers are in the basement, I'll have pictures later today of how it is setup. The only network cable that is going upstairs is for the wireless router for the wireless network, the PS3, the 360 and anything else we want to plug in. I see no need to run cables elsewhere.
 
is this a buy or rent house you are moving into?


I am looking at networking the entire place I buy due to my wanting computers everywhere for random tasks, whole house automation, and eventually the added bonus to resale value if you have the entire house networked.

Contact the manufacturer of the rack, the keys are universal 99% of the time. I work with Dell and APC racks and 1 key will work for all the dell racks, 1 other key for all the APC racks.

As an fyi, NEVER us the Dell rapid rail systems in a full rack, they are proprietary and a total PITB.
 
I'm not sure where to find the keys though. The only ones I can locate are $80, which is stupid.
 
Got some pictures snapped to show how we will have the basement setup. We moved half the servers down and all the computer equipment afterwards, but this is still the basic setup. The door is about where the rack will be, only about 3 more feet left.

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My desk is the large one, pictured last.
 
We were looking the rack over today and started stripping parts off of it. After getting it down to the bare frame (minus the middle side panels), we found it weighed ~75 pounds. Easily movable for the two of us. We hauled it downstairs and started working on it. I blew through 2x T25 Torx bits to remove and install something that didn't need to be removed and installed.


hp_rack_halfloaded_1.JPG



I knew that the UPS wouldn't fit as I don't have a shelf for it to sit on. I was thinking ahead while at the hardware store and picked up some thick metal pieces. 3ft long fit perfectly and supports the UPS great.
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The Norco branded rails are a PITA to install. The Compaq ones took all of 3 minutes after I figured out how they worked and unbent them. We tinkered with the Norco rails for a few hours to get them where they are now. It has to be just right or they don't work. Got the image processed and posted, sleep time; I have to work in the morning.

Got the Cisco router left along with the D-Link 24 port switch for mounting. After that is just power routing along with data cables. I'm getting very close.
 
Everything is setup so far. The wiring is terrible, but that is because I'm not using my big UPS.

First, since Adragontatoo asked:

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