Looking to buy a cabinet

po0k

I've no idea what board this should be on so I just threw it down here.

Need to get something to lock all our equipment into (Sun e250 (fingers cossed), Dell server, 6x boxes for mini-cluster etc. + switch and UPSes) in a neat(ish) manageable shape instead of them being left on couches etc.

We'd like a metal lockable cabinet type thing, but I've never needed to spec or price one before and we're wondering how much one of those costs (ballpark figure) and also possible vendors.
We're considering having one made up, but if there's an irish retailer of ready made rack cabinets, we'd like to give them the business.

Ruu_Old

maybe just maybe Viking Direct if thats the kind ur looking for, have a search thru there for storage or cabinets hehe. Hope it helps or i may have the totally wrong idea

Kali

I'm presuming this is for a university networking society..
Are all the current boxes you have rack-mountable?
You're probably looking at least the €800 mark for a locking vented cab.. thats assuming its a 22/26U rack, which is probably the absolute minimum you'd need for that amount of equipment.

If this is a networking soc. where are your machines at the moment? and why aren't they locked up? Might be an idea to go talk to CSD to see if they have space in their server room for a rack.

VOGAD

I know this guy in Elara , I believe they sell cabinets cuz they do networking as well, ask for kin, he will be able to help. Good luck !!;)

po0k

Thanks Vogad, I'll give em a look see

Kali: Yeah, tis for our compsoc.
We can't put it down in the college cmputer services racks cos there's no space afaik and we wouldn't have access to the equipment when we need it.
A vented cabinet is what we're looking for allright, about the size of a double door wardrobe.
What are the dimensions of 1U?
not much of our equipment is rack mountable, but we were going to either get mounting kits, make shift ones or just stack the less important machines.
The Sun box and the switch will be rack mountable afaik.

The reason behind getting this yoke is so taht our equipment is in one area, we can lock it and we won't ahve server downtime caused by cleaners unpluggin it to plug in their hoover or because Ents people "didn't like the noise" (:mad:).
a 2U wide rack might seem a bit big for a college society, but this will be filled up pretty quickly and we'll need space to expand later.

ozpass

1U refers to the height of the equipment. The rack width is always 19" and I've never seen a 'double width' one- you'd have to buy 2 and put them next to each other The actual physical security offered by a locking rack cabinet isn't that great- you can usually break the lock with just a screwdriver (flimsy glass or perspex doors). Physical security is usually implemented for the location of the rack instead.

Edser

Hi Syxpak,

You could also try www.beltronics.ie , (search for cabinet)

As Kali said, cost at least €800 for full size cabinet. Fan unit and shelves may be extra.

AFAIK, 45U is about 7 foot high, cabs usually have standard dimendions of 600/800mm W x D but different sizes are available.

Rgds,
Ed

po0k

Sound.
What I meant by 2U wide was two cabinets integrated into one unit with access ports (holes inbetween em for cabling runs).

What's the story with power distribution?
I don't know exactly how many machines we'll be putting into it from the start, but there's an aweful lot of kit knocking about in people's houses.

How much are mounting kits?
I assume one would first check with the OEM for specialised ones, but is there any sort of "general" kit or a converstion kit? (we've no bones about bolting on backrets to some of the kit (old unix servers and DEC workstations) but it'd be nice to keep them as immacculate as we got them.

ozpass

(holes inbetween em for cabling runs).

The sides come off and you can bolt the two cabinets together (it'll still involve 2 cabs though, far as I know).

What's the story with power distribution?

Rack-mounted distribution boards are very common.

but is there any sort of "general" kit or a converstion kit?

No, but you can buy rack-mount brackets. The equipment would have to be less than 19" 'tall' (assuming you'd mount them sideways) or made up to the right height to fit.

Alternatively (and expensively) you could buy rack-mount cases and transfer the guts into them.

leeroybrown

Syxer the e250 isn't a rack Mount.

Kali, the gear is currently in a number of locations and we really would like to be able to put it some where more secure. (Having your server unplugged by cleaning staff while hoovering is not ideal )

Two of the main machines are sitting in pretty accessible offices but are reasonably secure apart form occasional unpluggings and thick fsckers who power them down because they're annoying them (it's happened). The rest of the gear is at a couple of houses right now because of a lack of storage space.

Computer Services Comms Room isn't the ideal location . theres no way that they'd let us put any ordinary equipment in there and we'd probably need armed raids to get access to console.

Also there will probably need to be a small CRT Monitor in the Cabinet for console access.

po0k

And tehre was me going to pop down to O'Tooles for a few bots and shelving brackets...

Snoogins, should be able to get 2 cabinets, or at the very least 1 nice big one.

Does the power distribution board usually come with the rack or is that seperate?

ozpass

You'd have to check against the cab you were buying- I thing the big 42U 'wardrobes' come with one (6 outlets) but they're readily available anyway. Rack-mount UPS's likewise.

Kali

Originally posted by ozpass
Alternatively (and expensively) you could buy rack-mount cases and transfer the guts into them.

aye, probably about 150 each on ebay inc. delivery...
though trying to put 6 non-rack mountable boxes into a cab tho is a pretty big squeeze... if you can get funding then go for it.

Also there will probably need to be a small CRT Monitor in the Cabinet for console access.

I'd reccomend at least a 4-port Belkin KVM switch if you're putting a lot of stuff in though.. otherwise its going to be a complete mess

po0k

yeah, the switch is another thing on the list.
For now we'd need console access to about 2 main machines, maybe 4 max atm (cluster server and Backup box).

for about 2 grand we could be sitting pretty with 2x 42U racks, power distributor and KVM.
We're hoping to get the network switch donated off 3Com and the UPS off APC (who allready gave us the 6 P2 machines for the cluster).

yankinlk

are you interested in second hand? i have 4 cabinets i bought off a going-out-of-business sale... 2 half height and 2 full height. very nice cabinets.

let me know. 087 2333053

Gerry

I was under the impression that you could rackmount an e250, just need a kit like this:

http://www.sharkrack.nl/sharkrack/inetshark.nsf/b210138eac62f243c125681c0045a989/0f61ddaa125f9846c1256a25004bc4ba?OpenDocument

I can understand your situation ok, we had a 40 gig drive nicked from our server before when it was lying plugged out in a room which I thought no-one had access to. (Turned out half the postgrads had swipe - cards ). So I'm glad our e450 is in the CSD in maynooth, though this does prevent me from having physical access ( undergrads not allowed ). The old server is under me desk here, not terribly secure but tis quiet and no-one is gonna plug it out

leeroybrown

Most things can be rackmounted with some help

We havn't had anything stolen as we keep the case of the main server locked and it's actually in a trusted persons office right now. The main problem is that we need to 1) keep the stuff together if possible and 2) keep prying hands away.

Here in NUI, Galway there isn't too many places where we could situate the servers where they could be guaranteed a fixed location.

As I stated above Comp Services wouldn't really want out servers in their Comms room. There really aren't too many places other than where we keep them now that are safe(ish) fixed locations. We just want to keep them all in the same spot, secure them and retain the level of console access we have now.