Greetings all. Trying to fight the good fight but develping a standar for our data centers with regards to cabling, equipment etc... and trying to use industry best practices as a guide. I'm able to find many whitepapers on most of what I need or even better RFC's and/or TIA/EIA specifications. However, I can't find anything recommending actually rack mounting the equipment.
Some folks think it is sufficient to place servers on shelves for those which someone has misplaced the rail kits. I completely disagree with this wholeheartedly. It's a safety issue (we are in zone 4 for earthquakes), it's unpleasant to look at and IMO just plan wrong.
Any links or docs you could send me would be GREATLY appreciated.
First of all, Welcome to DTC! Second of all, Welcome to the battle!
I have yet to see a document that covers what you are looking for. I personally do not believe there should/could be a standard for how things should be mounted. At the end of the day, it is all about personal preference. The fights that would break out over creating a standard would be comical to watch, but they would never end. It would be a battle of who's rack is better... blah blah blah... If there was a standard, I would probably disagree with what was being suggested in that standard. In case you didn't know... my rack is better than theirs!
As for racking servers on to shelves instead of rails... There technically is a standard. The standard is set from the manufacturer, when they decided to design and ship rails with the servers. You will not find me driving around with a pillow taped to my steering wheel because I misplaced the airbag somewhere. If you lose or forget to order rails on servers, go to ebay. You can get dirt cheap rails for servers...trust me, I have bought plenty from there.
Thank you both VERY much. I'll see if I can dig up anything specific on the manufactures websites regarding how their servers should be mounted. We are using IBM and Dell <crap ahem cough cough>. I suspect I will find more with IBM than Dell but you never know.
I did recently read documentation advocating against using shelves. It went on something about how it affected the airflow inside of the cabinet.
Personally, the way I see it is if you have the rail kits use those first. We use shelves as well but only in cases where rail kits were lost or unavailable. Take the Cisco 7206 that's not 19" wide and doesn't come with a standard rail kit. You have to mount it with something resembling a shelf if not a shelf itself.
I have to see it the way some of the others do. I think that mounting really is determined by what your intentions are. I understand why some people have a need for a standard. As mentioned above everything cannot be mounted in the same way.
Rack Mounting Whitepaper?
