Hi everyone!
I'm new to the Data Center managing world and have a question on best practice of racking servers.
1) What are the benefits of stacking each machine on top of each other, if any?
2) Are there any benefits of leaving 1u space other than the ease of accessing machine for hardware upgrades/servicing?
3) Which is better and what do you feel is the best for both areas of environmental cooling and also serviving machines.
Hi usdmsti; welcome to the forums. Since you seem anxious for an answer, I should point out that usual turn-around on these forums is 1-2 days. In any case, there is no "right" answer to your questions, but in most data centers it makes good sense to isolate the airflow from hot and cold sides of the rack as much as possible. This means that if you stack one machine on top of another, and fill unused spaces with blanking panels, there is little possibility of hot-cold air mixing through the rack. However, there are sometimes good reasons to leave gaps between systems when racking them, such as ease of maintenance as you mention, or reducing the number of systems in each rack -- for weight control, avoiding hot spots, cabling limitations, etc. In these cases you should use blanking panels between systems, as well.
Servers in racks need to be addressed based on your cooling in your data center - If you are using forced air in the ceiling you manage the servers from the top of the rack down. If you have air distributed from the floor then you go from the bottom of the rack up. Next you look at the heaviest machine to be toward the bottom.
Then you need to look at you cabling management - Some people put it at the top, bottom, or middle of he rack. The difference is personal preference.
Leaving space open is not a good Idea - You should use blank plates to cold air does not get into hot aisle.
Now if you leave open a space between the servers it harder to add servers in those space later.
these are all great answers. I also believe the same way. I just needed some back up/clarification. Thanks guys!!! Much appreciated. More responses please =) pro's and con's are all welcome
Hi everyone!
I'm new to the Data Center managing world and have a question on best practice of racking servers.
1) What are the benefits of stacking each machine on top of each other, if any?
2) Are there any benefits of leaving 1u space other than the ease of accessing machine for hardware upgrades/servicing?
3) Which is better and what do you feel is the best for both areas of environmental cooling and also serviving machines.
Thanks for your help
Tim
1. Filling space effectively. Always use sliders.
2. No. I doubt you can manage a server inside the rack just from a 1U space that is left. So there is no benefit at all. Mind you, sometime server cases are very short and it might be handy to not put those in between long server cases. You might not be able to get to the back of the short server. Combine a couple of those short cases together. If you can, work out a plan on paper as to what might be handy in case of server stacking.
3. Not sure what you mean. Common practice these days is, to have a cold corridor in front and a warm corridor on the back of the servers. To get a reasonable benefit yield, isolate the cold corridor and the warm corridor as much as you can. Only works with 'open' rack doors.
1) effectively for cooling and for maintenance and cabling is what im asking about
2) its 1u space so that cabling doesn't get messy, and for the ease of taking the server out for maintenance not working "IN" the cabinet.
3) common practive for racking servers in cabinets for ease and cooling effeciency for the data center and for the technicians that work on the machines.
Servers are on rails to slide in and out of racks for people to work on them. Cooling is done from sucking in cool air -from the front blown out the back. CABLING should be in cable management and reduce risk of mess. So unless you are designating a spot in a rack for a sever which has shot cable requirements to another server in the same rack DO NOT LEAVE OPEN SPACE.
Server Racking advice/tech info needed
