rack-mount goodies? [closed]

There's tons of rack-mount stuff around. What accessory you didn't know back then and now can't live without?

HTTP controlled power switch with ACL has saved a lot of time. Just give customer access to power-off/on their own server anytime so they don't have to call every time they've broken their server.

Solution 1:

KVM over IP is nice, but depending on where you work it can be a hard sell to make the case and get your management to cut the check. If you use HP Proliant servers, you can order them with iLo, absorbing most of the remote management costs into the price of the server. Don't forget to budget the extra network ports you'll need. If you're retrofitting, personally I like the Raritan Dominion series best.

If it comes down to a choice between IPKVM and remote power control, choose the remote power control. Today's operating systems handle remote operations (SSH/RDP/VNC et al) well enough that you'd rarely need another means of KVM anyhow, and how often do you really need to make BIOS modifications from afar? You might give real consideration to skipping KVM altogether and using a few of these mobile PC stands. If you do real he-man debugging over the serial port, you can keep put a PC on it. If not, just keyboard and monitor. And maybe a little UPS.

mobile monitor stand http://imagescl.cyberguys.com/images/detail_thumb/p4356-4.jpg

For remote power control, I like these APC vertical switched rack PDUs. There are a range of them to fit your needs. A really nice feature is that they always show how many amps are being drawn, so you don't overload your circuit breakers. Keep in mind that servers tend to draw more power at startup and when they get hot (think HVAC failure) so you want to run your circuits at 70-80% of max, or less. These PDUs will do a staggered startup so that if for some reason your are powering up the whole rack at once, you don't immediately trip the breaker. Along with vertical power management, don't forget to acquire short power cords in 1' and 3' lengths - this will make your racks a lot neater and easier to manage!

Remote power and KVM are as I mentioned earlier, sometimes a tough sell. But sooner or later they will turn what would have been a 4-12 hour outage into something that's solved within 45 minutes or less.

Over in the network distribution part of the room, I am a big fan of NeatPatch. This picture really says it all:

NeatPatch http://g.imagehost.org/0081/1wave.jpg

I should also mention these vertical patch panels, which I have not tried:

alt text http://www.racksolutions.com/images/racks/tube/lan-pwr-left-angle-250h.gif

Finally, this isn't rackmount, but I think server room monitoring is important. You need to know when the HVAC cuts out and the temperature starts rising! You may also want to have one with a camera so you get a security log of who's in there. I've been happy with NetBotz in the past, but if that's hard to get the boss to pay for (prices seem to have risen since APC acquired the company), you might have a look at the Weather Duck/Goose/etc from ITWatchDogs

Solution 2:

The AMP NETCONNECT MRJ21 System. It's like an extension cord for your switch. You only have to run 8 thick cables instead of 48 CAT6 cables. We had a horrible mess of cables going from rack to rack before discovering these.

Solution 3:

The IP-KVM has been very nice to have around. Remote access into the datacenter, and especially good for servers that don't have some kind of remote-access-card built in.

Solution 4:

These days KVM-over-IP is a waste as all good servers have some version of remote management built in, whether IPMI or HP's excellent iLO, just make sure to not use versions which share a NIC as those have BAD failure modes if the NIC dies.

Personally I love serial concentrators for the few bits of gear that haven't added management ethernet ports.

For dark cable racks permanent gooseneck LED lights can be great, although I don't have any favourites there.

In the weird and wacky realm there's things like rackmount fridges: http://www.canford.co.uk/Products/13-024-CANFORD-FRIDGE-Rackmount-13U