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DIY server racks

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  • Do It Yourself
  • Business Computing
  • Servers
Last response: in Business Computing
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November 19, 2013 4:01:11 PM

Hi all,

I'm a student currently on placement and I've got myself a couple of rack mountable servers to experiment with. One will act as my firewall whilst also acting as a DNS and dhcp server. The other will be virtualised running things like a media server, web server, ftp server and a game server or two.

I'm in a predicament with how to store these, the only place I have to store these things is in a garage which is used as a workshop, so all the floorspace is used. Therefore I am looking to build a rack of maybe 6U, and then bolt it to the ceiling above some cupboards. I can't afford a pre-built rack on my budget, therefore I am going to build my own.

The likes of a lack rack will never hold 2/3 servers suspended from the ceiling, therefore I would like to know if anyone else has attempted this before and could give me some advice as to what a solid diy server rack would consist of. One idea is to use 2x4's screwed together, but I'd like the servers to be exposed to the dust that'll inevitably be in the garage as little as possible, whilst another idea involves using angle-irons and 1/2" thick plywood. Any other pre-built hacked IKEA solutions would also be welcome.

You should also know, that I've already scavenged some old rack rails from a wall cabinet that is too shallow for my purposes.

Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.

Apologies in advance if this is not the appropriate forum.

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November 19, 2013 4:09:50 PM

Your biggest concern is going to be the temperature in the garage. Any rack you can build, be it with 2x4s, angles, or even the wire rack stuff they sell at stores will work.

Your concerns are really heat and dust. Heat, can't help you there. Dust, you could use literally use a furnace filter if you wanted, or foam, etc. You then will need to determine your air movement, so you could setup an intake or exhaust fan (this would help with heat too).

Heck, you could even build a 2x4 square box and cover with foam or furnace filters (cheap ones, easy to replace) and go that route.

Don't over think a rack. They simply minimize space required to store the hardware and allow air flow. Anything you can come up that meets those needs will be sufficient.
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November 19, 2013 4:35:20 PM

riser said:
Your biggest concern is going to be the temperature in the garage. Any rack you can build, be it with 2x4s, angles, or even the wire rack stuff they sell at stores will work.

Your concerns are really heat and dust. Heat, can't help you there. Dust, you could use literally use a furnace filter if you wanted, or foam, etc. You then will need to determine your air movement, so you could setup an intake or exhaust fan (this would help with heat too).

Heck, you could even build a 2x4 square box and cover with foam or furnace filters (cheap ones, easy to replace) and go that route.

Don't over think a rack. They simply minimize space required to store the hardware and allow air flow. Anything you can come up that meets those needs will be sufficient.


Thanks for the above riser, it's helped with discarding a few of the weird and wonderful ideas that were floating around my head.

Heat won't be an issue, I'm in Northern Ireland. It's freezing half the time. Furnace filters sound good too. I'm just thinking that rather than forking out on angle irons I could just build a 2x4 frame and then screw ply wood to it with some vents cut out and filtered.

Again thanks for the quick post and clear advice.
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November 20, 2013 4:37:10 PM

thesupergeek said:
just to throw in my two cents here, this is the server rack I made:http://imgur.com/a/fPgfr it uses wood and is very nice. it holds 3 poweredge 1950's and 2 2850's. http://imgur.com/a/fPgfr


I see your name is appropriate supergeek. Looks like a solid build you've got, doubt my setup will be anywhere near as big, plus mine'll be suspended from the ceiling!
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November 20, 2013 4:52:48 PM

Mr Splat said:
thesupergeek said:
just to throw in my two cents here, this is the server rack I made:http://imgur.com/a/fPgfr it uses wood and is very nice. it holds 3 poweredge 1950's and 2 2850's. http://imgur.com/a/fPgfr


I see your name is appropriate supergeek. Looks like a solid build you've got, doubt my setup will be anywhere near as big, plus mine'll be suspended from the ceiling!



Awsome suspended idea. As for my username, yes, I am the geekiest 14 year old in the world.
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