RACKS AND ENCLOSURES
Choosing the appropriate enclosure for your installation What’s in a Box? By Nick Beer, Technical Director, Dynamode Group
Nick Beer guides us through the process of choosing an appropriate enclosure for installation.
Introduction If you’re deciding to read this article, the chances are that you have more than just a glancing interest in cabinets and enclosures. Maybe you’re an installer, system integrator or just need to know a bit more with regard to installing your expensive equipment, be it a rack- mount server, NAS or UPS. On the face of it enclosures seem simple enough. Metal boxes with standard vertical 19” uprights to hold your equipment in, certainly not as complicated as the equipment you wish to house in them. However, enclosures are one of
the most overlooked parts of any installation, either pre-installation or post-installation. This article is intended to help readers think about the common areas when considering the right enclosure for their particular installation. Initially recommending the incorrect version for any reason can be a costly exercise in labour costs for you and your company, coupled with downtime for your client.
Server Enclosures Let’s take a look at one of the common queries I get asked on enclosure deployment, that of the server enclosure, or more commonly known today as the ‘universal’ server enclosure. The ‘universal’ word is the bit that is causing a fair bit of confusion out there because, correctly, installers think that any 19” server from any vendor will fit first time. Wrong. Companies, such as the LMS Data EcoNetCab indeed are universal and have strengthened upright 19” posts to take the extra load, even that of a single 1U server. But more often than not queries come in stating that for example, the Dell or HP server won’t fit correctly, often with the vendors’ slide rails not fitting as suggested in the manual. This is not an issue with the server cabinet, of any vendor. As long as its 19” wide, it will fit. However, the big question is the rails that have been purchased with it, or, for example, have been left fitted to the server from some previous installation. If you find the
server does not fit correctly, it’s almost always because those server rails are the incorrect ones. This is a common issue for Dell and HP servers in particular. The standard ones normally supplied
will be for the hugely over-expensive server vendor’s own enclosure, but you do have other options. Firstly before ordering the server (if you already have the server, contact the server vendors distributor or check the support FAQs) and ask for the ‘Universal Rails’ which are generic and designed to fit in the vast majority of server enclosures. They are basic, they will not be over engineered and will cater for both round and square cage nut holes on the 19” posts. The mounting depth too is much more flexible and is ideal for shallower cabinets, although for server enclosures the rule of thumb is 1000mm deep. They are readily available for 4 and
2 post cabinets and since they are not so over engineered as the vendors’ ball- bearing sliders with rotating ears, are much less expensive too. This takes me
Messy cabling at the rear of the server will cause issues with overheating. 18 NETCOMMS europe Volume III Issue 3 2013
www.netcommseurope.com
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