Re: DATACENTER: Rack Mounting Server Towers

[Sam Etler <etler@cs.wisc.edu>]

> I know some places strap towers onto rack shelves. Is this a common
> practice? What else do you recommend. Maybe rack mounting isn't even the
> best way to deal with this type of equipment?

In our machine room, we have, well, a lot of different types of machines.
Go fig.  Network equipment, rather large computers (CM5, SP2, E6000's
etc), plus a bunch of PC's.  We originally had them just sitting on
tables.  That's very ugly and space consuming.  We've moved all of them
into racks and it's a lot better.  Yes, there is the possibility of
someone knocking them over, but I think the solution to that would be to
not make a practice of prancing around between racks unless very
necessary.  Towers are the most cumbersome, but they tend to be heavy
enough to not fall over if you just tap them.  Desktops are nicer since
they can't really tip.  The best are SparcStation 10's etc... pizza boxes.
Easy to stack, small enough to fit a few in a rack.

Our machine room has a bit of traffic as far as people walking around, and
I don't think anyone's ever knocked anything over.  Good thing too! ;)

Sam Etler
UW Madison
CSL Networking